|
With the price of diesel fuel now hovering at just a few cents more than premium gasoline, there's little incentive for luxury buyers to skip the oil-burning trims of their favorite rides. In that can-do spirit, Mercedes-Benz is charging $1500 more for the new 2013 GLK250 BlueTec—the latest of the three Benz SUVs to offer a compression-ignition engine—than the standard GLK350 4MATIC. That's because the $39,495 base price undercuts the gasoline-powered BMW X3 xDrive28i by $1030, the latter of which beat the GLK's overall sales in 2012 by a much larger number. As rated by the EPA, the GLK250 boasts 24 mpg in the city and 33 mpg on the highway. That's impressive, considering it comes standard with 4MATIC all-wheel drive, and while it's the same city number as Audi's upcoming Q5 hybrid, it's 3 mpg better on the highway. The 2.1-liter turbocharged four-cylinder pumps out a worthy 369 lb-ft of torque and 200 horsepower. A stop-start system is also standard; the tow rating is 3500 pounds. Like all BlueTec models, the GLK250 is fitted with a urea-based injection system that cleans up the sooty emissions.
But given how Volkswagen is able to avoid using a urea-injection system with its 2.0-liter TDI models, we wonder why Mercedes needs to offer the pricey emissions system (which requires the owner to refill a separate tank every few thousand miles) on such a small engine. We also wonder why Mercedes didn't drop in the gasoline-powered 1.8-liter four-cylinder from the C250, cut the price by another two grand, and call it a day. As with all 2013 GLKs, expect to find a plusher interior (customers complained that the previous generation's interior was not up to Mercedes standards) and a grandma-style column shifter that replaces the one on the floor (at least you get a fancy storage bin). If it were our choice, we'd rather spend another $2000 on the beastlier Jeep Grand Cherokee EcoDiesel and tow a bigger boat.
from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com | |||
| | |||
| | |||
|
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Feel the (Oil) Burn: 2013 Mercedes-Benz GLK250 BlueTec Starts at $39,495
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment