Benz GLK Gets Townside, Too

January 13, 2008

While Mercedes finally seems to have a handle on the C-Class wagon most Americans would like to drive -- in the form of the new GLK crossover -- they're certainly hedging their bets when it comes to the look of the new vehicle. In press materials distributed prior to their conference today at the 2008 Detroit auto show, Benz showed off the Freeside version of the GLK, a more off-road oriented model.

In Detroit the press conference centered on two things: the Townside version of the GLK and actress Kim Cattrall, who appears in the new film version of her former HBO series, Sex and the City. The Townside is intended as the on-road-flavored version, and has a more prominent grille and larger tires, and gets tuned for better on-road handling, Mercedes execs explained. The strategy mimics Benz' dual-tuned version of the C-Class sedan.

Meanwhile, Cattrall, as has become her trademark, turned the press event into a bit of burlesque. Erupting from the GLK in a jezebel-red dress, Cattrall claimed she'd been in the GLK during the filming of the movie due later this year, and had "tested it in real-world shopping conditions," then informed a blushing Daimler AG chairman Dieter Zetsche that the GLK had "all the right bulges."

Mrs. Zetsche? Nowhere to be found.

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