Mercedes-Benz has officially announced the GL-Class. The luxury
SUV, sibling to the R-Class and M-Class and the largest of the three, will be powered by a V-8 engine rated at 335
horsepower. (Diesel variants are available for the European version only.) The transmission offered is a seven-speed
automatic and the vehicle is all-wheel drive.
The GL-Class will seat up to seven passengers. The configurable seats can provide up to forty-four square feet for
five-passenger seating to more than eighty three square feet when the second row is stowed.
The interior is a Mercedes through and through with real burl walnut wood trim, power front seats, and a sunroof over
the third-row seating.
There had been speculation that Mercedez-Benz would
replace the G-Class with the GL-Class but the former will
remain in production.
The new GL-Class will be shown at the upcoming North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, on January
2006 and will be built at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
A spyshot of the Autoblog post can be found here. More details are provided here and here, as well.
