Felix Sabates'

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Walk Around

The Mercedes-Benz GLK uses a five-door layout with a whole lot of GL spirit in its exterior design. Initially, the U.S. will get the GLK as a five-seater: two in front, three in rear.

The GLK has the sports car grille with the central star, a set of three flowing lines from front to rear on the body, and a design in a thoroughly modern idiom. In the wind tunnel, it's slick enough to generate a 0.35 coefficient of drag, better than many lower-riding, rounded-off passenger cars and better by far than most of the SUVs against which it will compete. In many markets, things like PreSafe, adaptive headlamps, and the new intelligent lighting system (ILS), all class exclusives for the GLK, will be standard equipment.

The 4000-pound Mercedes GLK uses welded steel unibody construction with front and rear subframes to mount the steering and suspension systems, with almost half the body weight in high-strength low-alloy steel.

Interior

2010 Mercedes-Benz GLK

Inside, the GLK is a Mercedes-Benz through and through, but with some new features added, like the central controller on the console for combined control of the sound system, navigation system, and telephone, and a much more angular, purposeful instrument panel and dashboard layout. All of the dashtop panels in the GLK will be anti-glare black, regardless of the interior color scheme (black, tan or gray).

If there's a negative in daily use duties, it's the interior space, or lack thereof. Mercedes-Benz told us that the total interior space inside the GLK is less than that of the C-Class wagon (not sold in the U.S.)

When loaded up to the top edge of the rear seat backrests, the load compartment of the GLK has a capacity of 23.3 cubic feet. The rear-seat backrests fold down in a 33/67 split or folded down completely to produce a flat load floor. Folding the second seat flat produces 54.7 cubic feet of load capacity, with a load compartment measuring 66 inches long.

The load compartment can be hidden from sight thanks to the load compartment cover, while standard-fit load-securing rings make it easier to fasten down cargo. There are bag hooks, coat hooks in the tailgate trim, a 12-volt power outlet and a lamp at the side of the load compartment.

An additional 86-liter stowage compartment is hidden under the fold-up load floor. This compartment is split into smaller partitions by a removable stowage tub. A safety partition net is available.

A power tailgate is available that can be opened and closed at the push of a button, either from the driver's seat or by remote control.

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