*** Performance Pkg *** Carbon Fiber Interior *** 1 Owner *** Certified on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Weekly Recap: Mercedes, Volkswagen spend big as import automakers invest in North America

Import automakers are on a building frenzy in North America as resurgent car sales have prompted companies to expand their manufacturing footprints to meet rising demand. That was evidenced this week when Mercedes-Benz announced plans to build a $500-million factory to produce the Sprinter commercial van, and Volkswagen confirmed a whopping $1-billion investment to expand its massive plant in Mexico. Meanwhile Jaguar Land Rover reportedly wants to build a factory in North America, but not for at least three years, and Hyundai is said to be expanding in the southern United States. The common thread in all of this expansion? Trucks, time and money. Mercedes wants to capitalize on the burgeoning work van segment in the United States and will break ground in 2016 on a 200-acre site in Charleston, SC, to build the next-generation Sprinter. The site will have a paint shop, body shop and an assembly line, and 1,300 people will be employed when production ramps up. Why do this, when Mercedes has immense van operations in Germany? It's cheaper to build in the US for the US market. Building locally allows Mercedes to avoid import taxes, forego a complex shipping process that involves partially disassembling German-built Sprinters and naturally, reduces the time it takes to deliver finished trucks to their buyers. "This plant is key to our future growth in the very dynamic North American van market," Volker Mornhinweg, head of Mercedes-Benz Vans, said in a statement. He was speaking about Mercedes and vans, but another German automotive giant, Volkswagen, had similar motives for its mammoth expansion plans in Puebla, Mexico. The added space and production capacity will allow VW to build a three-row version of the Tiguan, and provide another crossover for its US lineup that's light on SUVs. The current Tiguan has two rows. The factory will be able to churn out 500 units daily of the larger variant, and they will be sold in North and South America. It will arrive in the US in mid-2017, a spokesman told Autoblog. VW also plans to build another crossover, a midsize seven-passenger vehicle, at its growing Chattanooga, TN, site. "Localization has become key to safeguarding our competitive position on the global market, and manufacturing the Tiguan in Mexico will bring production closer to the US market," Michael Horn, CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, said in a statement.

Hamilton wins at Monza, takes Formula One lead from Vettel

MONZA, Italy (Reuters) - Lewis Hamilton won the Italian Grand Prix for Mercedes on Sunday with an utterly dominant drive that sent the Briton clear at the top of the Formula One world championship for the first time in a year. The triple champion, who started the last race of the European season from a record 69th career pole position, led Finnish team mate Valtteri Bottas to a runaway one-two finish at Ferrari's home track. "I love it here in Italy and I love the passion of the fans," Hamilton declared on the podium jutting out over a sea of red-shirted Ferrari fans, with plenty of boos coming his way amid the cheers. "We did a great job, the team did an exceptional job this weekend," he added. "Mercedes power is definitely better than Ferrari power." Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who had led the standings since he won the Australian season-opener in March, finished third in the final race of the European season and 36.3 seconds behind the winner. Bottas was 4.4 adrift of Hamilton. "It was a difficult day, a difficult start," said Vettel. "My race was fairly isolated, we tried to keep as close as possible but we simply didn't have the pace... You could say it's a bad day but I know the team is on the right way... so I am in a very positive mood despite the numbers." Hamilton is now three points clear of the German, with seven races remaining. Mercedes are 62 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors' standings. The first driver to win two races in a row this season, with Monza following on from Belgium a week ago, Hamilton now leads Vettel 6-4 on victories in 2017. He has 238 points to Vettel's 235. The last time Hamilton led the standings on his own was at Monza a year ago, with now-retired team mate Nico Rosberg emerging as the eventual champion. FEW THRILLS Hamilton and four-times champion Vettel were level on points this year after China in April, with one win and one second place each. If Sunday's race was a dull affair, there was at least plenty of sunshine in marked contrast to the steady rain that drenched fans and delayed qualifying for hours on Saturday. Hamilton pulled away cleanly from his historic pole, and fourth in a row at Monza, and was never challenged as he drove to the chequered flag with the minimum of fuss. It was his third Italian Grand Prix win in four years and 59th career victory – only Michael Schumacher, whose pole record he beat, can boast more – and few have been more straightforward.

2021 Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 is business class without the jet lag

Mercedes-AMG demonstrated how sporty a mammoth SUV can be by unveiling the 2021 GLS 63 S at the 2019 Los Angeles Auto Show. Across the Pacific, at the Guangzhou auto show in China, Mercedes-Maybach revealed another GLS variant that puts an unabashed focus on comfort. The 2021 GLS 600 ends years of rumors by finally taking Maybach into the SUV segment. (If you don't count the limited-edition G 650 Landaulet). It's not a standalone model developed from the ground up, and it's in no way related to the electric Vision Mercedes-Maybach Ultimate Luxury concept introduced in 2018. It's a second-generation GLS dressed up in a Hugo Boss suit. Stylists spruced up the front end with Maybach's chromed waterfall grille and mesh inserts in the lower part of the bumper. An abundance of chrome trim (including big slabs of it in on the B-pillars) and Maybach emblems on the D-pillars further set the SUV apart from its non-Maybach-badged sibling. Buyers can order a two-tone paint job at an extra cost. 6.8-foot-long running boards automatically extend from under the body about a second after one of the passengers opens a door. Designers took advantage of the cavernous interior to replace the second- and third-row seats with a pair of business class-like chairs that offer heated, ventilated, massaging and reclining functions. Maybach developed the GLS with chauffeur-driven buyers in mind, so the passengers traveling in the back benefit from their own infotainment system with wireless headphones, folding tablets, wireless device chargers, plus heated and cooled cupholders. Alternatively, buyers can order the GLS as a five-seater with a three-person rear bench. The GLS 600 receives the twin-turbocharged, 4.0-liter V8 engine that's omnipresent in the Mercedes range. It delivers 550 horsepower from 6,000 to 6,500 rpm and 538 pound-feet of torque between 2,500 and 5,000 rpm in this application, and it spins the four wheels via a nine-speed automatic transmission and 4Matic all-wheel drive. Mercedes pegs its zero-to-60-mph time at 4.8 seconds. The standard 48-volt mild hybrid system briefly gives the GLS 600 an additional 21 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. It also sends the kinetic energy it recuperates to the battery pack while braking or coasting, and powers a technology named E-Active Body Control which scans the road ahead and adjusts the suspension as needed if it detects a pothole, a bump or another obstacle.