2007 Mercedes-benz Gl450 Base Sport Utility 4-door 4.6l on 2040-cars

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Mercedes goes boating again with G63 AMG-inspired Cigarette

Cigarette Racing has another Mercedes-Benz AMG-themed boat headed out to sea. After The SLS AMG-inspired 46-foot Rough Rider in 2010 and the C63 AMG Black Series-inspired 50-foot Marauder in 2012, this year's Miami Boat Show will introduce the 42-foot Huntress, theme provided by the G63 AMG.
The latest Cigarette homage is less overly racy than the ones before, befitting a watercraft modeled off a performance SUV, but don't let the looks fool: there are five Mercury Racing Verado 350SCi outboard engines, each one of them packing a supercharged inline six-cylinder with, natch, 350 horsepower. Those 1,750 horses will be good for 78 miles per hour when you've got some saltwater underneath you.
If you're in South Florida this week, Booth B-23 at the Miami Convention Center could be your best place to see it. Otherwise, like the 536-hp G63 AMG, it could be hard to catch. There's a press release with more information below.

The Mansory Speranza proves that money can buy taste and good sense...

...Just kidding.
No one in their right mind has ever accused German tuners Mansory of being subtle. So, when our Geneva team wandered across the Mansory Speranza - A Mercedes-Benz Gelandewagen that has been denuded of its roof and spackled inside with quilted leather and red carbon fiber ­- they didn't ask a lot of existential questions. Why does the Speranza exist? Because Germans are weird sometimes, that's why.
Forget for a moment that you'll have to pay Mansory hundreds of thousands of euros (we're guessing, no pricing information has been revealed) for the privilege of converting your G-Class into something that looks like a Suzuki Samurai, and prepare to be impressed by the details. The tuning house has increased the output of the Mercedes V8 to a healthy 700 horsepower and 668 pound-feet of torque. The wheels are 24-inches, and wear almost unbelievable 305-section ultra-high performance Vresdestein tires. Carbon fiber can be found nearly everywhere one looks, including making up the housing for the spare tire. Oh, and there are leather pillows for the backseats... no word on whether they're standard or optional, but we're looking in to it.

Mercedes mulling Renault-based entry-level X-Class?

Somewhere in between the Smart brand and the all-new A-Class (pictured above), Daimler is said to be readying a smaller entry-level product for the Mercedes-Benz brand to compete with models like the Audi A1. According to AutoBild, Mercedes-Benz will get a new hatchback based on a platform from its recent partnership with Renault-Nissan, and it could be called the X-Class.
Expected to debut by 2018, the Mercedes-Benz X-Class could be offered in sedan, hatchback and crossover variants, and it would likely have a starting price below the $20,000-euro mark. Power would come from either a 1.0-liter inline three-cylinder engine or a 1.5-liter inline-four, and the car would likely be built in a low-cost nation in order to make the financials work. Wearing the Mercedes-Benz name, the X-Class would have to exhibit more distinguishable luxury and styling to set itself apart from the models that helped provide its underpinnings.