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2018 Range Rover Sport Coupe spied in Scotland

Sport utility vehicles are the rage. SUVs with coupe styling are pretty popular, too, as BMW and Mercedes have demonstrated. Now it's Land Rover's turn. Believed to be the upcoming Range Rover Sport Coupe, this ute was spied this week during top secret testing at a remote location in Scotland. The vehicle would slot between the Range Rover Sport and Evoque, giving Land Rover an answer to the Mercedes GLE and BMW X6. These shots show what appears to be a chopped roofline, giving the new model a sportier profile than the traditional upright silhouette of Rovers. We expect it will use a version of the aluminum Jaguar F-Pace platform and offer V6 and V8 engines. It could also offer a hybrid or full electric version. The new crossover might also be lower set in a bid to differentiate it from traditional Rovers and give it a performance vibe. The Range Rover Sport Coupe – or whatever it is ultimately called – would enter a strong segment that's found favor in the United States. Once derided for potentially offering less function than traditional utes, these lifestyle vehicles have developed a strong following for their style and capability. The X6 was so successful, BMW added the smaller X4, and this forced Mercedes to follow suit with the GLE and GLC coupe variants. In this context, it's about time for Land Rover to join the fray. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2018 Land Rover Range Rover Sport Coupe View 12 Photos Image Credit: KGP Photography Design/Style Spy Photos BMW Land Rover Mercedes-Benz

Missouri Mercedes dealer offering free Smart with every SLS AMG purchase

The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT is an exquisite sports car that probably needs no help flying off dealer lots, even with a starting price of almost $200,000, but Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City has come up with an interesting incentive to sweeten the deal. For buyers who purchase a new SLS AMG from dealer stock before the end of the year, the dealership is throwing in a new Smart Fortwo from its inventory at no charge... with a required coupon no less.
In addition to being a great tactic to get a little free press, the spare car also makes sense as an alternative to the SLS, which measures more than 15-feet long - almost twice the length of a Fortwo - and has a 563-horsepower engine that sucks down gas at the rate of 13 miles per gallon in city driving (and even that's provided you don't give in to the devil on your shoulder). Plus, at the end of the day, this really isn't that big of an incentive. Being given a slow-selling $12,490 car for the purchase of a model starting at $199,500 represents about a six percent incentive, which is along the lines of a $1,900 rebate for a $30,000 car.
To get the free Smart, just visit the Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City Facebook page, redeem the coupon and then go buy yourself a new SLS AMG. Congratulations!

Weekly Recap: Mercedes continues the pseudo-coupe craze with AMG-tuned CUV

But as BMW's X6 has demonstrated, sport sells in in the crossover segment, and Mercedes is giving the people what they want. BMW proved there is a market for crossover utility vehicles designed to look like coupes – as much as a vehicle with four doors and noticeable ground clearance can look like a coupe, anyway. Now comes the reply from Mercedes-Benz: the GLE Coupe. The rakish crossover is a harbinger of things to come from Mercedes, as it begins the company's transition to a new nomenclature and marks the debut of the AMG Sport line. It also continues the recent coupe craze. Designers from many automakers, like Nissan and Volkswagen, have increasingly turned to swoopy, dramatic styling to make utility vehicles and sedans seem more desirable. By revealing the GLE 450 AMG Sport model first, Mercedes is clearly hoping to cast the GLE Coupe as a sportier, lifestyle-oriented alternative in its lineup of beefy crossovers and SUVs. Mercedes used the word "sport," or a variation of it, 53 times in its press release, so uh yeah, it's sporty. It's not an empty promise: Benz means business with the AMG Sport line. This GLE Coupe gets a 3.0-liter biturbo V6 rated at 362 horsepower and 384 pound-feet of torque paired with Mercedes' new nine-speed automatic transmission, and it runs with 4Matic all-wheel drive. Specs on the other GLE Coupe models were not disclosed. But as BMW's X6 has demonstrated, sport sells in in the crossover segment, and Mercedes is giving the people what they want. After all, more than 260,000 people have bought X6s since 2008, and Mercedes wants a piece of that. From certain angles, the GLE Coupe even looks vaguely like an X6. "This is really a vehicle that is all about status," said Dave Sullivan, product analysis manager for research firm AutoPacific. "You can buy a SUV that doesn't have the inherent qualities of a SUV, such as cargo hauling. People will likely be drawn to the looks. Coupes are all the rage." BMW, however, isn't running from the fight, and the updated 2015 X6 is arriving in showrooms this month. It also added a smaller sibling, the X4, to its coupe-crossover stable in July. The GLE Coupe arrives next year, though Mercedes hasn't specified exactly when it will hit showrooms from the factory in Alabama, or specified details on the rest of the non-AMG Sport models. In 2008, it was surprising the X6 was a hit. In 2015, it will be even more surprising if the GLE Coupe isn't.