Mercedes unveils two upmarket models

Two new Mercedes-Benz vehicles, launched yesterday by agents Kind's Autosales, are both aimed directly at the luxury end of the market.

The CLK-Class Coupè is a two-door model with prominent styling elements, such as frameless, fully-lowering side windows that form a continuous band, a classic Mercedes radiator grille with a central three-pointed star, a variation on the twin-headlamp face and the sweeping curve of the coupe roof.

Mario Xuereb, general manager at Kind's Auto Sales Ltd, described the new CLK Class as an expression of individual lifestyle, the ultimate in elegance and genuine sporting prowess.

Over 230,000 vehicles have been produced since its launch, making the CLK the most successful coupè in its class and obtaining a 35 per cent European market share in its segment.

Standard equipment in the new Mercedes Coupè includes front airbags, sidebags and windowbags as well as belt tensioners and belt force limiters for all seats. For the first time, passenger weight is one of the factors taken into account before the two-stage front passenger airbag is deployed to ensure an optimum level of protection every time.

There is also a range of automatic systems to help relieve driver stress and ensure optimum ease of use.

The second car to be launched, the new SL-Class boasts a number of innovative features in the field of chassis and brake-control technology.

Mr Xuereb said the model's speciality lay in its electrohydraulic sensotronic brake control (SBC) system. SBC represented the first step into tomorrow's world of "by-wire" systems in which the driver's commands were transmitted not by mechanical or hydraulic means but as electronic signals, he explained.

This enabled the system to identify the rapid movement of the driver's foot from the accelerator to the brake pedal as a warning of an imminent emergency for which it prepared automatically by boosting the pressure in the brake lines by means of a high-pressure accumulator.

At the same time, SBC primes the brake pads for application to the brake discs so that they can exert the maximum braking force the instant the brake pedal is pressed. The result: a one to three per cent shorter stopping distance in an emergency braking situation.

The powerful five-litre V8 engine ensures that the new SL 500 can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 6.3 seconds.

Notwithstanding this and despite the more comprehensive comfort and safety features, the fuel consumption of 12.7 litres per 100 km is the same as that of the previous model.