98 Mercedes Benz Ml320 Fixer Upper on 2040-cars

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Germans, Brits and Ferrari's new V12 SUV | Autoblog Podcast #748

In this episode of the Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Associate Editor Byron Hurd. With the Detroit Auto Show now in the rearview, focus shifts to news that crept up outside of the North American spotlight. The two talk about the new Ferrari Purosangue SUV, then pivot to a discussion about the future of the Dodge Charger and Challenger based on rumors of a new assembly facility. Next, they discuss what they've been driving recently. Byron leads off with anecdotes from his trip to Spain to drive the 2023 Range Rover Sport and his weekend with the VW GTI SE. Next, Greg talks about the ups and downs of the BMW X3 M Competition and Mercedes-Benz GLE450 Coupe. After that, they spend your money; this week's is a whopper.   Send us your questions for the Mailbag and Spend My Money at: Podcast@Autoblog.com. Autoblog Podcast #748 Get The Podcast Apple Podcasts – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes Spotify – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast on Spotify RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Ferrari Purosangue SUV revealed: V12 power, big price tag, surprisingly pretty Dodge Charger/Challenger production moving to Windsor? Cars we're driving 2023 Land Rover Range Rover Sport 2022 Volkswagen GTI SE 2022 Mercedes-Benz GLE 450 2022 BMW X3 M Competition Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on Apple Podcasts Autoblog is now live on your smart speakers and voice assistants with the audio Autoblog Daily Digest. Say “Hey Google, play the news from Autoblog” or "Alexa, open Autoblog" to get your favorite car website in audio form every day. A narrator will take you through the biggest stories or break down one of our comprehensive test drives. Related video: Ferrari Purosangue revealed

Hybrids to slowly replace diesels at Mercedes

German automakers have had some success bringing diesel-powered vehicles in America in recent years, but that may not last much longer. A product planner from Mercedes-Benz we spoke to in Austria apparently believes hybrid setups may be more favorable in the long run, and electrified hybrids will eventually replace oil burners. That's why most every concept car we've seen in the last few years features some sort of hybrid or plug-in hybrid setup while there have been very few diesels. "Yes, diesel is technically complex, and very expensive. The additives to reduce particulate matter are very costly. You'll see more hybrids to meet the changing regulations," according to our source. We've seen this exact scenario play out with Mazda, which has struggled to bring its 2.2-liter diesel engine to America, citing the costly process to reduce emissions in order to meet California-level standards while still maintaining suitable performance for the US market. It's certainly interesting that this news comes hot on the heels of revelations that VW, the automaker that offers the most diesel-powered models in the US, was found in violation of emissions rules on its popular 2.0-liter TDI engine. New Mercedes GLE Will Have An Active Chassis Mercedes has launched an all-out product offensive in the last two years, but the product planning think tanks in Stuttgart have a few surprises in store, too. While Benz has just launched its new GLE SUV family, GLE product planners are already hard at work on the next-generation – yes, a good 5-6 years away – and tell us it will evolve to boast new chassis technology, "something that doesn't exist today." The next-GLE is codenamed 167 – the previous ML (now replaced by the GLE) was internally referred to as 166 – and the GLE planner we recently talked to calls the platform an "active chassis." He further alluded that the next version could be electrified. Currently, the only aspect of the GLE's chassis that is 'active' today are the hydraulic pumps on the roll bars, he said. Many of Mercedes' models can already be had with an adaptive air suspension, multiple selectable driving modes, and other features that were rare or nonexistent just a couple generations ago. One More Compact Crossover On The Way The planner said we can also at least one more all-new, forthcoming compact crossover to be built on the GLA platform. In addition to the GLA, that architecture is currently shared by the A-Class, B-Class, and CLA-Class models.

Mercedes-AMG chairman shoots down notion of LaFerrari-fighter

Mercedes-AMG chairman Tobias Moers took a sip of water and pondered the question. It was a loaded one: Would his company consider building a hyper car to rival extreme machines like the Porsche 918 and Ferrari LaFerrari? The short answer: not right now. "Unfortunately, if we find we should do something like that, there's no capacity – there's no engineering capacity to do that – in the near future. So there's no chance for us [to do that]," he told Autoblog in an interview at the Los Angeles Auto Show. AMG has capitalized on the rebounding global economy and strong demand for performance cars in the United States, China, and Europe, its most critical markets. It employs about 1,400 people, an astronomical leap from the 120 people who worked at AMG when Moers started in 1994. AMG also announced plans this week to increase V12 engine production due to high demand. Production will move from the AMG base in Affalterbach to another Daimler site in Mannheim, Germany. The switch will free up capacity for AMG to build more V8 engines in Affalterbach. Despite all of this growth, Moers said the company has priorities more pressing than a hypercar, like adding more extreme variants of its existing models. It also revealed the SL63 and SL65 AMG models this week in Los Angeles. "We're going to increase the family of the GT (shown above)," he said. "We're really busy with the next-generation E-Class, which will be the biggest step we've ever made from one generation E-Class to the next one regarding driving dynamics." Moers also says a supercar doesn't make financial sense for AMG, though halo cars are traditionally done for brand building, rather than the bottom line. "We're not coming to that point. I think a hypercar is always bad on a business case," he said. An AMG supercar is one of the industry's favorite rumors, and Moers admitted his customers are interested in the proposition. "In the recent past, I always thought like AMG ... is not in that level to be accepted in a hypercar, super, super, super sports car segment," he said. Talking with customers in all of our main markets, give[s] me a different view to that." Related Video: