Daily Archives: March 16, 2013

One of the best perks of working at a luxury automotive retailer like the Wichita Luxury Collection is the opportunity to drive amazing vehicles.  The downside is that often, the vehicles are all so amazing and so luxurious, that one could miss out on the pleasure of driving.

Recently, I had the good fortune to take a 2013 Mercedes-Benz GLK out for a drive.  I had seen the commercials for this vehicle on TV promoting all the changes from 2012 to 2013.

Being in the automotive industry sometimes causes one to have a jaded impression of automotive commercials as EVERY new vehicle is a million quite a bit better than the previous model.  I mostly write off this kind of sensationalism as pure marketing.

The surprise for me this time though was that the marketing maybe didn’t go far enough in sharing the changes and refinements that Mercedes-Benz put into the 2013 GLK.

Usually, in a vehicles life-cycle, the mid-model “refresh” consists of a few new paint colors, changes to the headlight and tail light configuration, and maybe changing the black trim on the vehicle to chrome.  I was surprised when I first sat down and immediately was impressed with the redesign of the interior, from the dash, to the center console, and even the navigation display screen.

After driving a few miles, I then realized the vehicle has a smoother, softer ride as well.  Still a very spirited, fun vehicle to drive, but quieter and smoother than before.  The handling seemed tighter, too.  I was easily able to park the vehicle in tight spaces and maneuver around the piles of snow we had at the dealership.

Another nice surprise was the updated navigation system.  The “birds-eye” view mode of the navigation screen gave a much nicer, clearer picture of where I was going.  It was also intuitive on how to enter an address, with some of the data input by the GLK in a predictive way similar to how a cell phone tries to predict what you are trying to type, or how Google fills in the rest of the word while typing in a search.

I could go on and on about the GLK, but the best way to learn about it is to DRIVE the GLK, which you can do by clicking HERE.  A copy of this request will come to me and I will make sure a Mercedes-Benz specialist contacts you to confirm your VIP Test Drive.