Mercedes planning major changes for its SLK model

Mercedes is planning to utterly change its SLK model as it seeks to convert its convertible into a rival for Audi's TT.

The SLK has, since its original 1995 launch, been a traditional small Mercedes sports car – engine at the front, driven wheels at the back and a folding steel hard-top (it was one of the first cars to deploy that technology) in the middle.

For the next SLK it's all change. AMG is going to take the lead in developing the new car, according to a report in German magazine Auto Motor Und Sport, and the car will carry many of the styling cues of the newly-launched AMG-GT coupe.

But rear-wheel-drive will the thrown away as Mercedes seeks to reduce the cost base of the now slow-selling SLK by taking it away from sharing with the C-Class and instead putting it on the front-and-four-wheel-drive platform with the A-Class and CLA.

As with the TT, the new SLK will come initially as a coupe and later as a convertible, although unlike the TT it won’t spawn shooting brake and saloon variants as Mercedes already has those options covered by the CLA.

While it's having a go at the TT, Mercedes will also be having a pop at the Porsche Panamera, with a powerful, sleek four-door coupe that will be based on the chassis and engine package of the E-Class saloon but which will sit above both that model and the CLS four-door coupe in price and performance.

Mercedes is prepping an all-new E-Class for launch in 2016 and it's possible (although Mercedes declined to comment on Auto Motor Und Sport's report) that this Panamera rival will debut the year after.

Replacement

Just as Mercedes is ramping up its niche portfolio Volkswagen is trimming back on the number of different cars it produces. VW has confirmed that the Eos coupe-cabriolet will not get a direct replacement (although there will be a soft-top Golf option at some point) and that other slow-selling cars such as the three-door version of the Polo will also be dropped.

It seems that the Scirocco coupe will get a successor though, and the current Beetle range will be expanded with Dune soft-roader and sporty R-Line models.