Spy Shots: Mercedes GLK

STUTTGART, Germany — New pictures have emerged of the 2009 Mercedes GLK, the company's compact SUV, soon-to-be peer of the BMW X3 and Audi's coming Q5.

At first sight the test car looks like a disguised GL, but in reality this prototype is considerably smaller than Mercedes' full-size sport-ute. Translated, the name GLK means basically "short version of GL" as K is a diminutive of the German "kurz," meaning short.

The GLK is using technical components from the yet-to-come 2008 Mercedes C-Class, which is set to debut in March 2007, and it will keep very close in design to the recently launched GL-Class. The GLK may debut as a 2009 model at the Frankfurt auto show in September 2007, while Geneva 2008 remains a possibility.

Power is expected to come from a 3.5-liter V6 with Mercedes 4Matic all-wheel drive standard. All versions are expected to have the 7G-Tronic TouchShift automatic transmission. Later on there could be a V8-powered GLK63 AMG version.

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