[S350L-E240]

Hello,

Mercedes-Benz has quietly launched the Mercedes-Benz GL500/550 in Indian market, it's a soft launch and in a few months the cars will be assembled in India via the CKD / SKD route, the GL and ML will both benefit by this as it will bring over all costs quite low including the cost of RTO as a lot of states have high rates for cars which are CBU's.

The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Business | Merc lines up more models

I still do not think they will assemble the current ML as it's pretty much soon going to be replaced by a new model in the middle of 2011, so perhaps Mercedes-Benz India will only launch the new model once it's out?

But exciting times ahead as a lot of cars are now taking the assembly route in India which will increase the competetion and reduce costs for us buyers.

Regards,

[S350L-E240]

Sorry for updating this dead topic but made more sense than to create a new one,

ML is now in it's 3rd generation which will be launched in April 2012 under the ML350 CDI and few weeks after that will be the launch of ML250 CDI, these will be highly competitive and also will see the CKD assembly operations which makes the overall cost come down.

For now the current ML 350 CDI has been introduced as a corporate edition at a price of 45,89,770 /- INR and these are a part of the grand editions which include some funky alloys and a few interior upgrades like leather dash etc.

GL Grand Edition / Final edition should also be here soon perhaps by Q42011, as it's also now in it's final year of production to be replaced by an all new model sometime in the year 2012 so expect it in India by 2013, and if volumes are good enough by then expect that to be locally assembled too and perhaps with a lot more local content by then.

Regards,