The Mercedes-Benz GLK first went on sale at the beginning of 2009 as a 2010 model, which means Mercedes' baby G just celebrated its third birthday. So the corporate parent is lavishing some attention on its littlest SUV. Outside, there's more chrome, LED lighting front and rear, and a slightly redone front end. Inside, the driver is presented with a new dashboard with a sportier, richer-looking instrument cluster, and bisected by a large trim piece featuring prominent, round air vents.

What to make of the fact that the Mercedes-Benz Galendewagen has seen a nearly fifty percent increase in sales from 2009 to 2011? The fact that this vehicle, which was originally designed for military, not civilian, use, is now more than thirty years old (it dates from 1979) apparently does little to deter its well-heeled buyers. Nor does the ancient SUV's appalling gas mileage (13 mpg combined city/highway, in the case of the G550). The fact that a GL, or an ML, is far roomier inside also appears to be irrelevant.

I didn't get a chance to really test this C300's 4Matic all-wheel drive system but the C-class in any iteration always feels comfortable, luxurious, and, above-all, rock solid. The doors, trunk, and even the glove box close with a satisfying "thunk" that reinforces this impression. On the road, though the C-class is anything but heavy or oppressive to drive. Instead, it manages to be effortless without feeling soft or detached.

Automotive journalists have a slightly warped view of the high-end sports car market. While we feeble automotive scribes pine for a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Black Series or for Porsche to offer a 911 GT3 RS with manual cloth seats and an A/C delete option, most real buyers aren’t interested in such compromise for ultimate performance. The truth is that many customers simply want a sports car that’s fast, a convertible, sounds good, and one that their significant other will actually ride in. Enter the Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG that we recently drove in the south of France.

When it opened a new plant in Hungary to build the B-Class, Mercedes-Benz announced that the factory also would build a compact "four door coupe." That car is being previewed at the Beijing Motor Show by the Concept Style Coupe, which probably gives a strong indication of the new production car's design.

As luxury brands try to appeal to the eco-conscious crowd (and meet upcoming CAFE regulations) we're going to see a lot more diesel or hybrid offerings. Right now Mercedes and Audi are vying for the title of best luxury brand use of a diesel engine outside the traditional SUV segment. At the moment, Mercedes is winning.

The great irony of the Mercedes-Benz SL is that, for decades, its name has stood for Sport Lightweight -- two characteristics attributable to not a single SL produced in the last fifty years. If Stuttgart would stop promising "sports car" levels of performance, we'd probably stop expecting Porsche 911 levels of involvement. If the engineers stopped calling the SL "light," we wouldn't criticize it for being nearly as heavy as an S-class sedan.

The launch of an all-new M-Class last year seems to have sparked a wave of renovation within the Mercedes-Benz SUV portfolio. The automaker has hinted at a revised G-Class, shown off an updated GLK-Class model, and now, at the 2012 New York auto show, has officially launched the all-new 2013 Mercedes-Benz GL-Class.

"I've never really driven on snow before, so this should be interesting." On the list of things you definitely don't want to hear from a driving partner you've just met when climbing into the passenger's seat of a smallish 302-hp coupe in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, this has to rank near the top. The calming news -- and the reason we're here in the first place -- is that the coupe in question, the Mercedes-Benz C350, now has all-wheel drive.

Mercedes-Benz is wasting no time showing off the full range of its all-new SL-Class. On the heels of the SL550 and the SL63 AMG is the mighty 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG, set to debut at next month's 2012 New York International Auto Show. Benz's range-topping, V-12-powered menace will be the fastest SL on the market once it arrives in showrooms later this year.

The Mercedes-Benz C-Class is selling in bigger numbers and the S-Class is earning bigger profits, but no other Mercedes is positioned closer to the core of the brand than the E-Class. An extensive reskin is slated for the 2013 model year and it eliminates most of the overly decorative styling cues while taking on numerous new technologies.

With luxury compact offerings like the Audi A3 and BMW 1 Series gaining traction, Mercedes-Benz is hoping to claim a bigger piece of the action with its all-new Mercedes-Benz A-Class. When the vehicle eventually arrives in the U.S., it may very well be the most value-packed hatch to ever wear the three-pointed star.

It probably will surprise no one when I say that travelling in a Mercedes-Benz S-class is a pretty swell experience. The stretch-out-spacious cabin is lined with soft leather and burnished with glossy wood and metal trim. Electronic servants are on hand to assist with most any task, be it closing the trunk, moving the steering column, or raising the blinds over the rear windows. The chassis is poised and the steering is creamy yet direct. Cruising is hushed, and the powertrain is responsive.

Associate Web Editor Donny Nordlicht was flying out of the Detroit airport the day before I was to return from the Los Angeles Auto Show, and he texted me a photo of the S63, which was waiting for me in the parking lot that we always use near the Detroit airport. After ten days away from home, I was happy to find this top-of-the-line Mercedes-Benz S-class waiting for me after Delta Flight 6 touched down, especially since the first part of my time away was to visit family in Texas Hill Country, where I spent four days and 500 miles behind the wheel of a beater Toyota Corolla rental car.

It doesn't take long for the AMG tuning wizards to work their magic on new Mercedes-Benz products. Less than two months after the all-new SL-Class roadster debuted at the 2012 Detroit auto show, Mercedes is introducing the high-performance 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG. Following the established pattern for all AMG-massaged products, the SL63 receives a more powerful engine, improved chassis dynamics, and racier body components than the car on which it’s based.

We all know that the Mercedes-Benz CL is a fabulous ride with stunning design and the ability to sprint to 60 mph in less than 5 seconds (and that's the "base" CL550). But what I got to enjoy about the CL this time around is its excellent all-weather capability. Even on all-season tires, the all-wheel-drive CL550 easily tackled Ann Arbor's first real snowstorm of the season. You've actually got to be careful because the car insulates you so well from what's going on outside and on the road surface that it's easy to find yourself going faster than you should be on slippery surfaces. The heated steering wheel and seats and excellent defrosters made my snowy late-night drive home that much nicer. With winter tires on a CLS550, the only limiting factor in winter would be ground clearance.

Three years ago, my mother almost bought a C300 sedan but cited the fact that it "wasn't special enough" as a deal breaker. Given the comprehensive update Mercedes gave the C-class for 2012, my mother was obviously not the only one who thought that the baby Benz could be more deserving of the three-pointed star. Simple changes like the silver, watch-like gauge faces go a long way, but the all-new interior makes all the difference. No longer is the center stack a large wasteland of black plastic; instead, it's an artfully laid out and usable infotainment space decorated with wood trim and chrome. All of the controls come straight from the Mercedes-Benz parts bin, which is not a bad thing in this case - the same radio and climate controls from the C-class can now be found on the $130,000 CLS63 AMG test car we recently had.

This C63 AMG coupe seems like a total bargain compared with the CLS63 AMG four-door test car that we also recently drove here at Automobile Magazine. That car was larded up with $34K in options, making it sticker for a breathtaking $130K. This C63 is, arguably, a more entertaining proposition, even though it has 69 fewer hp and 147 fewer lb-ft of torque than the twin-turbocharged 5.5-liter V-8 CLS63 with the AMG performance package. That's because the C63 sticks with the normally aspirated 6.2-liter V-8, which is a grunty, characterful beast. In an age when more and more engines are getting turbocharged and supercharged, the 6.2-liter V-8 is all the more cool because it relies on old-fashioned displacement and relatively high revs, among other things, to deliver the goods. Go light on the options, and you could have a pretty well-equipped C63 for about $70K. Even if you pile on all the available equipment and end up with an $80K car like our tester, the C63 AMG coupe makes for an interesting alternative to a Porsche 911 Carrera or Carrera S.

More power. It's just what every two-and-a-half-ton SUV needs. Not. For that reason, if you had asked us a few weeks ago to pick a sensible vehicle for touring the winding mountain roads around Santa Barbara, California, chances are excellent we'd probably have neglected to mention Mercedes-Benz's ML series, much less its top-of-the-line ML63 AMG. Fettled by the company's in-house tuning department, the extra-picante version of the weighty SUV has only just reemerged in a third edition with more power than ever: 518 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque, from the now-ubiquitous AMG 5.5-liter, twin-turbo V-8.

I have to be careful. There are a lot of police around today," said Jurgen Weissinger. He's the chief engineer for the complete Mercedes-Benz sports car line -- and specifically for the highly camouflaged SL550 in which I was a passenger, the model to be revealed at the 2012 Detroit show. That we were rocketing uphill on a winding two-lane mountain road at about 110 mph made his words slightly inappropriate, but since the car felt as if we were proceeding quietly at half that speed, I was relaxed and just enjoyed the ride.

The Mercedes-Benz E400 Hybrid is set to make its world debut at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show, and it’s expected to be the most eco-friendly E-Class ever sold in America.

For more than 50 years, the Mercedes-Benz SL has occupied a special place atop the German automaker’s lineup. The current-generation SL, armed with timeless sheetmetal and the brand’s latest and most innovative technology, has admirably carried on the tradition. As the all-new 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL-Class prepares to take the stage at the 2012 Detroit auto show, there’s no doubt the Benz faithful will have higher expectations than ever for the latest-generation of the iconic roadster.

Some cars are likeable because they look great, some are likeable because they perform very well, but few manage to mix looks and performance as well as the CLS63 AMG. Dramatic styling has always been a hallmark of the CLS, which is mechanically identical to the E-class. Personally, I don't think the styling is worth the price premium over an E-class, because it makes the sedan a bit less useful in the name of fashion. But give the CLS a massage courtesy of AMG and the impracticality of the swoopy design is suddenly a lot less bothersome. After all, we often sacrifice utility in the name of performance with coupes and roadsters. Why not go all-in and add performance to your fashion accessory?

Mercedes-Benz's smallest car offers a wide range of power, equipment, and price, spanning the frugal C250 to the snortin' C63 AMG. As a driver's car, the C-class doesn't deliver the same all-around balance that makes the BMW 3-series so great. However, Mercedes places a larger emphasis on luxury and refinement, and it shows. Regardless of model, every C-class has a quiet cabin, a composed ride, excellent build quality, and an assertive but unobtrusive powertrain. It offers comfortable seats; a slick, three-spoke, flat-bottomed steering wheel; and a new 5.8-inch display that integrates HD Radio, Bluetooth audio streaming, and a USB port in the center console. The downsized C250 achieves a respectable 21/31 mpg fuel economy rating, but the smallish 1.8-liter displacement means the four-cylinder isn't as potent as BMW's new 240-hp turbo four. Buyers who demand all-wheel drive are restricted to the C300 sedan, which uses a 228-hp V-6. The C350's direct-injected 3.5-liter revs eagerly and accelerates quickly when the right pedal is planted. All C-classes come with a smooth-shifting seven-speed automatic, but it's not quite as quick as the eight-speed gearboxes offered by some competitors. While the proletarian C-class models may cede some performance to the BMW 3-series, there's one big exception: the C63 AMG, which packs a normally aspirated 6.2-liter V-8 that charges off the line with an authority that is absent in BMW's M3. The high-performance BMW boasts a more neutral and more tactile chassis, but the Mercedes is just as fun around a track.

The Mercedes-Benz CL is a supercoupe. It offers super handling, super acceleration, and super luxury all in one package. The CL's unique pillarless side glass gives an uninterrupted look into an exquisite interior. The front seats are both heated and ventilated and offer massage capability, while the sport seats in the AMG models feature active side bolsters that enlarge when the car is turning to enhance lateral support. By our measure, the entry-model CL550 is only for those who will drive their CL year-round in snowy climes--it is the only CL model with all-wheel drive. The CL we'd own is the eight-cylinder CL63 AMG from Mercedes' performance division. Last year, AMG's signature 6.2-liter V-8 was replaced by a 5.5-liter twin-turbo V-8 good for 536 hp. Opt for the AMG performance package, though, and power rises to 563 hp as torque jumps 74 lb-ft to a total of 664 lb-ft. The output boost is enough for the CL63 to match the 0-to-60-mph time of the CL65 AMG at 4.3 seconds. For customers who demand the ultimate in prestige, Mercedes offers not one but two smooth-spinning V-12 engines. It's worth noting that a top-spec CL sits in Bentley and Maserati territory when it comes to price, but we can't think of a compelling argument to choose either of those cars over the Merc. The CL's handling is remarkable, especially given its size--and even the base V-8 engine is powerful enough for the CL to keep up with sports cars on winding back roads.