SPY PHOTOS: More Mercedes GLK

Mud-plough in small scale 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 all-new 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 Motor 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 GLK 63 AMG version. While the U.S. is slowly moving away from big SUVs, Mercedes is losing market share to small SUVs like the BMW X3. With this new GLK it is hoping to get back on top again.