Mercedes-Benz SLR Production Stops In 2009
There are many fast cars, but a one of the most attractive and appealing is the product of two world brand leaders. It’s the Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren, a car that was born from cooperation between Germany’s Mercedes-Benz and England’s McLaren.
However, according to CarScoop, no more SLRs will be produced from next year.
In less than a year’s time, Mercedes-Benz will terminate the production of its McLaren SLR Roadster -the Coupe stopped being produced at the end of 2007, thus ending the supercar’s five-year scheduled run.
Initially Mercedes planed to sell 3,500 SLRs in seven years, with an annual production of only 500 SLR’s, but in 2006 only 261 vehicles were sold, and last year, 275. Perhaps it was obvious to stop production rather than lose money although why is another matter.
Competitors such as the Porsche Carrera GT and Enzo Ferrai seem to be one factor in low SLR sales, but another is price. Yes, the Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR Roadster has the fastest automatic transmission in the world and can accelerate from 0 to 100km/h in 3.1 seconds, but $500,000 is an awfully large amount of money.
According to AutoUnleashed, Mercedes-Benz owns 40 percent of the British company, but even so, they will not work together in the future.
Even though Mercedes owns 40% of the British company, they will not work together. Especially with McLaren preparing it’s own supercar, codenamed the P11, which is most likely to be introduced in 2011.
So, if Mercedes will stop the production of SLR and also McLaren will produce its own made supercar then it’s very possible that in the nearest future will announce about the new supercar. I don’t think that Mercedes will loose its position in the supercar’s class so easily.
Photo © char1iej
Related posts:
