Body-painted dancers and jungle music were used to launch Mercedes-Benz's second-generation M-Class sport-utility vehicle (SUV) yesterday.
It might have seemed a touch undignified for a company once best known for producing luxury sedans for the super-rich. But Mercedes is aiming the ML500 and ML350 at a young audience.
Where the first-generation SUVs appealed to people aged 45 to 50, Mercedes hopes to sell the new models to 35-to-40-year-olds.
More specifically, chief operating officer Jutta Aulich said, the carmaker is aiming at the 'dinks' - double income, no kids - and those with young families.
The cars are fitted with Mercedes' new automatic transmission system - a seven-speed unit that can skip gears if necessary, for example shifting directly from seventh to fifth when extra acceleration is needed.
Ms Aulich said the SUV market enjoyed several years of growth but had experienced a slowdown recently. 'But I'm very optimistic about the SUV [sales] in Hong Kong. The first generation had a great success.'
