2012 Mercedes-Benz SLK Roadster Blows its Cover

Over the past year, numerous scoops and a major leak, accompanied by several official releases, have shed light on many details on the 2012 Mercedes SLK. In fact, we were expecting the German maker to bring the third generation roadster to the 2011 Detroit Auto Show, ahead of its projected March debut. Even though that never happened, today, Mercedes finally released the last pieces of the SLK puzzle.

Claimed to offer a 25% increase in fuel economy compared to the previous model, in Europe, the SLK will be available with three engines, all of them featuring direct injection and stop/start systems.

Filling in the base model's shoes is the SLK 200 BlueEfficiency variant, powered by a 1.8-liter four-cylinder powerplant, capable of 184 hp. Mated to a seven-speed 7G-Tronic Plus automatic transmission, the four-pot needs just 6.1 liters of gasoline per 100 km (38.6 US mpg) in the combined cycle. The SLK 200 sprints to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 7 seconds and has a top speed of 237 km/h (147 mph).

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