Mercedes announces third season of StarDrive experience, introduces star power with Farhan Akhtar

Mercedes-Benz's StarDrive season provides the best platform to combine crucial aspects of driving experience with the simulation of extreme road situations. This initiative witnesses the convergence of German car maker's 'spirit of innovation' with unique a mix of enjoyment.

Usually, buyers of top end luxury cars blindly follow trade magazines, blogs and forums written by automobile journalists before zeroing in upon a car that perfectly fulfils their requirements. Even though the world of media drives is replete with information about the automotive giant, Mercedes-Benz is utilising its flagship 'Mercedes-Benz StarDrive Experience' to give its customers a first hand experience for the third successive year.

The third season of StarDrive Experience is speculated to be better and on a bigger scale than the previous two editions. However, the main focus this year, too, will be on enabling customers to experience and feel the safety features, engineering ingeniousness and driveability of the vast portfolio of high performance cars on sale by Mercedes-Benz in the country. This event, which will be held pan-India, will witness individual performances by the new and improved M Class, the powerful GL Class, the top grossing C Class and E Class sedans as well as the road-dominating AMGs, amongst many others.

Artificial parcour setups, which are identical to natural off-road terrains, have been created to appease Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) enthusiasts. These setups will be used to showcase the off-roading capabilities of Mercedes-Benz SUVs in real-time to those who are keen on driving on rough terrains. For customers who are smitten by celebrities, which is a common phenomenon in India, Mercedes-Benz is hosting 'StarDrive with Farhan Akhtar' contest. The lucky winner of this contest and his/her spouse will get to meet the multi-talented actor.

The multi-city event will be held in two phases. Phase I will be held across cities like Kochi (21st and 22nd April 2012), Bangalore (12th and 13th May 2012) and Chennai (19th and 20th May 2012). On the other hand, Phase II will take off on 1st September 2012 and will be held till 23rd September 2012 in New Delhi (1st and 2nd September 2012), Chandigarh (8thand 9th September 2012) and Mumbai (22nd and 23rd September 2012).

Mercedes’ StarDrive season 3 comes at a time when the German giant is planning to launch five new Mercedes-Benz compact cars successively, beginning this year, in a bid to zoom ahead of rivals Audi and BMW in terms of sales. B Class, A Class, GLC Class, GLK Class and CLA Class are the new models expected to hit Indian roads in coming time. Due to these proposed launches, the company has planned to increase its investments in the country.

The first car to be launched the Indian markets will be the B Class, which is deemed to be a Sports Tourer (ST). Close at the heels of the ST model, the A Class hatchback will make its debut around June 2013, which will be followed by the GLC Class. Competing with the Audi Q5 and other in its segment, GLK Class is a compact luxury crossover headed to the country. However, the model is not expected to be seen anytime before 2016 on Indian roads.