Mercedes-Benz GLA180 News

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced its latest round of automotive recalls, with models from Citroen, Holden, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi and Peugeot affected.

Mercedes-Benz Australia has announced increased prices and specification levels for its facelifted GLA.

The facelifted Mercedes-Benz GLA crossover will be revealed in full during the Detroit motor show.

Luxury SUV sales growth continues during first five months of 2016.

Last year the vehicle market notched up a record with 1,136,227 sales, busting the previous zenith by about 24,000 and confirming that in Australia, one million-plus is the norm.Figures for November, released last week, show sales have already passed the million mark, and when the final tally emerges in early January the industry will congratulate itself on another bumper year.In reality, it has spent most of 2014 in reverse and it would take a freak December to even approach last year's total.If the trend holds, then the overall decline will be about 2 per cent - equivalent to 500 fewer buyers a week. But it's a mixed picture for the 50 or so brands, with the gap between winners and losers larger than ever.With one or two exceptions, the winners by a substantial margin are luxury brands. Their share of the market now approaches 9 per cent, up from 7.7 per cent last year, and it's reflected in some impressive numbers.The German luxury trio dominates but Australia bucks the trend by favouring Mercedes-Benz ahead of BMW and Audi.With its small car range - the A, B, CLA and GLA - flying out of showrooms, the three-pointed star is stretching its lead over BMW and rubs it in by selling more of its expensive performance variants as well.Its bestseller, the C-Class, has been available for only a few months but will finish the year as the third most popular mid-size car at any price - behind only the Toyota Camry and Mazda6.Audi's ambition is to overtake its German peers and become No 1 here, replicating its position in Europe and China. After slowing in 2012, its growth spurt has resumed and it's catching BMW on the strength of its award-winning A3 small car.Some of the second-tier luxury brands are powering ahead even faster. Thanks to its new-generation Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, demand for the British SUV specialist is up 22 per cent. It will finish as the fourth most popular luxury marque.Ironically, SUV demand is also powering Porsche. It cannot get enough of its second SUV, the Macan, and waiting times are stretching the patience of buyers. Without the Macan, Porsche was on track for a record. With it, sales are up almost 50 per cent. When Maserati adds an SUV, the Levante, in 2016 it can expect to get a comparable boost.Super-large, super-expensive SUVs are what the elite badges lack but they are all working on one. Even so, Maserati's push for volume is yielding results. The new-generation large sedans Ghibli and Quattroporte have almost tripled sales this year.Even among the luxury brands there are losers. Volvo lacks the deep pockets of the Germans and is struggling to keep its product pipeline full. Its dealers will doubtless breathe easier when the overdue replacement for its XC90 SUV arrives in the second quarter next year, with sales down 7 per cent in 2014.Lexus is another that has waited too long for fresh product and its NX mid-size SUV arrives too late to prevent it treading water.Among mainstream brands, losers are much easier to find than winners. Over-optimism and the pressure to grow meant many ended 2013 carrying too much stock, with Nissan the standout - but far from sole - example.The traditional solution to this problem, and one by no means limited to mainstream brands, is for the distributor and/or dealers to register cars themselves.It's a way of meeting sales targets but it simply saves up trouble, not the least of which is an excess of ageing 'demonstrator' models that sooner or later have to actually be sold. When they are, the sales have already been counted.Combine that with an assault on their traditional territory by the luxury brands and everyone from Toyota to Honda, Holden to Ford, has seen their numbers go south.But the biggest losers in 2014? Cheap Chinese brands, with Chery sales down 35 per cent and Great Wall almost 60 per cent.

New Honda Jazz sets new benchmark for rear view cameras: $14,990.

QR codes -- the tiny scrambled square symbols that instantly link smartphone users to specific sites on the internet -- can now be used to save lives.Mercedes-Benz is going to start fitting QR codes to all cars sold in Australia since 1990 -- almost 300,000 vehicles -- to show emergency crews where to cut open the car's body structure after a serious crash.Rescue workers with a smartphone will be able to simply scan the QR code inside the door opening or behind the fuel-filler door to bring up an x-ray picture of the car, with instructions that pinpoint the best places to use the jaws of life.The first Mercedes-Benz with the "rescue card" QR code went on sale in Australia today, the $47,900 compact SUV called the GLA. But the company said it will soon offer the QR code stickers free of charge to owners of all Mercedes-Benz passenger cars sold since 1990."Over the coming months we will set up a program of how customers can collect the sticker for their cars," said Mercedes-Benz Australia spokesman David McCarthy."We think it's an important initiative for road safety and we would encourage the rest of the industry to adopt it. The emergency services are already dealing with complex technology in vehicles and this is about the safe extraction of injured occupants."Mercedes-Benz said it will also start briefing emergency services around Australia about the technology. "Anything that can save time in a rescue situation can potentially save lives," said NSW Police Inspector Phil Brooks, the operations manager of the traffic and highway patrol command. "We look forward to reviewing this technology for the benefit of road safety."Mercedes-Benz introduced the QR code rescue stickers in Europe last December but other manufacturers are expected to follow.This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowlingHow it works-- Rescue workers can use a smartphone to scan a QR code on a crashed car to bring up an x-ray view that pinpoints the best places to cut into the car's structure.-- There are two QR codes: one behind the fuel filler door (in case the doors won't open) and one on the opposite side of the car inside the front door opening.-- All new Mercedes-Benz cars sold from now will come with QR codes and in the coming months the company will offer the stickers free of charge to owners of all Mercedes-Benz cars since 1990.