Forgive the lack of timeliness, but we had to mention the new Mercedes CLK550, or we'd have risked very stern e-mail messages from our wide readership of ladies who luncheon. Said ladies will be pleased with some extra fris e under the hood, in the form of Merc's 5.5-liter V8 — replacing the 5.0-liter mill in their current rides. That'll propel them to the Zodiac at Neiman Marcus 0.7 second quicker — giving them more time to discipline the house girl for substituting yogurt for creme fraiche in the salmon sauce. Horsepower's up to 382 and torque to 391 ft-lbs, which will give the hubby even less of a chance to dodge a drunken, tearful hole-shot in the garage. Oh, and the AMG appearance package — leather sport seats, a sport helm with paddle shifters and aluminum sport pedals on the interior; metallic paint, 18" alloys, body kit, side skirts and a spoiler and chrome AMG exhaust — is to die.

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Dealership: This CLK -GTR Sucks [internal]

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