Welcome back ladies and gentlemen; if you’re a mother, I hope you had marvelous Mother’s Day, and for everyone else, I hope you did something special for your mom. To kick things off this morning, we have news that we’ve known was coming for some time now, it was just a question of when and who. Today, the when and who have been unveiled, with DaimlerChrysler announcing they’re releasing 80.1% equity interest of the Chrysler Group to an affiliate of Cerberus for the tidy sum of $7.4 billion. This, of course, is subject to approval by the Supervisory Board and a number of closing conditions, but in all probability, DaimlerChrysler AG will soon be known as simply Daimler AG.

It seems like just yesterday we brought you rumors that the Mercedes R-Class would be the recipient of numerous changes in an attempt to bolster sluggish sales, and today, those rumors have come to fruition. A number of updates for the model have been announced, ranging from the addition of a two-wheel drive option to a re-working of the number of occupants the R is able to tote. Sound too good to be true? Read on for the full list of updates.

In Pune, India yesterday, DaimlerChrysler celebrated the groundbreaking of its new Mercedes-Benz plant at Chakan. On hand for the event was the Honourable Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, together with Dr. Joachim Schmidt, Chairman of the Board of DaimlerChrysler India; Prof. Eberhard Haller, Member of the Board of DaimlerChrysler India and responsible for CKD plants of the Mercedes Car Group; and Wilfried Aulbur, Managing Director and CEO of DaimlerChrysler India; all of which laid the foundation stone of the new facility.

Mercedes reviews have been a tad sparse around these parts lately, a fact that can be primarily attributed to my increasingly hectic schedule. For this I apologize, and to make amends, I offer this amply-endowed ‘Review Roundup,’ a collection of articles filled to the brim with Mercedes review goodness. The Mercedes CLK63 AMG Black Series, CL600, CL550, ML320 CDI, E63 AMG, SLR McLaren and Actros – these are the chosen ones. To read reviews of any, keep scrolling, browse concise summaries of each or just hit the links to jump straight to complete, unadulterated articles.

As we told you back in March, this year marks the 40th anniversary of a little tuning company known as AMG. To celebrate the occasion, Mercedes has taken a moment to publish a lovely retrospective taking a look back at 40 years of AMG’s tuning mastery, highlighting various milestones achieved by the company as well as outlining the two newest additions to the AMG stable: the CL65 AMG and the CLK63 AMG Black Series…

Welcome back ladies and gentlemen; I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. To kick things off this morning, DaimlerChrysler has taken a moment to publish details of how worldwide sales of the Mercedes Car Group’s Mercedes-Benz, Maybach and smart brands fared for the month of April. Unfortunately, sales at the Mercedes Car Group continued to stay in the negative, with the division delivering 97,800 units last month – a decrease of 3 percent when compared to April 2006. Individually, sales of the Mercedes-Benz brand noted less of a decline, dropping 0.7 percent to 90,600 new units, while smart dropped off 24.6 percent, noting sales of 7,200 units. On a positive note, year-to-date sales of the Mercedes-Benz brand are at the all-time high of 365,000 units, a 2.2 percent increase when compared to 2006’s four-month YTD total; as a whole however, the Mercedes Car Group’s YTD sales remain in the red, trailing 2006’s figures by 2.8 percent.

Talk about a surprise announcement… I sat down this morning with my usual cup of espresso thinking it’d be another slow day in the land of Mercedes news, when lo and behold, Mercedes has laid all the speculation to rest and unveiled to the world the new SLR McLaren Roadster. Needless to say, it’s a an exquisitely beautiful vehicle (at least when its top is down), sharing the same styling as its coupe counterpart but featuring a fully-retractable top. One question pondered by many before today was whether the SLR Roadster would maintain it’s unique butterfly doors, and thankfully, it has. Other than that, not much has changed from the traditional SLR…

Hardly the crown jewel of the Mercedes lineup, AutoTelegraaf is speculating today as to what the future holds for the impoverished R-Class. According to the publication, changes to to the model could include the addition of a rear-wheel drive variant to the lineup, seating for seven (as opposed to the current seating for six), redesigned exterior (which is a given assuming production of the model continues), and last but not least, the removal of the R63 AMG from the R-Class family.

Yesterday marked the start of a new month, and as we all know, that means it’s time for everyone’s favorite: month-end sales figures. Unfortunately for Mercedes-Benz USA, things were a bit gloomy, with sales of Mercedes’ U.S. division dropping 1.8 percent to 20,895 new units (compared to 21,270 in April 2006). Despite the decrease, year-to-date sales at MBUSA are still at the record high of 76,880 new units, a six percent increase when compared to 2006’s four month YTD total.

To those of you confined to a desk job looking for a way to make the hours go a bit quicker, here’s a pair of videos to eat up a few minutes of your work day. The first provides a first person look at what it would be like to pilot a Lamborghini Gallardo head-to-head against a Mercedes CLK DTM AMG at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, while the second depicts the made-for-Gotham Maybach Exelero hitting a top speed of about 218 mph.

It’s been a fairly busy past couple of days for Mercedes reviews, with a total of six publications weighing in with their thoughts on how one of MB’s various models performed. More specifically, the 2007 CL-Class range, the 2008 C-Class range, the 2007 CLK63 AMG, the 2007 SL550 and the 2007 SLK350 were all put their paces. This of course means it time for yet another ‘Review Roundup’ segment, and in my typical Review Roundup fashion, I have included links to each review, along with tidy descriptions of each, immediately below.

Welcome back ladies and gentlemen; I hope you all had a marvelous weekend. To kick things off this bright April afternoon comes the newest addition to the always-unique ASMA Design family: the Eagle II Sport Edition. As with all tuning packages emerging from the ASMA camp, the design is bold – sure to be coveted young NFL draft picks/hip hop stars/crack dealers the world over. Features include two-tone black and silver paintwork, new front and rear fenders and side skirts, all of which compliment perfectly the 21-inch ASMA Design wheels.