For its 2012 product line up, luxury car brand Mercedes-Benz decided to take out the SL600 and the SL65 AMG sledgehammer that belong to the V-12 SL-Class line. The reason for this is to pave the way for the debut of the newly revamped 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL-Class which is due late next year.

Anyway, here’s a recap of the kicked out SL models. The SL600 comes with a 5.5-liter V12 engine with a massive 510 horsepower and 610 lb-ft of torque. This model has been kicked out of the lineup first without any press release from Mercedes-Benz.

The second to take the knife is the SL65 AMG that is powered with a 6.0-liter V12 engine with an impressive 640 HP and 740 lb-ft of torque. This time, Mercedes-Benz made a statement that the model is being taken out of the 2012 product line to give way to its new 2013 baby.

Of course, the automotive community is speculating that one of the reasons behind this is the poor sales of the two models as well as the existence of the SLS AMG model, which is somehow less in power but carries the same price tag. Moreover, there’s the issue of the SLS AMG Roadster that kept stealing the spotlight from the two kicked out models.
What we want to know is whether the brand will make the V12 models obsolete to give way to the V8 units which are more fuel efficient. Well, let’s hope they would still keep some V12 units on hand.