Mercedes-Benz X-Class may soon be discontinued
A couple of years ago, Mercedes Benz had a bright idea to plug a hole in their lineup with a pickup truck. But they proceeded to do it in the cheapest way possible — by reskinning the Nissan Navara worktruck in their own image to create the X-Class “luxury” pickup truck and jacking up the price. But two years later, reports suggest that the early discontinuation of the X-Class is imminent.
According to Automotive News Europe, an anonymous source from Mercedes-Benz revealed that the X-Class will be killed off. This is due to the recent movement by Mercedes-Benz to remove or replace the products in the portfolio that bring in less profit.
The Mercedes-Benz X-Class was launched as the brand was trying to penetrate the pickup segment. But the model did not move much on the sales charts, racking up only 16,700 sales in the main markets. The Mercedes-Benz pricing levels didn’t help either, in a midsize truck segment where literally no one asked for a luxury option. The X-Class was also not launched in the pickup-loving United States, or even in the Middle East. Instead, it was confined to European markets, of all places. That’s quite the blunder that will go down in history alongside the Pontiac Aztek and the DMC Delorean.
Comments
Sultan
The mistake was not launching it in the Middle East. Imagine what people would have done with it. They would have now been thinking of introducing an AMG variant instead.
Neel
It was an outrageous idea in the first place to launch a ‘luxury’ truck. Person who desires luxury would be sensible enough to put his money on something sensible like an SUV or sedan. Why would one want to spend his money on an Ute ?
Also, maintenance cost for a luxe vehicle is going to burn a hole on one’s pocket. Lastly, for something that is going to be used as a rugged adventure mover and be loaded recklessly, who would want to spend such tremendous amounts of money? There are better ways of showing opulence.