There has always been two Mercedes-Benz divisions – one for passenger cars, the other for commercial vehicles – but the new X-class ute range is where those tribes of the Daimler nation merge.
The X is the commercial division’s baby, developed primarily as another arrow in the quiver of a group totally dedicated to making and selling heavy trucks and light vans. However, it’ll be sold by a mixture of 11 passenger car and commercial dealers in New Zealand, a reflection perhaps of the way double-cab utes can now seamlessly cross market boundaries to meet both business and recreational needs.
The drive program of the New Zealand debut of the three-model X range showed that the Mercedes entry into our most popular vehicle segment is perhaps the most skillful of all medium-sized pick-up trucks at satisfying the diverse demands of contractors, farmers, foresters, fishers, and families.
The comfort, refinement, and safety felt incredibly close to one of Merc’s passenger cars, yet the X remained a ‘tough truck’ in terms of what it could do.
It can carry 1.1 tonnes in one of the largest cargo trays in the class, tow up to 3.5 tonnes, and the off-road performance of the 4wd variants is potentially right up with the real “mountain goats” of the segment.
We have the Global Financial Crisis of a decade ago to thank for the interest of the Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicle division in developing a double-cab ute range.
The GFC hit the van sales of the division hard enough to encourage diversification, and trigger a
debate about building lighter trucks. Proposals to build a heavier pick-up truck such as popular in North America, or a light single-cab ute as favoured in South America and Europe, were rejected for not having enough global potential.
The medium-sized double-cab pick-up trucks account for two million vehicle sales in the world, and that volume is predicted to rise by another million units over the next 10 years. The decision was therefore made to take on the ubiquitous leader of that segment, the Toyota Hilux, by building a new Mercedes-Benz competitor.
It’s the evolution of the mid-size double-cab ute into a multi-use vehicle that has caused the most soul-searching for Daimler at board level.
Challenges such as the long gestation of developing a new body-on-chassis vehicle were overcome by getting Daimler’s customer in providing Infiniti platforms, Renault-Nissan, on board.
“Using the Nissan Navara as a platform for the X-class gave us a head-start of at least three years,” says Australian development engineer, Scott Williams. As a former Hyundai Australia guy, he should know, having been involved in the early planning discussions about the Korean brand developing its own mid-sized ute range.
The extensive marketing campaign for the X-class also showcases how the vehicles break boundaries. The front man for the campaign is Henry Rollins, former leader of the thrash-punk band Black Flag, and now an activist for LGBT rights, world hunger relief and gun control.
Mercedes-Benz Vans Aust/NZ marketing manager Katherine Gracey, says Rollins is the human embodiment of the contradiction that the X-class represents. A tough character with a rugged exterior, he has also proven to be sensitive, emotional, and intelligent.
“People obviously associate (with Mercedes) from a car perspective but don’t know our full commercial history as well.
“So we wanted to bridge that gap because Henry is a bit of a contradiction with his exterior and how he looks but what he advocates for is phenomenal.”
Seen through the perspective of the range-leading Power specification, the contradictory performance of the X-class is most apparent.
The $69,000 X250d Power 4wd automatic model that I drove had its price blown out to $75,440 by the fitting of two packs – Style (privacy glass, electric rear window, side steps, roof rails, 19” alloy wheels) and a Winter Pack that added heaters to the optional leather seats and heated windscreen washers).
Add those items to Power standard equipment features like a 360-degree camera (handy for both parking and peering over hill crests offroad), keyless entry, lane-keeping assist, headlight assist, tyre pressure monitoring, park assist, load tray lighting and adjustable tie-down points, and a high-res 8.4 inch touchscreen with a rotary controller and touchpad, and you have arguably the best-equipped 4wd double cab on the market given that the X-utes are the only ones in the class to offer autonomous emergency braking.
And the price is still well below the six-figure sums some Kiwi ute-buyers are spending on optioned-up Volkswagen Amarok V6s.
But the best proof of the excellence of the X250d Power 4wd is found in its driving.
It weighs 300kg heavier than the best-equipped Navara NP300, but the extra beef enables a more refined driving persona. There’s 70mm wider wheel tracks to enlarge the “footprint” of the Merc on the road, an extra cross-member added to the ladder chassis to increase its rigidity, and use of substantially-thicker sound-deadening materials.
Nissan added progressive variable-rate coil rear springs to Series III Navaras after seeing the rear-suspension format of the X, but the Merc’s 10mm thicker stabiliser bars and firmer spring rates make it a more drive-able ute on the road by restricting body roll further while cornering, and enabling more agile steering characteristics. On-road ride quality feels little affected by the shift by Mercedes to firmer springs.
Meanwhile, the Power’s 2.2litre twin-turbo-diesel selectable-4wd powertrain with a choice of either six-speed manual or seven-speed automatic gearboxes keeps fuel use in check despite the extra mass the Merc carries in comparison with its platform-donor.
The 140kW/450Nm engine uses 7.9litres/100km in combined city/highway lab tests, and seems to get into the thick part of the torque curve earlier than the Navara’s 2.3-litre four.
The other powertrain for the X-class debut is a 120kW/403Nm single-turbo variant of the 2.2-litre diesel, which drives the rear wheels only via a six-speed manual gearbox for the Pure entry-models of the range. These list for $53,300 for a cab-chassis, rising to $54,200 for a wellside.
Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz Vans will release the X350d later this year, powered by a 190kW/550Nm V6 turbodiesel engine capable of lowering the 0-100kmh interval to single-figure numbers. No doubt Volkswagen will be watching that debut pretty closely, given that their V6 diesel ute models presently comprise 70 per cent of Amarok sales here.
