Mercedes has spent the last few years valiantly plugging every car niche possible. But there’s one rather gaping hole in its portfolio: a one-tonne pick-up.
It’s a highly-lucrative market, especially in places like Latin America, South Africa and Australia. And Merc is throwing a rather large stack of chips (nine figures, apparently) its way. So meet the new Mercedes-Benz X-Class, a pick-up with a penchant for posh.
To show how serious it is at wading into this crowded and competitive market, Mercedes has produced not one, but two X-Class concepts: the ‘Powerful Adventurer’ (Ray Mears on steroids) and the ‘Stylish Explorer’ (Ranulph Fiennes in Ugg boots and a cashmere scarf).
Let’s start with the ‘Stylish Explorer’. It embodies Mercedes belief that it can sway buyers and pick-up philosophy by adding more car-like features and creature comforts to a normally grubby and utilitarian arm of motoring.
As you can see, it’s very swanky. The front end is stylised with a bulbous ‘power dome’ bonnet, huge air intakes and muscular wheel arches. It wears the same face as Mercedes SUVs, but the single-louvre grille with the three-pointed star smack bang in the middle is a nod to the coupé road cars. And check out the back: there’s an illuminated taillight that runs the whole perimeter of the tailgate. Very nice. Although the bling 22-inch alloys look rather tremendous, they’ll be more suited to Bicester Village than the backcountry.
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