Here's A Very Honest Review Of The New Mercedes X-Class

Back in 2012, Mercedes launched the Citan: A Renault Kangoo with a slightly nicer interior and a giant Mercedes badge slapped onto the front. Many people claimed that it wasn’t a true Mercedes, causing huge discussions - long story short: of course it wasn’t! Still, successful craftsmen with too much money kept buying it - apparently because they wanted a reliable, German perfection workhorse with a good image. What they didn’t know was that it was just a far more expensive Renault sold under a different name. Think about this way: It’s just like if Apple teamed up with Huawei, took one of their $200 phones and sold it as the iPhone 8 for $1000. Sounds unbelievable, but that’s basically what Mercedes did.

And because the Citan became such a big success, Mercedes did it again: They took another cheap workhorse, this time from Renault’s partner Nissan, slammed in the fancy C-Class interior, added the huge star to the front (so even non-car guys can tell that it’s supposed to be a Mercedes) and now they are selling it for absolutely insane prices. And that, kids, is how to make profit!

The car Mercedes has re-badged this time is a Nissan, the Navara, to be exact. The reason for that is pretty obvious: Nissan and Renault are partners of Mercedes, and the Navara is the second-most successful Pick-Up in Germany. With 4049 sold units in 2016, it’s by far not as successful as the ever so popular Ford Ranger (6694 units), but still way ahead of the Volkswagen Amarok (3584 units) in third place.

The Navara costs between 26,910€ and 43,655€, and it’s available with a 2.3-liter biturbo diesel producing 163 or 190 hp. The same engines are available for the X-Class, which will result in the model names X 220d and X 250d. If you live in South Africa, you can also get a X 200 powered by a petrol engine. By mid 2018, Mercedes will add a 258 hp V6 diesel (which they actually developed themselves, wow!), the “7G-tronic Plus” gearbox and a permanent 4-wheel-drive system - until then you can only get the “Mercedes” X-Class with Nissan engines and Nissan gearboxes. Also, whilst the Navara is available in several different body styles, the X-Class will come exclusively as a double cab with four doors.

To be fair though, one thing Mercedes changed (apart from the interior and the badges) was the axle construction. The Navara was often criticized for its poor ride comfort, and so Mercedes enlarged the track width by seven centimeters. A journalist of the German car magazine auto motor und sport had a ride in the prototype, and he confirmed that ride quality is surprisingly good - on dirt roads as well as on tarmac.

Speaking of dirt roads, theoretically, you could take the X-Class off-road (which nobody is ever going to do, but it’s nice to know that you COULD if you needed to). With a rear differential lock and 20 centimeters of ground clearance (2 centimeters more come as an optional extra), the 5.34 meters long Midsize Pick-Up has what it takes to leave the paved roads. Also very helpful off-road is the 360° bird view that can be displayed on the 8.4” screen if the Command System - and it’s probably even more helpful in tight cities when you’re trying to park this monster.

But now, let’s talk about the most important thing: The price. The base model “Pure” (which you can see in the thumbnail of this post) starts at a whapping 37,294€ - that’s almost 6,000€ more than an equally equipped Nissan Navara. So, if you’re a successful craftsman and have too much money - go ahead and buy it! At least if you’re not American - the X-Class won’t come to the States.

And finally, take a look at this cartoon which came out in 2012 and criticized Mercedes’ re-badged Renault Kangoo. It sure is a few years old, but now, it’s more true than ever. (Note: I translated the cartoon from German to English so that you can understand it more easily).

What do you think of Mercedes’ rebadging policy? And do you like the idea of “honest” reviews? Comment below!
Tobi aka The Stig’s German Cousin