Go! Drive & Camp – September 2019

NEWS

24 | September 2019 go! Drive & Camp

R

umours started doing the rounds in

June this year that German luxury

vehicle manufacturer Daimler will

be discontinuing its Mercedes-Benz

X-Class bakkie.

The reasons given by various news sources

range from it being too expensive to a sour

relationship between Daimler and the Renault-

Nissan-Mitsubishi group after the latter group’s

CEO, Carlos Ghosn, was arrested for fraud.

Other reasons that apparently contribute

to the relatively poor sales figures are that

the X-Class is not sold in the US, that certain

X-Class models have been recalled for

manufacturing defects, that the Merc bakkie

contains too many Nissan parts, that the build

quality is not up to Mercedes’ usual standards,

The end of Merc’s X-Class?

and that the production version had strayed

too far from the original concept vehicle (the

yellow vehicle below) that had the world

abuzz in 2016.

Daimler South Africa’s media specialist

Sibusiso Mkwanazi says the company does

not respond to “rumours” – the official party

line echoed by Daimler’s PR people around

the globe. Sibusiso acknowledged that

Mercedes-Benz SA would indeed like to sell

more bakkies, but he also insisted that they are

continuing to market the X-Class.

According to NAAMSA (the body that

monitors new vehicle sales in South Africa),

Mercedes-Benz sold a total of 113 new light

commercial vehicles in August 2019. This

category includes the X-Class, V-Class, Vito

and Sprinter, but Mercedes-Benz South Africa

remains quiet on the sales figures of each

individual model range. It is therefore unclear

how many of those 113 were X-Classes.

If Mitsubishi can stay afloat with only 33

new light commercial vehicle sales in the same

month and Mazda can carry on with a mere

26, chances are that the German vehicle giant

could handle the relatively low X-Class sales.

Will the X-Class see its demise? At the time

of going to print, these were only rumours

largely ignored by Daimler. But if they turn out

to be true, those with an X-Class, especially the

X350d V6, may own a collectible.

Speaking of rumours: One can only

wonder what lessons BMW will learn from

Mercedes’ palaver and whether the Bavarian

manufacturer will persist with its own

rumoured bakkie plans.