Go! Drive & Camp – September 2019

(Chris Devlin) #1

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.
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