MERCEDES X-CLASS DRIVE
3 1 JULY 2019 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 59
hey’re making them
too fancy these days,”
declares Cam, juggling
a schooner outside the
iconic Prairie Hotel in
outback Australia.
Nestled on the tailgate of a top-
shelf Mercedes-Benz X-Class, the
w e l l lubr ic at e d lo c a l i s k e e n t o le a r n
why anyone would consider the
three-pointed star over the favoured
ride out here: Toyota.
We mention the price, which is
almost enough to get you into a BMW
Z4. It’s certainly enough to blow more
than the froth off his (latest) ale.
LOADING UP
Our journey began with beer the
previous day.
Blame it on Mercedes-Benz.
When the world’s oldest car maker
announced its first off-road pick-
up (or ute, as they’re called Down
Under) in 2016, it proudly boasted
it w ou ld c a r r y up t o 17 f u l l k e gs of
frothing golden nectar in its tray.
It’s a claim we couldn’t let through
to the keeper, prompting a visit to
the Coopers brewery in Adelaide, a
c ompa r at i v e m i n now b y A u s sie b e e r
standards but the largest locally
owned brewery.
As we’re watching a forklift
guiding matt metallic cylinders to
our X250d, we uncover a Brexit-like
issue with the 17-keg claim: it only
applies to the base X-Class, a car that
lacks the four-wheel drive system
mandatory in the outback. Ours
also has an automatic transmission,
electric seats and other luxuries that
shave previous kilos off the payload.A recalculation confirms that
to dip in below the 1021kg payload
of our car, we’re limited to 14 kegs,
allowing for a driver.
Turns out that the lower limit is a
ble s si n g. W it h e a c h r ol l of t he
keg onto the tray, the Merc’s
r e a r e nd s a gs p e r i lou sl y
close to its bump stops.
The X250d follows
its Nissan cousin in
eschewing leaf springs for
coils at the rear, with the
aim of upping control and ◊
Mercedes reckons the X-
Class can carry 17 kegs of
beer, (^) but there’s a (^) catch...
“
T
Our X250d
was nicknamed
‘the speedboat’ for
its tendency to stick
its fully loaded
nose in the air.