Mercedes—whose corporate parent Daimler has a rich history as a maker of commercial trucks—didn’t try to reinvent the wheel in creating its first ever pickup, nor did its engineers take a GLE-class SUV and add a pickup bed. Instead, they drew from business partner Nissan and its Europe-built Navara—the successor to the Frontier that Nissan still sells in the United States. The Nissan pickup has a reputation for toughness and reliability, and the latest Navara replaced the traditional leaf springs for the rear axle with coil springs. That was key to enabling the kind of handling and ride comfort that Daimler had in mind. The mid-size X-class needs to be a tough workhorse just as much as a comfortable long-distance cruiser.
The finished X-class shares its ladder frame and a number of nonvisible parts with the Nissan, but hunting for obvious similarities turned out to be frustrating (or encouraging, depending on how you look at it). The X-class is a very different vehicle from the Navara, but it won’t be offered in the U.S., the world’s most competitive pickup-truck market.
Wider and Higher
If it looks more substantial than the Nissan, that’s because Daimler has widened the track—and the bodywork—by a full 2.8 inches. The two trucks will be built on the same assembly lines, but no exterior sheetmetal or glass is interchangeable. The door geometry—the hinges, latches, and their locations—is the same, but the panels are all brand specific.
The X-class looks good, with a front end dominated by the large three-pointed star and an overall design similar to Benz’s SUV models. The rear end with its slim vertical taillights reminds us of a concept car, especially when fitted with the LED front and rear lighting that comes with upper trim levels.
The widened body allows more generous interior space than the Navara offers. Mercedes has raised the rear-seat bottom to deliver more comfort—in the back seat of the crew-cab Nissan, the only cab style available in the X-class, you can feel like a half-folded pocketknife—although tall adults will lack for headroom. There is a lot more sound insulation than in the Nissan, and the Germans have added structural elements to the frame in order to reduce noise, vibrations, and harshness.
The interior is dominated by a concave dashboard; the instruments, central screen, HVAC controls, and the optional, touch-sensitive COMAND infotainment system come straight from the Mercedes-Benz passenger-car parts bin. In the standard trim, called Pure, the look is somewhat frugal with a lot of hard plastic, but most of the electronic goodies are aboard, including the latest driver-assistance safety systems. The mid-level Progressive trim brings a bit more fabric to the cabin and also exterior niceties such as body-color bumpers. But it takes the top-of-the-line Power trim to give the X-class the appearance of an upmarket vehicle, with stitched faux leather applied to the dashboard and the inner door panels.
Aluminum and wood trim are options.
The X-class falls short of its premium aspirations when carryover parts from Nissan are used. These include the dome light, the switches for the seat heaters, and, we suspect, the automatic gear selector that sprouts from the console. The X-class also needs far more stowage space in the cabin, where only the door pockets are sufficiently large—the center-console bin, the cupholders, and the glovebox are all tiny.
7:41 PM
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Mercedes-Benz car
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