Mercedes Benz Pick-Up On Its Way?

Mercedes Benz Australia has been developing a new pick up truck, which, of course, won’t be available in America. Rather than build from the ground up, Mercedes will be utilizing the platform of the Nissan Frontier (aka Navara NP300). Thomas Weber, the Daimler board member mentioned that, “to come to an attractive price we are using a common platform, but all the rest is done by Mercedes- to design, to develop the vehicle specifically to meet Mercedes criteria”.

Under the hood there will be your choice of either a 2.3L turbo-four diesel engine rated at 188hp and 332 lb-ft of torque- with a tow capacity of 6,600 lbs. Or a turbocharged six-cylinder diesel with 255hp and 406 lb-ft of torque, and a towing capacity of 7,700 lbs. Please note that these figures haven’t officially been confirmed by Mercedes, as far as the engine, naming and trim. To differentiate the different models, Mercedes will only us the crew cab version. As well, there will be three trim levels for the Benz pick up; the base is for functional truck use, the second is a bit higher class, and the third is for those who want a fancy Mercedes, more than they want a truck.

The new truck will either be called the X-Class or the Z-Class. Unfortunately there will be no AMG version of the pickup. David McCarthy, Mercedes-Benz Australia’s senior manager of PR mentioned that AMG wouldn’t be messing about with the engine. He goes on to say, “Certainly an AMG styling kit, as such, thats entirely possible. Anything beyond that, it would mean that our development engineers at AMG are used to developing cars and SUVs. A ute is an entirely different thing.”