Saturday, August 8, 2015

New mid sized Mercedes-Benz pickup

I mentioned earlier that Mercedes-Benz is cooperating with Renault in the new entry models & the Citan in the "Mercedes Benz - Renault partnership" (http://allaboutdieselz.blogspot.ro/2015/07/mercedes-benz-renault-partnership.html) and in the "Collaborations between car companies; some good to know facts!" (http://allaboutdieselz.blogspot.ro/2015/07/collaborations-between-car-companies.html) you could find out that Nissan and Renault are in alliance. As a result, we will get before the end of the decade a new mid sized Mercedes-Benz pickup truck based on the Nissan NP300 a.k.a. Navara,

“For a Mercedes-Benz household that has a lot of stuff or a lot of kids or they want to tow the boat—we could offer something to customers who are already luxury-predisposed,” Cannon told Automotive News in an interview. He said that both the Mercedes office in the U.S. and its headquarters in Stuttgart are assessing the market. The pickup will primarily be aimed at Europe, South Africa, Latin America, and Australia. (MBUSA CEO, Steve Cannon)

The four door truck will be based on a somewhat pedestrian platform in the form of the Nissan NP300; moreover, there will be a Renault version of the truck. For global markets, the rear and all wheel drive truck will be powered by 4 cylinder turbo diesels, and it may also offer a naturally aspirated gasoline engine. A U.S. bound version would likely need to be fitted with the gas engine at minimum, most likely an upscale, familiar one from Benz’s current lineup. It would compete with, yes, the Frontier, but also the new Toyota Tacoma and the Chevrolet Colorado/GMC Canyon twins.