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Mercedes-Benz R-Class future clouded after US axe

The future of the Mercedes-Benz R-Class is in doubt after the German brand announced it is dropping the crossover vehicle from the always-important North American market.


Mercedes-Benz USA has decided to discontinue the people-mover-cum-wagon in response to US customers showing a clear preference for the company’s SUVs.

The R-Class has been the subject of speculation for some time after sales struggled to reach the company’s expectations since its launch in 2005.

The German car maker released a statement in the US saying there would be no 2013 R-Class model but that the crossover would continue to be assembled at the Tuscaloosa plant in Alabama for other markets.

Mercedes-Benz Australia has sold only 28 R-Class models so far in 2012, but says it has not plans to follow the US market’s move to remove the vehicle from its line-up.

“We’re not dropping the R-Class any time soon,” says Mercedes-Benz spokesman Jerry Stoumalis. “It’s doing [in the market] what we hoped it would.

“In the US they have a different product plan and a very different market.”

Mercedes-Benz Australia pared the R-Class down to just a single model in late 2010 with the arrival of a facelifted model, with the $93,295 R300 CDI short-wheelbase model joined earlier this year by a long-wheelbase R350 CDI variant that costs from $108,900.

Local sales increased 67 per cent in 2011 to 324 units.

Mercedes wouldn’t confirm whether a next-generation R-Class was in the pipeline, but the expectation is that the crossover will be eventually phased out.


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