Posted on Friday 13 July 2007
Earlier this month reports emerged that claimed Mercedes was planning to drop the A-class compact after the current model’s lifecycle ends in 2011. Now, further confirmation that the A-class may be dropped has surfaced, which also purports that it could in fact be replaced by a family of three new variants based on the next-gen B-class.
In addition to the next-gen B-class, the car’s new platform could also spawn a sports hatch and a roadster according to Auto Bild. There was also talk that engineers would base the new range on the newly developed C-class architecture, which means the new cars would be RWD and offer much more powerful engines than the current B-class, including a 3.5L V6 for the range topper. In May we also reported that the new compact Roadster could be based on the Vision SLA concept car of 2000, which you can read by clicking here.
Meanwhile, news of the next-gen CLK Cabrio, due in 2010, has also emerged, which reports that production of the new cabrio will be handled by Mercedes’ plant in Bremen instead of being outsourced to Karmann like the current model. According to Auto Motor und Sport, Mercedes will build up to 20,000 units per year, with the rest of the capacity being allocated for production of the upcoming GLK SUV.
Mercedes had the A-Class and the Forfour, and neither seems to have been successful enough. The second marque idea was good and BMW did it well, but Smart somehow didn’t work. Mercedes also needs a serious rival of the 1 Series, A3 and C30, a real C-segment hatch instead of the current chopped C-Class Sportcoupé. The B-Class is expensive but well built and designed (save for the taillights), and should be kept.
The roadster would be the SLK, or more like a rival to the future convertible A3 and 1 Series. But is it me or we are looking too far ahead and missing current models?