A few days shy of April 1st, Mercedes-Benz has announced that they will build a luxury pickup truck for world markets.
While M-B clearly has their eye on the VW Amarok, not to mention the countless markets where a pickup truck is a logical next step up from one of their vans, the whole thing has the undeniable stench of “fuck it, we’re all out of ideas”.
The German luxury brands have been on an insatiable quest for volume over the past few years, and it’s led them down a strange path; front drive minivans, coupe-like SUVs, compact cars.
There is no bigger advocate in the automotive media for products that have a solid business case, but at a certain point, you have to wonder where the erosion of brand equity begins. In the world of quarterly results and responsibility to shareholders, these new products are a good idea. But when your barista is leasing a CLA at $299 per month, the very notion of luxury and exclusivity is gone.
Personally, I think the end game is going to be the inevitable rationalization of their model lineups, with unnecessary variants getting the ax. But go ahead, tell me why I’m wrong.
Blackwood!!!
You nailed it.
That was my immediate reaction, too.
It will likely be called the Mercedes Benz SchwarzesHolz.
Those who forget the past….
…are doomed to drive luxury pickup trucks?
…will not know that the Ponton was available as a pickup. As was/is the Geländewagen a.k.a. G-class.
I think a rationalization is in order for both MB and BMW. The niches will fall off, as things go more and more toward the diminishing returns shape of CUV. Industry sees the same type of cycle everywhere. New players (models) in the game, it gets increasingly creative (read: out of hand), and then there’s a market rationalization back to basics.
Same sort of deal as all the different GM brands getting axed a few years ago.
This.
I guess this is a sign that the Mercedes folks has had some things rub off on them from their time in Alabama. Or that the automotive blogosphere idea of Mercedes-Benz is mistaken.
Hmmm they are building a Sprinter factory in the US who knows?
I recently saw a German-built Sprinter in Passenger Van trim that was brought over by a German military officer, now stationed in my area.
It looked similar to a Ford E350 Econoline but bigger, wider and, of course, taller.
It had windows all around and was really nice. Given a choice, I could be interested in one of them if I had a need for it, but for the price.
The basic panel Sprinter costs ~$35K out the door, and adding the Passenger Van option would surely add at least $40K or more to the price.
Really M B really, you may have jumped the shark here, maybe in the rest of the world this may work but really no it would not work there either. Where did the grace and prestige go at MB , it seems like the S &E class kept the old MB grace , maybe the C maybe but the rest of mb is reliving their time with Chrysler
Finally jumped the shark? Except for the trad sedans and some AMG models, they’ve been a joke for years. Mr . Orange is right. All that volume-chasing inbreeding is turning them into old GM.
This is the country where you can option up a Sierra close to $90K. You really think there are’t a few people who will buy something like this? It won’t have a significant cost to develop from an ML/GL.
$90K? I just did it and the most I could get was $76749.
You forgot about the undercoat and the optional rubber floor mats.
They will probably make a really nice truck. Lots of HD experience and its impressive they have the guts to try. Way smarter to bring a new model in the most popular segment in northamerica. Makes no sense for them to develop another small volume roadster when they don’t have an entry in this segment.
Unimog Pickup. Want one.
Agreed. Would love to see something resembling the 1300 series:
http://i01.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/126498481/Unimog_1300.jpg
“at a certain point, you have to wonder where the erosion of brand equity begins.”
This could be a Mercedes Amarok, or this could be a soft(er)-road version of the 6×6. Like a GLE (né ML) 4×4 pickup or something equally ridiculous that would only sell in the mid east.
A luxury SUV I understand… A luxury pickup I don’t understand. The Blackwood was a failure and I think the Caddy Escalade EXT was also a failure…. and yet Caddy is bringing it back in 2015….?
The Escalade EXT wasn’t a failure. They are bringing it back because it sold at decent volume for high transaction prices. It also has zero competition.
The Escalade EXT only existed because of the Avalanche. The Escalade only exists because of the Tahoe and Suburban. But the Tahoe and Suburban only exist b/c of the Silverado/Sierra.
The Suburban goes back many decades, long before any other iterations and variations became fashionable. The Tahoe and the shorter versions of the Suburban only exist because there was so much demand for one between the original Suburban and the 2-door ShortSh!t version once called Tahoe, most often used by Park Rangers and wildlife managers.
I don’t know if they still make the 2-door ShortSh!t version but there are still a number of them where I live.
The last 2-door Tahoe went away around 1996. Whenever the square body died. I personally like that Tahoe Sport thing that had the red outline bowtie and was only available in black.
Corey, that 2-door version still in use today in my area comes in White-over-Brown for Rangers and Cops, Bright Green for the US Forest Service, White-over-green for Border Patrol, Black&Wite for local and state Cops, All-White for State employees and BIA agents, and any number of color schemes for private individual use.
Admittedly, these were popular at the same time the OJ Simpson Bronco was popular, but quite a number are still in use today, in arid, rust-free climes.
They may suffer from the same ailments and afflictions that all GM products suffer from, but they’re easy to repair and maintain because parts are still plentiful.
You may remember that we parted out my father-in-law’s terminally ill 1973 Suburban. It suffered from the rust-cancer of the lower body panels, bes!des being an antique.
The person who came to buy the 455 V8 and the THM 400 ended up buying the whole thing.
In short, it was worth more in parts than it was in junk-value.
“The last 2-door Tahoe went away around 1996. ”
No it didn’t. I owned a ’97 2DR Tahoe. Geez weren’t you the one giving me hard time about “I don’t know” yesterday.
The 2Drs didn’t sell anywhere near well as the 4DR Tahoe or ‘Burb new, but on the used market they held their value like gold. I was told they had the highest re-sale of any Chevy truck at the time. Mine was gone in one day on the dealer lot after trading it in the spring of 2004.
@Carlson Fan: Easy there. Corey said “around 1996.” 1997 certainly meets criteria for “around.”
Ya I guess your right, he did put the word ‘around’ in there. They actually built them until 1999.
Great truck, I always kind of regretted selling it but my new to me boat weighed almost a ton more than it was rated to tow so I stepped up to the HD I have now.
Funny thing is I’ll probably sell the HD in the next 3-6 months and just pull that same boat with our ’07 Tahoe.
Hasn’t the Suburban always used a GM pickup platform? I’m not saying the Suburban couldn’t have stood alone, but it’d be tougher today by itself.
The short answer is’yes’. But there is a lot more to the story of the Suburban that just a station-wagon version of the pickup truck. I watched a documentary on the Suburban on TV some time ago — very interesting.
That would be a great article for someone to write.
They could call it, “The Long And The Short Of It: The History of the Suburban.”
At least for now, the Escalade EXT is coming back and the Avalanche is not. The Escalade EXT exisits because of the Escalade.
That is really surprisng to me that they are bringing back the Cadillac and not the Chevy.
Am I the only one that noticed that article was posted on April fools?
Daimler has a large commercial vehicle operation. If there is a demand for this and it can be built on a shared platform, then I can’t see the problem with it.
Mercedes’ with lumber racks???
Still they’d be crazy not to think luxury high end pickups are cannibalizing the standard “status” mobile. That’s demand.
Ranchers, farmers, business owners and tradies can justify a luxo Mercedes pickup write-off too. And get lots of uses out of them out in the field and fields themselves.
Agree. The rest of the world knows Mercedes as the brand of taxis, Unimogs, trucks, etc. They can probably build a decent pickup on a Sprinter platform.
I guess it depends on whether Derek’s stating of “luxury” before “pickup” is accurate (which I would normally assume, from him, but in context it’s so weird a thing…).
A Daimler pickup for the world market makes plenty of sense alongside the Sprinter, V-Class, and Unimog, and the heavy trucks, absolutely.
A “luxury” one, well… that’s a head-scratcher.
(A writeup at the WSJ, here – http://www.wsj.com/articles/mercedes-benz-outlines-plan-to-offer-luxury-pickup-truck-1427414204 – suggests that “luxury” is both optional and relative here.
“Luxury” means “with leather and chrome”, but “washable vinyl” is equally available.)
@Sigivald iIt will be very interesting to see what they come up with, if this is not a Bogus news lead
They almost HAVE to do it. They gotta be licking their chops over fullsize pickup profits, each eclipsing insane S-class, E-class, C-class, Every Class profits for the last 20+ years running.
Except this is 1) Midsize and 2) Not coming to the US.
They (see link above in my comment) explicitly denied that they could compete profitably in the US full-size market.
Very wise of them.
They are amongst the most profitable companies in the world. They are the largest maker of Heavy Duty trucks in the world
You guys don’t have to worry. From what I’m reading in the Brazilian press this is an idea that is being studied for select markets. Seems like Latin America, Australia and South Africa are the first targets with a possibility of it later reaching Europe. North America (Canada and the US) is specifically pointed out as not being in the cards.
Hey Marcelo,
Yeah, I’ve “heard” the same here.
We don’t want our US friends to get to excited.
I suppose the chicken tax strikes again.
I would think it would be a mid sizer as well and very likely to be able to be a work hors like the Mercedes Benz vans.
But, imagaine a AMG version.
For snob value what sounds better when talking to people. Oh, I drive a Chev, or Oh, I drive a Merc.
Hey Big Al!
Well an AMG version would kill most of its drivers. Too much power and pick up handling. Not the best combination (hahaha!).
As to the chicken tax, presumably, if this ever gets to America, I would imagine they’d do the luxury versions first, so Mercedes could possibly brush that off at the prices they’d command.
Now what I don’t get is why so many seem to think this is a good idea while the Amarok gets beat to death. Maybe the “naturally” higher Mercedes price is why.
I can see MB wanting to enter the “global truck” market but if one looks just at the USA/Canada market I can also see why MB would be interested. I see 65-85k pickups all of the time. IIRC Ford said 40% of their pickup sales were high end. That is a big luxury pie to want a piece of.
MB has G-wagon based military trucks and have a 6×6 which was turned into an Arabian prince play toy.
There would be a niche market for MB.
I would think so, too. Not thinking too much about it, off the top of my head, I’d think Canada and the US would be the best markets for a Mercedes truck. Then again, Derek most likely has a point and part of the Mercedes aura in North America is the exclusivity, so they backed off. Or maybe they just considered it too small. I don’t know, but I think Mercedes people are smart, if they won’t sell in the US and Canada they probably have compelling reasons not to.
“I’d think Canada and the US would be the best markets for a Mercedes truck.”
Probably the opposite. US pickup truck buyers tend to steer clear of luxury badges, including the domestic luxury badges (I’d chock it up to tradition plus reverse psychology of sorts — they don’t behave like CUV buyers.) Combine the low volumes with the lower US price points, and you end up with a loser.
A compact pickup for US$40k + tax may make sense to enough Europeans to make it profitable, but it starts making a lot less sense to include the US when the US-market volumes are low and the prices are several thousand dollars less per unit. The volume needed to make up for the lower prices isn’t there.
That is why I wrote, not thinking too much about it, off the top of my head. Thinking about it there seem to be plenty of reasons to recommend against it.
Hey Marcelo,
MB do have a platform to build their pickup on already, believe it or not.
Most of our MB vans come from Korea. Ssyangyong. The Ssyangyong Mercedes vans are no less competitive than the Japanese, Euro vans.
The US with the Sprinter is getting a poor deal because of the chicken tax. I do think the EU made vans are of better quality. The country of manufacture can make a significant difference to quality.
Ssyangyong have a good midsize chassis they can work with.
Like the VW Amarok they come with a 2 litre turbo diesel and 320ftlb of torque. That’s enough for most midsize use anywhere.
Hey Big Al! We get Ssyangyong here, too and all their ads make a big deal about the Mercedes engine. Seem to be tough cars, shame the styling is so “challenging”. Haven’t seen much of them lately. I wonder if they’ve left. I think at least in my area, the big dealer they had in a part of town I pass through was taken over by a Hyundai dealer.
Perhaps their thinking is a Pick_Up is something completely new to them,so why not work out all the bugs,what works,what doesn’t,size,,etc before bringing to what could be a lucrative NA market.
Fielding a pick-up series in the uS before it’s ready-or w/lots of flaws that weren’t noticed before sales-would be fatal against mature us COMPETITION.
@Stephen
NA is not a big market for these, in fact they do not sell I tonne Midsizers. Asia ,South America , ME and Africa are
They could make it as a dumbed down “Lifestyle Vehicle” for NA, like the Tacoma, GM Twins
Consider MB would offer a full range of pickups, Leatherette fleet stripper-class 2wd RCSBs to “luxo 4X4 crews” for the global market and just the top high-end for the US market. Otherwise the all important MB “snob appeal” gets deluded in the US. Except the full-range of pickups brings up the necessary volume, worldwide.
I know what you mean Marcelo, when Toyota built the supercharged TRD Hilux apparently the largest customer segment was insurance companies buying replacement vehicles for written off ones.
I bet you it won’t be long before Land Rover make a luxury pickup, although that will be fine.
Well, the Silverado High Country, Sierra Denali, F-150 King Ranch and whatever the Ram version is are already priced out the wazoo. Just how much does Mercedes-Benz think people will pay for a pickup truck?
Aww I wish they went back to High Sierra instead. Also you didn’t include the Titan Platinum Reserve and the Tundra 1856 Edition!
(What a ridiculous place we’re in with vehicle naming.)
It doesn’t sound like they’re talking about bringing a big Silverado/F-150/Ram-sized luxury pickup to the states, but I don’t think they’d be off-base to do so. Those three marques have a monopoly on a hugely profitable segment. I see a couple G-wagens every day, so I don’t doubt a few thousand Americans would happily plop down six figures on a Mercedes pickup the size of a King Ranch.
These would be midsize, not full-size, and they would not be sold in the US.
In Germany, the top-of-the-line VW Amarok (4WD, dual cab, 177 hp 2.0 liter turbodiesel, 8-speed automatic) has a sticker price of about US$40k + tax. The MSRPs are much higher elsewhere than here.
Derek;
You are wrong because your argument/assumption that MB is about luxury and exclusivity in incorrect. MB is a large multi-national corporation and their sole mission is to increase shareholder value i.e. make money.
They are simply doing in reverse what Ford did years ago when we create the Expedition (took a pick-up and made a full size SUV out of it), In this case, it is likely MB is taking a mid-size SUV and making a pickup out of it. There will be much parts & content sharing, so costs to bring to market will be low in automotive terms. But the profit? If they can get 10K t0 15k profit out of each unit (which is likely) even if they only sell 30 to 50,000 world wide it is still an extra 300,000,000 to 750,000,000 they did not have yesterday.
The kicker – what if it is a surprise hit and volumes go to say 120,000 world wide? Costs per unit go down, and profit per vehicle might hit 20K and suddenly MB has an extra 2.4 billion laying around. This is how money is made in the modern automotive industry in this day an age…finding ever more creative ways to use/share major big money components (engines, transmissions, electrical systems, HVAC systems, etc) over more and more models to make mo’ money. It is a risk/gamble worth taking.
Taxi cabs, delivery vans, pick up trucks. Looks like Mercedes is finally getting back to their roots.
The real questions are;
– How much teak will be used in the bed?
– Will the tonneau cover be powered?
MOAR teak!
I’ve been inside enough Mercedes taxicabs for the idea of a pickup truck (compact or otherwise) not to offend me. For the Germans to make inroads into the half-ton and 3/4 ton luxury truck market here in the states, they’d have to be in it for 20 years to be taken seriously. Nobody I know with an F150 King Ranch would buy a MB Lastwagen, as it would portray the “wrong” image amongst their peers.
They took one look at the profit margins on a GMC Denali truck and said, “Yes, we’ll have some of that!”
Unfortunately for them, the US truck market seems to be “Domestic or nothing”.
They could always buy the Ram division from Fiat down the road.
They sorta tried that already. It didn’t really work out.
Even if they were bringing it here we only need to look at the Ridgeline to see how a Midsize-unibody truck would do, and actually the above looks like an extended cab, even worse.
Mercedes-Benz builds all types of vehicles for world markets many of which we in North America (especially the United States) don’t see.
I also wonder about the specific verbiage of the quote. The post offers no links to it.
That being said, why is it such a shock that MB will build a pick up truck? They already build buses, delivery vans, garbage trucks, military vehicles, mobile cranes, dump trucks, cement mixers and OTR trucks.
I wonder what would happen to MB’s luxury car sales in the U.S. if they sold their commercial vehicles here? I wouldn’t have a problem but I’m guessing that some people would have a fit if a dump truck shared the three pointed star with their E Class.
They have sold plenty of commercial vehicles here over the years, even with the 3-pointed star on them. But now they own other brands (Freightliner, Western Star) to sell commercials under in the US, so they mostly don’t bother other than Sprinters. I have seem more than a few full size MB coaches on the road recently.
This truck will not be sold in the US by their own admission. It is also not MBs first pickup, as they sold El Camino-like pickups based on their sedan platforms in the 60s and 70s in some of the markets that this truck is intended for.
The Global Pickup market is starting to boom, with the exception of Europe and Northern Asia, who basically do not buy them.
So I can see Mercedes getting into a more up market niche if all this pans out
As far as the US Market, they could still introduce this truck, just not right away. You see, the Sprinter is currently being re-assembled in Ladson SC. That is going to change in the very near future because Mercedes-Benz is expanding Ladson to do full assembly of the vehicle to escape the dreaded Chicken Tax, so they could do the same and expand to produce Pickup Trucks as well.
Either that, or expand the Vance Alabama Plant that makes the myriad of larger SUV’s that is currently being distributed throughout the world (The ML, and the GL are built here for Worldwide Consumption…)
It will come from either plant
I’m just it will be at least half as successful as the Lincoln Blackwood or the Cadillac Escalade EXT
Model proliferation + diminishing differentiation between models + declining quality = GM yesterday and Mercedes in a couple more years.
The next hot trend in the US could be luxury OEM midsize pickups from MB, BMW, LR and maybe Audi. Might as well be those as much as anything. Luxury CUVs are becoming old news. And whodda thunk a Porsche wagon?
Luxury, high end US pickups just don’t have the snob appeal of German badges, even if status seekers love the idea of ‘go anywhere’, anytime, haul anything, “pickups”, and the freedom from limitations/constraints/oppression they represent.
Not impressed. I am waiting for Ferrari Pickup. Bring it here – I will buy one.
Probably Porsche will come up with pickup before Ferrari since it is German company.