Mercedes May Cut A-Class or Partner with MINI?
Though never sold in North America, Mercedes-Benz has been producing a front-wheel drive, subcompact car called the A-Class for international markets since 1997. Though Mercedes had never built a small vehicle like this before, it was keen to uphold its image of safety. The A-Class’ claim to fame was its “sandwich†construction chassis, which enabled the engine and transmission to slide under the vehicle in the event of a serious frontal collision. On the contrary, the tiny Merc gained notoriety when the vehicle overturned during an elk avoidance test conducted by Teknikens Vard, the Swedish equivalent of Consumer Report.
Nevertheless, the A-Class was able to shrug off this incident and rose to popularity, selling over one million units during its first generation. Mercedes-Benz followed up on the A-Class with the second generation in 2005, offering it in both three- and five-door versions. The brand also expanded on the front-wheel drive platform by stretching it out in all dimensions to create the ultra-roomy B-Class compact tourer.
However, several sources including German weekly business magazine WirtschaftsWoche are suggesting that the A-Class might not carry on after this generation, which was set to be replaced in 2011, with high costs of production stated as a primary reason. Instead, it has been suggested that the B-Class would be the future of small Mercedes-Benzes. Currently the B-Class is sold in Europe as well as in Canada, though Mercedes-Benz is currently considering it for sale in the United States due to the increasing price of fuel and a growing number of premium compact vehicles sold in North America such as the Audi A3, Volvo C30 and the recently announced BMW 1-Series Coupe.
Meanwhile, other sources, including Reuters and German magazine Auto Bild have stated that BMW is looking for a brand to partner up with MINI, and one possibility could be Mercedes-Benz. BMW is in a bit of a tight spot with the MINI. If it can’t keep its capacity running at 100-percent, its parent company is set to lose big bucks. If the next generation of Mercedes-Benz A-Class was twinned with the MINI, BMW would certainly stand to gain from the partnership as would Mercedes-Benz, given that the A-Class (and B-Class derivative) are the only FWD products the brand makes.
Another possible reason for the car’s discontinuation (as fickle as it sounds) is due to the image that the A-Class created. Though it’s marketed as a premium vehicle with high end technology and true luxury car features, it has been criticized internally as degrading the prestige factor of the Mercedes-Benz nameplate. Somehow, we can’t bring ourselves to dismiss this rumour, as the B-Class has received similar criticism here in Canada.