It was a vehicle that combined the roughness of an SUV with the safety and upscale appeal of a Mercedes. As Mercedes officials worked to boost production to meet demand, annual U.S. sales soared to more than 52,700 in calendar 2000.
Today, as Mercedes sells its new, second-generation M-Class, a lot has changed. The 2006 M-Class is bigger, faster and has a more refined interior than its predecessor. It’s restyled on the outside and uses unibody construction. It’s also the first SUV in the country to offer the Mercedes Pre-Safe system that helps prepare the vehicle and passengers if it senses an impending crash. And about a year after its spring 2005 launch, the new-generation M-Class will add a new “off-road pro” package that provides new off-road capability.
But there are no expectations for sales to top 50,000. Citing the fact there are more than two dozen upscale SUVs now competing for buyers, Mercedes officials said they project some 30,000 to 40,000 sales of the new M-Class a year in the U.S. This would be an increase over the 25,681 sold in the last year of the old M-Class, in calendar 2004.
Arguably, consumers may notice the new M-Class looks more like the luxury SUV segment leader, the Lexus RX 330, than ever. This is especially true from the front, in M-Classes that include a silver-colored grille. The Lexus RX outsold the M-Class in calendar 2004 by a 4-to-1 margin.
Final pricing was due to be announced closer to the M-Class on-sale date. But officials said the manufacturer’s suggested retail price of the base V6 model, the ML350 with cloth seats and black grille, will be less than $40,000, while the up-level ML500 with V8 and standard leather-trimmed seats will be in the high $40,000s.
Third-row seating, an option that was priced around $1,000 on earlier M-Classes, is gone for 2006. For one thing, the smallish rearmost seats weren’t a big draw for buyers. For another, Mercedes wants to differentiate the upcoming R-Class, which comes standard with three rows of seats, from the M-Class.
M-Class fans may already know the original vehicle featured the first V6 in a Mercedes. But where the V6 was a 232-horsepower 3.7-liter power plant, the new one is a 268-horse 3.5-liter V6. Torque is improved from 254 lb-ft between 3000 to 4500 rpm to 258 lb-ft that comes in as low as 2400 rpm. This is the same power plant that’s in the 2005 Mercedes SLK.
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