Mercedes-Benz A-Class is Coming, Could Start Below $30,000: Dealers

Get ’em young and get ’em poor upwardly mobile. That seems to be Mercedes-Benz’s rationale behind the upcoming A-Class sedan, which should arrive in the U.S. later next year.

According to dealers who spoke to Automotive News, the German automaker has confirmed the front-wheel drive model will indeed appear on these shores, slotted below brand’s current least-expensive car, the CLA. No longer a somewhat geeky, Euro-centric mini hatch, the global A-Class appears tailor-made to lure buyers away from other brands.

We’ve known the new sedan — which uses an updated version of the modular MFA platform underpinning the CLA and other front-drive Benz products — had a global market in mind, but the word from this month’s dealer convention in Miami is the first unofficial confirmation of the model’s U.S. future. (The automaker is remaining silent.) Dealers in attendance were reportedly shown images of the real thing. For now, we’ll have to be content to imagine the brand’s A-Class concept, seen above, in production guise.

While early reports suggested the A-Class would snu g gle up between the CLA and rear-drive C-Class in terms of pricing and status, that doesn’t appear to be the case. No, this will be the brand’s new entry-level model, the dealers claim. What does that mean for price? Potentially, a starting MSRP below the magical $30,000 mark.

If Benz pulls it off, shoppers who had no intention of looking at premium brands might just find themselves considering a Mercedes-Benz. And, once in, those buyers might decide to stay with the brand as their income — and family — grows.

“It just gives us another opportunity to bring that youthful buyer in and have them grow up with the brand,” Jeff Aiosa, a New London, Connecticut dealer, told Automotive News. “It looked like it would be very appealing to the millennial buyer.”

Mercedes-Benz is expected to offer the A-Class in a wide range of flavours, from entry-level to hybrid to a snarling AMG variant. While consumers are increasingly turning away from traditional passenger cars, Mercedes clearly sees the opportunity for conquest sales — rivals BMW and Audi being the most obvious target.

The model is expected to appear in September 2018 as a 2019 model.

[Image: Daimler AG]