Change Rides A Black Compact
Published: February 16th, 2011
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Winter testing continues for the platform underlying Mercedes’ four compacts of the apocalypse, and Auto Motor und Sport’s cameraman have caught copious footage of the fun. But remember, the traditional B-Class hatchback won’t be headed stateside, having been nixed by MB’s US dealer net. Instead, we’ll get
a crossover, a sporty coupe and a sedan
based on the same front-drive platform. Heck, the platform may even spawn a baby Infiniti CUV, positioned under the EX, as part of Daimler and Nissan’s hookup. Given that this test mule is validating the internals of a new direction for the Mercedes brand in the US, do we like what we’re seeing?
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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I wonder what will happen in Canada? The current B sells pretty well here, and is honestly a fairly nice car: comfortable, well-trimmed, more useful room than an S-Class, more versatile than a C-Class, good seating position, nimble, easy to park, pretty quick (B200T), very safe. Not exactly exciting or stylish, but very competent. It'd be a shame to see it replaced by a Mercedes riff on the Toyota Echo sedan.
They ought to re-badge them as "Smart" cars and sell them with the Kei car.