LEADER of the
CLASS
A luxury pick-up might sound like a contradiction in terms, but Mercedes-Benz has made the combination work, as James Fossdyke has been finding out
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hen Mercedes-Benz announced that it would build a luxury pick-up truck called the X-Class, the German company attracted the sort of questioning glances that make Roger Moore’s famous raised eyebrow look nonchalant. But although the words ‘luxury’, ‘pick-up’ and ‘truck’ may mingle as awkwardly as ‘excellent’, ‘German’ and ‘cuisine’, the idea is backed up by sound logic. You see, SUVs are seriously popular. If you wander down the streets of Alderley Edge, Hale Barns or any other affluent town you care to mention, you’ll find the kerbs peppered
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with posh 4x4s. Standing out from the crowd, therefore, is difficult. You need something more imposing and more rugged than a Range Rover, but no less luxurious. That’s where the X-Class comes in. It’s loosely based on the Nissan Navara, which is widely regarded as one of the best pick-up trucks on the market, but it’s been heavily redesigned to ensure it’s both more luxurious and more capable than the Japanese vehicle. It certainly scores well on the luxury front. Sitting in most pick-up trucks is a bit like being a cookie in a Christmas selection box: it’s dark, it’s uncomfortable, and thin, shiny plastic surrounds you. In the X-Class, though, it’s much more like sitting behind the wheel of a premium SUV. Okay, a few of the fixtures aren’t quite what you’d expect from a Mercedes (mainly because they came from a Nissan) and there’s no obvious reason for the big, blank gap between the CD slot and the climate control switches, but otherwise, it’s very good. The infotainment system is straight from a C-Class saloon and the materials feel as though they belong to a car, not a workhorse. It’s certainly every bit as
