Benz to Ship Baby B to the States?

With the price of gas increasing and the demand for sport utility vehicles dropping, Mercedes-Benz hasreportedly changed its outlook on the U.S. market. After launching the GL-Class, the brand’s largest sport utility vehicle to date, it has decided that it might be worth pursuing the other end of the market with a more fuel-efficient, cost-friendly compact model.

DaimlerChrysler analyzed the U.S. market and has found that buyers are willing to spend an extra buck or two to upgrade to a premium product, even one with compact dimensions. It’s a logical conclusion, and one that Audi grasped when it launched the A3 across the United States. Audi’s smallest has been doing quite well, but will downsizing work for Mercedes-Benz? It is rumored that Benz is considering launching the B-Class, but is this the right car? This could be a bit tricky to answer.

Many of you will remember the C-Class Sport Coupe, a rakish versionof the C-Class sedan, with a fastback and two doors. Available with a supercharged I-4 engine, and later with V6 power, it acted as Benz’s baby model. It wasn’t particularly quick or refined, nor was it very cost effective, which could explain why it never had the success Benz had hoped for. Of course, it also wasn’t really a compact car like a VW Golf or a Ford Focus, and its layout wasn’t particularly conducive to the average family looking for a smaller vehicle.

In that regard, the B-Class looks to be a decent solution. Its tall-form body and sandwich structure give it unparalleled interior space and plenty of room for five full-size adults. It’s also a very strong, very solid vehicle with its smaller brother, the A-Class earning a full five star rating in the EuroNCAP crash test. It comes equipped with a full count of airbags, standard ABS brakes and stability control to boot. As a family-friendly vehicle, the B-Class certainly ticks all the desired boxes, but what about as a Mercedes-Benz?

It certainly doesn’t look like a typical Benz; in fact, it looks more like a little van than a hatchback which might turn people off. Then there’s the matter that it’s front-wheel driven, a first for Benz in North America. Currently, the B-Class is sold in Canada, where Mercedes-Benz offers two different models, the B200, which is powered by a 2.0-liter 134-horsepower inline-four, and a slightly peppier version called the B200 Turbo that has a turbocharged variant of that very motor making 193 horsepower. It can be driven through either a manual gearbox or a CVT.

At first glance it seems like a logical move to bring the little B into the U.S. market do to reasonable success in Canada, but we’ll have to see if Benz is brave enough to try its highly Europeanized hatch for America. Perhaps a more relevant issue is whether or not America is ready for it.