Benz to add more front-drivers

Traditional rear-wheel drive will remain at the core of Mercedes-Benz’s line-up despite the German luxury brand’s intention to grow its front-wheel drive range beyond the five models it has currently admitted to.

Speaking at the Detroit motor show, board member for R&D, Dr Thomas Weber, confirmed the growth opportunities for the company’s MFA front- and all-wheel drive architecture, which has already spawned the A-Class, B-Class and CLA four-door coupe, with the GLA compact SUV and a fifth as-yet-unconfirmed model on the way.

“The Mercedes-Benz front-wheel drive family, when we are some years later, will have more than five vehicles,” said Dr Weber. “This is clear.

“As an engineer it is clear the architecture is good for more than five variants. Therefore when it comes to the successor - and that is a fluid process - we will definitely talk about more than five variants.

Dr Weber said the current limit of five front-drivers applied because of model lifecycle timing and the volume limits of the plants where the cars will be assembled.

But even as he confirmed this model expansion, Dr Weber insisted that core rear-wheel drive models such as the C-Class, E-Class, S-Class and their spin-offs like the CLS would not be out-sold by front-drive models.

“Not for Mercedes,” he declared.

It was a position backed up Benz brand marketing and sales chief Joachim Schmidt: “It (FWD) will not become the dominant form, it will be one part of our portfolio,” he told motoring.com.au.

“But the majority of our cars will in the future have rear-wheel drive.

“In terms of comfort, in terms of driving performance, we think that our top offers like S-Class, E-Class and C-Class will in the future be rear-wheel drive

The debate over Benz’s front- and rear-drive stance was heightened at the Detroit show where the CLA, a four-door coupe in the style of the CLS, was shown to the media (although not put on display to the public) for the first time.

According to figures published by Mercedes-Benz, the cheaper CLA is actually 39mm longer than the C-class, leading to potential sales cannibalisation: “There will be a certain substitution but hopefully most of the customers will come from other brands,” Dr Schmidt admitted.

Benz will respond to the overlap by growing the next C-Class more than 100mm longer and around 40mmm wider, not only separating it from the CLA but also making it more competitive with the larger BMW 3 Series and Audi A4.

Benz’s ongoing commitment and confidence in rear-wheel drive is significant considering the global decline in the sales of such vehicles, underlined in Australia by the fall from grace of the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore.

Mercedes-Benz Australia-Pacific even briefly considered cutting some slower-selling V6 and V8 members of its updated E-Class range that was revealed in Detroit and goes on sale here in September.

Dr Schmidt also dropped one tantalising and maybe disturbing hint about the next C-Class when it came to engines: “There will be six cylinders, maybe eight cylinders,” he said, perhaps suggesting the AMG version of the C-Class could revert to six-cylinder power in the same way as BMW’s next-generation BMW M3/M4.

Pressed on that point, Dr Schmidt would only say: “We don’t communicate our engine strategy because our competitors are very much eager to know that.”

While the current C 63’s much-loved 6.2-litre naturally aspirated engine seems destined for the chop for fuel consumption and emissions reasons, there are other V8 options for the next C-Class in the Benz/AMG locker.

They include the E/CLS 63 AMG’s upgraded 5.5-litre twin-turbo, or potentially a development of the naturally aspirated 5.5-litre found in the SLK 55 AMG.

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