Mercedes-Benz X-Class 2017 Ride-along Review

Four minutes in the passenger seat of Mercedes-Benz’s highly anticipated light commercial vehicle is a bit of a tease. The X-Class is such an important car for the segment – and one we’ve been so keen to drive – that sitting just inches away from the steering wheel is akin to torture.

Still, it’s a lot more than we were expecting from what was meant to be a purely static launch. And surprisingly it has delivered some insight into many of the improvements Benz has made along the way from Navara building blocks to completed Teutonic one-tonner.

The nuts and bolts of the new X-Class have been detailed already. Instead, here are our seat-of-the-pants impressions.

What grabs your attention first is just how quiet and refined the cabin feels. Shut the doors and it’s passenger-car silent. There’s no diesel rattle from the engine, no vibrations through the seat, and underway, no harsh transfer through the unladen rear-end.

Our professional driver steers the X 250 d quickly through a series of open bends on a private race track just east of Cape Town. There’s a little tyre howl as the 2300kg dual cab reaches the limits of adhesion, yet it isn’t rolling onto its door handles as most in the category do. From my side of the car, at least, it feels secure and progressive as we continue piling on speed.

Suddenly we’re looking at a straightaway littered with a series of orange witches-hats placed impossibly close in a motorkhana slalom formation. Surely we’re travelling too quickly to perform a quick right-left-right, but again the X-Class manages to impress. The swerve and avoid manoeuvre is one even Holden’s grippy Colorado might struggle to pull off.

As fast as we’d entered the black-top chicane we’re off the track and thundering across an unsealed access road. Considering the Power-grade X 250 d is running 19-inch wheels I’m surprised at the level of compliance. I even ask my driver to stop and check he wasn’t mistaken in quoting the wheels’ diameter.

He then flicks a small dial ahead of the gearshift into 4H and we run through some loose mud and stones before coming to a stop ahead of a series of whoops aimed at testing the X-Class’ 222mm clearance and articulation.

Selecting 4L we crawl across the closely set earth mounds, the chassis kissing the soil lightly as each wheel walks its way across the course.

That job done we head for the hills to sample the X-Class’ hill-start and descent programs, and lateral tilt angle (49.8 degrees).

The X-Class breezes through the course demonstrating easy front and rear clearance (30.1-degree approach angle, 22.0-degree break-over angle and 25.9-degree departure angle). There’s also less intervention from the electronic chassis controls than expected, the system allowing a little slip, in keeping with the ‘Bakkie’s’ sporting aspirations (Bakkie is the South African word for ute).

Our short ride shows the X-Class has a lot of promise. Mercedes-Benz has big shoes to fill going up against the Amarok – a vehicle it claims to have benchmarked in development.

Let’s hope it impresses as strongly from the driver’s seat.

2017 Mercedes-Benz X 250 d 4MATIC Power pricing and specifications:
Price: TBA
Engine: 2.3-litre four-cylinder twin-turbo-diesel
Output: 140kW/450Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel: 7.0L/100km (estimated, based on Navara)
CO2: 186g/km (estimated, based on Navara)
Safety Rating: TBA