Mercedes launches diesel compact

Mercedes-Benz has announced it will join the growing group of marques to offer a diesel-powered small car.

With brands like Alfa, Citroen and BMW all with oiler offerings in the prestige compact market, and VW's Golf TDI selling like hot cakes, Mercedes has been expected to put a toe into the water Down Under for some time.

It will do so via its B-Class range, rather than offer the expected A-Class diesel. The B 180 CDI arrives in Australia from May, though dealers are already taking orders.

Priced from $44,900, the new B 180 CDI matches the entry-level five-speed manual B200 petrol B-Class for price. It is powered by a Euro 4-compliant 2.0-litre common-rail turbodiesel which boasts peak power of 80kW and 250Nm of torque. This compares to 100kW/185Nm for its petrol stablemate.

With claimed consumption of the 5.6lt/100km, Mercedes-Benz claims the diesel B can cover a distance of more than 960km between fills of its 54-litre tank.

Mercedes' stats say the manual B200 petrol accelerates from 0-100km/h in just over 10sec. The B180 CDI takes an extra second (approx) but with almost 200Nm of torque available (more than the petrol engine's peak) from just 1300rpm, the diesel B should easily match its petrol equivalent in real world driving conditions.

Mercedes-Benz says the B 180 CDI is the first of five new diesel models the company plans to launch in the next 12 months. Once the roll out is complete the German giant will offer diesel models in its B, C, E, S, M, R and GL-Class ranges.

Last year the company delivered nearly 700 diesel cars Down Under. With a wider range of diesels and new M and GL-Class SUVs certain to boast high diesel take up, the maker has (modestly) estimated it will double that number in 2006.