Sold solely as a diesel four-door five-seater double-cab 4×4, it is aimed at the premium end of the sector, and at Volkswagen’s Amarok in particular.
Take a look under the surface, however, and you will discover that the 2.3-litre engine it employs has been borrowed, like various other bits of the truck, from Nissan’s somewhat cheaper Navara.
It is on offer at either 163hp (in the X220d) or 190hp (in the X250d). The former is supplied with a six-speed manual gearbox while the latter is married to a seven-speed automatic.
Summer will see the arrival of an Amarok-bashing X350d 3.0-litre V6 auto with 258hp on tap.
Marketed through the Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicle network, the X-Class is on sale with three specification levels: Pure, Progressive, and top-of-the-range Power.
Liking our comfort, we opted to sample the X250d in Power guise, although none of the three trimscan be described as downmarket.
Load bay
Access to the load box, which sits on a ladder-type chassis, is by means of a lockable tailgate with a centrally mounted release.
The tailgate drops through some 180° – the chrome rear bumper, which incorporates a step, prevents it from falling further – then locks into a horizontal position.
Two moveable tie-down points are positioned on each sidewall, around two-thirds of the way up from the cargo bed, which in our case was protected by an optional plastic liner. Our X-Class also came with an optional, lockable, aluminium, sliding load area cover. A handy strap allows you to pull it shut.
Interior and equipment
With a brushed aluminium-style finish dominating the dashboard and leather trim wherever you look, the X-Class’s cab interior is rather more upmarket than what is on offer from the majority of pick-ups.
Settle down behind the wheel and your first task is to adjust the seat to your precise requirements. But there’s no need to start tugging manual levers – no matter whether you want to move forwards or backwards or alter the angle of the seat back, all the adjustment is electric.
You can alter the angle of the seat cushion electrically too, as well as the height, but the steering wheel’s height is adjusted manually.
All four doors feature electric windows and the heated exterior mirrors are electrically adjustable. Push a button on the dashboard and you can fold them back to make parking easier.
Feeling a little chilly? Not to worry – a button on the seat switches on the seat heater, which has both high and low settings. The front passenger seat, which is also electrically adjustable, is heated too. They are included in a Winter Package, an option which also encompasses heated screen washer jets.
Looking rather like a tablet computer, the 8.4in main, colour, dashboard display sits above four adjustable, centrally mounted chrome air vents. It is at the heart of the optional Comand Online Navigation 1 package, which includes satellite navigation, live traffic information and Linguatronic voice control. It shows the satnav map, gives you your choice of radio stations and, thanks to the rear-mounted camera, tells you what is directly behind when you engage reverse.
It also gives you a bird’s-eye view of the truck on a split screen at the same time for added safety as part of an optional Parking Package. The camera system is also capable of providing a 360° ground-level view.
A small graphic display directly in front of the steering wheel provides a variety of different aids to select from, including Traffic Sign Assist, which alerts you to the prevailing speed limit.
Some of the controls for the satnav, DAB digital radio and so on are on the dashboard, while the rest are on a module between the front seats. Radio remotes are mounted on the steering wheel.
Bluetooth connectivity is included in the deal and a CD player (remember CDs?) is fitted.
Lane Keeping Assist is installed and can be switched off.
Like their front counterparts, the rear seats are trimmed in a mixture of leather and micro-fibre upholstery and come with headrests. What they don’t come with, however, is much legroom, even with the front seats pushed forward.
Oddment stowage facilities include a lockable glovebox, a net in the front passenger’s footwell, and a lidded bin between the front seats along with a cup-holder, although one or two more cup-holders would be nice. All four doors feature bins with a moulding that can hold a soft drinks can, and a sunglasses holder sits above the windscreen.
The lidded bin has a 12V power point inside and you will find another one on the dashboard.
The console the bin sits on has air vents directed towards the rear passengers.
Driver and front passenger airbags are in place along with thorax airbags, a driver’s knee airbag, and window airbags throughout.
Large disc brakes with diameters of 320mm at the front and 308mm at the back are installed. Onboard safety systems include ABS, electronic stability programme, active brake assist, electronic brakeforce distribution, anti-slip control, tyre pressure monitoring system and hill-start assist. If things go badly wrong, nevertheless, then eCall is provided so that emergency help can be summoned.
Further features include front fog lights, cruise control and a windscreen rain-sensor with automatic wipers. The rear-view mirror has an integrated compass so you always know which direction you are heading in.
Thermotronic automatic climate control is fitted too.
One of our demonstrator’s more unusual pieces of equipment was a centre window in the cab’s rear screen that can be opened and closed electrically. It gives a bit more ventilation plus the ability to load through certain items that are too long for the cargo box to swallow, but one has to wonder how genuinely useful it would be in practice.
It comes as part of an optional Style Package, which includes 19in alloy wheels with six double spokes and shod, in our case, with Bridgestone Dueler H/P Sport 225/55 R19 tyres. The suspension the wheels are attached to employs a double-wishbone set-up at the front, a multi-link system at the back, and coil springs help provide support all round.
Other items in the package include roof rails, privacy glass and running boards on both sills.
The X-Class’s power steering offers a 13.4m wall-to-wall turning circle.
Engine and gearbox
Fired up with a push-button starter, which requires the key fob to be in the vicinity, the four-cylinder twin-stage turbo common-rail diesel delivers its maximum power at 3,750rpm. Top torque of 450Nm kicks in across a 1,500-2,500rpm plateau.
AdBlue is required to achieve the mandatory Euro6 emission standard and is held in a 17-litre reservoir.
Flick the auto gearbox’s shift lever to the left and you go to manual, but there is rarely going to be any need to do that on-highway. The facility could prove useful in the rough, however.
The X-Class’s 4Matic four-wheel drive is selectable on 2.3-litre models, but permanent on the soon-to-arrive 3.0-litre. To select it, you turn a knob on the dashboard. Turn it again and you engage a low-range set of gears to go with it. The mode you are in is shown on the instrument panel.
If the going gets wild then the front passenger has a grab-handle on the nearside A-pillar to cling on to, while the two outermost rear passengers can hang on to handles on the B-pillars.
Driving
Pull away from rest in an X-Class and the first thing you notice is how quiet the engine is. All it seems to emit is a muted background burble, and the gear-change offered by the auto ’box is so smooth you barely realise you are moving from one set of cogs to the next as you gather speed.
Bearing in mind that the truck weighs 3.3t fully laden, the level of on-the-road performance it offers is impressive. The strength of the auto gearbox’s kick-down is such that you can overtake with confidence whenever it is safe to do so.
The handling of double-cab 4×4 pick-ups has improved steadily over the years, and with the X-Class it has well-nigh reached its apogee. Push it hard through a bend and you soon realise you could have probably pushed it even harder without coming unstuck. The steering tightens nicely, the suspension responds exactly as you hoped it would, assuming the highway’s surface is reasonably smooth, and all is well with the world.
Drawbacks? The suspension needs to be retuned to match Britain’s appalling road surfaces with an eye to improving the ride, and there was slightly more wind and road noise from the rear of the vehicle than is acceptable. The rear screen is on the shallow side, too, which means vision rearwards isn’t quite as good as it should be. The frame required by the aforementioned sliding window doesn’t help.
The X-Class is a perfectly competent performer off-road, happily squelching across fields and fording shallow streams. It is neither designed nor intended for really demanding off-roading – it’s not in Mercedes-Benz Unimog off-road territory – but if all you need to do is get up a steep, narrow, muddy rural track then you shouldn’t be disappointed.
Having said that, the X-Class’s steep price tag might make you think twice before you take it anywhere where it might get muddy or (whisper it quietly) scratched. Downhill Speed Regulation is installed to prevent the truck descending steep, slippery inclines too rapidly.
Operating
The Merceces-Benz X-Class is protected by a three-year/unlimited-mileage warranty with service intervals for the pick-up set at one year/18,000 miles.
Fuel economy was better than we expected and was not far short of the 35.8mpg combined figure.
It’s good to see that a full-size spare wheel is included and that support is provided through a dealer network dedicated to commercial vehicles.
X250 d 4Matic Power double-cab auto 4×4 pick-up
Price (ex VAT) £34,100
Price range (ex VAT) £27,310-£34,100
Gross payload 1,066kg
Load length 1,587mm
Load width (min/max) 1,215/1,560mm
Load bay height 474mm
Loading height 854mm
Gross vehicle weight 3,300kg
Braked trailer towing weight 3,500kg
Residual value 24.7%*
Cost per mile 62.4p
Engine size/power 2,298cc, 190hp @ 3,750rpm
Torque 450Nm @ 1,500-2,500rpm
Gearbox 7-spd auto
Fuel economy 35.8mpg (combined)
Fuel tank 73 litres
CO2 207g/km
Warranty 3yrs/unltd miles
Service intervals 1yr/18,000mls
Insurance group 33
Price as tested £40,962
* after 4yrs/80,000mls; source: KwikCarcost
Options fitted
Comand Online £2,225
Sliding load area cover £1,477
Style Package £1,345
Parking Package inc. 360° camera £915
Winter Package £340
Black roof liner £215
Load liner £215
Electric components for trailer socket £130
The Final Verdict
- Design – Looks the business and those looks aren’t deceiving. 8/10
- Cabin – An attractive working space, but rear legroom’s compromised. 7/10
- Ride – Could be better tuned to Britain’s pock-marked road surfaces. 6/10
- Refinement – Almost no engine noise, but rear wind/tyre noise can be an issue. 7/10
- Load area – Standard pick-up fare. We like the rail-mounted lashing points. 7/10
- Handling/performance – Former is unequalled by rivals; the latter more than adequate. 8/10
- Engine/transmission – A well-matched pair delivering a smooth gear change. 8/10
- Standard equipment – Power trim offers plenty of goodies; so it should given the price. 8/10
- Operating costs – Unlimited-mileage warranty; actual mpg better than one may think. 8/10
- What Van? subjective rating – An excellent piece of kit – apart from the eye-watering cost. 7/10
Overall Rating 74/100
Rivals
Ford Ranger
Price (ex VAT) £18,445-£28,595
Gross payload 1,059-1,307kg
Engines 130hp, 160hp 2.2 diesel, 200hp 3.2 diesel
Verdict: Choose a Ranger and the last thing you’ll complain about is a lack of choice. The line-up includes a 4×2 and a 4×4 along with a variety of cabs and trim levels. It rides and handles well, and is supported by a near ubiquitous dealer network. We like the 3.2 model, but would opt for the 160hp 2.2 variant if spending our own money.
Mitsubishi L200
Price (ex VAT) £19,010-£27,810
Gross payload 1,045-1,085kg
Engines 151hp, 178hp 2.4 diesel
Verdict: Also sold by Fiat Professional under the Fullback banner, and with a well-established pedigree, the Mitsubishi L200 remains a safe and sensible choice. This pick-up is undoubtedly competent in off-road conditions, but might benefit from a few revisions to ensure that it continues to keep pace with rival vehicles.
Volkswagen Amarok
Price (ex VAT) £24,510-£33,650
Gross payload 1070-1146 kg
Engines 163hp, 204hp, 224hp 3.0 diesel
Verdict: Add the most powerful version of the V6 3.0-litre and the eight-speed automatic gearbox together and you have got a quality combination that’s near impossible to beat. Like the Mercedes Benz X-Class, however, the Volkswagen Amarok pick-up
comes with a rather hefty price tag. You should go for the 163hp engine if cost is a key concern.
