Mercedes-Benz Kills Slow-Selling R-Class in the U.S.

This year marks the end of the road for Mercedes-Benz's R-class crossover in the U.S. A Mercedes-Benz spokesman says that the company can no longer make the business case for the R, sales of which have dropped precipitously since it was introduced in 2005. Sales of the Tuscaloosa, Alabama–built R-class peaked in 2006, its first full year on the market, at 18,168 units. Just 2385 were sold in 2011. The R-class still will be manufactured, however, with the vehicle proving relatively popular in China, Mexico, and Canada. In 2011, Chinese shoppers bought five times the number of R-classes that Americans did. Even for export, though, R-class production will continue only until 2015. By then, the stodgy crossover will be a decade old, and Benz's factory in Tuscaloosa will be on the finished side of a $2.4-billion expansion setting it up to build the next-gen C-class and a new sporty crossover, which we believe to be the ML-based MLC. The withering of R-class sales, and its overall failure here, should offer a valuable lesson for automakers: If you build it, shoppers won't necessarily come. The R-class is more the result of a focus group's abstract list of "wanted" features rather than an object of desire—or, at least, of rational appeal. A crossover but not, the R-class was pushed on SUV-obsessed American shoppers who have not shown themselves receptive to tall wagons or clever ways of hauling three rows of people. But Benz—and its competition at Audi and BMW—are still pursuing niche-intensive product strategies. Sharing platforms reduces the cost of offering so many vehicles in so many shapes, but if it's folly, it's still folly. from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com

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