2016 Mercedes-Benz Metris Starts At $29,945*, Arrives In October

lol, yet another lower rung on the MBUSA ladder! 'How low will they go'?

WOW, They are truly playing in Ford and Chevy ballpark now.

Guess the S-Class is not the luxury class they state it to be.

Aw, it's a Mercedes Mini-van. How cute.

I hope we get this version so I can live out my old VW Eurovan fantasies:

I think we just get the commercial version for the US, to pair up with the Sprinter.  This fills a void though, there are only compact vans or giant full size for the commercial market.

it's a cargo van- there is no "void" to fill. Get a small one or get a large one, done.

I think we just get the commercial version for the US, to pair up with the Sprinter.  This fills a void though, there are only compact vans or giant full size for the commercial market.

Yes. Mercedes says in their press release the more luxurious version, the V-Class will not be sold in the U.S.

Aw, it's a Mercedes Mini-van. How cute.

 

I hope we get this version so I can live out my old VW Eurovan fantasies:

 

Now you're making me wish Volkswagen sold vans again 

I think we just get the commercial version for the US, to pair up with the Sprinter.  This fills a void though, there are only compact vans or giant full size for the commercial market.

.... um....

Chevroletdes Benz - Luxury Pretensions, Generic Intentions.

Based on SMK's logic, if Benz produces a truck between a compact truck and giant full size truck, it will be a complete generic auto manufacturer.

WOW, They are truly playing in Ford and Chevy ballpark now.

 

Guess the S-Class is not the luxury class they state it to be.

Is the Corvette a bad sports car because Chevy makes the lowly Sonic with a 138 hp engine?  The S-class is still the best car in the world, regardless of what Mercedes does with their commercial line.  This van might sell fairly well too, and they already produce it, so it wasn't like it cost them R&D dollars.

But Chevrolet isn't a 'sports car brand' now, is it?

You cannot be a 'luxury brand' and sell all these tin boxes under the same brand. They are dis-associating themselves from that label with each new, lower-priced appliance.

 

WOW, They are truly playing in Ford and Chevy ballpark now.

 

Guess the S-Class is not the luxury class they state it to be.

Is the Corvette a bad sports car because Chevy makes the lowly Sonic with a 138 hp engine?  The S-class is still the best car in the world, regardless of what Mercedes does with their commercial line.  This van might sell fairly well too, and they already produce it, so it wasn't like it cost them R&D dollars.

 

You can call it the commercial line all you want, the media see's it as a Mercedes-Benze consumer Minivan. People will do the same to MB as they have done to all other companies. Over time they no longer see the Luxury only line of product, but now they see a modge podge of low cost product that looks cheap, breaks and is no longer associated with the 1% crowd.

Does not matter if the S-Class is the best selling top line product now and that is has plenty of breaks due to bleeding edge technology. A billionaire is not going to want to see a low income or middle class person driving a MB badged auto. 

The whole point of what plenty of people are saying is that MB is diluting their status here in America and soon, MB will be no different than Lincoln, Acura, Buick or even Cadillac and in many cases will be worse due to the low end product line.

MB would have done better to bring in the low end products, commercial, etc as another label here to protect their luxury line and status. 

This will be their downfall and undoing. Same with BMW.

MB would have done better to bring in the low end products, commercial, etc as another label here to protect their luxury line and status.

Yup. Been saying it for years, because they already have a commercial brand going. The U.S. is not Europe, the image here is much different, and it's the image that is selling a lot of MBs here. Past European commercial vehicle history doesn't apply here.

It's not at all on the same order as when you used see a single, lonely HD mercedes truck. This is all I ever saw years back and they were ALWAYS a box/moving truck, but you'd see maybe 1 a year. They were a curiosity. Being HD, the natural association is they were relatively costly)compared to the average family sedan).

​NOW, I am more & more commonly seeing banged up & rusty sprinters because they are COMMON and getting long in the tooth. Here comes yet another cargo van that's only going to add to the low-rent image the sprinter is growing… and its cheaper than the average family sedan.

​These are long-term events, but as such, they are akin to the 'rolling snowball'; once they get going they're hard to stop. MB is only looking at the short term money grab. These never should have been badged as an MB.  

I looked at my local dealer on google street view, and counted 25 sprinters lined up along the road. Looks like a Ryder rental lot.

The mercedes-Benze just built a new store and moved from their old place last year to the new one in summer of 2014 and now this year it still looks this way with tons of Sprinter Vans out front and the cars up on the roof parking lot.

Bing View and was the same on Goodle Map too.

Google Street View, Not impressive for all the Low end sheet metal, but I will say I wish my cadillac dealership had a building like this.

So this is the new Chevy Astro Van?

So this is the new Chevy Astro Van?

Without the AWD option

Google Street View, Not impressive for all the Low end sheet metal, but I will say I wish my cadillac dealership had a building like this.

Agreed on both counts. No doubt most passer-bys won't know if it's a car dealership or a truck rental outlet with a fancy facade.

It IS a decent looking building, tho.

A few years ago many of you claimed that offering the Sprinter was going to drag the Mercedes brand image down, and it didn't.

Mercedes still sticks to "The Best or Nothing" philosophy.  The Metris/Sprinter are the best commercial vans, they have the best luxury car in the world, the best race car in the world, the best off-roader in the world.  They out did Rolls-Royce in luxury, beat Ferrari and McLaren on the track, and outdid Hummer off road.

LIke it was said above- it's a gradual process. It absolutely is happening, tho- those non-production and super rare cars aren't setting the image because no one buys them / sees them. It's the walmart lots peppered with CLAs and c-classes, and cheaper & cheaper mass production models that's unraveling things. Why is anyone buying a cramped CLA when there are other choices in it's price tier?

A few years ago many of you claimed that offering the Sprinter was going to drag the Mercedes brand image down, and it didn't.

 

Mercedes still sticks to "The Best or Nothing" philosophy.  The Metris/Sprinter are the best commercial vans, they have the best luxury car in the world, the best race car in the world, the best off-roader in the world.  They out did Rolls-Royce in luxury, beat Ferrari and McLaren on the track, and outdid Hummer off road.

 

 

You have a right to believe this, but my own brother in-law bought MB Sprinters for his Appliance repair business based on the thought they would be better quality than what he got from Frod and GM Vans. He found them to be the most un-reliable vans he has ever owned. After many transmission failures, plastic interior pieces that break and items as simple as the radio and hvac stopped working. Once the warranty ran out, he has been trading them in and going back to Ford and GM for service vans. On top of this for Washington state we do get allot of rain but we do not use road salt during the winter and most auto's here do not rust like the east coast and yet the Sprinters had early rust all over.

His experience here is not alone. Many companies here are not happy with the poor quality of the sprinters and they are no longer even purchased by the local cities as the dependability is poor.

This is why myself and others have stated MB should have done their commercial line and lower cost line as another label. This WILL HURT MB brand in the US as a Luxury Auto Maker. This is very different here than in Europe where the whoring out of S-Class and E-Class auto's as Taxis is accepted as normal practice. You do not find luxury like that here in the taxi fleets or even the bulk of the private car fleet.

I give MB 5 to 7 years before this comes back to haunt them with hurting sales.

^ Shifting sales is where it will pop up first, as larger percentages of sales go to cheaper & newer models. b-class is coming here next, isn't it?

Mercedes is a mass market, everything-to-everyone brand, just like Chevrolet. They happen to make a handful of really expensive cars, but they know where their bread is buttered; cheaper appliances.

Best or nothing - yeah that's why it took 5 years and close to $1B in investment to win only one F1 championship. Many smaller teams have done that at much smaller budgets. To me that's waste of money for a sense of bragging that means nothing.

Hummer came way after the old fart G Class. What excuse do you have for this vehicle that has stayed unchanged since before you were conceived?

Very accurate Z!

A few years ago many of you claimed that offering the Sprinter was going to drag the Mercedes brand image down, and it didn't.

 

Mercedes still sticks to "The Best or Nothing" philosophy.  The Metris/Sprinter are the best commercial vans, they have the best luxury car in the world, the best race car in the world, the best off-roader in the world.  They out did Rolls-Royce in luxury, beat Ferrari and McLaren on the track, and outdid Hummer off road.

 

 

 

The best... or maybe a Dodge Dart instead.

That's a really good Dodge Dart.

The best... or maybe a Mitsubishi Outlander Sport instead...

That's a really good Outlander Sport

The best... or maybe a Mazda 5 instead...

That's a really good Mazda 5

A few years ago many of you claimed that offering the Sprinter was going to drag the Mercedes brand image down, and it didn't.

 

Mercedes still sticks to "The Best or Nothing" philosophy.  The Metris/Sprinter are the best commercial vans, they have the best luxury car in the world, the best race car in the world, the best off-roader in the world.  They out did Rolls-Royce in luxury, beat Ferrari and McLaren on the track, and outdid Hummer off road.

SMK, So I would like you to explain how you would respond to this line of talk.

I went to the finance department of our division. Mostly Asian folks, that being Chinese, Korean, Indian, and the rest white.

I ask them what they thought when they think of Mercedes-Benze?

Answer for majority was High End Luxury, wealthy class of drivers.

I asked them what they thought of and showed them the MB Sprinter. 

Answer was for the most part, why is MB doing commercial vans?

I asked them what they thought of a 20K or 18K version of MB and then showed them pictures of MB CLA 250 and GLA 250.

Universal response was why is a Luxury company trying to compete against Ford and Chevy?

The end result was they started out thinking of MB as a Elite Luxury line and at the end they said they would look elsewhere for an elite auto that was not competing against Ford and Chevy or any other entry or mid tier car company.

This is the self destruction that MB is doing to itself here in North America. Europe is obviously fine with MB selling from entry level FWD appliances to ubber luxury auto's. North America expects Luxury auto companies to stay luxury and not move down market.

This is why everyone here feels what MB and BMW is doing is wrong and self destructive.

Interested to see how this goes......

Mercedes will be just fine.  This strategy has worked in Europe for years, and no one has hurt them, Lexus, Infiniti and Cadillac can't even make a dent in Europe.  The S-class and E-class outsell the BMW and Audi counterparts in Europe.   So they are fine on that continent, they really only compete against the other Germans, and maybe Jaguar competes with them in the UK.

In China Audi is the luxury car of choice, helped by the government buying A6's like crazy.  Audi sells over 200,000 A6's a year there, more than their total US sales volume.   Mercedes is a distant 3rd in China, but the strategy there is for Maybach to bring big profit margins.

The CLA/GLA are here to compete with the A3, X1, 2-series, Volvo, Acura, etc.  If the CLA/GLA weren't here, then Mercedes wouldn't have a car under $40,000, which would be ignoring a lot of potential buyers.   Plus they have to play the CAFE game.  Mercedes makes more 500 hp cars than any other brand, so there has to be an offset somewhere.

Mercedes not having the CLA would be like Chevy pricing the Cruze at $20,000 base, and discontinuing the Spark and Sonic, and letting all car sales below $20,000 go to Ford or Toyota.  It wouldn't make any business sense for Mercedes to not sell a car below $40,000 and let Lexus, BMW, Cadillac, Infiniti and Audi take those sales.

Mercedes is still an elite luxury line.  The S-class dominates its segment with a price $20,000 over the competitors.  The SL drove the rest of the high end roadster segment out of business, the XK, SC430, and XLR are gone.   The E and C class are the most expensive cars in their segments, and over the past 10 years have been 1 or 2 in sales.  Pus they have had a high end sports car like the SLR McLaren, SLS Gullwing, or the new AMG GT, which BMW hasn't had an answer to until maybe the i8, Audi has had the R8, and Lexus the LF-A which they made like 400 of and now Lexus has nothing.

 

This is why everyone here feels what MB and BMW is doing is wrong and self destructive.

 

But who is going to stop them?   The ATS and CTS were Cadillac's best effort and made no impact, in fact both cars are in sales decline while the 3-series and C-class are on the rise.  Infiniti has the Q50, another non threat, and a dated Q70 that has never challenged the E-class or 5-series.   Lexus gets all their sales off old geezers buying the ES350 and that demographic is on their last car, and the soccer moms buying the RX.  Credit to Lexus for finding the luxury crossover niche back in the late 90s and keeping RX buyers coming back, but 1 successful product of Lexus isn't going to topple M-B or BMW.

Yes, everyone close enough to hear real world stories knows... a Sprinter van is junk.

If you are selling cars only above $40K, that demographic can swallow any gas guzzler taxes that non-compliance with CAFE might earn (even tho mercedes sells more sub-18 MPG cars than any other brand). CAFE is a non-issue, and MBUSA can keep it's 'luxury' image intact.

No; fielding an increasing catalog of sub-median priced vehicles has nothing to do with CAFE and everything to do with greed and pimping the badge.

dfelt is right on with his informal survey; in the U.S., as knowledge and more & more product come out, people are going to relearn what 'MB' stands for. A huge component of a brand's U.S. image is exclusivity and that not many can afford to obtain it. When you sell 100's of 1000's of vehicles and bend over backward to compete with pedestrian brands like Chevrolet & toyota, you dilute that markedly. No other scenario is possible WRT human nature/consumerism.

Yet BMW and Mercedes sales continue to rise, while Cadillac, Lincoln, Porsche, Maserati and Jaguar all declined last month.   The Sprinter has been on sale as a Mercedes in the USA for 7 years, and the brand image hasn't been hurt, sales haven't gone down, there is no cause for panic in the streets of Stuttgart.  If the sales, marketing and product were flawed, then Mercedes wouldn't keep growing while many of their competitors struggle.

Yet BMW and Mercedes sales continue to rise, while Cadillac, Lincoln, Porsche, Maserati and Jaguar all declined last month.   The Sprinter has been on sale as a Mercedes in the USA for 7 years, and the brand image hasn't been hurt, sales haven't gone down, there is no cause for panic in the streets of Stuttgart.  If the sales, marketing and product were flawed, then Mercedes wouldn't keep growing while many of their competitors struggle.

Here you are wrong, MB Sprinters were not on sale as MB badged vans, They started out as Dodge vans and were known to be garbage. Once the MB badge showed up a few years back as Dodge dropped them, it will only be time before people start to question MB. It took 20 years of idiot mgmt decisions at Cadillac for them to go down from the standard of the year. Lousy 80's and 90's models and yet in the early 80's people said the same thing about Cadillac and now they are fighting to rebuild. 

MB will sell now but another 3-5 years from now I would not be surprised to see them struggle. Both MB and BMW are making a HUGE MISTAKE by not learning from the mistakes of US auto companies from the 80's. History is to learn and in this case, they should be selling under a different badge than to sell all as one. Does not work.

You yourself have stated that Toyota has not been able to crack it all and so they went with Lexus. Takes time to build an image up, but only a few years of stupid mgmt greed to tear it down.

MB and BMW are in the greed mode and will fall. Mark my words. They are ignoring History.

BMW and Mercedes don't build garbage product though, and haven't done so for years on end.  One should not confuse low price, such as a $31k CLA with being unreliable, poor handling, poor build quality garbage.  Even the Cadillacs of the 80s that cost good money were crap, it wasn't just the low end Chevy that was crap.

BMW and MB still make good product, their cars are superior to the competition, thus they are still outselling the competition.  The E-class is the oldest car in is segment and the 5-series is the 2nd oldest, yet they still outsell the others.   For BMW or Mercedes to fall, someone else has to build and market a better product, no one has show the ability to do that.

The Metris I don't think will be the downfall at all, they already are producing it and selling it in other markets, so selling it in the US just leads to more profit.  They have to keep the profits rolling to fund the R&D budget and all the money needed to fund the Formula 1 team as was mentioned earlier.

I could see using the Freightliner brand name for the Metris and Sprinter, but I would assume that was considered and it was determined that selling light duty vans though the existing Mercedes dealer network was better to do. 

CLA has a LOT of quality issues from what I've heard. It is NOT representational of the brand's image, nor is it remotely 'the best or nothing'. It sells to camry & accord shoppers based on the badge. Unfortunately for the geniuses in germany who smell a windfall, it's not the bottom rung of the ladder- more cheapened FWD appliances are coming. MBUSA is  sliding down a long, greasy hill.

RE Freightliner, mercedes IS the dealer network- just like they are for smart. 

This is, by far, the best description of Mercedes I've ever read:

Oh, sure, it's the most expensive to buy. It's also the most expensive to own, the most expensive to run, the most expensive to fuel, and the most expensive to insure. It'll depreciate the fastest, fail the most, and leave you convinced that "German engineering" is just "Chinese engineering" with some extra umlauts.