Due to the American preference for smaller cars and to keep up with rivals BMW and Audi, Mercedes-Benz announced it will be releasing a new compact car family based on the new Mercedes Front-wheel-drive Architecture (MFA), that will hit the U.S. starting in summer 2013.
The new series will include coupe (“baby CLS”) and SUV versions and possibly a convertible or a shooting brake version geared towards a younger clientele. There will also be two hatchback versions (next generation A- and B-class models) offered in Europe; however, Mercedes has no plans of bringing them to the U.S. unless there is a demand.
The MFA platform could also possibly be applied to a new entry-level Nissan Infiniti model in the future, due to Mercedes’ new partnership with Renault-Nissan.
The new Mercedes-Benz MFA compact coupe will be available in summer 2013 and the SUV will follow shortly in summer 2014.
Mercedes-Benz has purposely steered clear of the compact end of the market in the United States to preserve its up-scale image but the German automaker will reportedly enter the premium compact segment in 2012 with at least one imported vehicle.Word of Mercedes-Benz interest in the compact segment during the summer of 2008 when gas prices spiked to 4 a gallon around the country but the subsequent economic collapse forced Mercedes to suspend its market-expanding plans. Now we will be stuck with that fetus looking B-Class Mercedes only hated the Canadians enough to put out in North America!
If gas gets over 5 a whole bunch of these teeny cars will be sold here.
Spyshots of the next B-class undergoing winter testing, which is built on the MFA platform, have been published on AutoEvolution.com
http://www.autoevolution.com/news/spyshots-2012-mercedes-b-klasse-undergoing-winter-testing-31199.html