Rockstar Of Bakkies

We first saw it at its international debut and then we drove it in South America. We then drove it again at its local launch, but now the Mercedes X-Class faces its biggest test yet, as it finally spends a week doing normal bakkie-related things.

It’s fair to say that we’ve spent a lot of time behind the wheel of the X-Class bakkie but never on our own terms. We can tell you what it was like on South American roads and what it was like driving it on a mountain pass near George, but until now, we haven’t used the X-Class the way most people will use it.

Any decent bakkie should be able to carry two kids to school, do the weekly grocery run, commute between work and home and spend weekends ferrying the entire family to an agreeable location for a picnic or something similar.

Over the last two months, we couldn’t help but feel that we might have been too harsh on the X-Class in our initial assessment. Some unkind things were said about the parking sensors, lack of storage space and the rearview camera feeds, but mostly about the price.

This time we asked politely if we might test an entry-level model 4×2, because we reckon it’s bound to be the most popular derivative in the range. Mercedes had an X250d 4×2 with an auto gearbox available, which is what we went for. Surprisingly, this particular test unit wasn’t bursting with optional extras, so it’s retail price was just under R700 000. That’s still a lot for a 4×2 bakkie but reasonable within the X-Class range.

ROCKSTAR OF BAKKIES

Since the X-Class had been on sale for about two months and we’ve heard some rumours sales are around 300 per month, we weren’t expecting a whole lot of attention.

Over the years we’ve driven some special cars, including a number of ultra-exclusive supercars and not one of them has ever attracted the amount of attention this bakkie received. The only similar experience was when we drove the new Fortuner through farming country a full two months ahead of its launch.