Photos courtesy Autocar.co.uk
Mercedes-Benz Canada has confirmed it will sell an All Terrain version of its E-Class wagon in Canada. The car is similar in concept to the Audi A4 Allroad and Volvo V60 Cross Country, but is larger, which could make the car a class of one when it arrives here.
The news comes after a lightly camouflaged example was photographed outside the company's Sindelfingen, Germany factory by the UK's Autocar magazine; the car is due for its official reveal in October, at the Paris auto show.
But while the car will likely go on sale in Europe shortly after its Paris debut, Mercedes-Benz Canada said it didn't know when it would reach Canadian showrooms.
Based on the E-Class wagon, the All Terrain appears to sport under-bumper cladding and wheel arch mouldings to up the ruggedness quotient, and we agree with Autocar's suggestion the car will ride on a variable-height air suspension for extra ground clearance in light off-road situations. Benz's 4MATIC all-wheel-drive system is a given, too.
In Europe, the All Terrain will compete with an Audi A6-based Allroad model, but with that car unlikely to come here in the latest generation's life cycle, the closest thing Audi Canada has is a smaller, A4-based Allroad; Likewise, Volvo's V60 (and S60 sedan) Cross Country models are notably smaller than the E-Class, so while Benz's concept is the same, this larger model will have North America's market for mid-size "car utility vehicles" (see what we did there?) cornered.
In Canada, the redesigned 2017 E-Class sedan is available as the E 300, powered by a turbocharged four-cylinder engine that will soon be joined by six- and eight-cylinder powertrains; we suspect the lower-volume All Terrain will be offered with just one powertrain to keep production costs down, and our guess is it will be something like the 3.0L turbocharged V6 that makes 362 hp and 384 lb-ft in certain versions of the C-Class.
