Road Tests - Mercedes-Benz X250d

Meet the refined pick-up truck with a premium feel

This might be the first time in the 94-year history of Motor Sport that a review of, let’s not be shy, a pick-up truck has appeared between its covers. But it is unlikely to be the last. As the bubble in SUV ownership expands ever outwards, an entire new sub-class of so-called ‘lifestyle’ pick-ups is emerging because they offer an even more rugged image for a fraction of the price of a full-sized SUV. And what if you could also buy one with a posh badge? Well, that’s what the Mercedes X-class is here to find out.

You can buy an X250d for a little over £35,000 including VAT, which is about the same as you’d pay for a GLA 250d, Benz’s smallest conventional SUV. For that you get an enormous dual-cab pick-up with a load capacity of more than a tonne combined with a cabin that looks much like that of any other than the very latest Mercedes road cars. The ‘Power’ version I drove came with every item of equipment I’d want a car to have, from decent sat-nav and digital radio to seat heaters and cruise control. Entirely adequate performance came from its 2.3-litre 187bhp diesel motor running through a seven-speed automatic gearbox to the rear wheels, unless you manually select all-wheel drive. It also returned better than 30mpg during my time with it, which I thought reasonable.

This might be the first time in the 94-year history of Motor Sport that a review of, let’s not be shy, a pick-up truck has appeared between its covers. But it is unlikely to be the last. As the bubble in SUV ownership expands ever outwards, an entire new sub-class of so-called ‘lifestyle’ pick-ups is emerging because they offer an even more rugged image for a fraction of the price of a full-sized SUV. And what if you could also buy one with a posh badge? Well, that’s what the Mercedes X-class is here to find out.

You can buy an X250d for a little over £35,000 including VAT, which is about the same as you’d pay for a GLA 250d, Benz’s smallest conventional SUV. For that you get an enormous dual-cab pick-up with a load capacity of more than a tonne combined with a cabin that looks much like that of any other than the very latest Mercedes road cars. The ‘Power’ version I drove came with every item of equipment I’d want a car to have, from decent sat-nav and digital radio to seat heaters and cruise control. Entirely adequate performance came from its 2.3-litre 187bhp diesel motor running through a seven-speed automatic gearbox to the rear wheels, unless you manually select all-wheel drive. It also returned better than 30mpg during my time with it, which I thought reasonable.

But what of the crashing ride, shuddering structure and terrible refinement you’d expect from such a device? Well, it has a ladder chassis and there’s no denying it wobbles a bit if you hit a pothole, but it’s not noisy and, crucially, has multi-link fully independent rear suspension in place of the leaf-sprung live axle of almost every other pick up. And anyone who has been frustrated by the lack of traction of more normal pick-ups – or the sometimes terrifyingly tail-happy behaviour when unladen in the wet – will find the X-class something of a revelation. Is it as good as a conventional car with a monocoque? No, but relative to what you might expect from its configuration it’s at least halfway there.

It gets the job done, too. I spent a delightfully bracing weekend brimming it with load after load of next winter’s logs and driving it fully laden across sodden fields and, while it did occasionally bog down where the old Land Rover that usually does the job never would, it always found a way out without needing to be rescued and completed the task in perhaps one third of the time.

Of course, there will be many who scoff at the £40,000 price tag of this particular X-class and, if you’re a farmer needing a working vehicle, I’d not go near it. And it will always remain a niche product because the rear cabin is not spacious and there’s no boot save the enormous load area, though this can be specified with a lockable, sliding cover. Even so, if you’ve always quite liked the idea and image of a pick-up but steered clear until now because you thought the reality would be unbearably crude, the X-class may not merely surprise you. It might prove something of a revelation.