German Car Zone

The success of premium-priced small cars and the Smart car has prompted Mercedes-Benz to consider introducing the next generation of A- and B-class models in North America.

The small-car duo gets a redesign for the 2012 model year with a new front-wheel-drive platform and four-cylinder gasoline and diesel engines.

AutoWeek also had learned that Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche is considering a proposal for a two-seat roadster based on the A- and B-class. The compact front-wheel-drive roadster revives the idea behind the striking Vision SLA concept revealed at the Detroit auto show in 2000.

Mercedes-Benz's decision to revisit the SLA comes as Volkswagen plans to reveal a new mid-engine roadster concept at the Detroit auto show in January, and follows news that BMW is pushing ahead with plans for a 1-series-based Z2 roadster positioned below the Z4.

No production plans have been approved for a roadster, and it remains unclear whether the car would be included in the Mercedes-Benz portfolio for North America. But with North American sales dropping 38.2 percent in November from a year earlier, officials feel the time is right for a model along the lines of the SLA to join Mercedes-Benz's growing stable of small cars, slotting beneath the SLK.

"It is part of the regular new-model review at Mercedes-Benz to look at ideas from the past," a senior Mercedes-Benz official told AutoWeek. "When the SLA was originally proposed at the end of the last decade, we didn't have a suitable platform; the sandwich platform is too high and too heavy. This problem will be alleviated with the arrival of the next A-class, whose new platform provides much greater scope in terms of the sort of variants it can support."

A roadster aside, the A- and B-class redesign will add at least two more variants, alongside the replacements for today's hatchback and wagon models. They include a coupe and a sport-utility vehicle, both of which are expected to be included in Mercedes-Benz's U.S. lineup as part of an effort to attract younger customers.

The current Mercedes-Benz A-class competes with the VW Golf in Europe. The redesigned A-class and B-class may join Mercedes-Benz's U.S. lineup.

The B-class uses the same chassis as the A-class but rides on wheelbase that is 0.84-inch longer and has an overall length of 170.8 inches--20 inches shorter than the C-class.

Mercedes-Benz is investing heavily in the new A-class. It is spending 600 million euros, or $762 million at current exchange rates, to revamp the existing production facilities in Rastatt, Germany, and also has announced that it will build a $1 billion production plant in Kecskemét, Hungary. The two plants are expected to produce up to 500,000 cars.


Mercedes considers roadster from new A-class family - AutoWeek Magazine


M

that pic is very very old i remember seeing that picture a very long time back.

Yep is the SLA concept from 2000. That type of small roadster is providing the inspiration for something similar today.

M

MB must have heard of BMW's Z2 plans.

Yeah saw that SLA and thought it was really cool for that time - if I think a little better it's still cool and wouldn't mind to see a production car based on this except for some frontal facia changes.

Heh

Action, reaction. From both sides.

^yep,soon they will be mainstream like Toyotas

It wouldn't take much to make the SLA a bad ass little roadster.
Tweek the styling a little and keep the car simple and light.

They should do it. I've always wondered why nobody have challenged the MX-5. It's time to end its reign.