The V-Class badge is making a return to the Mercedes-Benz line-up as the company's biggest MPV. Replacing the Viano, it's still van-based, but uses a lot of design and tech from the car range, hopefully making it appeal to current R-Class owners. It will be on sale here in Ireland from early 2015.
Exterior
Apparently, all the body panels are new compared to the Viano and only a fifth of the platform of its predecessor is carried over to the V-Class. It certainly looks a lot more appealing from the outside, with its stylish treatment of both the front and rear, but there's no escaping the V-Class's van origins.
Interior
'Cavernous' might be the best way to describe the passenger compartment, given the link to a commercial vehicle. As standard it is equipped with four individual luxury seats with armrests, but you can opt for a 2+3+3 layout to seat eight in comfort. You can even specify it with an option that allows overnight sleeping, should you not be able to find a hotel at short notice.
There's also a wealth of comfort-related kit fitted, such as active seat ventilation and even a system that automatically adjusts itself according to the position of the sun before kicking in to eliminate fumes and odours entering the cabin when you're in heavy traffic or driving through tunnels. There's all the infotainment and multimedia stuff you expect in a Mercedes car too, a dashboard inspired by the S-Class and a steering wheel from the new C-Class. V-Class specific quirks include a centre table, fore/aft seat swivel adjustment and the ability to remove all the rear seats if you need van-like carrying capabilities.
Mechanicals
There are three variants of Mercedes' tried and test 2.1-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel engine, badged V 200 CDI, V 220 CDI and V 250 BlueTec. The latter will come as auto only. There are also three body lengths - Compact, Long and Extra Long. The V-Class will be fitted with a number of safety and driver assist technologies too, such as a driver drowsiness/inattention warning (perhaps brought on by noisy-kids-in-the-back syndrome), blind spot monitoring, 360-degree collision prevention assist and even a feature to alert you to the effects of crosswinds.
Anything else?
Exact costs and model details are yet to be confirmed for the Irish market but Mercedes-Benz Ireland says that the price tag could be very close to the current Viano range, which starts at €52,690.