Mercedes R Class 2006-2010 A WISE used buy??
Jonathan Crouch writes an in-depth Mercedes R Class 2006-2010 review. If you want to watch more reviews on vehicles like this Mercedes R Class 2006-2010, make sure to SUBSCRIBE to our channel and comment what YOU want us to review next.
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Mercedes-Benz is not in the business of getting things wrong. Page through the company's long and illustrious history and it's littered with firsts. First to use supercharging on a passenger car, first to develop the safety crumple zone, first to offer traction control, anti lock brakes, driver airbags, seat belt pretensioners, and stability control systems on their vehicles. Given this list of achievements, it's perhaps inevitable that there have been the odd mishap. The first generation A-Class was one and, if sales figures are any indication, the R-Class sport tourer may be another. Not that the R-Class is a bad car per se. It's just one that the general public don't seem able to get a handle on. This may be bad news for the Mercedes bottom line, but this sort of situation often spells rich pickings for used car buyers. Here's how to land a bargain R-Class.
History
If buyer behaviour has taught us anything, it's that anything with a hatchback which isn't a monster 4x4 seems to have a definite price ceiling above which customers seem unwilling to venture. Many manufacturers have tried to push this barrier back, only to be met by market apathy. A hatchback, it seems, is still indicative of a shopping car to many. There have been exceptions in recent years but they have largely been specialist kit. Estate versions of supersaloons have found a niche clientele but Mercedes was gunning for a much bigger slice of the action when it started selling the R-Class sports tourer in 2006.
The R-Class had been a very long time in conception, so it's not as if the car had been skedaddled into production by impatient senior managers. The concept first saw the light of day way back in 2001 at the Detroit Auto Show as the Vision GST (Grand Sports Tourer) and a clue as to the R-Class' target market could be gleaned by its production-ready unveiling at the 2005 New York International Auto Show. With some 60 per cent of sales set for the US, what relevance would the R-Class have in the UK? Not a great deal, it would seem.
Two body styles were released in the UK, a standard length body and a longer wheelbase version, denoted by an 'L' in the model designation. The standard body offered little not already provided for less by an E-Class estate. The longer wheelbase car was a more interesting diversion but sales to date have been extremely patchy. In 2007, Mercedes started phasing down imports of the standard length car, this body type eventually only offered with the R280 CDI model. The R350 and R63AMG also disappeared from the price lists around this period.
Writer - Jonathan Crouch
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