Be taught Why Mercedes-Benz Discontinued The A-Class Sedan In The US

Mercedes-Benz introduced in February 2022 that the A-Class sedan could be dropped on the finish of the mannequin 12 months. The elegantly tech-savvy A-Class Sedan joined the corporate’s U.S. lineup in 2019 and ran for 4 mannequin years. The fourth era of the A-Class was the one one to be bought within the U.S. This was attributable to its very small dimension and the earlier lack of a four-door sedan. The A-Class sedan for the U.S. was initially constructed at Mercedes-Benz’s $1 Billion three way partnership plant with Nissan’s Infiniti, situated in Aguascalientes, Mexico. 

In July 2020, after two years of Mexican manufacturing, A-Class manufacturing ceased there, persevering with in Germany, Finland, and Hungary. This made room in Aguascalientes for elevated manufacturing of Mercedes’ GLB SUV, which generates extra gross sales than the A-Class Sedan. 

There are quite a few forces that come into play when a producer decides to drop a car from a given nation’s lineup. These forces in the end led Mercedes-Benz to discontinue the A-Class Sedan within the U.S. 

My Mercedes-related background: In 1973, I persuaded my father to change from a Buick to a Mercedes-Benz W114 280 with the M110 DOHC inline-six. He owned it till 1988. I leased my first Benz in 1994, a W202 C280 with the M104 DOHC inline-six. I purchased it at lease-end and had it for a complete of twenty-two years and 225,000 miles till it was rear-ended on a California freeway. These two vehicles shared the identical 2.8L DOHC engine, the ’73 having the earliest model and the ’94 having the final.

Within the U.S. market, there was a noticeable transfer by prospects to decide on SUVs and crossover-type automobiles over sedans. Ford now not makes sedans and GM will stop sedan manufacturing this 12 months. Relating to smaller automobiles just like the A-Class sedan, prospects are more and more doubtless to decide on SUVs due to their extra inside area, increased seating place, and the phantasm of elevated security. What’s extra, subcompact SUV costs are getting nearer to these of the sedans that had been initially meant to be the worth leaders. 

That is the motivation behind Mercedes-Benz’s determination to drop the A-Class Sedan. Slowing gross sales of the sedan (from 17,641 in 2019 to eight,108 in 2021), mixed with rising SUV gross sales and the provision of a brand new, Mexican-built entry-level Mercedes-Benz SUV to maintain that manufacturing facility buzzing, doubtless spurred Mercedes product planners to see that there was little draw back to dropping the A-Class sedan. As well as, shifting the A-Class from Mexico to Europe will increase its manufacturing value, making it much less worthwhile to promote right here.

For these nonetheless wanting a sedan, the CLA four-door Coupe stays within the Mercedes lineup, priced from $44,400. For individuals who want an SUV, the entry-level GLA at present begins at $43,000 (for comparability, the GLA was priced at $37,450 on the time that the A-Class was axed in 2022, a rise of $2,450 over the $35,000 value of the A-Class). This now makes the SUV inexpensive than the sedan, so mission achieved, Mercedes-Benz.