The Penedes wine region between Barcelona and Tarragona, just inland from Spain's sunny Costa Daurada, broke with tradition late in the last century adding production of robust reds to its mainstay sparkling white Cava.
Last week, the region's narrow, corkscrewing roads provided a perfect introduction to a product mix change of another kind as Mercedes-Benz launched its new compact-category B-Class. It also briefly showed off its much larger and grander, but equally interesting, R-Class. Both of these sports tourers will arrive in dealerships this fall and are very different from anything that has previously worn the tri-pointed star.
For many years, Mercedes-Benz adhered to a product approach that primarily provided solid and often rather stolid sedans to its customers. But in the early 1990s, it began paying closer attention to what those buyers actually wanted, resulting in some much more user-pleasing, but still basically conventional, cars.
A new willingness to explore change was obviously in the Stuttgart air though and this soon led to the M-Class, a sport-ute tailored to North American tastes, and to the A-Class and the tiny Smart, innovative new small cars for Europe.
Now we have the compact category B-Class, which fills the only remaining major gap in the Mercedes' lineup and has the potential to really extend Mercedes brand accessibility, particularly in North America.
"In the early '90s we were only in one premium segment, now we want to be in all of them," says Bernd Hense, strategic project manager for the A- and B-class cars.
And the timing for an effort to change the way North Americans think about premium vehicles, given today's rising fuel costs and emission concerns, may prove to be bang on.
But neither Hense nor anybody else at Mercedes-Benz is willing to commit on just how many of the B-Class might be sold worldwide, although Canadian marketing director JoAnne Caza says dealers here are revamping their operations in anticipation of "significantly" increased volumes. The company sold 13,259 vehicles last year.
The B-Class will be available here in two versions: the B 200, with a base price topping $30,000, and the B 200 Turbo, for some thousands more. A diesel may (and I think should) follow.
The B-Class won't be sold in the United States initially, with the Canadian market providing a "foot in the door to North America," according to Hense.
Behind this cautious approach is likely concern about Americans' ability to simultaneously think small car and premium car. We much more worldly Canadians are expected to have an easier time grasping this notion.
In basic concept, the B-Class is not unlike such vehicles as the Toyota Matrix or Suzuki Aerio. Mercedes naturally doesn't consider these rivals for its new upscale compact but, like them, the B-Class offers tidy exterior dimensions with useful passenger and cargo space and versatility.
The Matrix can at least serve as a basis for dimensional comparison. The B-Class is 4,270 mm long; 1m, 604 mm tall, and 1,777 mm wide, with a wheelbase of 2,778 mm, making it shorter, but wider and taller and possessed of a longer wheelbase than the Matrix. Curb weight is virtually identical.
The Matrix offers 428 litres of cargo space with its rear seat upright and 1,506 with it folded. The B 200 has 544 litres seat up, 1,645 litres with it folded, and with the front passenger seat (easily) removed 2245 litres.
The B-Class has a rather mini-minivan look from the side, but with some very dramatic elements, including a particularly attractive nose and side window treatment that give it a look all its own.
Mercedes has, of course, taken its own unique engineering approach, and loaded the car with high-tech features.
