Recently, on 19th July Mercedes-Benz unveiled the new Mercedes B-Class Sports Tourer for India at an official function at the famous Buddh International Circuit. At the unveiling, the price of Mercedes-Benz B-Class was not revealed, but our sources suggest it to be in the price bracket of Rs 24 – Rs 26 lakh and its closest competitor will be Audi Q3 and BMW X1, when it hits the showrooms by end-September or early-October, 2012.
Just before the commercial launch, our regular reader Mohammed Fayaz has snapped the Merc B-Class at Mercedes-Benz TRENDZ store in UB City Mall, Bangalore. Mercedes Benz via Trendz store, is the motto of introducing the latest brand offerings to the young and premium customers in the south India. It is a kind concept that allows the consumers to experience the look and feel of the brand first-hand.
Coming back to Merc B-Class, it is lot bigger than it looks in pictures from the outside but it is not designed like an SUV for off-roading. It has lower ground clearance, more subtle and elegant styling and smooth looks. It looks like contemporary MPVs with much more classy and elegant visual appeal. Similar to most of the newer upper end models from the Merc stable, the B too gets LED strip lighting that blend well by following the upper part of the sleek headlamps. The grille of the B class is quite sporty with the AMG style large logo in the middle, large air-dams and grille making it look powerful and agile.
Space inside the car is generous with ample room for 5 adults with a 488 litre of luggage space. To give the baby Merc the premium touch as any Mercedes Benz include leather upholstery, high quality of materials used on the inside, attractive looking dashboard design with 3 AC vents above the central console and 2 on the ends of the dashboard with ample chrome treatment on them. The central console has lots of features and options in built. The steering has multi-function controls including audio and phone controls.
Other highlights with the sheer quality of the interiors features like Telematics with a large LCD display mounted in the middle of the dashboard which adds unique feature appeal to this car. There is also large panoramic sunroof which gives the cabin a premium and airy feel.
According to the Mercedes officials, B-Class is said to be coming in both diesel and petrol engine options, but the first to come will be the petrol version, diesel might be rolled out later. The model shown in the picture here is B200 with 1.6-litre Turbocharged MPFI Petrol engines with peak torque rating of about 250 Nm. This is the western models with left hand drive LHD option. The snapped model is equipped with 6-speed manual transmission however Indian models will come only with 7-speed automatic dual clutch transmission system which is used in the AMG series of cars by Mercedes Benz India.
For now, Merc is tight-lipped about the engines that will power the India spec B-class. But we suspect the B-class will initially be offered with the motor under the hood of this B 200 – a 1.6-litre, four- cylinder, direct-injection turbo-petrol unit available in two states of tune with 122 PS and 156 PS of power outputs, the diesel version might include 1.8-litre 4-cylinder diesel unit again in 2 states of tune producing 109PS and 136 PS of power and many more variants is likely to be followed in the coming years.
Also see – Mercedes B-class MPV is scheduled to launch on 19th July in India
See more pictures of Mercedes-Benz B-Class Sports Tourer –
