- Mercedes-Benz will end sales of the Metris van following the 2023 model year.
- The death of the Metris reportedly spells the end of the gas-powered four-cylinder Sprinter, as well.
- Diesel-powered Sprinters, however, will continue on.
Mercedes-Benz will end sales of its Metris minivan in the United States following the van’s 2023 model year, a company spokesperson confirmed to Car and Driver via email. The cargo- and passenger-carrying variants of the van have struggled to find a footing in the U.S. market, with buyers either migrating to the automaker’s bigger Sprinter or to smaller and less pricey competitors such as the Ford Transit Connect.
Casting a shadow within inches of minivans such as the Chrysler Pacifica, Honda Odyssey, Kia Carnival, and Toyota Sienna, the rear-drive Metris forgoes the family-friendly appeal of those vehicles. With a starting sum of more than $35,000, the entry-level Metris includes two seats and an open cargo area with 182.9 cubic feet of space (an available long-wheelbase variant adds approximately 16 cubes to that figure). That’s a good deal more than the 127.4 cubic feet of space offered by the long-wheelbase Transit Connect cargo van that stickers for around $33,000.
Automotive News reports that Mercedes delivered a mere 60,000 Metrises in the U.S. since 2015. A paltry sum, given that Ford sold 26,112 Transit Connects in 2021 alone.
Nor has the Metris passenger van found many fans, with the approximately $40,000 model that offers up to eight seats lacking many of the niceties of similarly sized minivans, such as a fold-flat third-row of seats or a rear entertainment system. Commercial shoppers, meanwhile, were likely letdown by the Metris’s limited seating capacity, which trails that of larger full-size passenger van models.
Even so, we’ll mourn the loss of the Metris Getaway camper van (a vehicle Mercedes first debuted as the Weekender—it changed the model’s name before commencing sales of the pop-top van). Like other Metris models, the Getaway’s high base price—more than $65,000—likely limited its appeal. Nevertheless, it was the sole camper van sold by an OEM in the United States.
The Metris’s demise reportedly spells the end for Mercedes’s turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four that, along with the Metris, also serves as the gas-powered engine option in the bigger Sprinter. As such, 2024 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter models with internal combustion engines are set to come standard with the model’s new-for-2023 four-cylinder diesel. A battery-electric eSprinter is due to join the full-size van line in the near future, as well.
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Source: Motor - aranddriver.com
