A Class

It looks like Mercedes Benz might be bringing their small A-Class to the US in the coming years – before BMW has a chance to release the upcoming 4 door MINI . For those who don't know the A-Class it's a small snub nosed tall four door. It's not necessarily sporty and not necessarily luxurious but it is a small Mercedes and you have to figure it would sell at the $20,000 level in the US. Here's an excerpt from an Autoweek article about the proposed move:

“I feel very positive about it,” says Juergen Hubbert, the DaimlerChrysler board member in charge of the Mercedes car group. “Look what's happening with the Mini,” he says, referring to the sales success of the small Mini Cooper at BMW AG, a rival of Mercedes. “I'm totally convinced there's a demand for it. But we have to prepare the market for the product. We have to convince our dealers.”

Hubbert points out that Mercedes spent a full year warming up the European market to the notion of the snub-nosed A-Class before releasing the model. Last year, Mercedes sold 152,000 of them in Europe.

BMW has proven that a car doesn't need to be large to sell in the American market. But whether the A Class can garner the sort of public and media attention that the MINI currently has will remain to be seen. Even without the 4 door MINI on the market you can count me among the skeptical.