Mercedes is forging into new territory with the launch of the X-Class, its first conventional pickup truck. So what do the performance-obsessed do when an automaker like Mercedes releases a new vehicle?
Why, we imagine what it'd look like in AMG spec, of course! And that's just what we have here, rendered by the talents at X-Tomi Design.
It looks pretty convincing, with all the telltale signs of an AMG sport-ute, from the gaping front bumper intakes to the blacked-out oversized alloys. The question is whether such a vehicle stands a chance of ever being built. And as we reported this past November, that depends who you ask.
“No, there will be no AMG pickup,” is what AMG boss Tobias Moers had to say about the prospect, half a year ago when the X-Class was still in the concept phase. Seems like a fairly open-and-shut case, then...until his boss weighed in. “You never know,” said Daimler chief Dieter Zetsche. “We’ll see how the market goes and how this product will be received in the marketplace.”
Not so simple, then, predicting the prospects of an X63 AMG, or even a six-cylinder X43 AMG if the V8 doesn't fit. The ultimate arbiter, however, may be whether Daimler's friends at the Renault Nissan Alliance opt to do a Nismo version of the Navara (on which the X-Class is based) or a Renault Sport version of the Alaskan (ditto) – a program on which Mercedes could piggy-back. As enticing as the prospect of Mercedes taking on the Ford Raptor may seem, though, there's even less chance of the German pickup ever making it to North America.
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