Mercedes-Benz says once-popular family car is a niche too far in Australia

Mercedes-Benz offers plenty of niche vehicles in Australia, including the flagship SL roadster and EQS electric limousine. There are some vehicles, however, that are too niche for the brand here.

Though there’s a new boss at the helm of Mercedes-Benz Australia Pacific, the company’s view on wagons remains unchanged.

“There’s not a segment large enough for them,” Mercedes-Benz Australia Pacific CEO Jaime Cohen told CarExpert.

“Australians… rather prefer to jump into an SUV.

“You would say, ‘but then this segment would be as large perhaps as the CLE‘, but no it would probably be smaller. We do see more interest with this kind of option, the other need we cover with the SUVs like the GLC for example.

“There’s a certain overlap with SUVs and wagons and when that happens the customers would rather go with the SUV.”

Mercedes-Benz offers wagon versions of the current-generation CLA, C-Class and E-Class in Europe, but none have made the trip to Australia.

That’s also despite the latter two offering more rugged-looking All-Terrain models that bridge the gap between wagons and SUVs, and give the three-pointed star direct rivals for the Audi A4 allroad and A6 allroad.

Mercedes-Benz offered the previous generation of E-Class All-Terrain in Australia, but this was withdrawn in 2021.

It’s not just Audi that is sticking it out with wagons in Australia.

BMW still offers a wagon version of the 3 Series here, while the electric version of the 5 Series wagon – the i5 Touring – is being offered here.

It has even brought the hot M3 Touring here, BMW’s rival to the Audi RS4 Avant… as well as the Mercedes-AMG C 63 S E Performance wagon we miss out on in Australia.

There are a handful of other premium wagons in Australia, including the Genesis G70 Shooting Brake and Volvo V60 Cross Country.

While VFACTS industry sales data sometimes breaks out tallies for different body styles, it doesn’t for any of these models so it’s unclear how much better their sedan counterparts sell.

We can, however, look to Volvo for proof of the much greater popularity of SUVs.

In the first half of 2024, Volvo sold 82 examples of the V60 Cross Country, but 1144 examples of the XC60 crossover.