Mercedes-Benz Confirms New C-Class Sport Coupe for 2007

INSIDE LINE STUTTGART GERMANY — Mercedes-Benz has quashed long-standing rumors that it would discontinue the C-Class sport coupe after just one generation. The company has announced that production of the second-generation model is due to begin in Brazil, at its underutilized Juiz de Fora manufacturing plant, during the first quarter of 2007.

The new premium-priced liftback is planned to make its public premiere at next year's Geneva Motor Show. It will be produced on the same production line now used to assemble the C-Class sedan, which is due to stop production in January in preparation for the introduction of an all-new third-generation model from Germany for the NAFTA market.

The C-Class sport coupe, sedan and wagon had been built together in Sindelfingen, Germany, since 2000. With this announcement, Mercedes appears to be sending a signal to powerful German unions: Get flexible or risk losing more production to low-cost plants such as Juiz de Fora, which was originally set up for A-Class production in the mid-1990s. "It no longer makes economical or logistical sense to continue producing the C-Class sports coupe in the same factory," a high-ranking Mercedes-Benz source told Inside Line.

Despite using the same basic underpinnings as today's six-year-old model, the second-generation C-Class sports coupe will receive a new steel body shell and a heavily reworked interior, both sharing styling cues with next-year's C-Class sedan and wagon. Engine options are likely to range from a base turbocharged 1.8-liter four-cylinder gas engine to a turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 common-rail diesel. Unlike the first-generation model, however, the new one will be sold exclusively with rear-wheel drive in a bid to streamline operations.

Mercedes-Benz insiders indicate the new model will be marketed as a stand-alone model in the same way the C-Class-based CLK is differentiated from its more mundane siblings.The German carmaker remains tight-lipped about plans to sell the new car in North America. Sales of the first-generation C-Class sport coupe failed to live up to expectations when it was launched in the U.S., and it was subsequently dropped from the lineup.

What this means to you: Mercedes-Benz's pressing need to lower development and production costs means the second-generation C-Class sport coupe will have a high percentage of carryover components. Does this portend a trend for other models in the future?