>From "Automobile" March '95:

Update: 1997 Mercede-Benz Sport-Ute.

"We hope to be first on the market with a crossbreed between an off-roader
and a minivan" says Andreas Renschler, the young shooting star who heads
Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, the Alabama production facility that
will produce an off-roader in 1997.
The all-activity vehicle (AAV) initially will be available only with four
doors and a metal top. Mercedes has chosen traditional body-on-frame
construction for the AAV; howerver, unlike most sport-utility vehicles, it
will ride on a four-wheel independent suspension. Like the Range Rover, it
will have full-time four wheel drive.
Stuttgart sources say the engines will come from Germany - probably a 3.2
liter V-6 tuned for bottom-end torque and 200 bhp, followed by a larger
V-6 and a V-8 at the top of the line. Versions sold in the United States
will initially be equipped solely with five-speed automatics. Production
at the brand-new assembly site near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will start in
January 1997, and output is going to be close to 70,000 a year.
Prices will range from the low $30,000s to the low $40,00s. Mercedes
hasn't yet decided on a name for its $300 million baby, but the sales and
marketing director promised former Alabama governor Jim Folsom that the
first AAV off the line will be badged the Folsom.

-Georg Kacher

What about that Joel!?

Alistair