Looking to buy a diesel Mercedes C-Class? Hope you like waiting
The ubiquitous luxury sedan won't see a diesel variant arrive in the US until 2017 at the earliest.
Dieselgate was Volkswagen's mess, but that mess has spread to other automakers. Thanks to the resulting industry scrutiny, Mercedes-Benz has to delay the arrival of its C-Class diesel and other oil-burning luxury vehicles. What was supposed to arrive this year will now be here next year...hopefully.
While it should have landed at dealerships in the first quarter of this year, the Mercedes-Benz C300d will eventually make its way to the showroom sometime in 2017, Automotive News reports. The diesel variant of its new GLC-Class crossover will also be delayed.
There's no firm release date for either. Mercedes-Benz didn't immediately reply to our request for comment, but it did tell Automotive News that the C300d won't show up until around mid-year, but that's only an estimate. Currently, it's selling just one diesel model -- the GLE300d, formerly known as the M-Class.
You can thank Volkswagen for these delays. After admitting to sending millions of over-polluting diesels onto roads around the world, regulators have called for greater scrutiny -- not just for VW, but for the industry as a whole. This has prevented new diesels from coming to market in a timely manner. Thankfully, diesel vehicles are a very small piece of Mercedes' US pie, comprising less than 2 percent of its annual sales.
