The Mercedes V-Class and Marco Polo are now even posher

Thought SUVs had all but killed off the people carrier? You are wrong, and the latest Mercedes V-Class is where to pick your fight if you disagree. It has just been updated after setting a sales record in 2018, and it’s posher and more powerful than ever.

The word ‘sporty’ appears in the V-Class’s bumf with alarming frequency, given that’s really not what it’s about (unless you’re Brabus), but rest assured its core abilities haven’t been forgotten. So as well as having the choice of six to eight seats if this is a family holdall, you can also make it a mobile pampering booth with a pair of luxurious reclining seats nicked from the back of an S-Class.

“A journey in the new V-Class as a VIP shuttle thus feels more like a spa treatment after a stressful flight or business meeting,” says Mercedes. Let’s hope the AMG Line trim doesn’t bring suspension jiggly enough to spill all the water from the Jacuzzi.

The Marco Polo campervan remains, too, for when a VW California just isn’t posh enough. All versions get the same engine options: a pair of four-cylinder diesels, the most powerful offering up 236bhp, a 7.9sec 0-62mph time and a 137mph top speed. You can now have a nine-speed automatic gearbox in a V-Class for the first time, with actual Sport and paddle-shifted Manual modes. Of course.

Perhaps more pertinently, the Geneva Motor Show will yield a Mercedes EQV concept that’ll show us what a fully electric Merc people carrier looks like. A V-Class with all the air vents smoothed over and a charging socket on the side, we’d wager, but we’d love to be surprised.

For now, Merc hasn’t messed too much with what would seem to be a winning formula. Like it?