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CARMEL VALLEY – Mercedes-Benz now sells a dozen models to U.S. buyers. They include sedans, coupes, wagons, convertibles, roadsters and sport-utilities.

None, however, is quite as surprising as the new 2006 R-Class, which went on sale in late September.

Company executives at a media introduction took great pains not to call it a minivan — or a sport-utility or wagon.

“We’re saying it basically creates a brand-new segment,” said Ron Mueller, manager of luxury sport-utility and touring vehicles for Mercedes-Benz USA. “We’re calling it the sports tourer segment.”

Indeed, finding a vehicle that compares with this six-seats-in-three-rows, all-wheel-drive, four-door machine is difficult. Chrysler, which along with Mercedes is part of Germany’s DaimlerChrysler, offers the Pacifica, but it’s much smaller and much cheaper and less powerful.

Mazda has the new Mazda5, but it’s even smaller, even cheaper and even less powerful.

Some suggest Cadillac’s SRX, a wagon-SUV combo that seats either five or seven, is the nearest rival to the R-Class.

Perhaps it’s best to look forward instead and see a time in the near future when Audi will sell the Q7, BMW will have the V5 and Lexus will have a production version of its LF-X concept (or Toyota’s FSC concept). Then it’ll be easier to decide if the R-Class is an anomaly or the start of something bigger.

Did we say bigger? That’s one of the words Mueller used to describe the R-Class.

“This vehicle is much bigger than it appears,” he said. It’s 14 inches longer than the 2006 M-Class sport-utility, which itself grew six inches over the 2005 version.

Otherwise, it’s 10 inches longer than Cadillac’s SRX and four inches longer than the massive Cadillac Escalade full-size sport-utility.

Mueller notes the R-Class is 203 inches long, 76 inches wide and 65 inches high.

“As soon as people look at this vehicle, they say, `It’s nice looking.’ They crawl inside this vehicle, they say, `Holy cow! Where’d all this space come from?’ ” he said.

“That’s the whole idea of what we’re trying to get across with the R-Class. It is huge. For the first time, you don’t have to compromise luxury for size. You can have both for the American taste.”

And although it’ll be sold elsewhere, it’s obvious the R-Class is made for the United States. It comes out of the Mercedes plant in Vance, Ala., where workers also build the M-Class. Both vehicles share platforms and V-6 and V-8 engines.

R-Class profile

Buyers are expected to be 45 to 55 years old, with household incomes of more than $150,000 and driving perhaps their third or fourth sport-utility, Mueller said.

In Mercedes marketing-speak, they’ll either be late-forming affluent families or socialite empty-nesters. The first will have two or three children. The second will be “well-educated, emotionally rational” trend-setters and early adopters.

Either way, they’ll want what the R-Class offers.

All R-Class models have six leather-covered bucket seats, wood trim, all-wheel drive, a seven-speed automatic transmission and six cup holders.

The R350, with a starting price of $48,775, has a 268-horsepower, 3.5-liter V-6 engine, 17-inch alloy wheels, a load-leveling rear air suspension, dual zone air conditioning, Rain Sensor wipers and window curtain air bags for all three rows of seats.

The R500, which starts at $56,275, comes with a 302-horsepower, 5.0-liter V-8, 18-inch wheels, a six-disc CD changer, burl walnut trim and the TeleAid safety-concierge system.

Most buyers, Mueller said, will opt for the premium package that includes upgraded entertainment features, a panoramic roof that gives the vehicle an airy feel, a power rear lift gate and DVD navigation.

Fuel economy is “very good,” Mueller said, “for such a big vehicle.” According to the government’s www.fuel economy.gov site, the R350 gets 16 mpg in the city and 21 mpg on the highway, while the R500 gets 13/18.

Mercedes displayed several concept versions of the R-Class over the past several years, calling it the Vision Grand Sport Tourer. The production R-Class emerged little changed from that original idea, Mueller said.

The goal was to build something for buyers who needed versatility, but wanted luxury, too.

“These are the people who jumped on the SUV trend in the early ’90s and now they’re looking for something different,” he said.

Critics think they’ve met that goal. J.P. Vettraino in AutoWeek wrote, “The R comfortably seats six, with acceleration of a BMW 530i or Acura RL, full-time all-wheel drive and impressive people- and cargo-hauling flexibility.”

Mueller, who said R-Class buyers will be evenly split between men and women, said the vehicle’s room and comfort for six adults is one of its most surprising features.

Designers and engineers, he said, created an environment for each occupant. Each seating position comes with an adjustable seat, a cup holder, an armrest, a view, a light and a vent. All but the third row have personalized entertainment options.

Cargo space

“We think of the first row as the cockpit, the second row as first class and the third row as business class,” he said.

He described third-row space as “something unprecedented. This is not just going to be a temporary solution. It’s for socializing. This is room for six adults.”

While there’s plentiful passenger room, there’s not much cargo space behind the third-row seats. Muller said, however, that all four of the rear seats fold flat to expand cargo capacity.

The R-Class won’t steal sales from the M-Class or from Mercedes’ station wagons, he said. While the automaker thinks it’ll sell 30,000 of the vehicles in a full year on the market, the Alabama plant is flexible and can adapt to what people are buying.

So far in 2005, according to Automotive News, the facility has built 4,232 R-Class models and 38,627 M-Class models. In September, U.S. Mercedes dealers sold their first 386 units of the R-Class as well as 2,727 of the M-Class.

Next year, Mercedes (and the Alabama plant) will add a third vehicle, the G-Class, which will be a three-row sport-utility that’s bigger than the M-Class and better suited for off-road use than the R-Class.

Contact Matt Nauman at mnauman@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5701.