Mercedes Cuts Westfalia Loose And Builds The New Marco Polo Camper Itself

Camper van content has a way of making every trip look like a Patagonia shoot. In practice it’s usually a Friday night, a trailhead parking lot, and a two-burner stove that folds out of a cabinet.

Europe has always been better set up for that version of it than we are, and Mercedes has been feeding that market since 1984. Its latest crack at it, the updated V-Class Marco Polo, goes on sale August 5.

Westfalia Finally Gets Cut Loose

Here’s the part that’s pretty much flew under the radar. Every Marco Polo since the beginning has leaned on Westfalia, the German outfit that built its reputation turning VW buses into the Westy long before Mercedes came calling.

However, this one doesn’t. The V-Class still gets assembled in Vitoria, Spain, but the camper conversion now happens at Mercedes’ own plant in Ludwigsfelde, Germany, making this the first Marco Polo built start to finish inside the company.

Four More Inches Up Top

The pop-top is the headline change and it’s a real one. A new double-skinned aluminum shell opens up 14.6 inches of headroom at the rear, roughly four inches more than before.

Mercedes also ran LED ambient lighting through the roof with selectable scenes from cool to warm. A sliding roof and a panoramic opening in the canvas arrive later this year, so you can stare at actual sky instead of the fabric two feet above your face.

Small Fixes, Big Difference

There’s also a handful of updates that were based on customer feedback. The awning now comes off using a hand crank stored in its own bracket, which means the van fits through a car wash again.

Magnetic blackout panels go up in seconds, and there’s a new eight-speaker system with a subwoofer that keeps playing over Bluetooth after the infotainment shuts off. Mercedes also states the new 40-liter cool box pulls 25 percent less power. Not glamorous, but it’s the stuff you definitely notice when using the camper van.

Still A Diesel Van Underneath

None of this touches the drivetrain, which remains a trio of four-cylinder diesels. The base unit makes 161 horsepower and 280 lb-ft, the 250 d bumps that to 187 and 324, and the range-topping 300 d lands at 234 horsepower and 369 lb-ft.

All three run a nine-speed automatic with rear- or all-wheel drive, and the quickest version hits 62 mph in 8.8 seconds – not that anybody’s racing one of these things.

Spec Sheet

Pricing & Availability

Orders open across Europe on August 5, though Mercedes hasn’t put a number on the updated version yet. The outgoing Marco Polo runs €80,664 (~$91,737) in Germany, well north of the refreshed VW California Beach at €66,087 (~$76,305). And no, it isn’t coming stateside. Mercedes pulled the Metris from the US after 2023, so there’s no V-Class here to convert in the first place.