Mercedes' pickup failure - the X-Class story

Mercedes is the purveyor of high-class limousines, so it might be odd to think of them selling a go-anywhere pickup that’s more used to lugging a few bags of cement back from the DIY shop. But it’s not that strange an idea, after all, they’ve been producing vans, trucks and buses for almost a century. But the Mercedes X-Class wasn’t going to be sold alongside their commercial vehicles, this was for the type of customer who bought their luxury cars. Just why did Mercedes decide to make a pickup, and why did it last less than three years before being axed?