We review the Mercedes GL-Class SUV from price to economy and all its features
THE jagged dark mountain tops rip into the searing blue skyline as I gallop along the miles of flat, barren desert of America.
You can almost sense the ghosts of John Wayne and Charlton Heston riding alongside as the sizzling near-100°F heat distorts the view of the unforgiving horizon.
But my horsepower is of the four-wheeled, not four-legged kind — the new Mercedes GL-Class large SUV.
This is New Mexico, once dubbed the Cowboy Capital of the World.
Now the home of Western movies is being touted as the Hollywood of America’s south-west, thanks to films like Young Guns and Dances With Wolves, not to mention the remake of The Lone Ranger starring Johnny Depp, which is currently being shot here.
This new sprinkling of Tinseltown has completely rejuvenated the state. Mercedes are hoping some of that box office success rubs off on their big GL.
The GL was launched in New Mexico’s capital Santa Fe this week and we had an exclusive first drive of the 4x4 that has it all to do to overtake the Range Rover, Audi Q7 and Toyota Land Cruiser.
In the States, the GL is the luxury 4x4 king, selling 25,000 a year. But on our shores it has only sold 3,167 in six years.
As Mercedes continue on an incredible UK sales boom, the GL gets a crucial upgrade. It’s no cowboy outfit, but it needed improving.
Swiftly following in the tyretracks of a facelift for its little brother M-Class, now the second-generation seven-seater has more firepower, added glitz inside, outside and under the bonnet.
It certainly looks more imposing, with lots more shiny bits including LED details for the headlights and a front bumper that features LED running lights and extended chrome-effect trim.
Inside, it’s like the ML with a similar fascia including a big central display for the standard command infotainment system.
The cabin has an outstanding blend of quality materials, with double-stitched leather for the top of the fascia and door panels.
The middle row of seats has reasonable space for three adults, and even the rear seats are comfortable for grown-ups, but perhaps a tad lacking in legroom for longer journeys.
The central row folds up and away as a 60/40 split, easing access to the rear. This movement can be completed using a simple switch with an electric motor as an option.
The rear seats, meanwhile, get electric motors as standard that fold them into a flat load bay. With the second and third rows folded, the boot capacity can be extended from 680litres to an impressive 2,300litres.
more motors
There’s also tons of safety equipment on board, with 20 on-road systems — ranging from a 360-degree parking camera to collision avoidance, crosswind assist and Mercedes’ driver fatigue monitoring — joined by ten airbags, including standard window airbags for all three rows of passengers. Forget the Indians, this Merc is all about cowboys and engines.
The German giants are making a big play out of a claimed 20 per cent improved fuel economy and more refinement.
The line-up in the UK will remain the same as the current model’s, with two engines. The GL350 CDI gets the familiar 3litre V6 turbodiesel, producing 255bhp and returning 38mpg and 192g/km of CO2 — although even my fairly placid drive only delivered 25mpg.
There’s also a petrol option, the GL500, which now boasts a 4.6litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine producing a whopping 429bhp.
While its 25mpg and 262g/km are both better figures than the old version, it’s unlikely to sell in a big way.
On the road, the GL feels big and bulky. Merc have made it larger in every dimension at 5,120mm long, 2,141mm wide and 1,850mm tall.
Remarkably, they have shaved 90kg off the weight, but it’s still 2,500kg — two and a half tonnes — and feels every gram of it.
The diesel isn’t sluggish but at the same time it’s in no way athletic and, although the GL500 petrol is more eager, it’s still not pacy.
Once you get up to speed they cruise along but it seems to take an age to get there. In these parts the GL feels more Johnny Vegas than John Wayne.
That’s also apparent with cornering. If you are at any sort of speed the GL doesn’t roll but it takes some hanging on to.
Mercedes appear to have done this on purpose. In the land of rodeo, the GL is the polar opposite. It’s here to smooth out and shut out life’s unpleasantaries — and New Mexico is tough territory. Legend has it that parts of this area were so lawless in the mid-1800s that a paper stated: “Everything is quiet. Nobody has been killed in three days.”
It still doesn’t feel that safe. One poignant road sign said “Please Take Care” — and it was covered in BULLET HOLES.
If you don’t get shot, there’s also the danger of getting finished off by lethal venom from the rattlesnakes.
The GL makes you almost oblivious to sinister surroundings. Even ploughing through deep water of New Mexico’s longest river, the Rio Grande, the GL just mile-munches through anything in its way.
The steering is uninvolving and, with all the aids, it’s almost like the GL drives itself. But there’s something quite impressive about that.
This is as undemanding as driving gets — and the diesel tank will let you drive 800 miles between fill-ups.
Trying to pigeonhole the GL is difficult. Its previous strength has been that it almost stands alone as a big seven-seater.
Its extra two seats give it an edge and it’s more comfortable than an X5. Against the Range Rover and Land Cruiser it is nowhere near as commanding on driving position or off-road — as my puncture on a relatively tame rough track proved.
The GL goes like-for-like with seven seats against the Q7 and Land Rover Discovery. It is more supple than the Q7 but again lacks the off-road talent of the Disco.
Prices will start at around £62,000 when it goes on sale early next year — rising to £90k for the outrageous 549bhp 0-62mph-in-just-4.9-seconds GL63 AMG. The bottom line is that if you need the extra seating and a premium mile-muncher, there’s a new sheriff in town — the GL.
As I drive into the desert sunset, the credits start to roll down in my mind on this latest New Mexico Western.
This one has just been named The Good, The Bad And The Luxury.