Sunday Drive: Mercedes-Benz GLS 400d

Sunday, 5 April 2020

**MERCEDES-BENZ GLS 400d

Base price:** $166,700

Powertrain and performance: 2.9-litre turbo-diesel inline six, 243kW/700Nm, 9-speed automatic, AWD, Combined economy 7.7 litres per 100km, 201g/km CO2 (source: Rightcar

The GLS hides its size well, buy trust us - it is really big.

Vital statistics: 5207mm long, 1838mm high, 3135mm wheelbase, luggage capacity 470 to 2400 litres, 21-inch alloy wheels with 275/45 front tyres, 315/40 rear.

We like: New driving feel, new look, equipment upgrade.

Big wheels for a big vehicle: the GLS comes with 21-inch alloys as standard. These are the optional 23s.

We don't like: Lacks 48V architecture and active suspension.

This road test was completed before the current coronavirus lockdown restrictions came into effect.

Stunningly silky smooth and powerful, Mercedes' latest turbo diesel inline six is a gem.

'That wheel is half an inch larger than you get on any Mercedes bus.'

If anyone knows this, it's Pete, who buys and sells coaches. About those 23-inch alloys. Coming with the press test GLS's AMG Line night package, the biggest rim yet fitted to a production Benz didn't seem outrageous. It comes out on 21s anyway. And if you start big, why not go even bigger?

It might look quite a lot like a GLE, but the difference is all that massive room in the rear.

The flagship seven-seater sports utility certainly does that. At 5.2m long and almost 2m wide, it's 77mm longer and 22mm wider than the outgoing edition and achieves a bigger footprint than the BMW X7 (which you'd swear was bulkier) and dwarfs Audi's nearest equivalent, the Q7.

**READ MORE:

The GLS's interior is massively luxurious and packed with the latest tech.

* NZ exclusive: Mercedes-Benz Vision EQS - driving the prototype

* Mercedes developing fully electric G Wagen

* Not only a……s drive Mercedes

* Is this finally the Mercedes-Benz S-class of SUVs?**

Unsurprisingly, berthing in parallel car parks makes you thankful for its complete suite of useful assists. Yet that's about the only occasion when you might stand accused of sizeism.

On the move, whether threading busy traffic streams or steaming solidly along any open road, it better shakes off supertanker sense than preceding generations managed and, if anything, feels likes a scaled-up GLE.

That stands to reason. They're sharing a common Modular High Architecture (MHA) underpinning lending as much dynamic improvement here as it does to the smaller stablemate. Also, you're not wrong thinking the larger feels lighter. There's kerb weight reduction. Picking design resemblance to GLE isn't off-beam, either. They're styling sisters.

All this and an admirable 12.5 metre turning circle, but you'd still blanch at taking it into congested lanes or carparking buildings.

The obvious practical benefit of the size comes with cabin space. A 3135mm wheelbase (so, 60mm longer than previously) delivers up to 87mm more leg room than the previous version and allows for a back seat that really will genuinely take a grown-up. Folding the second and third seat rows creates a flat floored area big enough for an echo.

All in all, it's a better people-mover than some people-movers. Okay, a taller one, too, so ladders to the ready on the school run, assuming you're happy taking sticky-fingered youngsters. Second and third row passengers not only lounge like royalty but, like those in the first row, also enjoy full-out premium.

With an owner base likely to be from a wealth band that probably treats big dollar transactions as it they were spending cents, is it a heresy to this twin turbo six-cylinder diesel version might well fit lifestyles better than the twin-turbo petrol V8 AMG on the horizon?

Er, probably. Yet if it was my call, this 400d is where I'd stake the family fortune. Sporting stomp is all very well, but even when putting aside the benefits of far better economy and range, and perhaps not giving a mind (though you should) to it being a much cleaner unit than its predecessor, the oiler is also set to be more operationally endearing in the long run.

Delivering 53kW more power and 80Nm more torque than the old one is a good improvement, but it's how that muscularity deals out that really takes your attention. There's huge low to medium range shove, yet even when nailing it's so astoundingly smooth and syrupy you really can almost forget what kind of fuel is being burned. The interaction with the nine-speed auto is generally sublime, too. on top of this, it has improved emissions, with AdBlue and an ammonia filter to reduce smut.

A good thing might have become even better when it adopts an energy-conserving, performance-enhancing 48V electrical architecture and an integrated starter-generator, which recoups electrical power when coasting. For now, that's only on the mainstream petrols we don't see.

Also absent from the diesel roster is the E-Active Body Control to abet the car's active air suspension. Likely to be standard with the AMG, this set-up is potentially an over-egging enhancement for the diesel, given its laidback operability. Yet, at the international launch in the United States I really enjoyed the dynamic deftness from a feature using stereoscopic cameras (so, two feeds rather than one) to scan the road ahead and prime the dampers so the GLS leans into bends like a motorbike, to achieve faster and more precise lines.

Going without doesn't stop the GLS from dancing. Sure, it loses the ability to corner as flatly, yet generally it's being surprisingly sharp for something weighing in at more than two tonnes. There's plenty of grip and there's even the slightest hint of feel at the steering wheel's rim.

Issues? As good as it is in isolating the bumps and ruts, that air suspension isn't as good at some, in that none of the modes feel truly natural or perfectly right. Sport clearly sharpens the handling but is brittle on coarse chip; Comfort lends quite a supple ride but the car is sloppier in bends. Or that's the impression. In reality, there's a higher level of competence than you'll give credit. And, by the by, having driven one of these up a Utah mountain, I can attest this confidence on all surfaces extends to proper off-roading.

So it goes big. But here's the hitch. Buyers don't absolutely have to. The GLE has the same tech, mechanicals and platform and can be just as luxuriously kitted. Plus it also has seven seats, just a little less kneeroom., Yet it'll seem 100 percent an equal for 99 percent of the time.