Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Audi of Melbourne

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Driving Impressions

In any variant, the Mercedes M-Class will do just about anything the typical owner demands, on road or off. Acceleration ranges from better-than-adequate, even with the new diesel engine, to oh-my-gosh! with the new ML63 AMG. Ride quality on pavement is never rough, even in the more stiffly suspended ML63, which features Mercedes' automatic AirMatic air suspension as standard equipment.

New for 2007 is the available 3.2-liter diesel V6. This is the state of the art in diesel engines and we really like it. It's as clean as the ML's gasoline engines and gets much better fuel economy, yet it is not available in California and four other states. With this engine, there is no black soot, no sulfur smell and no loud, clattering noise. At idle the diesel in the ML320 CDI is nearly as quiet as the gasoline engine in the ML350, and that's when you're standing outside next to the vehicle. Inside, a driver is hard pressed to tell any difference between the gas and diesel engines, measured by noise or vibration. The only obvious difference is that the diesel shifts to a higher gear under full-throttle acceleration sooner than the gas engine to take advantage of its torque.

There's no decrease in performance, either. Mercedes reports identical 0-60 mph times of 7.9 seconds for the both the ML320 diesel and the ML350. Yet that doesn't tell the whole story, because in short bursts the diesel actually accelerates more quickly. Its whopping 398 pound-feet of torque (compared to 258 lb-ft for the ML350) comes across as a neck-whipping burst of acceleration. And for this the diesel buyer gets a fuel economy improvement of 30 percent or more in real-world driving. We're perfectly happen in the ML350, but if diesel were readily available on our appointed rounds, we would choose the ML320 CDI over the ML350.

During several days of hard driving in the south of France, we found the ML500 a hoot. The 5.0-liter V8 engine will take this 2.5-ton SUV from 0-60 mph in less than seven seconds flat, and then settles down to a background burble by the time you reach seventh-gear overdrive. The seven-speed automatic offers a manual-shift mode, and it's the best automatic Mercedes has built. It's flexible, in that it kicks down to a lower gear more quickly than its predecessors, and it almost always keeps the engine in the most productive part of its power band. Yet its overdrive top gear makes for quiet high-speed cruising and better fuel economy.

The suspension is good at keeping the ML nice and flat in high-speed corners, and it smoothes dips and potholes better than we'd expect a truck to do. The optional AirMatic suspension we tested in France can be downright supple, which trucks aren't supposed to be. The larger standard 18-inch wheels and tires with the 5.0 V8 and the power rack-and-pinion steering deliver a nice feel of the road, and quick reactions when necessary. At high speeds through mountain passes, the ML500 leans over a little, takes a set, and then grabs the ground and turns the corners.

Critics have complained with some justification about the electronically actuated and modulated Sensotronic brake system that Mercedes-Benz has been feeding gradually into all of its models over the last few years. We're getting used to them, and they'll stop the M-Class right now without much pedal effort. They've also improved considerably since they were first introduced. Yet they still don't have the smooth, linear feel of the best mechanically actuated brake systems. Nice smooth stops can be tricky without practice. We prefer the brakes in the Mercedes cars that do not have Sensotronic.

Off road, the ML500 and ML63 AMG have two significant added features: a Downhill Speed Regulation software control that won't let you and it go any faster than about 7 mph downhill, and a Start-Off Assist that keeps the vehicle from drifting backward in Drive or forward in Reverse on steep

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