Sleigh bells.That’s the image that’s eluded me all these years: the precise chiming of an idling sports car, like the Lexus LF-A or Audi R8 V10. It sounds like sleigh bells. Happy sleigh bells.
There are no sleigh bells in the 2013 Mercedes-Benz GL350 BlueTec diesel. The timbre of this machine is a dark, deep, damped, an organic ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh. Bell-wise, this thing needs its own hunchback.
This, the company’s ground-up redesign of its Alabama-built, large luxury SUV with a high-mileage diesel (19/26 miles per gallon) under the hood, is an absolute hoss: 16.7 feet long, 6 feet high and 7 feet wide at the side mirrors. The GL350 doesn’t come around a corner so much as heave into view like a dangerous iceberg. It’s flipping Homeric.
If you can get over the sheer presumption of it all, and hike your hams up to the diamond-quilt leather driver’s seat, you will find yourself ahold of a very sturdy object, indeed. The new GL—seven-passenger, 7,500-pound towing, all-wheel drive—is roughly the same size as before (about the dimensions and weight of a Chevy Tahoe), but there’s a lot more standard content in that footprint.
Mercedes is also pleased to offer you an impressive list of optional driver-assist and cabin amenities, all of which add weight. Our test vehicle, which clocked in at a brisk $99,840, represented the Russian Girlfriend package: illuminated running boards ($670); chocolate leather-and-walnut “Designo” appointments ($4,800); Bang & Olufsen sound system ($6,700); 20-inch wheels ($750); dual-panel panoramic sunroof ($1,090); rear-seat entertainment system ($1,970); heated rear seats ($620) and more.
Mercedes claims 5,467 pounds for the GL350, but my luxed-out example was certainly closer to three tons (for reference, the new alloy-chassis Range Rover has a real-world curb weight of about 5,000 pounds). Frankly, I think the GL’s curb weight is unsustainable going forward and will ultimately shorten this design’s shelf life.
Meantime, a unique characteristic of this GL, practically worth the price of admission all its own, is its serene, even ceremonial, quiet. The truck’s lack of vibration, noise or resonances constitutes an alternate aural reality. Go ahead, slam that door shut. Whhompf! And then you press the start button on the dash and—in our 3.0-liter turbodiesel test truck—a moment’s delay, and then the tick-purr of the engine. The faintest shudder, coming from many decks below, is your only sign that a 52-pound crankshaft has suddenly accelerated to 800 rpm. It’s like firing up a Coast Guard cutter.
Part of this effect is due to the diesel’s BlueTec system, which includes a fuel-saving stop/start function, shutting down the engine while the vehicle is not moving. Firing up/shutting down a rattling diesel engine—particularly a V6, which has higher vibrational tendencies anyway—wants to impart a lot of noise and rocking motions to the chassis. In order to quell these transient vibrations, the GL’s engine and transmission mountings are effectively over-engineered. Once the engine is running, whatever torquing and vibrations sneak past the engine mounts dwindle to almost nothing in the vehicle’s huge, attenuating structure.
Here the careful reader will note I’m wildly out of my depth. The point is, Gitmo doesn’t have this kind of isolation.
Behind the handsome, purposeful grille is Mercedes’s evolved OM642 diesel V6 (72-degree bank, 48-degree crankpin offset, with center counterbalance shaft), connected to the GL’s standard seven-speed automatic transmission. Even under heavy throttle, the upshifts are creamy-smooth, and when the GL350 reaches highway speeds, the transmission slips into a nearly catatonic double overdrive. At 80 mph, the engine is turning about 1,800 rpm (redline is 4,500 rpm). With full tank of oil, the GL350 has a stated range of 600 miles.
For petrol fans, Mercedes deploys three newish, turbocharged direct-injection V8′s: two 4.6-liter units producing either 362 horsepower (GL450) or 429 hp (GL550); or the heavy-breathing 5.5-liter, 550-hp mill in the GL63 AMG, which is, obviously, balling.
Ordinarily I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the diesel version of the GL, which has range, mileage and impeccable refinement on its side. The diesel’s 455 pound-feet of peak torque (1,600-2,400 rpm), is plenty capable of stirring the big truck to 60 mph in 8.3 seconds, give or take a Russian girlfriend. Fast enough. The OM642 is a tractable, effortless and flexible powerplant at urban speeds, with minimal inertia and almost nothing of what you’d call turbo lag.
However, the GL350 does start to run out of reserve acceleration at interstate speeds. On some of California’s more demanding freeways, I imagine the GL might feel a little pokey. The AMG’s 5.5-liter certainly has the cure for that.
Also, Mercedes’s product planners have decreed that the off-road package—low-speed transfer case, multimode driving selector, 12-inch extended ride height, skid plates ($2,850)—will be available only with the gas-engine GLs. I’m sure this is a carefully considered decision, but I bet it will frustrate a lot of diesel shoppers.
The GL’s 2013 updating brings along Mercedes’s current spread-wing dash design, with standard Eucalyptus or optional burled-walnut wood veneer flowing into the doors’ wainscoting. Our test truck’s quilted-leather “Designo” auburn upholstery, on the seats, doors and dash, was a wonderfully rich and expressive touch, and for $4,800, it ought to be.
Other notable cabin improvements include the power middle-row seats, which slew forward to ease access to the third-row seats; and the optional Surround View Monitor ($1,290), bundled with the Parktronic active parking assist system. Surround View creates a bird’s-eye view of the vehicle by compositing images from four cameras around the vehicle, helping drivers maneuver in tight situations. This system is a must-have simply because the GL’s outward visibility is so seriously constrained and the sprawl of the vehicle makes it hard to tell where the corners are. Honestly, parts of this beast might as well be in Burma.
Like other high-end SUV manufacturers, only maybe more so, Mercedes continues to try to improve on these big vehicles’ manageability. The GL offers standard crosswind stabilization and trailer-stability assist (both are overlays of the stability-control system). Optionally, there’s the adaptive/driver-selectable four-mode air-suspension system; and the “Active Curve System,” which uses active antiroll bars front and rear to limit body roll in sweeping turns.
Other technologies to help drivers keep it between the lines: standard Collision Prevention assist (warns of, and braces for, potential impacts with vehicles ahead); and the Driver Assist package ($2,100), including blind-spot monitoring, active lane-keeping and Distronic adaptive cruise control.
Still, even with these interventions, the GL feels large, lane-spanning and tall, a creature of barely constrained momentum whose road-holding is never entirely convincing. Yes, the ride is pretty great in a softly padded way. But there’s entirely too much piloting, too much beating-upwind-in-a-dirigible, especially on a country road. The steering is lazy and resolutely vague. The GL sort of hates to be hustled at all, frankly.
If they asked me what’s the one thing I’d want more of in the GL, the answer would be “reassurance.”
And sleigh bells.
2013 Mercedes-Benz GL350 BlueTec
Base price: $63,305
Price as tested: $99,840
Powertrain: 3.0-liter, 24-valve turbodiesel V6 with variable valve timing; seven-speed automatic transmission with manual shift mode; permanent all-wheel drive
Horsepower/torque: 240 hp at 2,600 rpm/455 pound-feet at 1,600-2,400 rpm
Length/weight: 201.6 inches/5,467 pounds
Wheelbase: 121.1 inches
0-60 mph: 8.3 seconds
EPA fuel economy: 19/26 mpg, city/highway
Cargo capacity: 16 cubic feet (behind third-row seats); 93.8 cubic feet (middle and rear rows folded)
Courtesy of: http://on.wsj.com/TiuN5Z
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