Spy Shots: GLS-Class Facelift

By Manuel Carrillo III - December 15, 2014

Joan Rivers may be dead, but plastic surgery isn’t, especially in the automotive world. The facelifts carry on with the 2016 Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class … you know, the class that used to be called “GL”.

I wonder if the luxury segment has seen more name changes than the L.A. County Court clerk’s divorce file?

But I digress. Let’s analyze the first spy shots of the facelifted 2016 Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class. The big GL Benz came out in 2012, so this nip/tuck is showing up right on time. This cosmetic surgery should keep the design fresh until the full-scale-redesigned GLS shows up closer to 2018.

Our frostbite-fetish spies caught this one testing in Scandinavia. We can determine from the camouflage covering only the front and rear fascias that the styling changes will only affect the lights, bumpers and the front grille.

The GLS-Class range will continue to include the GLS350 BlueTEC, GLS450, GLS550 and the GLS63 AMG as well as the GLS400 with its 3.0L twin-turbo 333-horsepower V6 that is potent enough to get the 5,400-lb. SUV to 60 mph in just 6.7 seconds on the way up to a 149-mph top speed.

I’m just thinking, it’s wild how you only need 333-hp to get the behemoth to 149 mph. That speaks to M-B’s aerodynamic acumen. Also, 149 mph in a GLS; that has to be enough mass at speed to discombobulate something in the space-time continuum.

But I digress again. Here’s what the spies are dumping into our ear canals regarding the fully redesigned model that is following this mid-cycle refresh: “The next-gen GLS will be offered in a more luxurious Maybach variant”. Chew on that one with your beef jerky.

Don’t be surprised if the facelifted GLS shows up at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show in January. I am confident in saying that even if you throw a surprised look at the GLS when you first see it in person, its refreshed face won’t throw an awful post-facelift expression back at you.