LA Times review of GL450
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'08 AM Vantage V8 - '03 E500
LA Times review of GL450
Dan Neil of the LA Times, the only journalist to win a Pulitzer for reviewing cars, has an acerbic take on the GL 450 in the 3/15 LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/classified/au...-home-highway1
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Some of his choicer comments on the new leviathan:
http://www.latimes.com/classified/au...-home-highway1
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Some of his choicer comments on the new leviathan:
THERE'S something peculiarly egregious, something antagonizing about the 2007 Mercedes-Benz GL, the company's new full-size, 15-mpg sport-utility vehicle, which might be described as a Cadillac Escalade with a hankering for Czechoslovakia. For one thing, it goes to show that, even though the full-size SUV market has fallen off dramatically in the last year, there are still sufficient numbers of selfish rotters out there to constitute an appealing market segment.
Mercedes-Benz executives offer this wholly meritless defense: Many of its customers leave the brand because the company does not offer a full-size SUV that meets their needs, which is to say, a seven-passenger, 17-foot 4x4 with a 9,300-pound towing capacity. At this point in the presentation in Napa Valley last week, execs showed slides of the GL pulling a 30-foot boat. So there you have it: Mercedes' audience of water-skiing polygamists is underserved.
Did the man say needs? OK, then. I propose needs testing for the purchase of such a vehicle. You must have a Chris-Craft and three or more school-age children in the yard to qualify. Your vehicle must do double-duty as, um, a bookmobile.
Need has very little to do with it. This segment is about want, naked and unquenchable, I-got-mine-you-get-bent appetite. It's well established that the vast majority of these vehicles never touch gravel, never carry more than a couple of people, and never tow anything heavier than the weight of their owner's childhood traumas.
Most people who buy the GL won't know a Class IV hitch from a Mark 48 torpedo. And I, for one, am not going to congratulate some Bel-Air singleton for his wise vehicle purchase when it is so patently purblind and morally retrograde.
Plainly, I'm disappointed that Mercedes-Benz — the company of Gullwings and 500Es, of elegant engineering and F1 cars — has decided to get into delivery van business. And yet I cannot fairly blame the company, which being a corporation is doing what corporations do in the absence of governance: Make as much money as is within its ken to do.
For all that, he goes on to say that, as land yachts go, it's pretty good.
Mercedes-Benz executives offer this wholly meritless defense: Many of its customers leave the brand because the company does not offer a full-size SUV that meets their needs, which is to say, a seven-passenger, 17-foot 4x4 with a 9,300-pound towing capacity. At this point in the presentation in Napa Valley last week, execs showed slides of the GL pulling a 30-foot boat. So there you have it: Mercedes' audience of water-skiing polygamists is underserved.
Did the man say needs? OK, then. I propose needs testing for the purchase of such a vehicle. You must have a Chris-Craft and three or more school-age children in the yard to qualify. Your vehicle must do double-duty as, um, a bookmobile.
Need has very little to do with it. This segment is about want, naked and unquenchable, I-got-mine-you-get-bent appetite. It's well established that the vast majority of these vehicles never touch gravel, never carry more than a couple of people, and never tow anything heavier than the weight of their owner's childhood traumas.
Most people who buy the GL won't know a Class IV hitch from a Mark 48 torpedo. And I, for one, am not going to congratulate some Bel-Air singleton for his wise vehicle purchase when it is so patently purblind and morally retrograde.
Plainly, I'm disappointed that Mercedes-Benz — the company of Gullwings and 500Es, of elegant engineering and F1 cars — has decided to get into delivery van business. And yet I cannot fairly blame the company, which being a corporation is doing what corporations do in the absence of governance: Make as much money as is within its ken to do.
Last edited by DWP; Mar 15, 2006 at 07:00 PM.
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Well apart from the obvious fact that the guy's a PC A$$hole with an axe to grind...he seemed to like the car.... 
I'll spend my money on the vehicle I need, and on the food that I want to consume - and I won't launch a tirade about the immorality of fast food and that it is bankrupting America's health...'cause I am not a PC A$$hole....
I'll spend my money on the vehicle I need, and on the food that I want to consume - and I won't launch a tirade about the immorality of fast food and that it is bankrupting America's health...'cause I am not a PC A$$hole....
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Originally Posted by DWP
Plainly, I'm disappointed that Mercedes-Benz — the company of Gullwings and 500Es, of elegant engineering and F1 cars — has decided to get into delivery van business. And yet I cannot fairly blame the company, which being a corporation is doing what corporations do in the absence of governance: Make as much money as is within its ken to do.
Mercedes was in the delivery van business long before he got his Pulitzer. And it would have taken him 3 seconds to find out.
Google "Mercedes delivery van":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_Sprinter
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From: Dallas TX
2013 650i Coupe, 2010 IS250 AWD, 1999 S500
This is why people from the L.A. Times and other "newspapers" should leave the auto reviewing to the people who have actually have a clue, the people who do it for a living. That wasn't even a review that was a editorial about large SUVs. Complete and utter rubbish.
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From: The Earth
Mercedes all the way!
an auto review with, erm, 2 paragraphs about the auto being reviewed? wtf?? :p and i thought clarkson is bad: at least clarkson is funny 
EDIT: oh yes, and he mentions the 500E as the type of vehicle mercedes used to build... hmm... so instead of a full-size SUV (which nobody needs, according to him) Merc should build a V8, 5 litre muscle car (which presumably is what we all need)?? this guy really has no clue at all.
EDIT: oh yes, and he mentions the 500E as the type of vehicle mercedes used to build... hmm... so instead of a full-size SUV (which nobody needs, according to him) Merc should build a V8, 5 litre muscle car (which presumably is what we all need)?? this guy really has no clue at all.
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From: Boston, MA
'03 BMW 330i ZHP / '06 Volvo V70R
Originally Posted by ruykava
an auto review with, erm, 2 paragraphs about the auto being reviewed? wtf?? :p and i thought clarkson is bad: at least clarkson is funny
EDIT: oh yes, and he mentions the 500E as the type of vehicle mercedes used to build... hmm... so instead of a full-size SUV (which nobody needs, according to him) Merc should build a V8, 5 litre muscle car (which presumably is what we all need)?? this guy really has no clue at all.
EDIT: oh yes, and he mentions the 500E as the type of vehicle mercedes used to build... hmm... so instead of a full-size SUV (which nobody needs, according to him) Merc should build a V8, 5 litre muscle car (which presumably is what we all need)?? this guy really has no clue at all.
Anyone is free to buy whatever he/she wants. But to buy a GL just because it's cool is pretty dumb. SUV's are great for the purpose they are supposed to serve.
I cannot fathom driving around by myself all the time in a 5500lbs SUV getting 13-15mpg. I don't care what SUV it is. SUV's should not be a single person's daily drivers.
But that's just me.
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MBWorld Fanatic!
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From: Southern California
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Originally Posted by mbr129
SUV's should not be a single person's daily drivers.
But that's just me.
But that's just me.
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From: North Bay Area, California
2001 E320
Maybe some people like to drive a large SUV due to the perceived safety. I live near a dangerous rual highway that has had five fatalities in the last year alone. Three of the accidents had Suburbans involved; no one died in any of the Suburbans involved, while the people in the other vehicles perished.
Sure, the drivers and passengers in the other vehicles were more politically correct because they were in smaller, fuel efficient vehicles. But they died...
I know which one makes since to me, regardless of fuel costs and difficulty in parking. I remember many years ago when the first Honda Civic CVCC came out; I drove one and was impressed with the fuel economy. When I asked the salesperson what would happen in a head-on, he told me 'if that's a concern to you, then don't get in a head-on!'
Words to live by...
Sure, the drivers and passengers in the other vehicles were more politically correct because they were in smaller, fuel efficient vehicles. But they died...
I know which one makes since to me, regardless of fuel costs and difficulty in parking. I remember many years ago when the first Honda Civic CVCC came out; I drove one and was impressed with the fuel economy. When I asked the salesperson what would happen in a head-on, he told me 'if that's a concern to you, then don't get in a head-on!'
Words to live by...
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From: Boston, MA
'03 BMW 330i ZHP / '06 Volvo V70R
Originally Posted by Richard / E320
Sure, the drivers and passengers in the other vehicles were more politically correct because they were in smaller, fuel efficient vehicles. But they died...
A) They may have died because they crashed into a 6,000lb monster intead of another "normal" car? I've read trhat large SUV's are safer but often times at the expense of killing the passengers of the other vehicle.
B) A smaller, nimbler car, can avoid accidents far easier than a large SUV.
My point is, I could be given an AMG GL for free and I would still drive my 330i everyday just because it is much more fun. It has nothing to do with being politically correct. I also rather have (nearly) twice the fuel range in a GL320 CDI than I would in a GL450 or whatever large gas V8. And as always, with heavy automatic cars, low-end torque is what matters, not hp. And diesels have plenty of low-end torque.
Sure, the GL450 has 335hp, but at 6000rpm. Are people going to be revving their GL's to 6K rpm often, or ever? Right. Even then hp only really starts to matter at very high speeds. It's peak torque of 339lb-ft starts at 2700rpm. The 320 CDI puts out 369lb-ft at 1600rpm. It's a no-brainer to me. Strictly from the performance and fuel range points. I don't care about PC.
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From: Bethesda,Md.
Bentley Arnage Red Label
If you buy it with your own money, buy whatever you want. Who the hell has the right to impose their views on others. I personally feel much better puting my wife and one baby in a Gwagen that gets crap gas mileage over a car anyday. I don't get why these guys bash SUV's when things like vettes and caddys have way bigger engines that suck way more gas. What difference does the weight or size make? That left wing paper blows anyway!
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Originally Posted by Juice it
If you buy it with your own money, buy whatever you want. Who the hell has the right to impose their views on others. I personally feel much better puting my wife and one baby in a Gwagen that gets crap gas mileage over a car anyday. I don't get why these guys bash SUV's when things like vettes and caddys have way bigger engines that suck way more gas. What difference does the weight or size make? That left wing paper blows anyway!
But seriously -- this Dan Neil might review cars for a living, but that's about it. The only proper way of learning what truly is the right car is seeing it yourself.
