Intial Impressions on GL450
06-12-2006, 02:42 PM
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12 CLS550, 09 CLS550, 04Cooper,10 Cooper S
Intial Impressions on GL450
Finally pickeed up the GL450 Premiere edition at the dealer on saturday. It was about two weeks late (not so bad as I have had delays up to a month in the past).
I traded a 2005 G500 for this car (and I did own a 2003 before that). I test drove the GL when the dealer demo was out in April. Thought the ride was great but did not really care for it (the model I drove was pretty bare and did not even have leather, it also had 18 inch rims). I saw the Premiere edition and was pleasantly surpsrised by the level of luxury and decided to trade.
Intial Impressions :
The SUV is very quiet. The quietest one I have been in yet. The seats are very comfortable and the nappa is priceless. I had multi contour seats in the G500 and these seats without multicontour adjustments are better. The stereo is very good. Again, better that what I had in the G500 as this has logic 7. That makes a huge difference for CD and especially satellite radio playback. The satellite radio playback was awful in the G500. The stereo sounds better than the logic 7 setup I have in the SLK 55 as well.
The airconditioning is efficient and seems to cool the car well despite it's cavernous size. I have found most MB's to be good in this dept. Rear seat legroom is excellent. The recline feature of the rear seats with the arm rests makes them a good place to be. The G500 did not have a arm rest and the seats were the form of a bench. I could not get rear heated seats with the premiere edition or a heated steering wheel, both options that were available on the G500. I will miss these, but having three zone climate control will hopefully make up for this in the warmth dept. I can get into the third row seat ( I am 6'1")....I find ample legroom as long as the second row seats are not in the recline position.
The acceleration is excllent, so was the case in the G500 as it was quite torqy. However, the pedal effort is halved and the steering is very smooth. I have driven a RR supercharged and this car accelerates just as well or better. Kinda making the 90K rover (even after the 4-5K you can get off on them usually) moot and unjustifiable. The brakes are sufficient, but I havent experienced any hard breaking as I have under a 100 miles now and dont want to test the limits yet. The rover's brembos are far superior. The G500's brakes were very good as well and it's lack of aerodynamics often compensated for brakes. I would have no reason to think twice if I had to undertake a 1000 mile journey tomorrow in this car, it is definitely up to the task in the comfort and lack of stress dept.
Parktronic is absolutely a necessity with this vehicle. having said that I was able to parralel park this car with ease. It is just hard to find a parking space that this car will fit in.
The phone system works (blue tooth), but is finicky when more than 1 registered phone has blue tooth on. I guess I will have to keep one phone activated with bluetooth out of the three that we have registered to the car. I will have to wait and see how good this is. I have never had this feature in any car before as MB had a setup that required a primitive phone in the past.
Anywho, I will post pics ASAP (the camera was drianed off charge yesterday).
best
I traded a 2005 G500 for this car (and I did own a 2003 before that). I test drove the GL when the dealer demo was out in April. Thought the ride was great but did not really care for it (the model I drove was pretty bare and did not even have leather, it also had 18 inch rims). I saw the Premiere edition and was pleasantly surpsrised by the level of luxury and decided to trade.
Intial Impressions :
The SUV is very quiet. The quietest one I have been in yet. The seats are very comfortable and the nappa is priceless. I had multi contour seats in the G500 and these seats without multicontour adjustments are better. The stereo is very good. Again, better that what I had in the G500 as this has logic 7. That makes a huge difference for CD and especially satellite radio playback. The satellite radio playback was awful in the G500. The stereo sounds better than the logic 7 setup I have in the SLK 55 as well.
The airconditioning is efficient and seems to cool the car well despite it's cavernous size. I have found most MB's to be good in this dept. Rear seat legroom is excellent. The recline feature of the rear seats with the arm rests makes them a good place to be. The G500 did not have a arm rest and the seats were the form of a bench. I could not get rear heated seats with the premiere edition or a heated steering wheel, both options that were available on the G500. I will miss these, but having three zone climate control will hopefully make up for this in the warmth dept. I can get into the third row seat ( I am 6'1")....I find ample legroom as long as the second row seats are not in the recline position.
The acceleration is excllent, so was the case in the G500 as it was quite torqy. However, the pedal effort is halved and the steering is very smooth. I have driven a RR supercharged and this car accelerates just as well or better. Kinda making the 90K rover (even after the 4-5K you can get off on them usually) moot and unjustifiable. The brakes are sufficient, but I havent experienced any hard breaking as I have under a 100 miles now and dont want to test the limits yet. The rover's brembos are far superior. The G500's brakes were very good as well and it's lack of aerodynamics often compensated for brakes. I would have no reason to think twice if I had to undertake a 1000 mile journey tomorrow in this car, it is definitely up to the task in the comfort and lack of stress dept.
Parktronic is absolutely a necessity with this vehicle. having said that I was able to parralel park this car with ease. It is just hard to find a parking space that this car will fit in.
The phone system works (blue tooth), but is finicky when more than 1 registered phone has blue tooth on. I guess I will have to keep one phone activated with bluetooth out of the three that we have registered to the car. I will have to wait and see how good this is. I have never had this feature in any car before as MB had a setup that required a primitive phone in the past.
Anywho, I will post pics ASAP (the camera was drianed off charge yesterday).
best
06-12-2006, 04:20 PM
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2022 GLE 350; 2016 BMW 428i gran coupe; 2014 Audi Q5 tdi
Thanks for the report. I look forward to seeing your pics. I am especially interested in seeing the interior of the premier edition.
