I haven't seen any reports of speeding tickets for those with the GL550 thus far...

I was returning from skiing with the family from Vermont when after passing a string of cars going uphill, I attracted the unwanted attention of a friendly trooper. His initial comment after asking if I new how fast I was going was, "You're a pretty alert driver given how fast I saw you decelerate on the radar" Ouch. I smelled a fat ticket coming. Luckily, he put me at the 20mph over limit thereby saving me points and a return trip to court. His parting words with a smirk were: "You have a powerful truck. Try to keep it out of flight mode the rest of the way home." Couldn't help but laugh, who's he kiddding!

 

K40!!!

 

Ah, what's he know. He's probably just tired of late night knocks on doors, asking next of kin to identify the remains.

Of course, it could be that we like our members here and want them to hang around as long as possible? So maybe you'd be kind enough, for us that is, to keep the speeds safe. Remember, just because you or your truck may (or may not?) be able to handle it, doesn't mean the other drivers out there will respond appropriately. I've been telling my kids since they were old enough to listen, it's not you that's the problem, it's the other drivers. If you don't think they're all out to kill you, eventually one will.

 

i got one for 20 over (70 posted) in November..

its not hard to roll 100+ in almost anything for sale nowadays. I've seen 130 in my 320...

 

I am ticket free in my S550 when I owned it and now in the GL550. Took both on a cross country jaunt of 5000 miles each and never tempted a radar gun. I maintain about a 7-9 miles over the limit on the interstates and other highways and always seem to get a pass from the radar guns.

In town I pull that number down to about 5 over.

I have had stretches of 100+ but only where the landscape ahead is fully visible and other drivers are passing me...:-)

 

Sage advice. I spend a fair amount of time in the trauma bay and have seen my share. That said, it is rare to see a DOA MB driver relative to the number of these vehicles on the road. I'm also of the belief that a slow, inattentive driver is a greater threat than a faster, capable one. Ever wonder why the mortality rate on the Autobahn is far less than the US?

 

knock on wood, I have been pretty lucky on this matter. We did a small trip to Lake Tahoe. On our way back on I-80, I saw 6 highway patrol cars with vehicles pulled over in about 30 mile section. One advantage of SUV is ride height is little higher than cars to spot any cops ahead or back.

 

Just get a Valentine One, and a Blinder laser jammer for electronic countermeasures.

 

Oh, hey, I'm all for the 75mph (really 80+) on those long open highways out here in Arizona. Forget I-10, there's at least other cars on there, try driving from Buckeye to Yuma. Or from Tucson to El Paso. At 55, it takes three months. But one of the big reasons the Autobahn has a lower mortality rate than US higways is better driver training along with a road build that's about 45 years ahead of our time, much less when it was built. How many of our roads have banking curves meant for 100+ speeds? How many drivers stay to the right unless and only if they're passing another car? Hell, how many of our drivers would know what to do if someone came up behind them at 100+?

That said, you might not see MB mortalities, but I am of the belief that if the car's wrecked that bad they don't have a desire to live anymore any way. (Oh, that's bad, Steve.)

STP

 

I've been struggling a little bit about posting a reply here. This forum is great and I personally don't like negative posts. However, with the loss of a good hs friend due to a speeding driver, I feel the need to respond.

I feel speeding is not something to "brag" about or any sign of superiority. I think the opposite. There should be consideration on the road for others. Boasting of speeding 20+, 30? or 40? mph over the speed limit is just not smart.

Any "inattentive" driver is hazardous on the road.

And it's sually the difference in the speeds (55mph and someone else dirving 80-90mph) that cause accidents.

Speed limits are not posted to **** us off....rather to save lives and get everyone driving on the same page.

 

STP, thanks for proving my point. It's not the actual speed per say that is primarily reponsible for highway mortality, but driver inability (training), road design and vehicle maintenance. The inspection and licensure process is far stricter in Germany than here, and plenty of cars you see on our roads would be in the scrap heap abroad. The leading causes for highway deaths in the US are falling asleep behind the wheel and driver impairment (alcohol).

In case I've given anyone false impressions here, I'm not for wanton disregard of speed limits, that's why I spend time on the track. I posted this primarily to point out how easily it is for a vehicle this size to travel at high speeds. The car is so quiet and stable that you aren't left with the impression that you're moving that quickly. I drive some very powerful cars, but they seem to offer more feedback in this regard and I don't have to watch the speedo as closely. Anyone else notice this?

 

Well said. I agree that attentive driving solves many of problems, but things happen more quickly (in a negative way) at 20, 30 and 40 mph over the speed limit. The person on the receiving end may not have the privilege of driving a 5,000 lb vehicle built (and priced) with safety as a paramount goal. Some of the cars I have rented recently could not survive an impact with a ten speed bicycle.

 

I'm glad you agree that the roads are not designed for speeding and that there aren't drivers trained for dealing with people doing 100+ out there. Now, if you were alone on a road that was exceptionally maintained (especially for the US) with a car you'd just had serviced by someone who knew what to check for before allowing you to fly around, then great, go for it. But we are not alone out there and whether or not we're trained to drive at very high speeds means nothing to the driver who doesn't expect us, who changes lanes in front of us, etc. Excellent point; James Dean. It was not his lack of skill that killed him, he was a skilled race driver. It was the decision of the other driver he didn't see until it was too late to pull out in front of him. The road wasn't designed to give him the visibility he needed for that speed if other cars were approaching at an intersection, and the other driver's lack of high speed race training prevented him from realizing how fast Dean was going. Result? The guy with all the great training died.

 

Please don't speed with your kids in the car. You are setting a bad example and you are putting them at risk. You want to risk your own life, fine, but you have NO right to put your children at risk.

 

I'm impressed to be part of a forum with such law-abiding drivers!

I didn't realize that what was supposed to be a lighthearted tale would evoke such a response. Again, the purpose of the post was to share (at my expense) the fact that the GL can really move when needed and that the quietness of the ride allows the speed to build relatively unnoticed. I took advantage of this power to pass a string of cars going uphill and got caught. No excuses. Nor will I necessarily alter my driving habits as a result.

Driving is our riskiest daily activity and I do not take this the safety of my family or others for granted. For every story of a fatality due to driver negligence there are countless others that occur despite people complying with the law. Last night 2 highschoolers died here when their stalled car was hit by a semi. The numbers don't lie which is why we always have to be fully on guard behind the wheel regardless of speed. It is our responsibility to ensure our vehicles are well maintained and that drivers receive adequate training and dare I say periodic rexamination to ensure safety. If we are truly advocating a safe driving environment then we should get off our soapbox and be equally energetic about addressing those issues rather than chastising someone travelling a bit over the limit.

 

A bit of sarcasm, perhaps?

It still sounds like you're making an excuse for going as fast as you did, sorry. And yes, not breaking the law doesn't mean you're not at risk. For one, you can be put at risk by those breaking the law. Believe it or not, nearly every state (and many municipalities) have laws against distracted driving. That means it's against the law to simply not be paying attention, like the semi-driver who killed the highschoolers who failed to clear the highway when their car was stalled. If you think someone here is on a soapbox (and I cannot imaging whom you think that is), lead by example and don't do 20mph over the speed limit. It's true that few people go exactly the speed limit unless they like the sound of car horns, but there's a difference between moving along with traffic and failing to be safe and prudent. A bit over the limit is 5mph, maybe 10. At 20, you're covering more ground per second more than someone doing the speed limit than they're used to seeing. At 30 over, you're 30 seconds faster over a mile than someone doing the limit. It's simple physics. I don't really care if you do 138mph, as long as it's not on a road I'm on where you're endangering my life or the lives of my friends and family. Whether you've got kids in your car or not, certainly there are other people travling with families. Or who have families. I'm not going to give you a "think of the children!" argument because it's stupid, and I'm not going to say "do it for the greater good" because I'm not a socialist, I'm going to say you're putting other people in danger needlessly and that's the biggest reason our local Land Cruiser Association publicly denounced letting high schoolers drive the 6,000lb vehicle. We didn't care about the fact they might wreck it, probably without hurting themselves too badly, but we did care that that level of immaturity shouldn't be put behind the wheel of something that dangerous and hurting others. It's not being able to have all that power and use it, it's having all that power and not using it when it's not absolutely necessary that shows adult responsibility.

 

When is it absolutely necessary to use a vehicle's power if not to pass cars quickly and efficiently in order to minimize exposure? That's what I was in the process of doing when I was clocked. I typically cruise in the 70-75 range and from what I gather here and see on the roads this is not outside the norm. I'm a bit sarcastic on this issue because all of us here have indulged in high-speed driving at some point and I continue to read countless disclaimers about the appropriateness of the environment in which that activity took place. We are being somewhat hypocritical as well if we are not willing to be as vehement about other aspects of driving such as: driver education/health, vehicle/road design and care that pose as great a driver risk as speed.

I find the limit on vehicle weight for teenagers will intentioned but illogical. Looking at existing stats the 70-0 braking distance for the GL550 is 165 feet versus 185 feet for the 2008 Accord. Despite the Mercedes' heft I would choose it hands down for their safety and the safety of others beacuse I think they stand a better chance at avoiding an accident altogether.

 

I'm not going to argue the speed thing; you've made your point, I've made mine. I will say that in your first post, you really gave the impression that no matter what the cop said, you were going to be flying as fast as you could get away with, which is where I think most of the consternation came from.

If I thought the GL550 would actually be stopped in 165 feet by an inexperienced teenager, that would be one thing, but my feeling is that the teenager (as I've actually seen before) would fail to see the obstruction until no amount of braking would make any difference. It's at that point that a 3000lb car makes a lot less of a mess, instead of a 6000lb car. Furthermore, the possibility of losing control on dry, daytime roads in a lower car is a lot less than in a big, heavy car. Stability control helps, surely, but cannot overcome the laws of physics.

My kids' first car is probably going to be my wife's RX330. It's smaller, lighter, with a less powerful engine (though strong enough) and while it's higher than a sedan for visibility, it's a lot lower than, say, a Land Cruiser or a Range Rover (and has a better on-road suspension as well). It's just over 4000lbs, making it heavier than the average car, but lighter than the mega-trucks (Land Cruiser, Escalade, Suburban, Excursion, etc.) so the damage they would do is less. It's also full of safety features for the driver, like good crumple zones and door pillars, as well as a strong roof in case of rollover. But what I want is that if they do get into an accident, the person they hit isn't hurt, at least not too badly. In a monster truck, they've got a somewhat better chance of killing someone they're in an accident with.

As a pilot, I tend to look at things with a fairly operator-centric sense of responsibility. If I'm flying in a plane and the engine dies, I didn't manage it correctly, I didn't notice the leaking oil, I didn't check the filter was attached, I didn't make sure the mechanic performed the proper maintenance. It's a pilot thing. So I always think of driving as, "they're all out to kill me, they're all aiming at me, I need to take responsibility for avoiding the accident they're trying to cause." It's the perspective I've had for quite some time now and it's worked well so far.

 

Thanks STP. Again for everyone here the intial intent of my post was to point out how easy it is for the GL to build speed rather silently. I'm fortunate to be able to drive plenty of performance cars but one of the characteristics of the GL I find interesting is how well it performs given the fact it is a large SUV. I notice less feedback in this car regarding speed than others including other MB sedans. This may in part be a function of ride height and excellent soundproofing in the cabin. These features of the GL and my laxity at watching the speedo allowed me to get my first ticket in over 18 years. I don't want others to suffer the same fate or worse yet cause an MVA.

I certainly could have done a better job describing my impressions in the post, but I was attempting to be lighthearted on the matter. I used the situation as a learning experience for my children and have shared this with you all for the same reasons. This is an outstanding forum and I continue to value everyone's opinion but kindly ask that we not be so quick to judge others before completely understanding the situation.

 

emayer,
I think you were extremely fortunate to encounter an officer who understands and appreciates capable drivers in high-performance cars.

Your being attentive, alert to the situation, and taking quick remedial action probably saved you from the big ticket.

As someone who travels that area frequently, I'm more than curious... where were you stopped???

Mike

 

Thanks Mike. I was pulled over on Rt 7 just outside Bennington near the NY border. The road is a nice stretch of 2 lane highway going uphill and the office clocked me travelling the opposit direction near the top. Hope you get back up there soon, the skiing is great!

 

Sorry to hear you got stopped, but good that it was an understanding officer. I also know that area well as I travel up to Stowe, VT often in the winter -- long friday night drives for weekend skiing. I too was "nailed" last year on route 7 a few miles north of Manchester, 2 officers sitting in a pull off area on the left side of the road just as I crested a hill -- no other cars on road and it was around mid-night. Doing 70 in a 55 area, no leniency just an opportunity to bring in some revenue. Many years since I had been pulled over before this. VT is a pretty strict state. Was there last 2 weeks ago and skiing was great.