https://mbworld.org/forums/gle-class...e-450-a-2.html

I'm following up on a thread I posted a couple of days ago.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to test drive a new GLE 450 with airmatic suspension. No AMG package, stock tires/wheels, nothing fancy on the car.
List price was $77K ish.

Drive #1 was done during the daylight hours. No SA in the car...just me.
It was windy yesterday and a great day to test highway speeds. .
Drove out of the dealership.
I drove the car through stop and go traffic getting a "feel" for any awkward shifting or braking. I didn't experience any. The 9 speed shifted nicely stepping on the throttle gently of not so gently.
The inline 6 is very responsive and quick. The ride was great with airmatic. There was no 450 availble to drive with standard springs.
I drove about 12 miles up and back on the interstate. 70-85mph....I purposely got behing a trailer truck for a few miles to experience, or not, any buffeting from the wind slipstream behind the tractor trailer...there was none. (Note: my X3M40i will get buffeted slightly at highway speeds behind a tractor/trailers)
The 450 tracked straight with no wandering and little if any steering wheel correction. I messed with the various suspension and drive selections comfort/sport/ ect. No complaints.
Drove back to the dealership.

Drive #2, same car, no SA, was done late in the evening to "test" the LED headlights. My 2015 ML350 has halogen lamps and quite frankly are THE worst headlights I've had on a car that I can recall. The X3 has adaptive LED headlamps. The 450 LEDs are as bright, if not brighter, than the X3 and IMO the 450 has a wider cast of great lighting on each far side of the roadway. No complaints on the night driving.
This 2nd drive was on a state road 35-45 mph with "normal" road imperfections and I tried to hit every bump or manhole cover I could find...NO complaints about the ride. You WILL feel the suspension tighten up in SPORT mode for sure.

As a bonus, the dealership has a GLE 53AMG coupe in the new Cirrus Silver. (replaces the age old classic Irridium Silver) I parked my 2015 ML 350 Iridium Silver next to it in the sunlight. It was difficult to see the change in color although the new Cirrus Silver has a very faint blue tone in it but basically the same color. All my vehicles in the pasy 15 yrs have been silver. BTW, BMW does not off the X5 in sliver any longer.

OK, what to do? Iv'e test driven both the X5 45e PHEV and the GLE 450. Both vehicles list out at around $69K-70K ish the way I'd order. Both are very nice vehicles, no complaints on either.
Buy the X5 45e and knock off $7500 fed tax credit.....what a great deal.
Buy the GLE 450...no federal tax credit help.
What to do ?

I've decided on the GLE 450. The dealership is putting a deal together and I'll order the car.
Dealership has no build slots for 450s right now. Earliest delivery on a new build with the options required would be July/Aug 2022 next year.
That's fine with me, I'm in no big rush to replace the present ML that has 126,000 miles on it.

Why did I choose the GLE 450 and not the BMW45e that is $7500 cheaper with the tax credit?
The biggest reason is I like to drive different cars. The GLE 450 will be my daily driver. The X3M40i is the performance car and something "different" to drive on occassion. Two of the same would not have been a problem.
The GLE has a spare tire option...the X545e does not. Runflats or not, the thought of being flatbedded off a roadway due to no spare gives me cause for concern
The GLE has a Burmister stereo option..BMW has no audio upgrade right now.
X5 factory trailer hitch not offered until further notice.
The 600lb battery in the X5 45e chews up a bunch of storage room in the back.
I'm not sure I want to plug a car in every night for 30 miles of silent running each day so I won't.
The GLE was a larger back seat. I pickup grandkids @ school each week....the kids get bigger each year.
The 450 is offered in silver, BMW did away with silver in the X5. I like silver, always have
Finally, the GLE450 is a great car. Smooth and as fast as you need it to be with great night vision LEDs and if I'm going to spend $70K for a new car to keep long term I want one with all the options I need and I think it looks better overall than the X5.

I'll keep the forum posted on the outcome of ordering and availability of components.

 

Nice report. I found the Air suspension to be a bit "floaty" for my liking but that can probably be dialed out if I had more time in the car. Reference my thoughts on the 450 vs the 350 from earlier this year.

https://mbworld.org/forums/gle-class...-vs-450-a.html

 

Great write up. The 450 motor is a gem, we have the M256 in both our GLE and CLS (of course the CLS has an electric supercharger in addition to it) and have zero complaints. Smooth as silk, excellent start stop functionality, and surprisingly efficient. Cirrus Silver with AMG-Line should be quite a looker.

 

Don't underestimate the value of the spare tire option. I am dealing with a GLE 550e with no spare tire. Only one runflat tire in the world fits that car, they are $450.00 each and last 20 - 25k miles. How long will Pirelli keep making the tire is also a question. Having a spare dramatically opens up your options when it comes time to buy new tires. I went with a tirefit kit and non-run flat tires at my last tire change, but this is not as good an option as a real spare tire.

 

I ordered the factory spare tire on the 2018 X3M40i. Came with runflats. Ran them for 40,000 miles. Then I bolted on non runflat tires.
The 2015 ML 350 has a factory spare and I've used it once in six years.
The new 2022 GLE 450 will have a spare factory tire also.