Hi, I'm from Toronto (Canada) and currently doing some researching for a new car. I have pretty much decided on a BMW 328i xDrive Sedan until my attentions were caught by a GLK350 today on the road. I did a little bit of research on this car and still confused by certain things.

1) If the Bi-Xenon comes in a package on its own, then what headlights come with the base standard vehicle? (The plain yellowish-looking halogen?)

2) Does it come standard with a normal sun/moon-roof? (Not panoramic)

There are certain things in the packages that I like but I'm afraid I won't be able to afford that, however the Navigation package with the rear-view camera would be very useful, and I definitely will need that.

3) What do you guys think of all the packages; are they useful? (Premium, Sport, Bi-Xenon)

4) If you own or planning to own one (or you just know a lot about this car), please share with me all of your insights! I want to get to know this car VERY well before I make my decision. (I would like to know both the GOODS and the BADS which you guys have found!)

Thank you all!

 

Here is a good review by YuAlfred....

Canadian GLK package review Try to put down some of my opinions in case it can be helpful to other GLK buyers.

1. Premium package. (score 5/5)
This includes:
a. 10 way memory seat with memory steering wheel position and mirror position. This is must-to-have function if you have more than 1 driver for the car.
b. Power trunk door. Very useful.
c. Pano roof. Must have.
d. Parktronics. Nice to have, but individually dependent.
e. Heated seat. For Canada or Northern states, a must.
f. Garage door opener. Nice to have. However I haven't figured out how to program my old garage door.
g. Compass. nice to have. but if you have navigation, then not necessary.

2. Bi-xenon package. (score 5/5)
Very useful. Good safety feature. It comes much more than just 4 Xenon bulbs. Comparing to spending $400 for aftermarket Xenon, this $1000 package gives you better value.

3. Navigation System. (Score 4.5/5)
a. 6 disc DVD player. Cool function, makes your waiting time fly.
b. Voice control. Nice function. I even change FM radio frequency with it.
c. Navigation. Need a little getting use to from a Garmin user. Street name display only in the last zoom-in view and is too small. POI works great. Accuracy good.
d. PCMCIA input, very good to have especially if you don't have MMI package.
e. 7" LCD instead of 5" standard. 7" looks more proportional in the car.

4. Rear view camera. (Score 3.5/5)
Nice to have for a SUV, especially you have little kids in the neighborhood. The macro lens will give you some distortion. No perspective lines in the screen to show where your tire will hit, as in other cars.

5. MMI package. (Score 3.5/5)
It gives you 3 cables to connect either ipod, USB drive or Aux input. Aux input is standard if you don't buy this package. I only used USB so far, works great. However, I could have used just PCMCIA card from Navigation package to achieve the same thing. You can find other ipod users review for this in other threads. Another reason I chose it is for future upgrade and connectivity like TV tuner, which may or may not work with MMI. So my coclusion is: If you have the navigation package and you don't have ipod, you may not need it.

 

- No, it doesnt come with normal moonroof, the only option is the panoramic sunroof.
- If you don't order the bi-xenon headlight, the tail lamp will only be the standard light bulb instead of the LED
- I didn't purchase my car with the premium pkg, my reason is becos I have the backup camera so parktronics isnt that useful, and I am the only driver of this car, so I don't need the memory seat as well. Pano roof, it depends on how important that is to u. In my case, it is not that useful.
- Bi-Xenon, really useful, comparing to the HID light, it is much brighter, and also more stylish, also it comes with headlight washers as well.

I have owned the car for 3 weeks so far, superb brake, and build quality. Some members did mention there are some cracking sound with the door handle. Acceleration is moderate, havent had the chance to rev the engine yet, cos it is still breaking in.
But I would say so far I am quite satisfied with the car.

 

1) Yea it would come with halogen but in the lens setting, not old school reflector. Lighting package is awesome. Drove car at night over the weekend on very curvy roads and the rotating xenons did very good job. Also rear led blinkers look nice.

2) see above, there is only pano sunroof.

3) As I mentioned bi-xenon is awesome. Navi works very well. One feature I liked this trip is it shows exits and rest areas that are coming up and what's there (food, gas, hotel etc.) I had to have memory seats, also power tailgate is nice and I like having sunroof so P1 for me was a must. Premium sound system is very nice, not sure how much better that the stock one. Slot for card adapter is nice, don't really need hard drive for music as 8 and 16 GB SD cards are pretty cheap and fit more music.

4) I considered/test drove 335xi, 135, G37 S, FX37, A4. Bimmer with its 300hp was awesome and I liked the interior better. G37 was more of nissan, the feel of the car wasn't the same as German cars. I think VW has a better feel. FX37 on the other hand had the best interior of the bunch IMO, even better than ML. What kept me away from BMW was reading about some issues many were having. I was on bimmer forums for sometime as I really thought I was gonna get 335. I was very skeptical about getting GLK as it's an SUV. However, I'm happy with it. There are not that many of them around, and I really like the look of it. It has all of the features I was looking for. It's pretty fast. Again you are not gonna win drag races, but merging onto highways and passing is a breeze. There is a bit of delay with auto as it keeps revs low, but manual feature was useful in mountains to switch between just two gears and keep it in lower gears. It handles ok, and very well for an SUV. You have some disconnected feel, but body roll isn't bad. Again drove in mountains, pushed it to the point where tires were squeaking, and was going pretty fast, but again the feeling is not there. I drove friend’s mazda 3 with manual and it was more fun. GLK’s build quality is awesome, after 2k, no squeaks, no problems. I wish it had bigger gas tank that's about it.