http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/...le_cars/9.html

 

Consumer Reports Road Test GLK350 V6

Although the GLK certainly has its virtues, it trails most of the competition in this class. It's quick, quiet, and agile. The interior is luxurious. Ride comfort is good while cruising highways but not so good at lower speeds. The GLK's V6 engine is powerful but requires premium gasoline. Rear-seat room is sparse, and several controls are complicated.

The Driving Experience

Ride comfort & noise: At low speeds and on uneven pavement, the GLK delivers noticeable side-to-side body motions. The highway ride is smooth and serene. Except for a subdued and pleasant engine hum, the cabin remains a quiet place.

Handling: The GLK feels quite nimble in routine driving, and body lean is well contained. The steering feels a little too light, especially at low speeds. A tight turning circle helps in confined spaces. When pushed to its limits, the GLK did not shine. The stability control system kicks in rather late, waiting to act until a tail slide begins. The GLK posted a good speed through our avoidance maneuver but some sideways hopping undermined driver confidence.

Powertrain: The 268-hp, 3.5-liter V6 delivered excellent performance, but you have to dig deep to get it because the accelerator pedal feels heavy and you need to press it down to tap its plentiful power reserves. Fuel economy averaged only 18 mpg overall on premium fuel. The seven-speed automatic transmission shifts smoothly but is sometimes reluctant to downshift. It is more responsive in Sport mode.

Braking: Stopping distances were very good but pedal travel was a bit long, making the brakes feel a bit touchy.

Headlights: Low-beam performance is unimpressive, with a short forward distance and only fair illumination to the sides. Intensity is good but the light pattern is uneven. The high beams reach a very good distance.

Inside The Cabin

Driving position: The GLK's high, upright seating position and generous glass area provide a good vantage point. Short drivers liked the commanding position and tall drivers have plenty of head, foot, and leg room. The wide center console encroaches on footwell space. The steering wheel has power tilt and telescopic adjustments. Rear head restraints and wide roof pillars create some blind spots. A rear-view camera might help, but our GLK didn't have one (it's optional).

Seat comfort and access: The seats have very firm cushions but well-shaped backs and are comfortable overall. The lumbar adjuster, on the seat base, is hard to reach. Tall drivers wanted more cushion tilt adjustment. Many complained that the front head restraints were too close to the back of their head despite the power adjustments. The rear seats are comfortable but leg room is very stingy. Tall, wide doorsills interfere with entering and exiting and make it easy to smudge your trouser cuffs with dirt.

Controls and gauges: The speedometer can be hard to read at a glance. The GLK's controls are easier to figure out and use than those in many Mercedes-Benz models, but some irritants remain. The dual-zone automatic climate-control system works well but its switches are too low down. A unified-control rotary knob complicates the job of radio tuning or scrolling though navigation-screen menus. Without navigation, that knob can be bypassed for most functions. There are three levers on the left of the steering column (turn signal/wiper, cruise control, and steering-wheel adjustment) and that's one or two too many.

Interior fit and finish: The interior is nicely finished with padded surfaces and very convincing leatherette covering the seats. Even the low-pile, tightly woven carpet is high quality. But a few panel misalignments and the cheap-feeling climate-control knobs detract.

Cabin storage and cargo room: Cabin storage is modest, with few places to hold small items. The 60/40-split rear seatbacks fold down to make a moderately capacious cargo area. The powered liftgate is welcome.

Safety Notes

Safety belts: All seats have lap-and-shoulder belts. The front belts have adjustable upper anchors and both front- and rear-outboard belts have pretensioners and force limiters.

Air bags: The front seats have seatback-mounted chest-level side air bags, and outboard seats are protected by head-protecting curtain air bags. Sensors for the front-passenger seat will disable the front air bag if they detect a child-sized passenger or if the seat is empty.

Head restraints: All seats have adjustable head restraints that remain sufficiently tall even when they are lowered. The front head restraints are active, moving toward an occupant's head in a rear crash.

Crash-avoidance systems: Antilock brakes and electronic stability control are standard.

Driving with kids: Installing child safety seats is a chore at best, impossible at worst. Many types of child seats are hard to secure using belts alone. The two lower-LATCH anchors are tough to access and their positions prevent a secure fit for many child seats, an uncommon occurrence with LATCH. Three top-tether anchors are provided, but they resemble the nearby cargo tie-down rings and are not labeled.

Reliability

We expect reliability to be much better than average, according to our latest subscriber survey.

Tested model: 2010 GLK350 4-door SUV AWD, 3.5-liter V6, 7-speed automatic

Major options: iPod integration, heated seats, premium package (seat memory, power liftgate, panorama sunroof, Sirius radio).

This road test applies to the current model year of this vehicle.

Highs: Acceleration, transmission, fit and finish, quietness, turning circle, reliability.

Lows: Rear seat, controls, wide doorsills, headlights.

+++++

Note: Reliability (based upon Consumer Reports survey of owners) was rated "Much Better than Average" (highest category) in all areas.

78% of the Consumer Reports respondents said they'd purchase another one. The Volkswagen Tiguan rated higher at 80%. Infiniti EX 74%, BMW X3 66% and Acura RDX 57%.

No mention of the tailgate problem which has been highlighted several times by forum members.

 

The CR pic of the glk has the amg pkg. i sure wish i could get those fog lights.

 

The 3-slated grill is nice looking also. I still don't understand why that detail is different between markets.

 

When I bought mine I looked in to getting the front and rear air diffusers like on that one but when factoring in the paint job it was a little too pricy for me to justify. Sure cleans it up though, especially the rear one.

What are the lights above the windshield referred to as?

 

The AMG panels seen on the GLK above are not available on this side of the pond... at least not yet. The front and rear air diffusers seen in the MB acc. cat. are not the same.

 

Hmmm... explains why I haven't seen those rocker panels before either.

What about the lights on the roof rack?

 

In that pic it looks like that freelander pre-production concept....don't dig it.

on reliability... it's been very good so far, but it's also way too early to tell. Once it hits 100k with no issues, then we can say it has good reliability. I sold my last car with 95k miles and the only things I replaced were wear and tear items (battery, breaks, tires, oil, timing belt).