ML500 5.0L V-8

I just wanted some people's opinion on the redesigned ML, my mom currently has an 06 ML350, but I just can't let my old ML500 go because of all the differences they have, for example the shifter. Does anyone think that the shifter should be in the center console or is it just me? Is this new interior better or less comfortable than the old W163? Have ML's become less or more reliable?

I appreciate everyone's opinions.

Militant-Grunt

I think so too about the shifter, I also think that the windshield is too cut off... It does feel a lot less comfortable.

55fanatic

hands down the 163 is light years behind that of the 164... The airmatic ride suspension available is more then enough to make it more comfortable!!! The ergonomics of the new ML is much better as well. Comparing first year ML320s to 164 ML350s is night and day difference. The 163 320 was available with plastic doors and cheap leather, the 164 is offered with a simulated leather, I think its called MBtex.

The cabin is much quieter and old vs new is no contest, while the shifter is difficult to get used to, its the future of vehicles. Besides the new 7spd tranny is excellent.

And Grunt, when the ML63 is released the ML55 will prolly make you feel like you are driving a honda when it comes out, and you get to drive it and experience it.

Dieter

Hi,

Having driven 'old' ML (270 CDi) for 4 years my 'new' ML (of 1 week) is a much better drive. I have already got used to column shift and new (320) diesel engine is so much more 'petrol-like' than old 270.

The seats now have lateral support and with airmatic the ride is more akin to that of an E-class.

I'm currently extremely happy with the new ML and 'as long as it remains reliable' will remain so.

Cheers,

mcphere

When I saw the new ML I could not get my mind off comparing the design to the new KIA Sorrento. The design on the side looks like a KIA. Whenever I see this two side by side it make me think if the KIA designer had a spy on MB and closely copied the design.

The brabus and other revision to the design is better than the OEM design. This is what makes it unique.

I still like my 2002 ML500. Probably when they get cheaper and would have the opportunity to rev it up I'd get one.

I still could not shake off the darn KIA image off my head. he he he!

:-) mcphere

55fanatic

the sorrento was out before the 164, compare the sorrento to an ML55... they look very similar, lines are in the same spots even lights

pointman

well, as soon as the 164 starts selling for the price drop the 163 saw, it is gonna look at more appealing.

ML500 5.0L V-8

I don't know, I really kinda can't get the feel for the new design, the old just looked so good. My mom's is really nice with the suspension pkg. and the convienence pkg. and so on. I just don't like the way it drives, something just does not feel right for some reason.

Thanks for everyone's opinions.

ClayJ

The W164 is a heckuva lot better car from an engineering and mechanicals standpoint -- that's for sure. Does the styling really matter that much? Really?
It's not like it's ugly or horrendous or anything....

Militant-Grunt

Here is a review by Jeremy Clarkson

You might imagine, then, that everyone in Norway would have off-roaders. They don’t. In 10 days I didn’t see one, and that’s because up there a Land Rover Discovery costs more than £100,000. So you buy a normal two-wheel-drive car . . . and cope.

*
And to make sure this happens you’re limited to 4mph and the roads are littered with forward-facing speed cameras that go off in a burst of blinding red light so intense it can strip all the paint off the front of your car. They don’t take your licence for speeding over there. They take your sight.

I triggered one in the middle of a blizzard and it was like I’d driven through an acid trip. I was so disoriented I had to pull over and get a colleague to drive, and that was a shame because we were in the new Mercedes M-class. And I was rather enjoying it.

The old model was terrible. Designed just before BMW upped the ante with the new Range Rover and the X5, and built in Alabama by people more used to picking cotton than making complicated machinery, it emerged into the world badly built, lumpen, impractical and already old fashioned. Small wonder that in Top Gear’s 2004 motoring satisfaction survey it came home in last place. The worst car money can buy.

Obviously Mercedes wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice, so plainly the people making the new one have been told to stop singing Swing Low Sweet Chariot and get on with some work, and the designers were told it was 2005, not 1956.

As a result the new car looks great, feels well made and when you climb aboard works like any other Mercedes, not a Massey Ferguson with electric windows.

There are, however, one of two things I should make clear before you run round to the local dealer brandishing a chequebook. First of all it’s no longer available as a seven-seater — boo — and then there’s the cost. You will be asked to pay a minimum of £36,700 for the car and then, despite appearances, you will be charged an extra £1,320 for something called the “off-road pro package”.

That really is like being charged £50 a head for dinner and then being asked to pay more for a knife and fork. And to make the prospect even more galling, the package includes various differentials, which is a good thing, and air suspension, which is not. You can’t have the diffs without the air. Zis is not permitted.

Times Online logo

Search online for a Mercedes ML 320
If I were in your shoes I wouldn’t bother with any of it and I wouldn’t bother with the £270 off-road exterior styling package either because all you get for this is some underfloor protection, which you can’t see, and a chrome radiator grille. Which will make you look like a drug dealer.

The worst thing about this car, though, is the gearlever. It’s mounted on the steering column, a system popularised in America when teenage boys and girls needed to cuddle up at the drive-in. But ignored in Europe because we tend to get out of the car to watch films. And have sex.

It’s annoying. Mercedes fits smaller cupholders to cars sold in Europe so why can’t we have a European stick shifter as well? It’s not that the column stalk doesn’t work. But it is an example of creeping American imperialism, one step further down the road for the San Francisco taxi driver who told me last year that “pretty soon the whole world will play American football and soccer will die”.

The verdict, then, on the M-class is pretty much the same as my verdict on Norway. Efficient and good fun, but odd and too expensive.

VITAL STATISTICS

Model Mercedes ML 320 CDI Sport
Engine 2987cc, V6
Power 221bhp @ 3800rpm
Torque 376 lb ft @ 1600-2800rpm
Transmission Seven-speed automatic
Fuel 28.8mpg (combined cycle)
CO2 249g/km
Acceleration 0-62mph: 8.6sec
Top speed 133mph
Price £39,465
Rating 3/5
Verdict A vast improvement on its predecessor but it comes at a price

gocargo

To replace the wife's '02 w163 last year, we testdrove the w164 and came to the conclusion that although it was a better DRIVING car, the ergonomics were inferior to what made her comfortable in the w163. The shifter sux, all window sills and dash were nearly 2 inches taller for less visibility, including the rear hatch-window which is smaller. Furthermore, to us the seats are stiffer and less comfortable on our legs, it could have something to do with their position from the floor. We have kids, so the truck space is narrower but deeper (than the w163) requiring more effort to lean in. Overall, IMO the w164's exterior styling appears common with other current brands and not as unique as the w163 had been.

Cost not being important, she traded into a brand new Pewter '05 w163 Limited Edition for $39,000 saving $11,000 over the comparably equipped w164. Now 9-months later she has zero regrets and would repeat her decision.

Me? When my ml430's warranty runs out in 2007, I plan to replace it with the upcoming w164-CDI.

ML500 5.0L V-8

Thanks guys, your opinions are helping open up to the SUV, but I do have to agree it does look like a KIA Sorrento.