ML350 impressions
04-27-2005 | 04:09 PM
#1
Thread Starter
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 4,781
Likes: 3
From: Boston
'05 A4 1.8TQM6
ML350 impressions
While waiting for the dealer to diagnose a CEL on the w220, I was browsing the showroom and checking out the w164. First off, WOW, what a world of difference between the w164 and the w163.
Opening the passenger side, I hop in. Immediately, there was the difference of the seats. Soft leather and nicely bolstered. Closing the door, I could tell the quality difference already. It felt so much more solid.
All interior pieces fit and finish were nicely done. Everything was placed pretty well, only minor complaint is the HVAC area...so many buttons :p
After finding a good seating postion in the passenger side, I go to the back seat behind the passenger and try it out. Good legroom! Felt as if there is a little more than the w163. Again, fit and finish in the rear is excellent as well. Seating was comfortable.
As I'm checking out the driver's side, a salesman comes up and asks if I would like to take one out for a spin? I'm said "absolutely". Apparently, today they are offering sales-free pressure test drives to anyone who wanted to try the w164 out. I gave him my license, which he photocopied and we were on our way out to the parking lot.
I test drove the ML350. It was acutally "his" car, which was given to him as a company car by the dealer. It had the DVD Nav, leather, etc. Though, it was pretty much a basic model, very few options he said. Nonetheless, great.
He had about 1000 miles on it already. He went over a few things with me, controls, transmission, etc.
The transmission column is definitely something to get use to. I found myself grabbing for the center console where the old shiftknob use to be :p to change gears. The stalk was very easy to operate. Really just give it a firm tap in the direction you want. Up is for Reverse, Down is for Drive, In for Park and pull down for Neutral. What I thought was cool was that when you stop the car, you can just shut it off without having to go into Park. The car will automatically put it in park, since there's no actual movement of the stalk into a gear position. Neat!
Driving down the road, the ML was very quiet. Little road noise, guess it's all that felt they put in the wheel wells. Handling was pretty good, responsive for the most part. There were acutally NO rattles or squeeks from panels inside the cabin, as the w163 had squeeks and rattles over everything.
The 3.5L did a pretty good job of hauling the ML. I had a chance to kinda floor it onto a major route way. Pickup was pretty good and more instant response than our ML430 when hitting the pedal. The transmission seemed to get into 7th gear pretty quickly and when wanting to hit it to go, it took a little bit of time for it to downshift. Probably just the throttle adaptation.
The DVD nav was great. Such an improvement over the CD based one. Just the directions, warnings up ahead (such as entering a rotary, etc). And it acutally goes to the destination point you put in instead of just the "block" of where the destination may be like the old Nav.
Total driving time was about 20 minutes or so. And it was a fun 20 minutes to test out this new ML.
Got back to the dealer, parked it and he gave me his card and said to call if I/my family had any questions or if he could help us get into a new ML. Awesome guy, no sales pressure at all. Didn't even ask for my contact info.
Overall, I'm very impressed and love it. Build quality is excellent, materials used is definitely better than the old ML, has a much better solid overall feel to the car.
Can't wait for the MClassTour to really give one a "workout"
Opening the passenger side, I hop in. Immediately, there was the difference of the seats. Soft leather and nicely bolstered. Closing the door, I could tell the quality difference already. It felt so much more solid.
All interior pieces fit and finish were nicely done. Everything was placed pretty well, only minor complaint is the HVAC area...so many buttons :p
After finding a good seating postion in the passenger side, I go to the back seat behind the passenger and try it out. Good legroom! Felt as if there is a little more than the w163. Again, fit and finish in the rear is excellent as well. Seating was comfortable.
As I'm checking out the driver's side, a salesman comes up and asks if I would like to take one out for a spin? I'm said "absolutely". Apparently, today they are offering sales-free pressure test drives to anyone who wanted to try the w164 out. I gave him my license, which he photocopied and we were on our way out to the parking lot.
I test drove the ML350. It was acutally "his" car, which was given to him as a company car by the dealer. It had the DVD Nav, leather, etc. Though, it was pretty much a basic model, very few options he said. Nonetheless, great.
He had about 1000 miles on it already. He went over a few things with me, controls, transmission, etc.
The transmission column is definitely something to get use to. I found myself grabbing for the center console where the old shiftknob use to be :p to change gears. The stalk was very easy to operate. Really just give it a firm tap in the direction you want. Up is for Reverse, Down is for Drive, In for Park and pull down for Neutral. What I thought was cool was that when you stop the car, you can just shut it off without having to go into Park. The car will automatically put it in park, since there's no actual movement of the stalk into a gear position. Neat!
Driving down the road, the ML was very quiet. Little road noise, guess it's all that felt they put in the wheel wells. Handling was pretty good, responsive for the most part. There were acutally NO rattles or squeeks from panels inside the cabin, as the w163 had squeeks and rattles over everything.
The 3.5L did a pretty good job of hauling the ML. I had a chance to kinda floor it onto a major route way. Pickup was pretty good and more instant response than our ML430 when hitting the pedal. The transmission seemed to get into 7th gear pretty quickly and when wanting to hit it to go, it took a little bit of time for it to downshift. Probably just the throttle adaptation.
The DVD nav was great. Such an improvement over the CD based one. Just the directions, warnings up ahead (such as entering a rotary, etc). And it acutally goes to the destination point you put in instead of just the "block" of where the destination may be like the old Nav.
Total driving time was about 20 minutes or so. And it was a fun 20 minutes to test out this new ML.
Got back to the dealer, parked it and he gave me his card and said to call if I/my family had any questions or if he could help us get into a new ML. Awesome guy, no sales pressure at all. Didn't even ask for my contact info.
Overall, I'm very impressed and love it. Build quality is excellent, materials used is definitely better than the old ML, has a much better solid overall feel to the car.
Can't wait for the MClassTour to really give one a "workout"
Last edited by GDawgC220; 04-27-2005 at 08:07 PM.
04-27-2005 | 07:30 PM
#2
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 5,640
Likes: 11
From: GMT -8 hours
Mercedes-Benz
I pretty much experienced the same thing. I drove one with Susan at FMWest. Amazingly smooth, so impressive. Drivetrain was very smooth and transmission was as well. First thing i noticed was how comfortable the seats were! Probably the most comfy seats I have ever sat in. Also the gas pedal was light as a feather compared to the W163. Seems like they really buckled down the quality in Vance, extremely quiet interior, there was a very slight rattle from the rear, barely noticeable. The ride was quieter and smoother than my 03 c-class, I was very surprised. Overall I love the car.
