Short Take Road Test
Seven seats of Mercedes-Benz, American-style. Although the GL-class is sold worldwide, it’s clearly made to target our country’s love of extra-large and extra-in-charge trucks. Plus, the GL is manufactured in the good old U.S. of A., down in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama.
Since we said goodbye to our long-term 2008 GL320 CDI 4MATIC, the GL has undergone a number of running changes. In 2009, Mercedes added BlueTec, a urea-injection exhaust after-treatment that made the diesel 50-state emissions legal; and 2010 brought a mid-cycle refresh to the front and rear styling. The badge change from GL320 to GL350 is purely semantic—the oil-burning powertrain remains unchanged—and the drop in the highway fuel-economy rating from 23 mpg to 21 is merely a result of new EPA test procedures required for all 2011 models.
How Does It Drive?
The GL’s impeccable road manners remain intact. It never tries to be a sports car, but the steering is slop-free and accurate, and the GL350 wafts over bumps in a way that seems to say, “You’re in a giant Mercedes. I know you don’t want to be disturbed.”
At the test track, we found skidpad grip increased to 0.75 g from the 0.71 our long-termer posted when new, and 70-to-0-mph braking is down to a commendable 176 feet. The GL350’s figures are probably due to a switch from tires with a slight off-road bent to more-pavement-friendly Goodyear Eagle LS2s. Acceleration to 60 mph is the same, at 8.6 seconds, but this truck trailed the long-termer by 0.2 second in the quarter-mile and by a full second to 100 mph. Chalk that up to the 157 extra pounds carried by this example. Our observed fuel economy matched the EPA highway number at 21 mpg, 1 mpg lower than our 40,000-mile average in the GL320.
A GL won its first (and only) comparison test in 2006—in V-8–powered GL450 guise—and we’re still fans. Back then, the Audi Q7 4.2 finished second, and we still like that SUV, too. Although the Audi attempts to be a bit sportier, the Mercedes leans more on attributes like a tall, commanding view of the road, a no-nonsense demeanor, and a more spacious third-row seat. When considering the diesel versions of both, the Q7 TDI is about 10 grand cheaper. That’s a tough price difference to overlook, but those who can afford to won’t be disappointed with the GL.
The GL350 is large and has a three-pointed star in the grille, so it ain’t cheap, but the BlueTec is our pick of the GL range. Its base price of $61,825 undercuts that of the GL450 by $1000 and the GL550 by a whopping $23,500. What’s more, although we wouldn’t call the diesel stingy, it crushes the gas burners on fuel economy, 17/21 mpg versus 13/18 and 12/17, respectively. That’s one thing the latest round of updates hasn’t changed at all.
