Mersedes gl 500

The GL500 is a big, big vehicle -- just walking around it takes a while, and car wash operators are going to wince about watering that much metal for the same fee as a sub-compact.

Based on the same underpinnings as the R-Class peoplemover (and smaller M-Class all-wheel drive) the 5088mm-long GL class brings similar mechanicals and interior, dressed in a more conventional, more off-road oriented 4x4 wagon shell.

As the flagship model, it's packed with the sort of features you'd expect in a German  executive sedan (albeit one built in Alabama, USA) -- from powered leather furniture to parking, rain and light sensors, sat-nav, adjustable suspension and electric everything else.

In addition, it's got seven seats (third row optional), seven gears and looks every inch the archetypal Toorak-tractor. Thus it's sad that few GL's will get seriously dirty, given that the vehicle has more off-road competence than you might expect.

Given the vast 3075mm wheelbase, crushing 2370kg kerb weight and luxury executive interior appointments, this is no delicate dancer on dirt -- rather, it relies on electronics to keep it pointed more or less straight and under control.

Its length is a handicap in the rough stuff, although a slow-speed raised suspension setting aids the break-over angle. The switchable ESP will eventually correct slides, selectable 4x4 modes find grip where there seemingly is none and the hill-descent control helps with creeping down steep inclines. As such, the GL's technology doesn't offer the surgical precision of an X5, but it achieves roughly the same result in a more brash, and let's face it, American manner.

A car this big and expensive isn't often going to get the chance to go chin-to-chin with the ancient rocks of the Flinders ranges -- it's more likely to be used for cruising the rougher bits of the family's expansive weekend retreat.

Yet when challenged it rises to the occasion, thanks in no small part to its host of electronic driver aids. Pointed at a lumpy gravel-strewn three-metre bank, it inched its way to the top, a fraction of a wheel-rotation at a time, traction-light blinking. Interestingly, relying on the vehicle's considerable momentum wouldn't necessarily result in success; more speed just more likely to result in wheelspin.

Aimed up and down the inappropriately-named Major Road, the GL500 navigated the steep, dusty, rutted surface with impunity. However, those big 19-inch wheels and tyres sought out ridges and ruts and transferred thumps and bumps to the steering wheel, and to a lesser extent, the whole cabin.

On the tarmac, the GL500 is an irresistible force. Its 285kW, 530Nm, 5.4-litre multi-valve V8 offers seemingly bottomless power and acceleration that probably won't even notice a double-horse float with two chubby Dobbins on board.

It steers and rides, if not with precision, then with a looming presence that makes it impossible to ignore. So much effortless power allows it to fill gaps in traffic instantaneously -- they just need to be big gaps.

It's traditional to point out that big V8 4x4s are socially unpalatable, hideously negligent in environmental terms and will prove cripplingly expensive at the fuel pump. In answer, GL500 owners will likely paraphrase Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn…"

For the record, the top speed's somewhere around 240km/h, the fuel tank holds 100lt. Benz claims it disappears at the rate of 14.1lt/100km. We'd hazard that this is a figure many owners will struggle to match. If fuel consumption is a concern then there's always the 3.0-litre diesel version.

Steering-wheel mounted buttons allow a manual override to the buttery-smooth seven-speed autobox, but there's not much point in doing so.

The third row is a $2900 option but does come complete with a (rather pointless) electric folding mechanism. Hands up would rather save a grand and do the folding themselves?

More annoying are the tardy and inaccurate sat-nav system (which post test period Mercedes believes could have been faulty) and the auto-self-locking doors, while the slow-to-react parking proximity sensors allow you to get way too close to solid objects and simply don't register things like wire fences -- unlike the Audi Q7 interestingly. In fact, the Q7, arguably a line-ball match on most specifications (including the seven seats) kicks off at nearly $60,000 less than the GL [Ed: albeit for the V6 petrol model. The Q7 4.2 FSI V-eight petrol starts at $116,800].

Despite its enormous size, the GL comes with a space-saver spare wheel -- which becomes a problem only when the car suffers a puncture, as the standard 19-inch alloy wheels won't fit into the luggage space available if all seven seats have humans in them. Even without the complication of a puncture, luggage space with all seven seats occupied will require frugal packing, or necessitate the use of a pod attached to the standard roof-rails. However, with the third row folded luggage space is good -- and with all or some of the 60/40 second row folded, it becomes cavernous.

The tailgate can be raised and lowered at the touch of a button, but we felt that the insensitive resistance sensors could allow the gate to catch out a smaller user or child caught in the path of the closing door. We'll ask Benz for clarification on the 'effort' required to stop the door.

At $146,900 it would be surprising to see many extra-cost options available for the GL500 and indeed there aren't many -- but $4900 for twin rear-seat video screens, corded headphones and a DVD player is hardly a bargain and the $950 reversing camera should be a standard fitment (as it is on the significantly less-costly big LandCruiser-based Lexus LX470).

Self-folding, self-dipping exterior mirrors are a nice touch, the headlamps are sensational and there's cabin space aplenty.

The secondary seat-controls (lumbar, kidney, etc) intrude excessively from under the seat, minor controls such as the dome-light and sunroof switches lack the tactile feeling of quality that Benz drivers expect and the electrically reach-and-rake adjustable steering wheel (which obligingly winches itself out of the way of people of rotund girth) doesn't have the range of adjustment that some would prefer.

Built in America, for Americans, the GL doesn't have the superior civility of its Stuttgart sedan stablemates. We're left wondering why it wasn't badged as a Chrysler, just as the Crossfire is really a Benz SLK in a cheap dress... Although come to think of it, the Crossfire's built in Europe...