Mercedes-Benz covers a wide spectrum with its M-Class sport-utilities. The ML320 delivers the rugged looks, room, safety and utility that high-end SUV buyers seek along with a V6 engine that keeps pricing down to earthly levels. The ML500 offers all that, plus considerably more oomph from its V8 engine. And the ML55 AMG hammers you with high performance.
New for 2002, the 5.0-liter ML500, our test vehicle, replaces last year's 4.3-liter ML430.
The M-Class is purposeful and compact in appearance, with a sculpted front end and sharply sloped hood. Its styling has been freshened for 2002, including a new grille, new wheels on the ML320 and ML500, tighter-fitting bumpers, halogen headlamps with projected beams, halogen foglamps, revised taillamp lenses with a single rear foglamp integrated in the left taillamp, and side mirrors now containing the side turn signals.
The M-Class uses a traditional body-on-frame construction. Though heavier and more prone to squeaks than the unibody construction found in most sedans and minivans, this design is durable and better suited for towing, preferred by many truck buyers.
expect to have its operation made easy for them with simple or at least intuitive controls. But apparently getting sophistication without complication is a conundrum.
With its bigger engine, the ML500 accelerates more quickly than last year's ML430: 0 to 60 in 7.7 seconds versus 8.0 seconds. This makes it one of the quickest SUVs on the market, as well as one of the thirstiest; the downside is fuel mileage, as the ML430 got 16 city and 20 highway, while the ML500 gets only 14/17. The front and rear axle ratios have been changed from 3.46 to 3.70, improving acceleration but reducing fuel mileage. So the ML320 and ML500 also get a bigger fuel tank, to 22 gallons from 18.5.
The flexibility of the 5.0-liter engine is impressive, with its broad torque range and whomping 325 foot-pounds. It works beautifully with the sophisticated five-speed automatic transmission. Floor the accelerator at any speed, and in a heartbeat the transmission downshifts and this 2.25-ton luxury truck gains speed, making quick, stress-free work of passing tractor trailers on two-lane roads; it downshifts so smoothly all you feel is a surge of power, as if a turbocharger were kicking in.
Even better, there's the joy of Touch Shift, which allows manual shifting by nudging the lever to the left or right, with the gear displayed on the instrument panel. There's a new transmission feature in 2002, called SOG, or Shift Optimized Gear function. As we understand it, SOG overrides Touch Shift when in the Touch Shift mode, reverting the transmission back to automatic if the driver's choice of gears doesn't please the program. We think an entire column might be written about this, which may or may not be funny. (It would only be funny to you, Sam. -ed.)
The front stabilizer bars have been made bigger on the 2002 M-Class, which features a double-wishbone, four-wheel independent suspension. Our ML500 provided a ride that was smooth, steady, firm and never jarring. The handling is extremely good for an SUV this heavy; it follows aggressive steering commands without fuss, and the beefy tires are grippy. A driver can feel the weight if he or she yanks the steering wheel, however, and it will lean some in emergency lane change maneuvers, but it's prone neither to pushing at the front end (understeer) nor sliding at the rear (oversteer). Of course, the magical Electronic Stability Program controls this loss of traction during cornering, particularly on dirt, gravel or slippery pavement. ESP applies brakes to individual wheels to help turn the vehicle evenly whenever it detects a skid. It too has been revised in 2002, to give a more rapid response.
The biggest problem with the handling might be the inconvenience of the heavy steering. At slower speeds the steering effort is very high, and women may not like this. You might even find yourself turning wider than you intended to, because you didn't muscle it enough. A weak-shouldered driver will have to watch it as they turn into a shopping-center parking space.
The anti-lock brakes, with massive discs, ventilated in front, are impressive, and the pedal feel is as solid as the rest of the truck. The ML500 slows quicker than almost any other SUV made.
The M-Class lacks a hand brake or locking differential, two pieces of hardware that experienced off-road drivers sometimes rely on. But with 8.7 inches of ground clearance, the M-Class is capable of traversing terrain that few SUV buyers are likely to challenge. A switch on the dash triggers low range for the full-time four-wheel-drive, allowing the vehicle to creep up and down seriously steep inclines. Meanwhile, the electronic power distribution delivers grip in mud, snow, or uneven ground. The electronics apply the brakes on wheels that are slipping, and then send most of the power to those that are gripping. The M-Class can creep forward even if only one wheel has a bit of traction.
The ML500 performs so well, its ride and handling so solid, that only the wealthiest, hard-core, high-performance buyers will feel a need for the image-heavy ML55 AMG. It can accelerate from a standstill to 60 mph in 6.4 seconds. That's quick, but that will cost you another 21 grand. The engine is poked out to 5.5 liters, yielding 342 horsepower and a humongous 376 foot-pounds of torque. We drove a 2001 ML55, pushing it harder because it will be driven very aggressively by buyers, and found that the most fun you can have with it is staying in second gear and driving hard through twisty sections, listening to the rise and fall of the engine's deep Benz growl. The ML55 has a 25-gallon tank, by the way. It needs it.
Suspension and shock absorber changes make the ML55 lower than the ML500, which helps the center of gravity, and super-wide 285/50R18 Dunlop tires provide awesome grip. And for 2002, the ML55 has larger front and rear stabilizer bars than it did in 2001. But it's still a truck, not originally intended to do the things it's modified to do. The car builders at AMG might be brilliant, but they're not miracle workers. Making a tall box like the M-Class feel like much more than a modified tall box may be beyond mechanical expectations. Still, the suspension changes keep it from leaning, which is good, except now there's not much warning that you're cornering too fast, except from your own brain. Which might not always be enough.
The ML320 uses a 215-horsepower V6 engine and its base price is $36,300; the ML500 takes a 288-horsepower V8 and costs $44,950; and the ML55 AMG features a hot-rodded version of that V8, raising the horsepower to 342 and the cost to $65,900. (All prices are MSRP and do not include the $645 destination charge.) Some things that were standard on the M-Class in 2001 become optional in 2002, effectively raising the price.
M-Class models still come standard with dual front airbags that know when to deploy with partial or full force, front and rear side airbags, window curtain airbags that drop from the headliner, as well as seatbelt pretensioners and automatic seatbelt force limiters. A child-seat recognition system prevents deployment of the front passenger airbags when an appropriate child safety seat is installed. Beginning last year, the company's Tele Aid emergency calling system was standard equipment, along with new downhill traction control having a crawl mode for slow descents on steep icy streets, or even off-road. The ML500 and ML55 come standard with ESP, Electronic Stability Program, which corrects slides and is invaluable; it works with Brake Assist, which activates the pedal with full force when sensors say it's needed.
While some 4X4s offer chunkier tires and greater ground clearance than the M-Class, and may be more capable off-road, they behave more like trucks on the highway. Other sport-utilities, such as the Lexus RS 300, feel more car-like than the M-Class on pavement, but offer limited off-road capability. Still others are bigger and more luxurious. But it's very difficult to find one that does as many things as well as the M-Class.