New Mercedes-Benz GL

Here is the new Mercedes-Benz GL! Thanks to world of Twitter, I found the leaked pictures of the upcoming new GL. As you can see, Mercedes kept the main lines of the vehicle and did not go for a radical change. This shows that, Mercedes does not wish to lose the present customers with a radical new design. And they created a Bentley atmosphere in interior, you can clearly see this by the cross stitching in leather!

~~However, the rear end of the vehicle looks similar to BMW X3. A bad coincident! Based on the pictures, this new model will offer lots of LEDs light and less muscular looking.~~

Unfortunately, I could not find any information about the engine options but I can assume that Mercedes will stick to present range. And I don’t think they will offer the 2,2-lt diesel engine. Most probably Mercedes will be offering 3,0-lt petrol (306 PS), 5,0-lt petrol (408 PS) and diesel (258 PS).

~~We will know more about the new GL in following motor shows. Most probably in New York, as the GL is quite popular there!~~

Today Mercedes revealed the new Mercedes GL in New York Motor Show. And some of my predictions were right, such as the engine options. The new GL will be offered with two engines; one petrol GL 500 (408 PS) and one diesel GL 350 (258 PS). After the vehicle will be offered more engine options will be available! This time Mercedes improved the interior quality of the GL, however I was expecting to see a S-Class interior but, it still looks luxury and exquisite. On the contrary, it shares the same interior with the ML, which I found it as a downside.

Anyway, this time Mercedes placed the GL as the S-Class of the SUVs. I can understand this by their press release related with air suspension (Air Matic), steering wheel and driving dynamics. Probably Mercedes designed the GL to act like a S-Class. That's really good! So, it could be a real good alternative to Range Rover.

New GL offers some new technologies such as; Steer Control as steering assistance and to avoid over-steering due to steering torque, Collision Prevent Assist, 360 Degree Camera view and Active Parking Assist (auto parking system) are the new feature. Auto parking feature will be very useful for a vehicle at this size.

Similar Range Rover's Terrain Response system, GL offers six different types of on-road and off-road programmes with low range transmission and a locking centre differential. Unfortunately, they are not offering locking rear differential. It was a bit interesting. They removed the rear differential lock from ML and GL. I was expecting to see rear differential lock in GL, because that's the feature that defines a real off-roader or not! And Mercedes claims on the press release that, new GL is a real off-roader, without rear differential lock !?!

Also, the interior space is bigger, more boot space, more luxury, better fuel economy, start-stop function 7-speed automatic gearbox (7G-Tronic Plus). And similar to Aston Martin, GL has the Bang & Olufsen BeoSound sound system with woofer mounted on the A-pillars! Looks really nice.

Overall, it is a new nice but they did not change the design so dramatically, and lost its muscular look. In addition, I was expecting to something different. This shows that Mercedes does not wish to make existing American (Sold 27,000 GLs last year), Chinese and German customers upset with a new radical design. On the other, hand it will make harder for Mercedes to capture new customers! Interior looks really but we need to wait for the new Range Rover, in order to evaluate more precisely. Will I buy one? Hmmm, hard question. I am sure it would be nice to drive but buying is still a question mark for me when it comes to GL. The design is the main issue, sorry!

For more photos: Cars & Life Facebook Page

Model	Cyl.	cc	kW/hp at rpm	Nm from rpm	0-100 km/h (s)	Vmax km/h	l/100 km NEDC combined	CO2 g/km
GL 350 BlueTEC 4MATIC	6	2987	190/258 3800	620 1600-2400	7.9	220	7.4-8.0	192-209
GL 500 4MATIC BlueEFFICIENCY	8	4663	300/408 5000-5750	600 1600-4750	5.9	250	11.3-11.6	262-269