SPECIFICATIONS
Model:
Mercedes-Benz ML320 CDI.
Price:
£36 000, (about R425 500 at 31/0305), on sale September.
Engine:
2987cc, V6 turbodiesel, 24 valves, 167kW at 3800rpm, 510Nm at 1,600-2,800rpm.
Transmission:
Seven-speed automatic gearbox, four-wheel drive.
Performance:
214km/h, 0-100km/h in 8.4sec, 10.1 litres/100km estimated average.
My colleague Sean O'Grady gave the M-class quite a pasting the other week. To him, this overweight, lumbering 4x4 was a wholly unnecessary expression of vanity and arrogance, pointlessly ostentatious and over the top for its usual role of taking the children to school or pony club.
But those sentiments, with which I agree, could apply to any number of 4x4s.
It's just that the M-class is older than most and a rather cynical debasement of the values Mercedes-Benz once held dear. Did you ever sit in one of the original ones?
There was more cheap plastic in there than in a Hyundai Accent and Mercedes thought it could get away with this because the M-class was built in America for Americans.
Americans quite like hard, shiny plastics, was the excuse, and this will make them feel at home. That may be so, but even Americans expect more of a Mercedes.
A mid-term overhaul improved matters but now there's no more need at all to stick the knife in. Because there's an all-new M-class - all-new except for the top model's improved V8 engine, anyway - and it's a much better beast all round.
Chiefly, this is because it's no longer built on a separate chassis but has a modern, unitary-contruction "unibody" which is lighter, stiffer and easier to design to behave better in a crash. It's unusual for a new model to weigh less than its predecessor, but it does here - by about 50kg.
The old M-class was a pioneer of the BMW X5 style of fashion-friendly SUVs, not as terrain-conquering as a Discovery or a Jeep but able to look good in front of a horsebox.
The sector was in its infancy then, so the M-class took some stick from the 4x4 purists who scorned the lack of a low-range and lockable differentials.
Mercedes-Benz didn't really care, because the M-class has always sold well and, besides, there was the venerable G-wagen to cover the serious off-road base. Now this has changed.
Serious 4x4 equipment
The regular version of the new M-class still lacks low-range, something in any case used by just a tiny percentage of today's 4x4 ownership pool, but you can specify an Off-Road Pro pack for about £1500 (R17 700) that adds all that serious 4x4 equipment.
You need also to have the air-suspension option, itself another £1500, because O-R P alters it to give another 75mm or so of ground clearance when the suspension is raised to its fullest extent.
O-R P also includes an altimeter and a compass on the central colour display and a tougher undertray, uses simple electric switches for the low-range and diff-lock functions, and lets you choose between normal and sport modes in the seven-speed (yes, seven) automatic transmission standard across the range.
Such is the new-found ability to climb craggy, slippery landscapes that the M-class now achieves full 4x4 credibility. So much so that when the G-wagen dies (soon) it will not be replaced directly.
Mercedes-Benz is instead looking for a joint-venture partner to fulfil its various military and utility contracts currently covered by the G-wagen.
Handsome styling
Of more interest to most, is how the new M-class looks and feels. The style is clearly derived from that of the old car, itself a handsome, clean-cut machine, so there's still a continuous band of glass from one rear side window, across the tail, to the other side.
The M has been Viagra-ed to match today's taste for edgier, more exaggerated designs, so we see hunky wheel arches and an angled swage along the flanks to give a wedgy, nose-down stance.
The V8-engined ML500 gets a silver front grille, too, which gives an impression of teeth and Americana.
And inside, as Vivian Stanshall declared on the Boxed edition of Tubular Bells, a revelation. Everything is solid, substantial, padded if possible.
Command position
A bevy of buttons surrounds the optional COMAND navigation/stereo/phone/etc system but they're easier to fathom than that iDrive thing favoured by the men in Munich.
The automatic transmission lever has moved to the steering column, where it used to be when autos were invented, and behind the steering wheel's spokes are horizontal, and counter-intuitive, rocker switches to shift the gears manually.
It's a lavish, welcoming cabin, but smaller people might find the pedals awkwardly vertical and the front edge of the driver's seat too protruding. There's surprisingly little legroom in the back for such a hefty car, although the figures suggest a touch more space than in the old M-class.
A seven-seater, longer-wheelbase version is planned.
Two curving, near-horizontal bars act as central grab handles either side of the centre tunnel, echoing the gently curving design theme of the whole car.
UK cars will probably have two new safety systems as standard, too: active head restraints that minimise whiplash injury, and a system to tension seatbelts and move electric seats into their optimum position if the ESP sensors calculate an imminent crash.
Pulling power
I haven't told you about the engines yet. As well as that 228kW, five-litre V8, there are two three-litre turbodiesels but only one, in the 167kW ML 320 CDI, will come to the UK.
This engine has more torque than even the mighty V8, which gives a clue as to how it feels. The final engine, at least until a 6.3-litre AMG V8 arrives next year, is the 3.5-litre, 203kW V6 in the ML 350.
I had a hunch that the 320 CDI would prove the best bet and, after driving all of them, it's true. This is a terrific diesel, smooth, refined, responsive and well able to haul the M-class's two-ton bulk.
Its peak pulling power arrives at only 3800rpm, so you never need to work the engine hard. It's also quite economical for something so corpulent and rapid.
Why would you want any other engine? You wouldn't want the ML 350's V6, good as that engine is in, say, the SLK sports car, because here it has to work hard, it makes the gearshifts jerkier and it can get quite coarse-sounding at speed.
The V8, then? Naturally, this is the quickest of all, as well as comfortably the thirstiest, and it makes quite an inspiring noise when roused.
Road manners
As for road manners, the new M-class is a big improvement over the old but still not brilliant. The steering feels rubbery enough never to let you forget you're in a heavy vehicle with a high centre of gravity and, although it grips well and stays on course, it's not the pleasure it would be in an X5, a Touareg or even a Discovery.
The brakes are spongy, with a long pedal travel, but are effective enough.
There's redemption in the ride quality. The regular coil-sprung M-class can fidget over poor surfaces but the air-springs option makes for serene progress.
A better M-class? Certainly. But a class leader? Sorry, but there's a way to go yet. - The Independent, London