Mercedes-Benz M-Class Road Test

Mercedes-Benz M-Class

What We Disliked

• The steering column mounted gear selector is awkward to use (you do get used to it eventually but in our opinion it is slower to operate)

What We'd Like To See

• Bi-Xenon headlamps as standard on a vehicle of this price (£1,100 option)
• Easy-Pack tailgate (which opens and closes automatically) as standard (£400 option)

Build Quality

The Mercedes-Benz M-Class's build quality is superb - it is very good and is vastly improved over the previous model. Everything felt solid, and featured good quality durable materials.

Value For Money

Owners of the new Mercedes-Benz M-Class's predecessor had complained of poor trim and low quality plastics and then the car was cited with reliability concerns. Mercedes has addressed their concerns and has returned with an 'SUV' that should be proud to wear the Mercedes-Benz Badge with honour. As with all Mercedes-Benz models residual values should prove resilient to depreciation.

Overall Opinion

Of course we liked the M-Class it hard not too, it is attractive, dependable, accommodating and it is great to own and drive. We recently spent a week in Cornwall with its bigger brother the R-Class but cannot makeup our minds which we preferred. The R-Class is an excellent family car albeit rather big but it has practically the same four wheel drive capability of the standard road going M-Class and can carry seven people.

We think that if it was our money we would look carefully at the Land Rover Discovery 3 - it offers a better all round package for a similar amount of money. It has the advantage of seven seats as standard on the higher specification models and it features the superb All Terrain Response system. Plus we live in the country and regularly face situations where the Discovery 3 would fair better, but if we were looking for a family car and lived in the city it would be a much closer call.

Mercedes Benz M-Class