Mercedes GLS detailed review: Is this the luxury 7 seat Benz SUV you need in 2020?

CarExpert

The 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLS is a beast of an SUV! It takes luxury SUVs to a new level and offers realistic 7 seat accommodation, plus decent boot room to...boot. Is it worth the big price increase? Paul Maric tests the 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLS400d to find out!  Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-reviews/2020-mercedes-benz-gls400d-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 00:43 Interior: 03:12 Infotainment: 04:47 Features: 07:16  Practicality: 09:26 On the Road: 14:58 Verdict: 19:02  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #mercedesbenz #review #gls #mercedes @MercedesBenz @mercedesbenzau

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. Normally when you've stacked on weight and you're a little wider, it's nothing to celebrate.

00:04 But anyway, it's slightly different with cars and the case in point is the all-new Mercedes-Benz GLS.

00:12 It's become bigger, wider, heavier, but has it become better? Today, that's what we're going to find out.

00:18 This is the GLS 400D. It starts off at just over

00:21 $150,000 in Australia. Today, we're going to be doing a detailed review of the new GLS.

00:27 If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review, you can use the time codes up on the screen there.

00:31 Or if you're on YouTube, just scroll down and use the chapters below. And if you haven't done so already,

00:35 I'd love it if you could hit the subscribe button and also press the bell icon so you can find out every single time we

00:40 review stuff that's heavier than it was previously.

00:42 So before we look at the outside, what does this compete with? Well, BMW X7 is really the only other big, monstrous

00:49 seven-seat SUV that kind of goes off-road. This has a little more off-road capability.

00:54 I'll run you through the details on that in a sec. Ten exterior colors, all but the base white are an extra

00:58 $2,100. The entire GLS range in Australia comes with the AMG Line exterior package. Now, Benz,

01:06 they love a good emblem, don't they? So you've got one there and then this thing.

01:10 I think if you detach that, you could use it as a dinner plate at home.

01:13 It is huge. And I love the fact that in here, there's these little demister wires as well.

01:18 So in the snow, if you're up at the chalet, this will be able to demist.

01:21 So you still have radar, cruise control and all the safety functions. A little camera tucked into there and a giant grill with

01:27 lashings of chrome. You get 200 millimeters of ground clearance.

01:31 That is the height before you start whacking things underneath the car.

01:34 You can get the off-road engineering package for an extra $3,500. That adds underbody protection plus a low-range transfer case.

01:41 It makes it quite the proper off-roader like the old GL used to be. You get full adaptive LED headlights,

01:48 this signature beam here and LED indicators. Quite like the layout of this with the vertical struts of LED lighting.

01:55 Then around the side, have a look at this. These are 22-inch alloy wheels,

01:59 but the car comes standard with 21s. You can go all the way up to a

02:03 gangster specification 23 inches, which is pretty impressive. This is very much a road tire here.

02:10 So if you are going off-road, you may want to have a look at some proper off-road tires,

02:14 but it does come with air suspension so you can go up and down to improve your ground clearance.

02:18 I like the design of these AMG rims as well.

02:20 It's kind of like a brushed chrome look on black and then behind there,

02:24 you've got cross drilled rotors to pull this massive beast up. What about dimensions?

02:28 It's just over 5.2 meters long and a little over 2 meters wide and that makes it 77 millimeters longer and

02:34 22 millimeters wider than the old one. Now, what else have we got here? Side steps.

02:39 You get roof rails that are in black with the black highlights package on the side.

02:43 This is part of the night package and then you have privacy glass and come around to the back,

02:47 you'll see some fake exhaust pipes and these LED tail lights.

02:51 So this looks kind of like the S-Class Coupe and that's what they've done here with the GLS. Instead of just GL,

02:57 they want to position this as an S-Class of SUVs, which is why there's now a Maybach version of this as well

03:03 that's more expensive and more luxurious, but the same sort of size and philosophy.

03:07 I think it is quite a smart looking car and it shows the world that, you know, you're driving a big old Benz.

03:12 Let's talk interior.

03:14 Big fan of this. I think it looks really, really upmarket. I don't know, it just feels luxury.

03:19 There's this lashing of open pore wood all over the place and then you have leather or

03:25 whatever this material is across the rest of the surfaces. It is quite similar to the GLE though.

03:30 I would have thought they would have differentiated these somehow as opposed to just having the same layout.

03:35 I remember this looking very similar, but for the most part it actually looks really nice and high-end.

03:40 But how high-end is it? Let's get our

03:43 odometer. This is our device that measures hardness from 0 to 100. I'm going to use this on the dashboard.

03:48 We often joke that it's just motoring journalists that go on about how soft, soft touch materials are. Let's have a look.

03:55 Wow, that is impressive. That's under 50 and then let's try this center console.

04:00 That's pretty impressive as well. Now, let us know in the comments below,

04:05 we kind of want to expand this test and try use other surfaces in the car.

04:09 So if there's any other surfaces around the car you want to know the hardness of, let us know in the comments below.

04:14 What about build quality?

04:16 Feels pretty good. Everything is nice and solid. You can

04:20 hear it creaking a little bit as you push on stuff, but I think that's just for the sake of flexibility more than anything.

04:27 Also, I don't know. I'm a fan of this.

04:30 I know I'm being picky now,

04:32 but if you've got two lines that continue across, they need to join and you can see that's clearly out of alignment and

04:38 it's gonna stay that way. Same with these buttons here. They are only slightly out of alignment,

04:42 but yeah, if you're gonna have a surface that continues along, they really need to match up. Let's talk infotainment.

04:48 This is the part that will impress most people when they first step into your car. Two

04:51 12.3 inch screens sit next to each other. They have MBUX built in, which is the Mercedes-Benz user experience.

04:58 Now, if you want more detail on MBUX, we have a detailed review of just the infotainment system.

05:04 You can click up there to watch that.

05:05 But today I'll take you through a brief look at the features and what you can expect.

05:08 So let's kick off with the high-level stats. In terms of media, you have the ability to listen to AM/FM,

05:13 DAB plus digital radio, and then on top of that you also have an internal hard drive and the ability to play music over Bluetooth.

05:20 You also have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. It's a wired system though, not wireless.

05:25 I'll show you what that looks like. Nice integration, but it's a shame it doesn't span the entire screen.

05:30 Now someone actually mentioned to us in one of our comments that that has to do with limitations on resolution of Apple CarPlay.

05:37 So let me know in the comments below if you know more about that and you can explain that in a little more detail for

05:41 our readers because I'm keen to get a better understanding of that. Outside of that you have key menus here for

05:46 navigation and phone. With the phone you can use voice recognition to call people and just on voice recognition

05:51 you can actually do quite a lot with this. Let me give you an example.

05:54 Can I please have a hot relaxing back massage?

05:58 The hot relaxing back massage is switched on.

06:00 Now that's nice. See whenever I ask my wife to do that, she doesn't respond like that. Over to navigation. In here

06:09 you'll have the navigation menu. You can control this either on the screen with your finger

06:13 using the touchpad down here or using the steering wheel.

06:17 You can scroll around and make selections and if you do want to type anything in you just hit where to. You can manually type

06:23 it in on the screen or you can use this pad here to write it in yourself.

06:27 So there's a lot of different options there and it uses the cloud to come up with destination suggestions.

06:32 So even if you don't know exactly where you're going you just pop in the nearest thing and it will find it for you.

06:37 You also then have Mercedes me which is remote connectivity with the car. Again

06:41 if you have a look at our detailed review we go over the phone

06:43 application and how that interacts with the car. It allows you to send navigation

06:46 destinations to the car remotely start at that kind of thing and then you have a fully detailed settings menu.

06:51 I love the way that all of these change whenever you select different functions. So you get a visual representation

06:57 of what the car is doing instead of having to guess. You also have the owner's manual built into this screen as well.

07:02 Then in front of the driver

07:03 you have a second 12.3 inch screen that you can control using the right hand side of controls and you can fully configure this, change

07:09 the layout and the look and feel of it.

07:11 It is a pretty impressive setup. Then ahead of the driver a giant looking head-up display. Enough about infotainment

07:17 let's have a look at some of the other features that you get. So quad zone climate control.

07:21 So two zones up the front, two at the rear. You get heated and cooled seats, but here's the

07:26 cool bit. You can have heated seats on and cooled seats at the exact same time. Plus I love this feature.

07:32 I'm able to move the passenger seat

07:36 from the driver's seat. I don't understand what the point of that is, but it's a very cool feature nevertheless.

07:41 Seat memory there as well for the front two rows. You get a 13 speaker, almost 600 watt Burnister sound system as standard.

07:48 I love this metallic grille they put over the front of it. There's also ambient lighting.

07:52 You can pick from 64 different colors or color packages. In terms of safety features you have low and high speed

07:58 autonomous emergency braking. You get a blind spot monitor, a lane keeping assistant, lane changing assistant.

08:04 You get a semi-autonomous self-steering function. Radar cruise control, a

08:08 360 degree camera. This is a super high resolution camera and it looks really good. A sliding panoramic glass

08:15 sunroof adds a bit of ambience to the cabinet, makes it feel a little bigger on the inside as well.

08:19 Now this car also has something interesting fitted. It's augmented reality inbuilt to the satellite navigation system.

08:26 This is what it looks like. So as you can see as you approach intersections,

08:29 it kind of gives you a better idea of where the street is that you're turning into. Works well. I like it.

08:34 I think it still could be improved a little bit, but it's a really big step forward in in-car technology.

08:39 Then on top of that you also have another feature fitted to this car, which is called the MBUX interior assistant.

08:46 Now we can't show you this during the daytime, but it effectively adds in a proximity sensor.

08:51 So you can see as my finger approaches there, it makes icons appear a little bigger.

08:54 But at nighttime, it allows you to enable the lights just by moving your hand towards them.

08:59 And also if you put your hand into the footwell, for example, it will light that up as well.

09:02 So what does the key look like? Here it is here. Pretty fancy looking key. Mercedes-Benz emblem in the center.

09:09 Nice bit of chrome down the bottom. Lock, unlock, boot. And then on the back, it's just a little bit of piano black.

09:15 Now this is a proximity sensing key.

09:17 So you just keep that in your pocket, grab the door handle, hit the start button.

09:20 And there's also this cool feature here. Soft close on the door, so you can be super lazy if you want.

09:24 That sucks the door in. Let's move on to practicality, because you're gonna be hauling people around here.

09:30 We'll get rid of this. Where are you going to put your phone? So plenty of room for phone storage up the front there.

09:36 There is also a wireless phone charger, so you can slot your phone in there to charge. Then what about water bottles?

09:44 You've got little grip tabs there, and you can also move the entire cup holder out of the way, and then clip it back into position if you want, which is pretty cool.

09:52 And then inside the door, you have plenty of storage for a bottle, plus other bits and pieces.

09:57 So the console is decent size. You've got a USB-C port in there, and then another two up the front. 12-volt outlet.

10:05 And then let's have a look at the glove box.

10:07 Hey, glove box is pretty good as well. You can actually store a fair bit in there, even outside of just the manual.

10:12 Now, what about comfort?

10:14 Yeah, this seat is nice. You've seen the massage function as well.

10:19 Yeah, this feels good. Steering wheel is a nice size as well. Sits beautifully in the hand, and it's a bit of an AMG wheel,

10:24 so you've got those perforations on it, plus the paddle shifters. Let's talk backseat comfort.

10:30 What's it like back here? Pretty nice, actually. You get matte pockets. Now have a look at these air vents.

10:35 Not only do you get air vents down here, you get them at face level, at head level.

10:40 You can literally just be embraced with hot or cold, which is nice.

10:45 Electrically adjusted seats, so you can move back and forward. You can move the headrest up and down as well.

10:51 Center armrest with a storage nook, carpeted as well.

10:56 Couple of bottle holders, see how they work. I love all this over-engineered stuff. Look at that.

11:02 That mechanism is a work of art.

11:04 It is pretty cool, and then you can store a bottle inside the door as well. Your third and fourth zone of climate controls are

11:12 down here, and then a little further down you have a flip-out tray to hold your phone with two

11:16 USB-C slots as well, and

11:19 I have acres of knee room, plenty of toe room and headroom for days.

11:25 So that is pretty cool, and have a look at this in terms of over-engineering things.

11:30 There's a little hook there that is spring-loaded as well.

11:33 So let's talk third row. The whole purpose of this car is that you can fit adults into the third row, and because it's all

11:39 whiz-bang, it's all electronic. So I'm going to show you how it works.

11:42 One flick of this button brings the whole row forward and then up and out of the way.

11:48 It's a little bit slow.

11:57 We're getting there. Okay, there it goes, and then there's buttons down here. These buttons allow us to raise the third row.

12:04 So I'll flick both of those up.

12:06 Here they come. They go up much faster, and then I'm going to climb in there to show you exactly how much room there is.

12:13 So getting in is very straightforward. You can see that whole process works

12:18 well. This just pulls up and clips into position, and then once we're comfortable we can lower this.

12:26 Here it comes.

12:28 So it does it in two stages. It comes down all the way so that you still have room, and then you can adjust it

12:35 manually if required.

12:36 There we go. That's in its final position there.

12:39 You can see I actually have knee room and stacks of toe room as well, and it's pretty comfy here.

12:44 There's cup holders on either side. There are USB-C ports everywhere. Two on my side, two on the other side.

12:49 It's actually pretty spacious. Now, is there any room in the boot though?

12:54 That's always the problem with these three-row cars, so let's go check that out.

12:57 So I've got some good news. If you've seen our Pajero Sport review, if you haven't, click up here to watch that.

13:03 There is actually room here behind the third row. Often with these SUVs that have a third row,

13:09 you just can't fit anything there when you have passengers in that space, but here you have just over

13:15 350 litres of cargo space. It's 20 litres more than the last generation of the GL.

13:21 Underfloor storage for the cargo blind plus the SpaceSaver spare tyre that's inflatable.

13:27 There really is just like endless amounts of room hidden in this car, and then you can see that subframe there for the third row.

13:33 It's part of the reason this car is so heavy. There's a lot of structural integrity in there.

13:37 Let's see exactly what we can fit in here.

13:40 Wonder if this will actually go in.

13:42 Yeah, perfect. That will close as well. So you can actually get a full-size suitcase, shopping,

13:48 whatever you need in here with your third row in use. That is versatility for you.

13:53 Now, if you do want to drop the third row, this is all electronic just like that second row.

13:57 Now, you can drop everything at once using the left-hand side and that also services the second row,

14:02 but your third row is done on this side. If this is too high, which it can be, one flick of this

14:07 starts lowering the back end of the car. So it's coming down now, still going and

14:13 there it is at its lowest setting. Now, when you do want to drop the third row out of the way,

14:18 you flick these two switches

14:20 and away it goes.

14:22 And away it goes. There we go. They disappear just there. Then you get just under

14:28 900 litres of cargo space. Then the second row you drop from this side, away that goes,

14:35 still going, still going,

14:37 and

14:40 there it goes. With all the seats down, you have just under 1500 litres to that side sill. Pop these bags in now.

14:47 Boom, look at that. That is a monster, monster space. It's like a van and a seven-seater and a luxury car all in one.

14:57 So we're in the GLS and I've got to tell you about this diesel engine. It is a whopper. So 3.0-litre,

15:05 turbocharged, inline six-cylinder, 243 kilowatts of power, 700 newton metres of torque.

15:12 But there's a little secret here. Everyone says it's a three-litre, but it's actually a 2.9-litre. It's 2925

15:20 cubic centimetres. So it's not quite three litres, but I think they just round it up a bit like the C63.

15:28 It's actually a 6.2-litre, not a 6.3.

15:31 Anyway, I digress. Now, being a diesel, it means it's going to be pretty efficient. 7.7 litres per 100 kilometres

15:39 is the official claim. Let's have a look at what we have achieved here. Keep in mind the car has been idling

15:45 a little bit today, but we are currently sitting on, drum roll please, 12 litres per 100 kilometres.

15:53 So if you do get up it and you have the car sitting around for a bit, it's not quite going to hit that 7.7 mark.

15:59 It is a heavy car, but if you're doing a lot of highway driving, it will be a whole lot more efficient.

16:03 It's all mated to a nine-speed automatic transmission. It's not a dual-clutch transmission, and for the most part,

16:10 it's pretty smooth. Now, what about the drive mode? So we're in comfort now. It feels really nice.

16:15 You have air suspension with adaptive damping, so when you find yourself a little speed hump like this,

16:20 you really can't feel that it's there. It does a great job soaking everything up, despite the fact we're

16:25 riding on 22-inch alloy wheels. It's almost unheard of a few years ago that you'd be sitting on rubber

16:30 and alloy wheel that big, but then you can use this dynamic selector to flick it down to sport mode.

16:38 Alright, so the gearbox gets a little bit excited. It drops back a gear. The suspension is noticeably firmer,

16:44 and everything just feels a whole lot sharper. If you get stuck into the throttle, it really punches you back

16:49 in the seat. 700 Newton metres is a fair slog of torque. It feels really nice, actually.

16:54 It's got a good little note to it as well. For a diesel, it sounds like it's actually doing stuff instead

16:59 of just sitting away in the background there. Of course, this is all-wheel drive, and it means that it's

17:04 constantly sending torque to all four wheels. The steering gets heavier in sport mode as well.

17:08 It actually sits surprisingly flat for such a big car. I think it's quite deceiving.

17:13 I cannot wait for an AMG version of this. So there is an eco mode, but no one really wants to use that,

17:20 and an off-road mode, which jacks the suspension up and gives you a little bit more flexibility off-road.

17:25 Remember as well, if you are serious about off-road driving, there is that off-road engineering package,

17:29 which adds a low-range transfer case plus underbody protection. These are surprisingly capable off-road.

17:34 It's obviously not a Range Rover, but you can still go off-road if you need to.

17:38 And then of course, you have the 3,500 kilogram towing capacity as well, just in case you want to tow a horse float

17:44 or, I don't know, a small house or something.

17:46 Let's talk about visibility. Okay, so visibility out the front's good, except this heads-up display is massive.

17:52 I love all the information in there, but I don't know, there's just a lot going on.

17:56 You can adjust the settings here from the steering wheel, but I don't know, if I get it any lower, I can't sort of see.

18:03 I don't know, I'm a bit of a freak because I've got long legs and a short torso,

18:08 so I'm always in this situation where stuff just doesn't work for me, for my body type.

18:14 So, judge me if you want, but that's big and annoying.

18:18 If you look outside of the front, though, the wing mirrors are okay. I would have expected them to be a little bit bigger,

18:23 but they do have that section on the edge that's slightly tilted, so you can see a little more.

18:28 Visibility out the back isn't fantastic. It's a very narrow window, so it's only a small opening,

18:34 and if you've got people in that third row, it's going to be pretty tricky to see out the back of.

18:38 Cabin noise is something that's surprising me here, because even on course-chip roads, it's pretty silent inside the car.

18:44 There's a lot of insulation and padding that just means that when you are driving along in the country,

18:48 if you do have a car full of people, no one's going to be getting a headache from all the droning coming in through the cabin,

18:54 which is quite surprising. Normally, if you do low-profile tyres, a big alloy wheel,

18:58 you tend to have quite a lot of road noise, but this is pretty damn quiet.

19:01 So, the Mercedes-Benz GLS. Would I buy one? Yes, absolutely, because it is a rich man's Toyota Tarago,

19:08 just much bigger and better. I think they really have hit a six with this,

19:12 because if you do need seven seats, and if you want to travel in luxury, this really does tick all the boxes.

19:17 It's a big step up in price from the last one, but it's also a big step up in everything from the last one.

19:22 The old one was just getting really old in the tooth. So, they've nailed it with this, and that engine combination is fantastic.

19:28 I wouldn't be adverse to going for the petrol either. I quite like the petrol in the GLE,

19:32 and it just gives it that nice boost with the 48-volt hybrid system.

19:36 So, let me know in the comments below, would you still just get a Tarago, or is this tickling your fancy?

19:40 If you bought one, let me know why you have so many kids and passengers down in the comments below.

19:44 If you have enjoyed this video, I'd love it if you could hit the like button, and also press subscribe.

19:48 Follow it up with the bell icon, so you can find out every single time we publish something new.

19:52 But until next time, take it easy.

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