Test drove a ML350 with premium package. In a brief summary here are my thoughts. Quality of workmanship significantly improved. Ride and transmission very smooth. Front seats comfortable but not as high a position as the W163. Leg room front and back very acceptable. Power tailgate excellent. Drawbacks - design of folding rear seats. You can no longer put very long objects such as an 8" folding table in the car as the way the rear bottom cushion folds, the back of the front passenger seat can not be reclined way back. Cargo area is slightly narrower with now barely sufficient room for golf clubs to fit left to right instead of angled or from to back. Given the redesign there is more of a blind spot for the driver on the rear passenger side when you look back. As mentioned by another writer, the rear seats are at an unusual angle that takes time to get use to. No keyless go on the 350. Styling is certainly not aggressive or exciting. Based on the brochure the new red is what is on the mbusa web site picture - the alpine rain seems to be close to a silver blue -- the green seems to be a dark green. No longer a storage area under the passenger front seat. Looks like great quality but somewhat of a failure in design and features given what the pricing is. Why not pre safe and the other new safety items for the US? Will probably wait to see the R class or wait for option additions in the 2007 model.
sheepdog - 3/26/2005 8:02 AM
You can no longer put very long objects such as an 8" folding table in the car as the way the rear bottom cushion folds, the back of the front passenger seat can not be reclined way back.
I believe that is why the rear seat cushions can be temporarily removed, so that you can indeed get such an object in the vehicle.
Quote:
Why not pre safe and the other new safety items for the US? Will probably wait to see the R class or wait for option additions in the 2007 model.
PRE-SAFE and (I think) NeckPro are to be launched later in the model year. They are simply configuring all of the initial MLs according to the "Launch Package" configuration, presumably for ease of ordering, and to allow the factory some sort of standardisation in the initial launch phase.
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Drew - thanks for your input. Unfortunately I have been to 2 different dealers and neither one knows anything about the rear seat cushions being removable.
Test drove a 2nd ML350 without the premium package but with the trim package. The leather seating inserts with MB tex on the remaining portion of the seats is quite acceptable in look. Very difficult to tell the 2 apart except by feel. Entertaiment package sound system was reasonably good but I'm not sure if worth $1000+. Waiting to see what kind of discount if any they are willing to offer.
2nd dealer indicated that it would be quite rare for MB to offer options later in the model year that were not at the least mentioned in the brochure. Usually they would be listed with a designation for "later availability".
Linear Mode
