Mercedes-Benz ML 350 Bluetec

What is it?

Our first chance to test Mercedes’ third-generation M-class SUV on European roads. European editor Greg Kable has already tried an ML on European chassis settings, but only on the wider and flatter roads of the USA. Now we find out how well the new upmarket 4x4 rides and handles closer to home.

Built on an all-new platform that will also serve underneath next year’s new GL-class, the new ML features double wishbone style suspension up front, and a multi-link setup at the rear. As standard it gets steel springs, ‘selectable’ gas dampers and a fairly limited amount of ground clearance for a large 4x4 (202mm).

Spend a bit extra and you’ll be able to option up your ML to suit either proper offroad driving, or for more precise and agile on-road responses, however. With height adjustable Airmatic air springs equipped, you can go for Mercedes’ ‘On-&-Offroad’ package, which adds a low range transfer gearbox, underbody protection, lockable centre and rear differentials and height adjustable suspension to allow for up to 285mm of ground clearance.

Or alternatively, you can go for Sport suspension and Mercedes’ ‘Active Curve System’, which works via active anti-roll bars front and rear, and gives the ML added grip and body control during fast cornering.

What’s it like?

Our test car was Mercedes’ 255bhp V6 diesel model fitted with air suspension. Although a way off the three-hundred horses of BMW’s most powerful six-cylinder diesel engine, it beats the lesser X5 3.0d on power, torque and emissions, likewise an Audi Q5 3.0 TDi and a like-for-like VW Touareg.

Wider, longer and lower than the car it replaces, the new ML looks much less like a conventional tall 4x4 than either of its predecessors on first inspection. Its styling is neat enough and well resolved, if a little conservative. Merc’s design department should have been bolder if they really wanted to endear the car to a younger audience.

Inside, the ML’s a spacious machine with a distinguishing aura of tactile quality and material sumptuousness. In lavishly equipped models, its standards in material specification and finish approach those of a current Range Rover even. The car’s primary ergonomics are good in the main, although you’re aware of a wide transmission tunnel and a slightly off-centre steering column – compromises made to accommodate the car’s heavy duty four-wheel drive system and its long-travel air suspension. In the rear there’s generous head-, shoulder- and legroom too, although entry for taller occupants is a little more tricky without clouting your head.

Mechanical refinement in the new ML is absolutely top drawer. Merc’s ‘noise, vibration and harshness’ specialists compared the new car to the old one, as well as to its German opposition, during development. They say they found even the outgoing M-class to be quieter than a current X5, Touareg and Cayenne. The new ML is quieter still, with a large, thick magnesium sound-deadening front bulkhead, triple-sealed windows and doors, and a pioneering aerosol-based spray-on NVH insulation applied at key NVH ‘hotspots’ on the car’s body-in-white.

Even at autobahn speeds you’ll hear very little road or wind noise for such an upright car. Rolling refinement is good, although not quite in the same league. Over smaller surface disturbances you can feel the consequences of Mercedes’ decision to aim for a stiffer chassis compromise than in previous MLs; the new car rides well, but not with as much compliance as the very smoothest SUVs. The occasional sharp ridge thumps through the air suspension’s shock absorption, too.