Category Test Drive

Review Index:
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz GL450 – Part 1 (Exterior)
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz GL450 – Part 2 (Interior)
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz GL450 – Part 3 (Chassis and Suspension)
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz GL450 – Part 4 (Powertrain)

The GL450 is equipped with Mercedes-Benz’s M278 engine.

The M278 is Mercedes-Benz’s latest direct injected, twin-turbocharged V8 engine, with 4.7L displacement. Basically speaking, M278 is the turbo version of the M273 V8, plus fuel direct injection. This same engine can be seen on many Mercedes-Benz vehicles such as the S-class, CL-class, CLS-class, E-class, M-class etc, but with different tunes to generate different level of outputs...

Review Index:
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz GL450 – Part 1 (Exterior)
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz GL450 – Part 2 (Interior)
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz GL450 – Part 3 (Chassis and Suspension)
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz GL450 – Part 4 (Powertrain)

Video Highlights (For more detail information please see paragraph #5, 6, 7)

Now let’s take a look at the GL450’s frame construction.

Usually Mercedes-Benz vehicles give us an impression of solid rigidity and superior safety...

Review Index:
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz GL450 – Part 1 (Exterior)
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz GL450 – Part 2 (Interior)
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz GL450 – Part 3 (Chassis and Suspension)
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz GL450 – Part 4 (Powertrain)

In part 1, I have shown you some of my opinions regarding the GL450. In this section, let us take a look at the inside of the GL450.

Our test car comes with the Black MB-Tex synthetic leather option, which is standard on the GL450. If you want real leather interior, you need pay another $1,620 for that. Below is how this synthetic leather looks.

You may notice with MB-Tex equipped GL-class, the seating surfaces are perforated; while with the r...

Review Index:
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz GL450 – Part 1 (Exterior)
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz GL450 – Part 2 (Interior)
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz GL450 – Part 3 (Chassis and Suspension)
The 2014 Mercedes-Benz GL450 – Part 4 (Powertrain)

Test Car Information:

2014 Mercedes-Benz GL450
4.6L turbocharged V8, 362 hp @ 5000-6000 RPM, 406 lb-ft @ 1,500-4,000 rpm
7-speed automatic transmission, all-wheel-drive
Options: Premium 1 Package
MSRP as tested: $69,155 (including $925 S&H charge)

For those who have the needs to carry more than 5 persons, but do not want to drive a minivan, they will typically buy a CUV/SUV with 3 rows of seats...

I can still remember that back in the days during Christmas seasons of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, advertisements and short promotion films about the Hyundai Genesis were flooding the US auto market, on TVs, radios and internet media. For example there was an advertisement showing a Hyundai engineer armed with a slide calipers, measuring gaps between body panels of the Genesis and its competitors such as BMW, Audi etc., and claimed the fit of Genesis is superior to its competitors. There were also claims about the Genesis is faster than xxx, and quieter than yyy etc.

The most important thing is that the 2009 model year Genesis MSRP only starts at a little bit over $30...