Long-Term Test: Mercedes-Benz R-Class: April 2007

Though there is no doubt that, even armed with 224bhp and a healthy 376lb-ft of torque, the 3.0-litre turbodiesel occasionally struggles with the weight of the R-Class, it's still a pretty classy powerplant, proving particularly smooth and quiet once the Mercedes has reached ramming speed. The quoted 30mpg in the combined cycle always struck me as a tad optimistic and, indeed, we've managed a slightly less wholesome 24mpg without ever pushing the engine too hard.

Interestingly, we've noticed quite a build-up of soot around the exhausts, reinforcing the fact that it takes time for catalytic converters to get up to operational temperature and, clearly, the school run falls well outside those parameters.

While the R-Class is never going to blow the driving enthusiast's frock up, it still acquits itself with admirable aplomb. We have more or less completely left the suspension in the Comfort setting, which gives a seriously pleasing, toddler puke-free ride despite a fair degree of anticipated body roll in the bends. I have, on occasion, switched to Sport mode on a well-known, particularly twisty by-road, living with the penalty of a perceptibly firmer ride in the interests of markedly improved body control. I still have reservations as to the merits of air suspension over good, old-fashioned cold steel, however, and can't help wondering if such adjustable systems simply exonerate the designers from working up a proper, one-size-fits-all solution at the outset.

Accepting that, appropriately kitted out, this is a £50,000 motor car, I do nonetheless find myself telling anyone who will listen that if I had the money, and having chosen my dealership with exaggerated care, I'd buy one like a shot. We are seriously going to miss this car.

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