Category: Large 4x4s 
Price Range: £30,280 to £75,823
Spacious, comfortable, practical, Mercedes badge.
Not as dynamic to drive as some rivals, manual gearbox awful, diesel a bit noisy.
A good compromise between off-road ability and on-road comfort but feels a little dated.
Mercedes' M-Class has, since its 1997 launch, been a big seller in the off-road market sector, especially in the USA, Germany and France. It outsold the M-B marketing team's expectations, forced the expansion of M-B's factory in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and brought on the opening of an additional production line in Graz, Austria. In short, it has been a success story. That was despite quite a lot of criticism of its quality, which led a fair few detractors to suggest - whisper it - that it didn't feel quite up to Mercedes-Benz's standards of build and refinement.
So, Mercedes took notice of those whispers when it facelifted the car in 2001. Just as well, given that by then there were also the BMW X5, Lexus RX300 and Range Rover to compete against. The current M-Class is better than that original, but still not as good as the best.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Mercedes E-Class Coupe
wrote on 27 05 2006