Test drive Mercedes Benz GLK class X204 since 2008 SUV

Calculation test

In my memory, it was the most unusual test drive in which I have ever had to participate. On the dough vehicle, less than 20 kilometers, while on other models of the company in a couple of days, I rolled ten times more
And it was so.
 
We flew to Munich, quickly renovated in the Innsbruck, where we were already waiting for the all -wheel drive models of Mercedes. The purpose of further movement of the city of Hokhgurgl, which is at an altitude of about 2000 meters. Fresh mountain air and a desire to completely and immediately leave somewhere far away the remnants of memories of a fussy metropolis plunged me to choose a luxurious vagrazhny Cl 500 4matic to climb the mountains. It was worth slaughter a heavy door without a frame, the goal was achieved by Moscow dissolved in a haze of memories, and only Austrian Alps around. Paradise. And not only for fans of mining sports.
I am not against CL and was ready to ride it all the time, but the car interfered with two circumstances for a long time and is well familiar, and I came here not to rest. GLK was shown to us the day after a plentiful press conference in the evening the day before. During the preparatory event, I talked with people from the head office of Mercedes and, in particular, inquired of the fate of the future all -wheel drive models of the company. Will the Germans introduce active schemes? The answer at first discouraged there is no confident. Why?
For most of the clientele, the issue of acute controllability and constant driving in the drift is not acute. Often the owners of the Mercedes for these far from everyday goals have other cars. And in a civilian car, the company's engineers see fundamental qualities such as predictability and reliable handling. This is when you know exactly what and why the car will do. And at the same time you do not claim to ride a fan on the interchange of the Moscow Ring Road. In all other cases, the help of electronics is enough with the head. This is the ideology of the firmist.
Let us take for comparison an abstract active all -wheel drive system with a computer -controlled intersosseum and rear inter -normal differentials and the latest, fourth, version 4 Matic. How does the first option work? Electronics all the time thinks intensely, believes, analyzes and actively works with couplings as a barbell dumbbell, redistributing torque. You can configure such a system both on excess and insufficient rotation, but obviously one craving on wheels is continuously changing. Even simple systems with a diplomonian, which are uncontrollable by any electronics, like Torsen, suggest changes in the torque between the axes, but the 4Matic another approach.
The moment is always distributed between the wheels in the proportion of 45/55 in favor of the rear, and the rest of the work is performed by electronics, simulating the operation of blocking both on the off -road and on slippery coating. Modern high -speed ESP allow this. Therefore, all -wheel drive Mercedes are always the same. In addition, the mechanically preinstalled distribution of traction means that the moment on the wheels comes faster than in adjustable systems, where the time is required on the Duma to the computer and mechanics to complete the task.
To verify what was said the next day, we were taken by a closed section of a mountain serpentine, completely covered with crispy snow. The air temperature is -15 ° C, more than fresh, the road is narrow, unfamiliar, cunningly winding. Behind the chipsters at least a kilometer of kubaroma down. Spikes in Austria are prohibited. In general, only a professional frostbitten ralist would probably drive here. We traveled one after another, periodically running into artificially created obstacles. Someone, of course, tried to accelerate in the first three programs, but all this is pampering.
We can say that the Mercedesians created the conditions under which the journalists turned out to be the most ordinary users. I had to go mostly calmly. And here all the statements made at a press conference were confirmed. The rottenness unchanged slides in front and that's it. If you provoke with the steering wheel and gas, it still goes outside, but at the same time it begins to throw the ass a bit. Clear? Yes. But it hurts straightforward. However, I spread above about driving in slipping. How will GLK deal with obstacles? The first diagonal hanging. The car is climbing, the wheels are gradually hung out, and those that have a clutch with the road, having made a couple of revolutions, pushing the car forward. Suppose, on a hard and slippery coating, this will not lead to fatal consequences, but what will happen, having appeared under the wheels, for example, sand?
However, the Mercedesovites in no case consider GLK an SUV. Typical city car. I think that in the metropolis it will look very natural. As for ML, for GLK you can order off-robes. But you should not wait for special miracles after installation, because it does not affect the mechanics, unlike the version on the older model. Only appearance. The imitation of locks could be checked by moving on a mixture. Under a pair of wheels on the right, ice, on the left, rolled snowball. Indeed, 4TS traction control works quickly. The car does not have time to slide a little to the side, the trajectory is aligned. Well, for an ordinary user, all this should really be enough.
Unfortunately, having figured out more or less with driving along a slippery road, I answered myself only one question. And there are still a lot of them. And all of them relate to public roads that are characteristic of Russia. Of course, having left the highway, I rode a little in the environs of the hokhgursh, but there is too little experience gained to draw some conclusions. You can say one GLK, as it should be for modern Mercedes, quietly, softly, very comfortable. But at the same time, the driver is not distant from the management process. The car is inhabitant, but it will steer well. And the engine tandem with a checkpoint is good. However, everyone has known this for a long time. Well, let's wait for the dough in our native spaces.
Upon returning to the hotel, we gave the keys to GLK, and the question arose in front of me to choose a car for returning to Innsbruck. Given that the hero of the test is largely inspired by the legendary Gelendvagen, I took the keys to G 500 and dedicated the last 100 km of the way to him. An interesting car, charismatic. Going in this SUV is converting. But better not in the mountains, but in the autobahn. How many still you will find structures on four wheels that would have been produced since the 70s, constantly improving. COMPETEL FROM CARTOMIC EPOCES! But I would better go down on the white GLK 350, who remained to wait for new journalists. Then, you look, and there would be much less questions for him. And perhaps I would not have to test it in Moscow. And now it will have to be. Was it really a subtle calculation of the company's PR managers?
Leonty Tyutelev

 
 
 

Source: Motor magazine [January 2009]