Test drive Mercedes Benz GLK class X204 since 2008 SUV

Mercedes GLK 3.5 L

The Mercedes GLK 3.5 L version was born to gobble up all the premium crossovers. I would be fabulously glad if the new design line was not an experiment, but a full -scale revolution in the guise of all brand models. Unfortunately, it is not.
GLK design is just a continuation of the angular line of a big brother, Mercedes-Benz GL. It was created only because among the buyers they felt the shy demand for cubism like a civilized European Gelandewagen is no longer convenient to buy, but the licked political correctness has already taken it out. By the way, the former partner of Daimler, Chrysler, is successfully operating the same idea. The latter in the wake of angular marketing created the Commander, Cherokee and Liberty models, selling, according to Chrysler functionaries, only thanks to the love of buyers for gigiper quadrature.
BLIND SPOT
I, too, did not at first take the new appearance of Mercedes, but by the end of the dough I got used to it and, moreover, now I consider GLK an almost perfect medium -weight crossover. Therefore, I will start with negativity, so as not to send it. I sit down. I put the steering wheel in a position convenient for myself and begin to consider how many functions after that it remains in the blind zone. All light control modes, including fog; Radio, navigation and phone buttons; Sound shutdown button; Driving seat heating mode; egnition lock. Since I personally talked with the person responsible for the design of the insides GLK, I can answer him with the words: old clients are used to it. Well, yes, the driver of the Arab sheikh is borneal, he will endure anything. He may be placed on dry peas at night, and he smiles.
Usually I change the temperature of climate control in one trip three times. Mercedes are sure that it is quite safe for this every time to be distracted from the road, so they placed the climate control panel in the bottom of the beard, you have to bend your head in order to see at least something there. It turns out that Mercedes is ideal only for those who are already used to it. And the beginner, studying the interior of GLK, will generally find a lot of interesting things.
... and electric wind in the face
In the zone of one hundred percent visibility of the driver at the chest level there is a seat electroregulation unit (in expensive versions). Among the regular customers there are people who pamper the back of the back during movement, and Mercedes cannot refuse them in the most prominent place are frontal ducts. They occupy the very space where all the blind buttons today should be in a good way. They say that the Americans are used to traveling in the kondem mode. Is it because of them the Germans retain such a layout? Inconvenience not only for the eyes, but also for the hands. To just turn on the wipers, you need to remove the hand from the steering wheel! When will Euroncap begin to monitor the safety of control algorithms?
There are still a couple of complaints. The main thing of them is the tightness in the back row. Behind the driver, he tall slightly above 180 cm, it will no longer be possible to sit down. By the way, the trunk is not so great. Another remark about how GLK behaves to bed police officers. You expect more comfort. For example, VW Tiguan is softer for such bumps. And at the same time, there are many crossovers whose abilities to overcome large hillocks are much worse. Now it remains to tell about the merits.
It means more reliable
I have not seen a single SUV with such a balanced chassis. He gives everything that I have ever wanted from the car. Engineers threw energy intensity, comfort and handling into a pan called GLK. Each ingredient is exactly as much as it is needed for good taste. In the city, on winding paths and long high -speed straight lines, he behaves equally calmly, dignity, without nerves, without provocations and breakdowns. You can release the steering wheel and press the gas until the car will go straight.
It happens that the chassis of a car brings you up, squeezes all your strength, and then punishes. There are a chassis that are comfortable, and in turns are lying to one side, or sports, but due to the destruction of smoothness. While the authors of these experiments have for decades hid their advertisements and practiced marketing, Mercedes worked on the breed, and his efforts did not disappear.
And this despite the fact that at first glance all GLK technical solutions look outdated. For example, the basis of the basics is a classic layout. The engine stands longitudinally, behind it in one row gearbox. This design is a bulk, it takes up too much space. Or all -wheel drive 4matic. An ordinary piece of iron, the simplest center differential even without a full blocking! This is when the window is already an electronically controlled couplings. True, there is still a small lock, but it withstands the moment not more than 50 Newton meters and then automatically turns off, in other words, acts only as help when starting from a place. However, healthy conservatism lives and lives. Little space because of the engine layout? And who do we carry in the back seats? Children. They do not need much. Primitive all -wheel drive? There are fewer problems with him. He is not inclined to overheating, like modern couplings, and, most importantly, he is more predictable, transparent in his behavior.

Material: Mercedes-Benz GLK 350


 
Especially good in the snow
In GLK, they did without the popular regulated shock absorbers today. All these sporting modes, comfort, the individual get bored very quickly, spoil the impression of the chassis, lead a mess in the head of the driver. So individual manufacturers try to embrace the immense, and, by the way, Mercedes is also sinful, for example, in ML. A much adequate honest suspension that does not need electronic crutches is much more adequate. Here, for example, GLK shock absorbers adapt to the road profile mechanically, using a special valve.
There is no electronics in the GLK suspension, but there is fashion fashion, and so that the competitors do not say weakly, they put something in the automatic transmission. Now you have to endure three algorithms for the action of the automatic box, plus it is also adaptive: is it too much for the overloaded brain of a modern person? When are we going to relax with our heads? In automatic transmission mode, the SUV rides completely in Mercedes, as the models of the 70s did. The machine seems to lose four steps out of seven. It is good for a leisurely province, gasoline is saved by sports beautiful in everything and in the Moscow crowd serves the base. I used manual off -road so as not to overheat the box.
White on white
Outside the GLK roads, a powerful 3.5-liter engine, 4Matic and ESP shutdown function help. The thrust of a powerful V6 is especially good on snowy rises. The firmician is based only on brake mechanisms that replace inter -normal locks. Therefore, when the ESP is disconnected, the electronics stops choke the engine, but leaves the anti -boom system in action. Very competent. Unobtrusive. The snowdrifts are perfect. Only a long base (longer than all Japanese SUVs) interferes with soil differences. The bottom is flat. The units are covered with thin plastic. Do you want more powerful protection? We need an off-road package, and on our test a passenger equipment. In any case, off -road for Mercedes is not fatal, on the contrary, it is difficult to resist the gambling walk outside the asphalt. GLK geometric cross -country ability is not quite parquet. So forward, on snowdrifts, we crush the snowman!
 
Author: Dmitry Leontyev, photo of Alexander Ortnova-Baranov
 
 


 

Source: Magazine 4x4 [April /2009]