Test drive Mercedes Benz ML class W166 since 2011 SUV

At the peak of fame

Only the star is higher
The universal semi-axial word jeep (not jeep!) Glueed to such a wide layer of extra- and all-terrain vehicles that almost half of the models sold from us fall under this definition. But it is easier to find competitors comparable in class and price. And although the machines presented here are premium brands, the list could be continued. But someone will be outdated, someone is not popular enough. So let's dwell on these three cars.
 
Volkswagen Touareg


Under the hood
Engine: working volume 4172 cm3,
compression degree 11: 1,
max. Power 310 liters. With. at 6200 vol./min,
max. moment 410 nm at 3000 rpm/min
Fuel consumption (EPA): 11.6/20.3
Fuel tank volume: 100 l
   
The number of places 5
The permanent drive is complete
Suspension
The front is multi -link
The back is multi -link
Gearbox aut. 6th.
Dynamic characteristics
Maximum speed, km/h 218
Acceleration to 100 km/h, from 8.1
common data
A mass of equipment./Full, kg 2250/2945
 
Maximum volume: 555/1570 l. The streamlined shape of the back of the body did not allow to pay special attention to the volume of transported cargo. But the height of the floor is small, protruding arches or spinning there is no
 
Range Rover Sport


Under the hood
Engine: working volume 4197 cm3,
compression degree 9.1: 1,
max. Power 390 l. With. at 5750 vol./min,
max. moment 550 nm at 3500 rpm/min
Fuel consumption (EPA): 11.7/22.4 liters per 100 km
Fuel tank volume: 86 l
The number of places 5
The permanent drive is complete
Suspension
The front is multi -link
The back is multi -link
Gearbox aut. 6th.
Dynamic characteristics
Maximum speed, km/h 225
Acceleration to 100 km/h, from 7.6
common data
The mass of equipment./Full, kg 2570/3125
 
Maximum volume: 958 l. The most convenient and capacious trunk. Rectangular shapes easily allow you to place large angular boxes here
 
Mercedes-Benz ML350


Under the hood
Engine: working volume 3498 cm3,
compression degree 10.7: 1,
max. Power 272 l. With. at 6000 vol./min,
max. moment 350 nm at 24005000 vol./min
Fuel consumption (EPA): 9.4/15.2 l per 100 km
The volume of the fuel tank: n. D.
The number of places 5
The permanent drive is complete
Suspension
The front is multi -link
The back is multi -link
Gearbox 7G-Tronic
Dynamic characteristics
Maximum speed, km/h 225
Acceleration to 100 km/h, from 8.4
common data
A mass of equipment./Full, kg 2135/2830
 
Maximum volume: 500/2050 l. By the standards of a large car, the trunk is frankly not enough here
 
Who is what
Volkswagen Touareg
The price of a tested car is $ 101,000
Max. Power 310 liters. With. at 6200 vol./min
Max. Speed \u200b\u200b218 km/h
Acceleration 0100 km/h 8.1 s
 
Range Rover Sport
The price of a tested car is $ 112,000
Max. Power 390 l. With. at 5750 vol./min
Max. Speed \u200b\u200b225 km/h
Acceleration 0100 km/h 7.6 s
 
Mercedes-Benz ML350
The price of a tested car is $ 90,000
Max. Power 272 l. With. at 6000 vol./min
Max. Speed \u200b\u200b225 km/h
Acceleration 0100 km/h 8.4 s
 
The high price of the apparatus also affects the cost of individual spare parts, and the complexity of the design determines the high cost of repair. The top of all -wheel drive art cannot be cheap as the laws of the genre. By definition, the contradictory alloy of abilities to ride quickly, comfortably and on any roads is worth a lot. Even very expensive!
 
Like/ didn't like it
M-b ml
LIKED
The steering wheel of a Mercedes is a standard both in the thickness of the rim, and if possible conveniently place your hands
DID NOT LIKE
It is not clear why ML is not to control the servants of the seats on the door panel, but in the end of the chairs
 
Range Rover Sport
LIKED
Scoreboard with the position of the wheels relative to the road and the drive circuit is the top of clarity and pragmatism
DID NOT LIKE
Usually turned right to the stop, the light switch position on, not Auto. You constantly skip
VW Touareg
LIKED
Comfortable and understandable passengers of the second row of a separate climate control panel, a trifle useful
DID NOT LIKE
It seems that you can put your palm here. But only three fingers out of four crawl! Have you regretted places?
 
How they will look

Mercedes-Benz ml
In the new ML, part of the Dzhipovsky appearance was sacrificed to the passenger speed, stability. I think, in this case, this is the right decision
You do not get tired of the most convenient location at the wheel and do not relax too much. The profile of the back of the seat is universal for people of different complexions
The spacious location for passengers of the second row allows you to use Mercedes and to ride with a personal driver
The laconic instrument panel has one drawback does not reflect family traditions too much
With such a living interior design, a black insert with homogeneous buttons seems alien
Land Rover Sport

Everything ingenious is simple. There is no cunning in these courageous forms. But they can be admired for a long time
Sea or air interior of a VIP class somehow migrated to a car
In width, the rear sofa from the category of record holders. Here three passengers will not push their shoulders
Shields on the entire Landroversky gamut someone's annoying miscalculation. Small faded digitization does not fit in at all speed capabilities
And the fractionality of the study in the control zone is hardly redeemed by high quality materials

Volkswagen Touareg

This is the average height above the road. And if you lift it to the maximum level, it becomes clearly visible unprecedented geometric patency
The quality of the leather finish is not weaker than the rich colors. The instrument panel, by the way, is also trimmed with leather
Behind the width is narrow, but otherwise nothing. But your skin is slipped slippery
Of all the instruments shield is the most informative both in decoration and digitization
Here is the kingdom of German symmetry and quality. And over time you can even learn where what button
 
Volkswagen Touareg
The first screening autumn 2002
Design director Hartmuth Varus
(Hartmut Warkus).
Range Rover Sport
The first show 2005
Director Director Jeff Copix
(Geoff Upex).
Mercedes-Benz ml
The first show 1997
Updated design 2005
Design director Peter Pfaifer
(Peter Pfeifer).
Nikita Rozanov:
I would call the whole three relatives of the second stage, whose appearance is thoroughbred, but strongly diluted with blood of a different kind
OUTSIDE
I would call the whole three relatives of the second stage. Indeed, the appearance of Touareg and ML is clearly related to the design that is practiced by the main passenger compartment, respectively, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz. With all the formal kinship, the difference in appearance is still great because these are SUVs, and the style is greatly adjusted with rigid operating conditions. Another thing is Range Rover Sport, the style of which, although it is identical to the Land Rover brand, is adjusted the opposite of road specificity and speed, which significantly distance him from dirt and bumps. The recognition of cars from the face is worthy of five stars. Indeed, they all inherited the characteristic features of their brand, and, regardless of the conditions of visibility and the presence or absence of an emblem, the breed appears relief and relief. The silhouettes confirm the SUV class, and the first letter of this fashionable abbreviation shines and appears everywhere: both in the falling line of the roof and in the absence of a utilitarian angle of inclination of the posterior wall. Do not load many boxes, but stylish, and this is the main thing here. Even in the architecture of the lateral facade of each, their own highlight will be found. ML is characterized by a beautifully painted counter C, Range by filling all the racks in a circle in a masking black color, and Touareg by their pedantic recharge. At the back of the triple, related ties work with the same thoroughness as on two other sides, leaving spectacular details in memory: chrome sled ML, a silver plank with the inscription Range Rover and the impudent plastic of everything that is located under the rear bumper of Touareg and very incidentally resembles About his distant relationship with Porsche Cayenne.
INSIDE
Sitting behind the wheel or passenger from behind, you feel that the sensations of the integrity of the brand style do not disappear, but rather intensify. And the matter is not at all the use of formal details. The matter is again in a distant relationship. At first glance, this feature of the design is not striking only in ML. Circles of defroster, a stylish dressing between the central console and the floor on the floor tunnel, the steering wheel, finally, this was not observed in the family. But the Range style is continued, and in a good way it is traditional from the all-asing dominant of the central console to the composition of the instrument panel as a whole, when the replacement of the right steering wheel on the left passes easily and without loss. The image of the interior Touareg is furious, with all its might and every detail fights with the past and real image of the VW family. It succeeds. The tree in the neighborhood with aluminum works on luxury and quality, and, casting a glance at the selector lever, you realize that both the car and its comfort level are by no means popular.
SUMMARY
Look into your garage. Here is the fifth Golf wife Touareg will definitely make him company. Here is your favorite silver toy SL, it will beautifully nurse the guards on the same color ML on weekends. Well, I would leave the Range Rover Sport so that they would not forget who the master is in the house. Only Chinese designers should be afraid: they are not asleep.

Distribution of the moment
Evgeny Khapov: Throral cheers to the constant full
 
VW Touareg
The full -wheel drive transmission VW Touareg includes a handout in which torque is divided in half between the front and the rear axles using a symmetrical differential. There is a reduced gear with a gear ratio of 1: 2.66. The center differential is blocked by an electronically controlled multi-plate coupling. The lock is automatically turned on when slipping or forcibly. For an additional fee, a blocking of the differential of the rear axle is set.
In addition, the EDL electronic system limits the slipping of any wheel using brake mechanisms, not allowing the tire to slip more than two centimeters.
 
Mercedes ml
ML can be equipped with two transmission options. In a simple performance with a spring suspension, Mercedes has a permanent all -wheel drive with free differentials. The slipping of the drive wheels blocks the 4-TS electronic system through the brake mechanisms. The key with the image of the mountain makes a smoother gas press and makes the transmission less often. It is such a machine that participates in the test.
SUNCHENTENTENT is equipped with air suspension, a two -stage hand (lowered -1: 2.93) and locks of the center and rear differentials. The multi -disc courst, built into the center differential, is able to smoothly change the degree of its blocking up to complete.
 
Range Rover Sport
A full-wheel drive Sport, as expected by real jeeps, has a handout with reduced gear (1: 2.93) and an electron-blocked center differential. The posterior interventure differential is also blocked by electronics. Transmission and lock modes are headed by the electronic system Terran Response, the five algorithms of which take into account all possible traffic modes.
Touareg superpopular in our market diverges even in large circulations than democratic golfs and family passats. (And only the utilitarian pointer competes with him in the intra -bond number of sales here is a typical example of the polarization of Russian society.) Those who want to be like everyone else, you can’t imagine, is fashionable. And those who wish to stand out from the gray mass of millionaires, on the contrary, will not be able to show their individuality.
One of the significant arguments of Volkswagen is a wide range of engines (from 2.5 V5 to 6.0 W12) and configurations. And accordingly, a very large price range. We have chosen modification 4.2 Individual. Tuareg is one of the most passable cars in the classroom. But for two and a half years of sales, it became clear that caring owners rarely send him to a real off-around and the margin of safety allows him to hardly break during asphalt operation. The deficiency of one model can no longer be called fresh.
Range Rover Sport, on the contrary, is an absolutely fresh solution, unusual for the company, which already had four SUVs of completely different classes in production. With such fractional gradation, there is a risk that the beginner will bite off part of the common pie. And on the other hand, regular customers of the British company, which produces luxury-in-laws, do not feel deprived of new products.
Here, only two gasoline engines are offered to choose from, as, indeed, with the older brother of an ordinary Raine Rover. At first glance, the option of 4.4 l/300 liters could become a more adequate competitor to the Tuareg motor. With. If it is not a significant weight difference in the English car is much heavier. And with the compressor engine, the Supercharger RR does not exceed a lot of VW in dynamics.
Which, in fact, we need.
An inexperienced look may not even distinguish Range Rover simply from the new Sport model. But they differ not so much details as constructive. A different, lower silhouette, and, accordingly, a reduced center of gravity integrated into the frame of the frame, which is obtained from Discovery III and more clockwork, aggressive appearance.
The off -road Mercedes also looks new. Although the previous long -playing ML imprisoned the appearance of the second generation model, its features became much more dynamic and passenger. It is still produced in the USA. We are offered to choose three power options: V6 3.5 l/272 l. p., V8 5 l/ 306 l. With. and V8 6.3 l/510 l. With. Of all the proposed, closest to competitors, taking into account the price and dynamics, it was the first, six -cylinder engine.
All three machines have a permanent all -wheel drive that lower the row in the CP, a pneumatic suspension and the changed rigidity of the shock absorbers. But the Briton and VW can also change the clearance.
DYNAMICS
ML rides as it should be Mercedes. Moreover, the light. If you put pressure on the floor, the 7g-Tronic box without hesitation, but with light shocks, sorting out its programs. The motor does not scream even at maximum speeds and only by changing the thrust you feel that the revolutions are brought to the maximum and the tachometer shooter flies up again. But, if you drown it, the switching also occur in the high speed zone, but the jackets disappear. No less pleasant and slow down. After all, this design also implies braking by the engine. Just throw the gas pedal. Instead of sawing for a long time in the same gear, and only then, reluctantly, to go down, as it should be, as a traditional machine gun, the Mercedes box worked out everything, as if the driver was leading a lever of the manual transmission. The revolutions fell to medium-sized, 7G-Tronic are not lazy to add, say, the 3rd instead of the 4th and not force you to resort to the brake pedal, and therefore maintain a car in a greater connection with the road. Yes, and the brakes themselves are very effective and accurately how much effort you put on the pedal, and you will receive a slowdown.
Now we do not have a starting point in the form of an Elka five -liter version, but past races showed the difference in their accelerated dynamics much less expected. In this regard, the ML350 is the find, because the car eats quite modestly, much overtaking competitors in economy. Someone will object that when you buy a car for $ 100,000, it does not matter how much to spend $ 200 or $ 300 per month per month. To whom, as now, the rich have learned to count their bloody.
Range Rover Sport for that and sport, which is very harsh. But his sharpness, as if to say, is not twitching, but almost smooth. The additive of gas at any speed causes a smooth, but tangible pressing in the seat. And not just in the seat, but in a luxurious durable semi-cosmic chair, clearly intended not only for a fast civilian car, but also for an attraction in the Moon Park, or even for installation in some amateur car, which is planned to be taken to a stock orbit. No, rather, furniture from the area of \u200b\u200bsuper -speed yachts and snow -white skin confirms this. And in addition to the start of Range, it leaves, slightly lifting his nose.
The British car is most deceiving at high speeds. Excellent soundproofing, large mass of the car, a low center of gravity with a wide rut and the ability to further tangible accelerations do not give the driver the opportunity to evaluate real speed. On the one hand, it is nice to feel as confident on two hundred as for two hundred as a hundred and thirty. But this is fraught with periodic unscheduled contacts with the traffic police, and no one canceled the laws of physics, you can simply not have time to slow down. There were no complaints about the effectiveness of slowdown, but the brake pedal itself could be harder. In a fit of feelings, when the feed flows on you ahead of the crawling truck, it seems that air has fallen into the system. But no, we fit ... Again, I underestimated the speed!
Despite the most peaceful label on the hood, the Volkswagen growls not childishly, shuddering with his whole body in response to the promotion of the motor. Behind his wheel, the most carnivorous moods arise to catch up and tear. No, it is not in vain that its maximum power does not reach the liter return of competitors. It seems that it is simply powerful and the moment curves are more smooth, and already at medium speeds the craving is crazy. And to the top, she flutters slightly. I like such a characteristic more diesel, which does not require to blow out from the motor 100% of what it is capable of.
But what I didn’t like was not very long slowdown in switching, but quite pronounced, and sufficient in order for more nimble competitors to play half -corps. The brake dynamics was also not impressed. Subjectively, the car should slow down more actively, but it is reluctant, with an advantage on the front wheels, dug into the asphalt, forcing sidelines to spread the bow of danger.
 
CONTROLLABILITY
The Mercedes has the most stable position of the body over the road. Silent waves do not knock him off the true path. Turns and rearrangements he is surprisingly easy, and on the steering wheel you feel the real position of the wheels on the road. But he does not like minor irregularities. Even in a comfortable position of adjusting the shock absorbers, ML shudders when he arrived at bedridled policemen. And in sport mode, the SUV completely probes every pebble.
Mercedes is controlled quite neutral. Not in the sense that in no way, but without pronounced redundancy or insufficiency. On it you can safely go into a blind turn, he dulls a feeling of risk of the driver exactly so much as to get out of doubt in himself or will not pass. If the assessment is negative, it means not to try.
Range Rover Sport on a winding path is not so filigree accurate. The largest mass and a more pronounced excess rotation are affected, as if an additional drive axis was increased to the initially rear -wheel drive car. But passing the snake more fun succumbing to the gas and enjoying small, within the permitted stabilization system, drifts. Sport? Sport!
Range Rover The best swallpaper of the pits. I will not be afraid of exaggeration, but almost any road surface on this weighty and powerful car can pop up without reducing speed. Paving stones? Cobblestone? St. Petersburg bridge? Uryupinsky direction? No problem! The suspension somewhere there separately works out all the bumps and pits, and the crew floats over the road and off-road, separated from all the troubles with English technology. Maybe because some complain of its quality that the machine provokes them on exploits, and the resource does not add such a driving style?
Tuareg has a pneumatic suspension! It was this argument that I heard when I discussed with specialists why the irregularities of the average caliber are so sensitive to the car body. But it is the VW that provides for a simpler version with springs, and it, as we recall, is perfectly on the road. Or maybe the fact is that this particular Touareg has already rolled its 20,000 kilometers and comparison with cars with twice as modest mileage incorrectly? But it is difficult to accept for such a small mileage the main systems of the car should not take this way.
Yes, and the steering wheel Volkswagenovsky is empty. To maintain exchange rate stability on the highway, miniature steering movements are needed. This sin, of course, is found not only for the Tuareg, but today's competitors do not have such a shortage.
But where VW succeeded in overcoming off -road. Mercedes is pointless with him, although he is not a SUV. There is just something to catch on the ground. But even Range Rover Sport, having a Terrain Response system and the ability to change the clearance, I would not dare to let through those ditches that Touareg is able to storm. In the past, it was frankly scary for me when I had to storm the steep twists on the Tuareg, from which, if you start rotating through the side, roll and roll.
But this is a completely different comparison. To find out who is the best in Off-Road mode, I would have to pretty much, beautiful and, importantly, expensive cars. And I suppose this is not included not only in our plans, but also to the plans of their potential owners.
SUMMARY
It is difficult to choose the best of the best. And by the totality of qualities and the lack of shortcomings, I would stop my gaze at the Mercedes. But still, the raisins are not enough in it. It is too correct. In this sense, charisma of the last model of the British company outweighs those insignificant questions that Sport has left unanswered. He is a leader in character. Tuareg, who has repeatedly occupied the first place in our tests, cannot be forever ahead of all. Or maybe we got not the best copy? But one way or another, the third, honorable place.
Text Vladimir Smirnov
Photo by Leonid Grandfather
 

Source: Cars