Why the Mercedes GLS isn’t good enough!

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Meet the updated Mercedes big daddy SUV – the GLS!

Mercedes has given its largest SUV a mid-life facelift, and Mat’s got his hands on this behemoth to find out what’s changed and whether it can compete with the likes of the BMW X7 and Range Rover!

When it comes to the exterior design… Well, not a whole lot has changed! Around the rear, you’ll find some of the most obvious fake exhausts in the business, while there’s also some updated lights and a new bumper. Along the side, the only changes are new alloy designs, and upfront, the most notable difference is the huge grille – which is definitely an improvement on the old model!

Step inside and the similarities to the previous gen continue, but thankfully it’s still a pretty luxurious place to sit. There’s a huge digital dial screen (with lots of customisation available) coupled with a big infotainment screen in the centre of the dash. There’s a fair bit of storage throughout the cabin, and the seats are super comfortable. What’s more, bar a few small areas, pretty much everything is coated in soft-touch materials.

There are four engines to choose from with the new GLS. At the start of the range, you can pick a 3-litre straight-six turbo petrol or diesel, and these deliver 380hp and 370hp respectively. At the top-of-the-range is the AMG GLS 63, which is packing a 4-litre twin-turbo V8 that can put down 612hp. All cars come with a 9-speed automatic gearbox and four-wheel drive.

So it sounds pretty impressive, but there’s one issue – the starting price is around £108,000! So is it worth it?! You’ll need to stick with Mat and see for yourself!

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:39 Design
02:56 Price
04:14 Interior
09:06 Back Seats
14:21 Boot
16:31 5 Annoying Things
18:!4 5 Good Things
20:02 Engines
20:47 Town Driving
23:37 Motorway Driving
25:20 Country Road Driving
26:42 0-60mph
27:29 Verdict

This is the new Mercedes GLS and it’s a little bit like a minius version of the S-Class so say Mercedes luxury technology and quality but space inside for seven people oh and it can go Offroad as well now in this video I’m going to talk you around the exterior

Not great show you the interior I think there’s 64 different colors it can go through it’s incredible try it technology you have not subscribed to their service see how practical it is take it for a drive damn it and launch it to see how quick it is from not to 60

MPH I’m Matt Watson and you’re watching carwow right I think I better come clean you know I say this is a new GLS it’s actually just a revised facelifted version and to be brutally honest the changes are quite minimal but one thing that hasn’t changed before we get into

That fake exhaust look Co Stick of Truth fake that leads nowhere look at that same on the other side that leads nowhere oh couldn’t get in the hole then underneath here is where you’ll see the actual Exhaust what a joke too what’s also a joke look at the alignment of this panel here this car has done about 1,500 mil I don’t if it’s had an accident in been repaired but that’s pretty bad and on this side it’s a little bit gappy as

Well not ideal for a car that costs as much as this come on to that in a moment so changes there’s not many compared to the facelifted version this is now chromy down here and the design of these Tire lights is slightly different down the side even fewer changes allo Wheels

They start at 22s and they rise to 23 in looks pretty much the same as before it’s quite a big imposing SUV I don’t mind the side profile at all the rear is quite nice as well but once again look this alignment here I mean maybe it’s just me being a

Picky motoring journalist and customers won’t notice that but I really think for a brand like Mercedes not great biggest changes on this revised GLS are here at the front and it’s this new bigger Grill which obviously is plastic massive Mercedes badge very important and another one up there just in case

Between looking from there and there you forgot which car you bought this is what the old Grill looked like I do prefer this new grill but I still don’t think it’s great however the grill on the AMG version looks much better have a look at

This m I like that also AMG cars have slightly more aggressive front lower parts of their bumpers as well with actual air vents although this is actually a breather to help smooth air flow down the side it’s not completely fake meanwhile the mg also has like the

Chromy bits in black chrome yeah for a sportier look also you can get a mayback version which has more shiny Chrome than the standard car and another vertically slatted grill with many slats indeed that one also has like some my back badging around the place as well anyhow

Let’s get back to the standard car the starting price of this car is a £18,000 told you panel gaps AR acceptable at that price and this particular model with options £15,000 buying a new or used car then you need to visit carwow and we’ll help you find your perfect car at a price

Your love just answer a few simple questions about the car you want and our trusted dealers will come back to you with great offers then choose the offer that’s right for you and contact the dealer directly through carwow no haggling no fees and on average carwow uses save over

£1,800 but what if you’re not sure which car you actually want no problem just watch our insightful video reviews read our impartial expert advice or use our helpful car buying tools to discover your ideal car in no time at all no wonder 95% of customer surveyed said

They wouldn’t buy a car without car wow I’ve put a link in the description of this video and the pin comment to take you directly to carwave so you can see for yourself how it can help you or you can just click on the pop out Banner

That should be appearing up there right now alternatively just Google help me carw and my team and I will help you choose your perfect car and get it for a price your love now on with the video here on the inside of the GLS the updates are quite minimal so you get

This new steering wheel so the old one looked like this this now has these spokes which looks sportier you still have touch sensitive buttons though and I’m not a big fan because sometimes when you’re driving along you accidentally brush them and change one the functions another thing that’s new the

Trims here this is actually an optional trim open po wood I like the feel of it I don’t like the color though reminds of the furniture that my granny used to have in her house you can get lighter colors and different color trims as well and depending on whether you go for the

Mayback or the mg the trims are slightly different carbon for the mg and piano black for the mayback you get leather seats are standard in this car but this one has the optional Napper and I suggest the upgrade cuz it just feels so much nicer than the standard leather now

The seats themselves they’re heated they’re cold also the central armrest and the arm here is heated which is really nice and very welcome on a cold Winter’s day like today and you’ve also got a heated steering wheel and while we’re here of course being a Mercedes you can alter the position of the

Steering wheel electrically and the seating position is pretty nice you can sit reasonably low in it for a tour vehicle if that makes sense but the view out isn’t so good then you’re probably going to want to Jack this seat up very high cuz then it makes you feel like

You’re sat on a throne I do think that a Range Rover feels posher than this car on the inside and to see my full in-depth video review of a Range Rover just click on the pop out Banner appearing up there right now other thing I need to tell you infotainment system

They have tweaked this it’s the very latest Mercedes infotainment system I was waiting for it to activate the voice assistant then it sometimes does when you say the m e r c d s word thankfully it didn’t one of the good things about this is that as well as being touch operated and

Being able to be operated through voice commands which I don’t want to actually get involved with you can use this trackpad as well so you can just rest your hand there when you’re driving and operate it which you may find easy it’s good to have the option and what’s also

Good is that as part of the changes Mercedes has left the climate controls well alone so they are separate to the infotainment system so you can quickly change the settings such as your temperature and fan speed really easy when you’re driving without having to mess around in menus terms of

Practicality got some storage here with USBC there underneath here you have two cup holders interestingly you see this button here press it once and it will cool your drink press it again and then it will heat the drink and you probably notice that little LED changing color these cup

Holders are quite large so if you have a small bottle like that doesn’t do a good job of keeping it in place we have wireless charging down here and it will fit even an awkward sized phone like my fold inner case and then you got two of

USB C’s down there and your old school 12 volter terms of the glove box let’s have a look at that decent enough space and I’ll tell you a bit more about that not yet later on you might have noticed look we’ve got LEDs interior ambient lighting all standard and it can cycle

Through different colors there’s 64 different colors it can go through it’s incredible but as you can see it doesn’t really work with this kind of like slightly oldfashioned color of wood trim now one of the things about these Mercedes cars is that sometimes the bits and pieces that you touch like this like

This over here like these door bins lower down which just scratchy and this stalk here and the other one they just feel a little bit too cheap for a car at this this price however I can’t complain too much about this stock because this is a gear selector and I think this is

The perfect place for any gear selector you know it’s just too easy to use I don’t know why people have them down there or Worse still with a Tesla up on the screen something else I haven’t showed you look at this this is a good feature double

Visors so if you’re driving on a twisty Road and the sun angle keeps changing well you’re positioned to the sun you know what I mean there you can screen yourself from two sides which is really handy and there is one last thing I’ve forgotten to show you is this

Look it’s the door bins they are big look huge bottle loads of room down there actually there’s one more thing I forgotten to tell you I’m having a bad day the digital dials so one thing I like about these is that you can actually change the look of them you can

Go for an understated look no thank you you can go for a sporty look no thank you thank you and you should go for the classic look yes and then within them you can cycle through loads of different information here in the back seats there’s a lot of space loads of knee

Room plenty of foot space you can really stretch your feet out underneath the seat in front as well Headroom here’s a plenty and you get this nice glass roof as standard so if you need to co three people in the back at once this middle seat is usable ball though I have found

That if you try to move across into the middle you can bash your leg off this protruding center console but once you’re in it’s not the most comfortable middle seat but it is okay and this is quite a wide car so even with three adults in the back at

Once you can get comfy also because these doors open nice and wide and there’s so much space in here it’s easy to fit a child seat what is not ideal is the covers for the eyes to fix well they look quite cool the way you flip them

Out means they can get in the way a bit when you’re trying to mount that seat but once that job is done there’s plenty of space and you can easily fit a bulky rear facing seat in this car now I need to explain to you the different seat options so there’s this three-seater

Bench across the middle if you go for the mayat version it’s either a five seater only or a four- seater with the four- seater version you get luxurious first class star seats that being said you can still move the seats in the standard GLS electrically forwards look

Even if I go all the way forwards still plenty of knee room you can also recline them a bit look going let recline to make yourself comfortable and even the headrests electrically operated speaking of which love the soft cushions very nice now if I’ll fold this down I

Would say that you have an armrest but not so much let me explain what’s going on here underneath here some storage with two USB C’s in there then you got your wireless charging for your mobile phone but because this is the business version of the GLS which is the top of the range

Of the standard car excluding the AMG and the mayback you then get this tablet here where you can control different things you can also remove the tablet if you want to lose it but you basically have the full Mercedes operating system there alternatively you can just use these

Screens which come as standard with the business version annoyingly though you can’t seem to remove them easily which you might want to to prevent them getting stolen or to free up space but once again you can control lots of features including massage function for these seats which comes as standard on

This business version so to does heated and cooled outer rear seats in this middle row that’s quite a lot of Kit no wonder this car is so expensive all models get climate control here in the middle of row as you can see it’s Dual Zone just turn that off so don’t get too

Much noise and there’s some storage here decent Siz door bins oh which look it’s where you keep the headphones for this rear Entertainment System bet you’ll fit a big bottle in there and let’s just do it while we’re here do the back windows go all the way

Down oh yeah that’s a good thing huge Windows as well great view out for rear passengers one thing I should point out remember I was moaning about the cup holder in the front not being able to hold this B tightly well look they’ve got a little cup holder here that’s more

Designed for things like this and energy drinks anyway let’s check out the third and final row I’ll TDY this all up later don’t worry about it okay so to get into the very rear put a little switch there let it do its thing more on that

Later okay so let’s get into the back I’m going to move this seat out of the way so you can see what’s going on from this side hopefully an editor has speeding this up somewhat if not I apologize okay so just push this up so here in the very back head room’s

Actually pretty decent right a knee room is passable however if you’re carrying an adult in the front seat then the middle seat and you want someone in this seat you’re going to have to move the middle seat forward slightly but because there’s so much room the middle person

Is going to be fine in terms of knee room what you will have to do though is put the seat back a bit more upright like this one is and then this isn’t quite as comfortable as the car could be I do think that a BMW X7 is slightly

More comfortable overall when you have seven people in all the seats not seven people in all the you know what now other things to point out here in the back that’s quite a decent window to look out of there is two USBS there USB C’s and you have them over the other

Side plus what’s this oh that’s obviously for the boot we’ll move on to the boot in the moment what does that do ah slow in it yes let’s go to the boot so can I put all the seats back into their original position from here I’ve got a horrendous feeling I can’t yeah

Look come on no that’s not the right button oh right I was going to talk you through the different stages of the boot but I think you can sort of see for yourself happened there the entry level car doesn’t have electrically operated rear most seats only the middle row is

Electrically operated this being the business has the full electrical operation which is quite handy obviously with all the seats folded down there’s plenty of room it’s a flat load floor it’s easy to just load this thing up and if you think wait a minute this is all a

Little bit too high up don’t worry if I press this button come on go on do it do it is it going down oh good oh there look it’s it’s gone down so now it’s easier to load things in let’s talk through some of the other functionality back here so what we got

What’s this 12vt socket o la la tie down points some more up there as well and let’s have a look under here look I like that extra storage and in particular place to put the Low cover so that won’t be getting yeated I’m just

Going to put these seats back up so if I go to the second row pull this let’s pull them back up and you’ll see what the boot is like in the 5 seat configuration absolutely massive if you want some stats I’ll give you them on screen right now let’s put

This rear most row back up there we go and you know what for a seven seated that’s still a decent Siz boot once again here are the stats for that now if you want to compare those to some other cars there you go isn’t it good what you can do in po production

Now everything about this car is perfect let’s move on to five annoying things about the Mercedes GLS this is the 125,000 car that’s only done ,500 Mi yet look at the condensation in these headlights it’s terrible and if you look at the other side it’s there too look at

The drip marks it’s as though the car has been crying in fact if I bought this and I had this kind of condensation in the headlights I’d be crying too the ambient lighting from this part of the car reflects in the side window so the one from over here is reflecting

Over there can you see it so when you’re driving along you just pick it up in your peripheral vision and it’s be like what the heck is that oh yeah it’s that it’s distracting these running boards are all for show and apart from the Aesthetics they’re a little bit of a

Pain you see they provide negative help when trying to get into the car cuz when you trying and stand on them and it’s a bit slippy you can easily slip off also they’re not quite low enough down from the actual step itself that you’re never going to use them you’re just going to

Get in like that and this is where there’s another problem with them because when you do get in like that or out like that you end up rubbing the backs of your trousers on the edge and then your trousers are dirty so I’m going to have to wash them I’m not going

To get another day’s wear out of these now and like with most of this car’s competition you cannot get a plug-in hybrid version only a diesel or a petrol so no company car tax breaks then you’ve got a big back window but a reasonably small window wiper so when you try to

Clean it off go give it a spray you’re only really clearing this little area here for visibility the car’s got very moist it’s not all negative though here’s five good things about this car all glss come with reinforced underfloor body panels to protect the chassis when you’re going

Offroad now you used to be able to get that as an option in the preface version but now you get is standard the JLS is fitted with a really useful red light camera so when you pull up a set of traffic lights like this and then you

Start you get this view here and it’s really good you know when you sometimes get too close to the lights you’re like oh I can’t see whether it’s going to change you can just look on here this camera which is actually how just up there that doubles as a dash cam so if

You have an accident it will record what happened which you can choose whether or not to use when making a claim you get soft clothes doors there’s just something about them oh that is so luxury look it’s really handy you know when you have people that get in your

Car and they get out they’re not used to your car they can’t shut the door properly leis you’re one of these people doesn’t matter with this they just gently Push the door too oh and then it does the rest the car comes as standard with some features that make it feel a

Little bit like you’re in a moving spa for instance there’s the massage seats which really do give a good massage and even massage your bottom you pay extra no no comes a standard and there’s a fragrance system which will just exude Pleasant scents through the vents all they need know is the whale

Music to prevent the reversing camera from getting covered in Road Grime it’s hidden away underneath this panel and when you put the car to reverse it then pops out like a Randy DA’s lipstick I show you what I mean I guess it’s not red but you get

The the idea put it away you dirty bugger you can get the GLS with four different engines there’s this 3 l straight 6 turbo diesel which has 370 horsepower alternatively you could get a 3 l straight 6 Turbo petrol with 380 horsepower then there’s the mayback

Which has a 4 L twin turbo V8 with 560 horsepower or the amg63 which has a 4 L twin turbo V8 but with 612 horsepower regardless of which model you go for you get a 9-speed automatic gearbox as standard and all-wheel drive you’re probably thinking I wonder what version

Of the GLS M would go for well if you want to find out I’ve actually configured my ideal GLS engine and tring combination using the car configurator if you want to see what that car is click on the pop out banner up there right now time to find out what this JLS

Is like to drive starting with in town first thing to note you sit nice and high which makes you feel suitably special visibility is really good as well the view forward’s great huge door mirrors decent size back window and you got lots of glass the rear quarters so

You can see out quite easily when you’re looking over your shoulder and pulling out of Junctions which is handy when you’re just maneuvering around town the air suspension is generally nice and comfy and just feels luxurious the way it deals with bumps but it’s not perfect

You do get the slight sensation of the car rocking from side to side when you go down in a bump on one wheel but not the other you know a bit like you’ll sat on a boat and you’ve just been hit sideway his arm by a biggish wave anyway

Let’s check the Turning circle out it is 12 1/2 M and there where these cars parked here I don’t know if I’m going to get around let’s see if it’ll automatically engage the parking sensors and the camera system when I get close please do that otherwise I’m going to

Hit this car why aren’t you doing it really really you haven’t engaged it maybe I just wasn’t close let’s have a look bring up the camera that was bloing close was worthy of a beep surely but look I got room to get around around graphics on this absolutely brilliant question is am I

Going to get around here without curbing it’s going to be impossible I think I’m going to just got that curb hopefully it’s not a high curb cuz if it is I just curb this wheel I think I’m going to get out and see if I just curbed this wheel I might

Have just curbed this wheel damn it it’s testing cars for you apologies in advance Mercedes if I curb the wheel but fortunately I did not curb the wheel even though these LS look like they might be easily curved the way the tire sits out does protect them pH okay that

Camera is so good though I knew I was going to C and I just continue it was silly of me but everything is okay anyway back to the Turning Circle not quite as good as a Volvo XC90 I’d have made that round without touching the curb because it’s got a turning circle

Of Under 12 M however better than a BMW X7 in that I would have just wouldn’t even made it past that car cuz it’s got a turning Circle over 30 m now that does just make the car a little bit easier to drive cuz it is for a big thing

Reasonably maneuverable plus the engine and gearbox work really well together it’s super smooth and very easy to drive and this car really focuses on comfort and you can tell that with the brake pedal cuz there’s quite a long travel in it so you can really just slow this

Thing as gradually or as urgently as you like it’s very easy to control the braking they know I said it in that voice but kind of to illustrate that it is rather Posh feeling steer is not perfect though and I’ll explain why in a bit okay so I’m on some faster roads now

And let’s test the performance of this engine and how responsive the gear boxes on kick down so 40 mph I want to overtake floor it it’s pretty good yeah there’s plenty of performance from this engine really really strong that beeping you heard was the fact that the car’s sensors thought

Was getting too close when overtaking the car in front and so it warned me and actually shook my seat belt a little bit to go hey what you doing you idiot but everything was fine now here at 70 mph on this dual carriageway very comfy car

Bit of wind noise from those large door mirrors little bit of road noise but there is one thing I’m noticing about the suspension when I hit a bump especially if it’s just like a bump which affects one wheel from the rear axle I can feel it skipping slightly and

Then sensation reminds me a little bit like you know when you’re just walking on some slippery surface you’re not really thinking about it then all of a sudden you light slip a bit on your heel but your body catches you your reflex just does the job and it stops you

Falling over but you there thinking wait a minute I could have really fallen over there even though you didn’t it’s kind of like that this car sometimes Skips a little bit because the suspension isn’t great at just controlling things when it’s suddenly surprised anyhow I tell

It’s also a bit odd this is this is a diesel supposed to be economical a Mercedes claims 32 m to the gallon though I’m only averaging 23 oh dear still it be worse of the petrol and I do think that the diesel engine really suits this car I think people have been

Unnecessarily put off diesels and sometimes they’re the best engine for the job and in this type of vehicle I really think they still are not plug-in hybrids diesels anyway let’s put the car into Dynamic mode we’re going to see what it’s like through the corners now that’s stiffen up the supension ever so

Slightly though the the difference isn’t that great add a bit more weight to the steering but the engine and gearbox do feel a bit more Punchy it does feel quite quick you know this is a heavy car yet it’s very responsive and it actually does a good job of going down a twisty

Road there is one thing that’s not great the steerings like doesn’t seem to do anything at first until you turn it a bit more and the car does start like just turning into the bz I’m going more than quick enough to keep up with that Alpha in front of me

I mean this big Mercedes SUV it actually handles really well for a big heavy tour vehicle you can certainly go down this road faster than the speed limit will allow you what more do you need from it nothing in fact you know what I don’t think you even need to be in Dynamic

Let’s just go back into Comfort still keep it with the alpha you actually get quite a lot of confidence driving this quickly down a twisty Road it just feels solid tank-like and reassuring exactly how it should be with a Mercedes SUV now to be fair if I’m being brutally honest

I do think the BMW X7 drives slightly better not only is the suspension a little bit more composed the car feels even more shooted anyway if you want to see my fall inep video review of that car click on the pop out banner up there for the link in the description below

Now let’s see how quick this diesel version of the Mercedes gs’s from not to 60 MPH here we go left on the brake brake boost it release the [Applause] brake feels quick good good traction as well what we got 5.72 seconds to 60 now Mercedes qu a not

To 100 km an hour time not 62 of 6.1 so yeah I have no reason to doubt them it’s quick you have not subscribed to this service to use it you first have to activate the service in the Mercedes me app so then what’s my final verdict on the

New Mercedes GLS should you avoid it should you consider it should you short list it or should you just go right ahead and buy it well I reckon you should consider the GLS it’s a decent enough luxury 7- seat SUV it’s just that other cars do that better if you enjoyed

The video please give it a like it really helps us out and let me know what you think of my verdict on this car in the comments below if you click on the video Windows you can watch some more videos and if you click on the carwow

Logo you can go to carwow to see how much money you can save on your next car thanks for watching