HOT  NEW 2017 Mercedes Benz GLE400 4MATIC
Channel: Auto Today
Date: 2017-01-01

HOT  NEW 2017 Mercedes Benz GLE400 4MATIC. Mercedes has euthanized the M-class. Sort of. At least the name is dead. Last year, the third-generation M-class, a.k.a. the ML, was redecorated and rechristened the GLE. The M-class name was worth shedding. Mercedes-Benz’s M-class SUV always seemed like a sop to the U.S. market. Almost two decades ago, it arrived as an amorphous blob on 16-inch wheels that was developed reluctantly and marketed half-sincerely with an appearance in the first Jurassic Park sequel. It was Mercedes playing at an American game it hadn’t fully embraced—not quite a truck but not a station wagon, either. It was one of the first crossovers as we know them now, but back then it seemed like a disingenuous attempt to horn in on the hot-selling Ford Explorer’s action. You know, the Explorer that was featured in the original Jurassic Park.

More Mercedes than Before

This year, the GLE400 4MATIC gets Mercedes’ 329-hp 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6. The new engine helps the GLE drive, feel, and look more like a real, honest-to-Stuttgart Mercedes than any M-class ever did. That’s true even though it’s assembled, as the ML always has been, at a plant near Vance, Alabama. “More like,” however, isn’t the same as “is.” This refreshed Mercedes still doesn’t seem to have its whole heart in this market segment.

The renaming wasn’t particular to this model but part of a larger scheme to establish a rough harmony between Benz’s traditional sedan and SUV lines. Basically, the SUVs are now branded as GL, with the third letter indicating each model’s position in the size hierarchy. So the GLE is bracketed between the smaller GLA and GLC (previously the GLK) and the larger GLS (formerly the GL). And, no surprise, the GLE400’s twin-turbo V-6 also is offered in the E-class sedan and seems destined to spread throughout the M-B range as a fuel-stingier alternative to V-8s. In the GLE range, as in the sedan, this V-6 supplants a 402-hp turbocharged V-8 model, which used to be called the ML550.

Naturally, this V-6 hits all the expected technical highlights: It’s direct injected, has variable valve timing, and is tuned to keep engine speeds low for better fuel economy (the EPA city rating rises 4 mpg over that of the former V-8, while the highway number increases by 3 mpg). Compared with the naturally aspirated 3.5-liter V-6 used in the GLE350, it has a shorter crank stroke and smaller cylinder bores. And it runs a 10.5:1 compression ratio, relatively high for a turbocharged engine.

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