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Cup holders the size of hearth pipes and an extremely soft chassis and steering trim: From the moment you enter this US made German car its obvious that it was set to suit the average American automobilists taste. But, don't worry: European customers with a hunch for this – at least in Mercedes terms – completely new mixture of a 4WD SUV, a station wagon with three rows of seats and a luxury limousine with standard air suspension system (airmatic) will be supplied with a version of the new R-Class (the Mercedes guys added the term "Grand Sports Tourer") with a sportier, more accurate standard trim from February 2006. And those very dominant cup holders will also disappear below an elegant wood trimmed lid in the central panel.
Apart from the Rs distinctly dynamic look the Mercedes designers took care to develop an interior space management that is as variable as possible. Choose between a four seater (no middle seat available in the rear!) with very large doors and all the arm and leg room you can ask for backed up by a very huge station wagon boot. Or change it into a six seater that will fit another two sporty grown ups into the third row, but shrinks the boot to uncompromising 314 litres capacity. The back rows (with the second row seats adjustable individually fore and aft) can be folded away completely to leave an almost flat luggage compartment with impressive 2385 litres boot capacity.
First test drives with the two available petrol engines revealed that this 5-meter-road-boat (even longer than the S-Class) with its 2,2 tons needs quite a bit of torque to actually perform its sporty looks especially on uphill sections. The Diesel-R (not available in the US) curiously enough seems to be the most likely to show these properties. And there will also be a maxed AMG petrol version coming up later.
The prices for the new R-Class with its standard 7 speed automatic gear box and 4-matik four wheel drive (as in the M-Class which it is related to quite closely) have not been revealed yet, although rumours position the starting range for the R 350 around 50.000 Euros (in Germany).
Europe will also be presented with an equally equipped short version (23,5 cm less) that is also shipped from the US plant at Tuscaloosa/Alabama. The room capacities with three rows up however will tend to be more a crammy emergency option than a travelling alternative.
Engines
PETROL:
R 350: 6 cylinders with 4 valves each, 3498 ccm, 200 kW/272 hp, 350 Nm from 2400 rpm, 0 – 100 km/h in 8,4 seconds, top speed 230 km/h, average fuel consumption: 11,5 litres.
R 500: 8 cylinders with 4 valves each, 4966 ccm, 225 kW/306 hp, 460 Nm from 2700 rpm, 0 – 100 km/h in 7,0 seconds, top speed 245 km/h, average fuel consumption: 13,3 litres.
DIESEL:
R 320 CDI: 6 cylinders with 3 valves each, common rail, turbocharger, 2987 ccm, 165 kW/224 hp, 510 Nm from 1600 rpm, 0 – 100 km/h in 8,8 seconds, top speed 222 km/h, average fuel consumption: 9,3 litres.
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