FINALLY, Mercedes-Benz is at the pointy end of the luxury SUV segment with the third-generation M-Class, offering significant upgrades and improvements pretty much across the board.
Mercedes has also upped the value-for-money quotient in a big way, to match the palpably more impressive quality that now permeates Daimler’s US-built wagon.
A few minor foibles still exist, however, while we wonder whether the cheaper diesel might be the more desirable offering compared to the ML350 Blue Efficiency under the spotlight here.
The Road to Recovery podcast series

M-Class
Released: Sep 2005
Ended: April 2012
Family Tree: M-classHANDSOME, with more space, better dynamics, improved refinement and far nicer road manners, the second-generation American-made M-Class was a much more convincing rival to the runaway success BMW X5.
Until fuel prices started to skyrocket, the 200kW/350Nm 3.5-litre DOHC 24V V6 petrol proved to be popular, driving all four wheels (known as 4MATIC in Merc-speak) via a sweet and responsive 7G-Tronic seven-speed automatic gearbox.
Some quality glitches, however, soured the ownership experience for a few buyers, while the Mercedes still trailed its Bavarian SUV rival in terms of steering, handling and agility.
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