2003 Mercedes ML-500

Author's Rating:

Pros: Strong and safe like a bank vault. Standard Nav system. Price.

Cons: Sound system volume control VERY inconveniently palced

The Bottom Line: 
Luxurious but sporty ride. Excellent value for money.

Author's Review
I traded in my 2002 CLK-55 for a 2003 ML-500 about 10 days ago. I’m getting over the trauma of the separation from the 55 slowly but surely thanks to the ML.

I wanted to trade the 55 for an SUV due to the limited carrying capacity of the 55. The CLK was pretty much the best in its class for carrying capacity – even the rear seats folded down for additional room, but time and time again I was buying things that just wouldn’t fit in the CLK easily.

I looked at luxury SUVs from Infinity, Lexus, BMW and Mercedes. The FX45 looked just plain weird with those enormous oversized semi-like wheels. It’s supposed to be the fastest of the V8 SUVs but it didn’t feel that good to me on the test drive. The lexus RX-350 looked OK but handled poorly as did the larger Lexus. The BMW X5 4.4 was the best in handling but the cheap plastic looking interior turned me off the X5. The ride was also a bit jittery as is usual with BMWs. The ML-500 looks good, handles well with very little lean on turns and has plenty of power – it will outrun the BMW.

The deciding factor was than Mercedes gave me $5000-6000 more for my trade than any of the other dealers. I guess they encourage you to stay in the family. With the incentives currently offered by Mercedes on the ML I pocketed a healthy check instead of having to pay out a healthy sum to BMW.

The Good

The ML has only one more model year to go before Mercedes will introduce the new ML design. However the current ML doesn’t appear dated in any way – it still looks fresh from the outside and looks luxurious inside. The real burled walnut screams richness. The navigation system is standard on the ML-500 and trust me once you’ve had a nav system in a car, you can never live without it. The seats are comfy yet firm enough to hold on to you when cornering aggressively. The driver controls are easy to understand and are well laid out (except for the sound system volume control see below). Since I’m used to the Mercedes cruise control I find it easy to use, but some people might have a bit of trouble understanding the way the single stalk works. Five adults can sit comfortable in this vehicle and a third row can be added for two more kids. With the rear seats up the cargo space is good at 35 cu feet – with the seats down it’s enormous – 81 cu feet. It can pull up to a 5000 lb boat. As with most Mercedes the turning circle is pretty tight at 39 feet.

Acceleration is excellent with the engine feeling smooth and quiet. With the full-time 4 wheel drive I can actually get faster starts at the lights in the wet than the CLK. The ML obviously feels more like a truck than a sports car, but it’s still fun to drive. The throaty roar of the V8 is not as apparent as it was on the CLK-55, but the engine never sounds rough. The 5-speed auto-transmission shifts smoothly. It does have tip-tronic shifting if you want to try the manual shifting thing, but I never used this feature in the CLK, so I don’t imagine I will use it on the ML either. At 90 MPH on the highway the ML is very smooth yet you still feel in touch with the road – a perfect combination. Since the vehicle is still new I didn’t go past 90 yet, but it feels like there’s plenty of power to go. And for stopping the brakes are smooth and powerful.

Fuel economy is what you’d expect from a 5 liter engine – about 18 MPG around town and 21 on the highway (according to the trip computer). The vehicle is built like a tank but it handles very well on the road.



The Not so good

The base radio/CD system did not sound good for base laden music so I needed to get the sound system upgrade. Fortunately this also included the CD which is pretty much a must buy or you can’t listen to a CD and navigate at the same time.

Another problem with the sound system is the placement of the volume control. It’s on the passenger’s side of the dash board – a far reach for the driver and there’s no steering wheel volume (or any other!) control. There’s nowhere else further from the drivers reach they could have put it. Close at hand though is the low range switch which I know I’ll be using 25 times a day around town! Maybe this was designed for the British market where they drive on the other side?

Minor maybe, but if you like splashing through puddles at the side of the road – don’t. The splash easily washes up on the windshield cutting visibility to zero for a few seconds. No more playing speedboat!

Finally the DVD based nav system offers many improvements over the CD based Comand system found in the earlier Benzs, but it is a little frustrating in using it around a large city like Fort Lauderdale. Entering an address is hit and miss as to whether the nav thinks the street is in Fort Lauderdale or one of the sub-cities within greater Fort Lauderdale (such as Plantation or Coral Springs). On one occasion when I was going to Coral Springs I tried to find the address in both Coral Springs and Fort Lauderdale with no luck, but then found that the nav system thought the street was in nearby Pompano Beach. The funny thing was that when I arrived at my destination right next to the destination symbol was written “Coral Springs”. This is the sort of frustration that should not be necessary. The data on the DVD is also out-of-date – an amusement park that closed several years ago is still listed. I have asked Mercedes for an updated DVD.