The automatic is smooth, though the steering feels a wee bit overboosted. The engine is responsive, as is the paddle-shifted six-speed automatic. Any available GL-class engine can be ordered to power the luxury beast, from a lowly 3.0-liter diesel V-6 all the way up to a 5.5-liter gas V-8, and Benz’s 4MATIC all-wheel drive is standard. Silver Medallion Members, SkyTeam Elite, and Virgin Australia Velocity Silver members can begin boarding after that using the Sky Priority boarding lane when traveling in Main Cabin (Main1). The steering is nice and responsive, reacting to quick lane changes or mild turns with no difficulty. EDITOR WES RAYNAL: This is a very nice car that quite honestly costs less than I would have guessed. I would love to have this one (minus the two-tone interior) in my garage. It has good power, terrific traction, a good ride/handling mix, a comfortable, beautifully built interior (not totally in love with MMI, but I'm getting used to it), a good-looking exterior--it's got it all basically.
I love our long-term 5-series, too, but it comes in at $18,000 more, which for some might be tough to swallow. ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR CHERYL L. BLAHNIK: After getting used to the size of the S4 in our long-term fleet, this car (obviously) felt larger, perhaps a bit too big for my needs. If said parking lot happens to be on an egregious slope, Grand Edition owners can call upon hill descent control and hill start assist to keep their GLs from getting away from them. The interior can seat seven, and pampers them with piped, two-tone leather leather seats available in contrasting black and porcelain or black and maroon. When I stepped up to my seat behind the wheel, I soon learned that the large-looking exterior was more of an illusion when the key was turned, and it started to make its way down the road. After that it was just a matter of listening to the deep staccato beat of the 5.4-liter supercharged V-8 hurtling the SLR down the relatively short runway at Malmsheim, near Stuttgart (where Mercedes organized this performance test for American magazines), and then tapping the shift button on the steering wheel each time the tach reached for its 7000-rpm redline.
I can't speak for the rest of the driving public, but when I have keys, a phone, a couple of other odds and ends that need homes, and then a Gatorade, I am miffed not to find convenient, accessible storage in the cabin. There's one cupholder (which housed my phone), one ashtray, then another cupholder and storage compartment hidden under the armrest. I'd say no. Call me Cupholder Queen, or whatever, but to some, these things matter, especially when spending more than $50,000 on a car. I know I told myself I wouldn't go on another cupholder rant, but apparently I lied. Unless, of course, you're doing a test drive for "Top Gear," you can't really know whether a van will handle well on rough roads or difficult weather. It's firm enough to encourage some high-speed cornering yet refined enough to never hint at abusing the occupants, even on some rough roads.
Even with a new model on the way, the current car remains a nicely styled work sitting on a set of sporty wheels. Even the smaller V8s have powerful acceleration even with a heavy load, and boast impressive towing capacity. The A6 doesn't have that problem. On the road, all is quiet and I have no beefs with the way the car rides. The steering is lightly weighted yet returns the kind of feedback I like, letting you know exactly where the car is on the road--direct without being twitchy. After delivering a towed unit, and the towing unit no longer meets the definition of a CMV, the driver returns to the point of origin under the direction of the motor carrier to pick up another towed unit. At higher speeds, it really inspires confidence when small changes in direction were required to pay. The small Cabriolet A series of the 170S line-up was presented for the first time in May 1949 at the Hanover Technical Export Fair. The A4 is a bit too small while the A8, beautiful in every sense, is a big car. The looks and comfort of this car are above most. Are you shopping for an SUV for your growing family?
Carbon-fibre-ceramic front discs are available at extra cost. The front end flap air deflector outer section does not match current series production specifications; as a result the front air deflector may become detached. The biggest adjustment for traditionalists may be the fender badges, which now render model designations vertically instead of horizontally. Freightliner Trucks is a well known American truck manufacturer of heavyweight trucks, as well as truck chassis and semi or tractor-trailer trucks and is now a division of Daimler Trucks North America, which is a subsidiary of German Daimler AG. It melds luxury with a touch of sport and does it well. Yes, I would like a touch less lag but really it's nothing to whine about. Nothing that I encountered during my one-nighter with the A6 was a surprise--until I had a Gatorade. The acceleration rate in the A6 was nothing short of perfect, and it made expressway driving a breeze. It's the one we're most looking forward to driving. It won't snap your head back, but to take that Goldilocks reference one step further, let's just say it's quicker than the average bear. It doesn’t leave one section cold and the other hot like those made by other Sprinter Limo manufacturers.
