2022 Mercedes-Maybach GLS600 review: It's $300k cheaper than a Rolls!

CarExpert

You're welcome - I've just saved you $300,000! How? The Mercedes-Maybach GLS600 is a cut-price version of the big and luxurious Rolls-Royce Cullinan. While it may not use a V12 engine, it does have a pretty punchy twin-turbocharged V8. Is it any good? Paul Maric finds out.  Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  More Mercedes-Maybach content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mercedes-maybach More Mercedes-Maybach GLS600 content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mercedes-maybach/gls  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior 00:49 Interior 03:51 Infotainment 05:51 Safety Tech 08:22 Practicality 09:26 On the Road 17:13 0-100 km/h 21:59 Verdict 23:40  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #mercedes #maybach #review

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. I'm a massive fan of the Mercedes-Benz GLS, but have you ever sat

00:05 inside it and thought to yourself, "You know what? This needs a whole lot more luxury"?

00:09 Well, someone at Mercedes-Benz did, and they've come up with this. It looks pretty much like

00:13 a GLS, but this is a whole lot more luxurious. It's called the Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600.

00:20 There is only one spec available in Australia, and it's priced at just over $350,000. This

00:26 competes with things like the new Range Rover, the Rolls-Royce Cullinan, and the Bentley

00:31 Bentayga. Today, we're going to do a detailed review of this car. If you do want to skip

00:35 ahead to other parts of the review, you can use the time codes up on the screen there,

00:38 or if you're on YouTube, scroll down and use the chapters below, and if you haven't done

00:42 so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon. That way, you can find out

00:45 every single time we review cars with enormous grills.

00:48 Now, let's talk about the exterior. So you've got 10 external colours to pick from. They're

00:53 all free, except a red colour that'll cost you $1,100. You can also get two-tone colours,

00:59 so that means you've got one colour down the bottom, one colour up the top, and I think

01:02 if you're going to buy one of these, you've got to get a two-tone colour, because everyone

01:05 needs to know what it is. They will also know what it is just based on what's going on down

01:09 the front here. So, hood ornament. This is rare on a new Mercedes-Benz, because normally

01:13 they just have the Mercedes-Benz logo there on the front of the bonnet, but now this car

01:18 actually has that three-pointed star, and I think this is just such a cool addition.

01:23 It's not like a Rolls-Royce where it comes out of the bonnet, but I think it's cool to

01:25 have that on the front.

01:26 Have a look at this grill. It is just enormous and chromey. So you've got lots of chrome

01:32 there, lots of chrome down the bottom, and then down this section as well. This is normally

01:36 where you'll see a big Mercedes-Benz logo, but here it is just the radar, and they've

01:40 integrated those chrome vertical lines into there with the camera just off to the centre

01:44 there. So, look, it is an imposing grill, and you will know it's a Maybach based on

01:49 that lettering. There is also a Maybach badge on the back and on the sides of the car as

01:52 well. Over here you've got a set of full LED headlights with Matrix LED. You've also got

01:57 LED daytime running lights in there and the indicator built in as well. Whip around to

02:01 the side.

02:02 Have a look at these wheels. So, 23-inch alloy wheels. These are absolutely enormous, and

02:10 they come with big tyres as well, 285mm here and then 325mm at the rear. They are just

02:15 imposing, and I think that if you're cleaning these, you probably have someone to clean

02:19 them for you, but if you aren't cleaning these, they're going to take forever to clean. There's

02:22 just so much detail in them. I love that sort of chrome brushed look. More Maybach lettering

02:27 around the Mercedes-Benz centre cap there, and that isn't plastic either, which is good

02:32 news. You can see here, instead of getting the black wheel arches, this is all body coloured,

02:36 and I love this green colour as well. It really suits the profile of this car.

02:39 Over on the side here, you've got an indicator built into that wing mirror. More chrome,

02:44 including chrome on the roof rails. You've got privacy glass, and it is so dark I can

02:48 barely even see in the back there. More chrome down the bottom, but check this out, party

02:52 trick. You've probably already seen this, but I'll show it to you anyway. Side steps

02:57 that pop out to make getting in and out of the car easy. They have rubber strips on them

03:01 as well, so it means you're not going to slip off if you get out and it has been raining,

03:05 and then they retract once you're inside the car or once it starts moving.

03:08 Alright, make your way around the back. You've got another Maybach logo just here, and then

03:13 if you come around to the back of the car, you have more chrome because there wasn't

03:16 enough to start with. You've got these intricate LED taillights as well, so you can see they're

03:21 multi-tiered and they really just make this pop at night time. GLS 600 badge, so it's

03:26 not a 12-cylinder engine, but they have gone with 600 here because it is a higher output

03:31 twin-turbo V8. Maybach lettering on the badge there as well. I'm surprised they didn't run

03:35 with the Maybach badge here, because I think this would be a more prominent location and

03:39 really make this stand out to others in traffic.

03:41 But look, let me know what you think about the design. Do you think it is far enough

03:45 gone beyond a GLS to wear a Maybach badge? I'm really keen for your feedback. Let me

03:49 know what you think. Is it gaudy or is it nice?

03:51 So we're inside the GLS 600. I've got to apologise for the wind if you can hear it, it's just

03:56 become like gale force. We'll start off with the keys. So here it is, you've got lock,

04:00 you've got the Mercedes-Benz logo, you've got unlock, boot, some chrome down the bottom

04:04 there, and then on the back you have that Maybach logo. This is a proximity sensing

04:09 key, so you just leave that in your pocket, grab the door handle, press the start/stop

04:13 button, and away you go.

04:15 Now let's talk about the design. So if you do take a closer look, you can see things

04:19 like this element here with the Maybach logo, but overall it looks very much like the standard

04:24 GLS. Where they do step it up though is they have thrown leather at literally everything

04:29 in this cabin, and it's good leather as well, Nappa leather. So you can see it down here

04:33 along that section, you can see it on the roof, you can see it on the sun visors. It

04:37 is literally throughout everywhere in the cabin, and I think that's where you start

04:41 feeling that price tag and the big difference there. This particular car has this piano

04:45 black finish with like a pinstripe through it, it's like an old school suit. You can

04:49 also get open-pore wood and other finishes. You can even get a white interior that's like

04:53 $30,000 extra, so you really can make this your own car if you want to.

04:58 Also you've got LED lighting littered throughout the cabin, and you can configure the colours

05:02 and the way that looks. I love also down here where the pedals are, they've got that sort

05:06 of old school metallic cover with Maybach logos on them. You've got Maybach here as

05:10 well, and then like a piano black finish on the steering wheel.

05:13 In terms of the other materials though and the touch points, so your centre is nice and

05:18 soft and so is the door. How soft is it? Well we've got our durometer, we've tested the

05:23 main surfaces in this cabin. If you want to see how this car compares to other cars we've

05:26 tested before, have a look at the link in the description.

05:29 What about build quality? So this is an expensive car, what's it like? It is built like a tank,

05:37 I've just tried touching everything in here and everything is dead silent, so pretty impressive.

05:42 Door, very impressive, and it has those fancy suction doors as well, so you only need to

05:49 pull it a little bit for it to come all the way in.

05:51 Let's talk about infotainment, and I'll run you through both of these screens. We'll start

05:55 off over here, they're both 12.3 inch displays and they sit adjacent to each other. This

05:59 one here is a touchscreen, so you can move everything around with your finger if you

06:02 want to. This is the latest version of the Mercedes-Benz User Experience, or MBUX for

06:08 short. I've really grown to like this, so at first, I don't know, it was a little bit

06:13 tricky to use, but what I've discovered is the more time you spend with the car, the

06:16 more you find all the little bits and pieces that it has. It has a really good voice recognition

06:21 system now as well, and you can also pass those commands through to your phone.

06:24 But, in built satellite navigation, and then on your home screen here you've got all of

06:28 the options to choose from in terms of sub-menus, but in addition to that you can also change

06:32 themes for the displays, so you can adjust that, that's the off-road theme, you can then

06:37 sort of change the way that it does everything, so pretty cool that you do have that configurability.

06:42 Over on media you have AM, FM, DAB plus digital radio, you have television as well, and then

06:49 the best part of all, you have, not a 12 speaker sound system, a 28 speaker Burmester sound

06:55 system. Everywhere you look there's speakers, like they're just littered all over the place,

06:59 and the sound system is absolutely insane, as you'd expect from a $360,000 car. So, really

07:06 cool setup there. In addition to that you have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Both

07:10 of those are wired, unfortunately, I would have liked to see a wireless system. I'll

07:14 show you what Apple CarPlay looks like in a second, but you also have Mercedes Me, which

07:17 is the application that allows you to interact with the car remotely. Here's Apple CarPlay.

07:21 Not the most impressive setup, I mean it's not a full screen integration, it's a tiny

07:25 bit laggy as you use it, so I don't know, I just would have liked to see something a

07:29 little bit better there. And this is what Android Auto looks like. Same story, just

07:33 this needlessly small integration, it really should be, you know, that entire screen I

07:38 reckon, but anyway, they can fix that with another update. The screen ahead of the driver

07:42 is another 12.3 inch display. This one's not a touchscreen, but it does have a high level

07:46 of configurability, and you do it all here on the steering wheel. So you can change everything

07:49 from the contents of each side of the screen through to what's displayed in the centre

07:54 there. We can switch between the different themes that are available to the driver, and

07:57 that changes what the display looks like. The interesting thing here as well is if you

08:01 have a closer look, you can actually see the Maybach logo here, and then when you're driving,

08:06 these all gradually move up nice and slowly. There is also a head-up display ahead of the

08:10 driver. It's an enormous screen, but for some reason in our test car, it's out of focus,

08:14 and it kind of gives you a headache, so I've just been switching that off. It's kind of

08:18 a little bit annoying, so I'm sure there's an easy fix for that, but it's probably something

08:20 you've got to go back to the dealer for. What about your safety? Well, it has literally

08:24 the kitchen sink thrown at it, so low and high speed autonomous emergency braking with

08:28 pedestrian detection. It's got an auto-dimming rear vision mirror, lane departure warning

08:33 and lane keeping assistant, adaptive cruise control with self-steering. It can also change

08:37 lanes for you, so you just flick the indicator on and it moves over to the next lane. Not

08:41 the best system in the world. I've found that it can be a little inaccurate in terms of

08:44 the way that it stays in the lanes. You really have to be on high alert the whole time. You

08:48 can't just let it do its own thing, but for the most part, it actually helps with the

08:51 driving experience. You have a blind spot monitor built into that wing mirror. Then

08:55 on the parking front, you have front and rear parking sensors and a 360 camera. I'll show

09:00 you what that looks like. So, it has automatic parking, so as you approach a parking space,

09:04 it'll fit in, it allows you to just reverse straight into that hands-free. But, have a

09:08 look at this, the quality of those cameras is amazing. So, that's the front wide angle,

09:12 front tight with top-down view. You have side view, then you have a wide angle at the rear

09:19 and then a tight at the rear as well, so you will not be reversing into anything. Well,

09:23 you better not be because there are so many cameras and sensors here.

09:26 OK, practicality, and we'll start off with connectivity. So, they've gone high-tech here

09:30 in terms of your connectivity. Everything is USB-C. So, you've got USB-C up the front

09:35 here for smartphone connectivity, for charging. Then in the centre console here, you have

09:39 another USB-C port. In addition to that, you have a 12-volt outlet, wireless phone charging

09:44 on this pad here. Now, where are you going to put your phone? So, your phone can live

09:49 down there on the wireless charging pad pretty easily. What you can also do is pop your phone

09:53 in the cup holders. Now, the cup holders are pretty cool. So, we've got my Trendy Coffee

09:57 here. The Trendy Coffee kind of just gets assaulted by these little arms and you need

10:03 to prop it up with keys, otherwise it's going to drop its lid. But, there is a great feature

10:07 here. So, this button allows you to switch between heating and cooling for the cup. So,

10:11 you can keep your coffee cup warm if you want when it's slotted down there, which I reckon

10:15 is pretty cool. And your standard bottle, well, that can fit in there easily as well

10:20 and those teeth hold it nicely in place. The bottle will fit inside the door too. We'll

10:25 try our Mega Bottle. Nice, that actually fits in there and fits in the door as well. So,

10:32 plenty of bottle storage there. In terms of your other storage, you've got this centre

10:35 console here. It's not too bad. It's not huge, but it's not tiny. And you've also got this

10:41 glove box as well, which is reasonably sized. And this is where you'll find your fragrance

10:45 for the interior. Fragrance. And finally, comfort. So, you have dual zone automatic

10:51 climate control up here, plus another two zones for the second row. Or you get three

10:56 zones if you don't have the four seats set up like we do here. Your heating and cooling

11:01 for the seats is activated here on the door. In addition to that, have a look at some of

11:05 these settings in the comfort menu. So, I was having a play with this before. You've

11:09 got massage functions for all four seats in the car. Everything from your hot, relaxing

11:14 back massage through to a classic and wave massage. But what you can also do is adjust

11:19 the seat comfort through to seat kinetic, so it can give you light movements to keep

11:23 you awake and alert. You can adjust the lumbar zone, seat heating balance. You can also adjust

11:30 your ambient lighting here, which allows you to switch between those colours that I mentioned

11:34 earlier. Energising comfort. So, these are, it's like a program where it plays music and

11:39 then matches it with a seat massage as well. So, this is designed to refresh you if you

11:43 are on a long distance drive. It really just comes with so many ridiculously cool features.

11:48 In terms of the seats themselves, I mean, just have a look at them. They are built for

11:52 comfort. They will hug you in nicely. They're nice and soft. I've spent a fair bit of time

11:56 in this car and I've got to say, it is a very comfortable place to be seated, especially

12:00 if you're running your massage seats. In terms of the adjustments, I mean, look at this.

12:03 You can adjust virtually everything. You can adjust the headrest, the backrest, the base,

12:08 this section of it. You've then got memory as well for both the driver and front passenger.

12:12 Plus, I can also move the passenger seat using these controls as well. So, pretty impressive

12:18 setup. Steering wheel offers heating using this switch here. Electrically adjustable

12:22 for both tilt and reach. And in terms of your reach test, all of this is easy to reach while

12:27 you're driving.

12:28 Okay, we're in the second row. There's actually a fair bit to get through here. So, please

12:32 stay with me while I get through this. Now, let's talk about room first. So, knee room

12:36 is amazing. Toe room isn't actually that good, surprisingly. My toes are kind of just wedged

12:41 under that seat there, but if I bring them back, they're fine. Headroom is excellent.

12:45 Now, compare this to the Range Rover that we tested recently, and there wasn't actually

12:49 much leg room in that at all. So, this is pretty amazing, especially considering I have

12:53 my driver's seat all the way back. You've got a Maybach logo just there with more of

12:57 that pin striping, and then LED lighting just around this entire section, and more of those

13:01 speakers because, you know, why not?

13:03 Now, this is obviously the highest end of high end, so there is a lot of cool stuff

13:08 around here for you to play with as a passenger. So, you've got two USB-C ports down here on

13:14 either side. You have a wireless phone charger, but it's a little bit counterintuitive because

13:18 I've got my phone here that now has a case on it because I dropped it, and it's the world's

13:22 most fragile phone, this new iPhone, and it's shattered into a million pieces. But anyway,

13:27 clearly it doesn't fit there, so you need to take the case off for the wireless phone

13:31 charging to work, which I think is just a little bit silly. They should have really

13:33 accommodated for that.

13:35 You've got a tablet in the centre here. This tablet can be removed from its holder, and

13:39 the tablet allows you to control all of the contents of the second row here. So, you can,

13:44 with these multimedia screens, just use your finger on those to change all of your settings.

13:48 We simply bring this tablet to life, and in there you can change everything from the ambient

13:53 light through to controlling these screens. So, if I go over here to the rear right, you

13:57 can see as I swipe around here, it will move that screen, and then allow me to go between

14:01 the different menus. This is where I can change the sun blinds, move them up and down. I can

14:07 also adjust the ambient lighting here, and the seat comfort, plus all the massage settings

14:12 as well. So, everything you want to be able to do at the front, you can do here in the

14:16 second row too, using this little thing. So, really nice setup there.

14:20 You can also adjust all your seat settings here on the door with memory as well, and

14:24 then you also have heating and cooling for these two outboard seats. You've also got

14:28 panel heating, so this is on right now, so as I rest my elbow on there, that's actually

14:33 heating which I think is fantastic. On the storage front, you've got two matte pockets

14:37 in the back of these seats. Down here, you've got a giant glass holder, so you can put your

14:42 bottles in there. So, it'll fit a small bottle and, I think it'll fit a big bottle, fit a

14:46 big bottle of probably champagne, I suspect. In addition to that, that also has the same

14:51 heating and cooling function that you get up the front there. Your heating and cooling

14:55 zones can be controlled down here in addition to the tablet, and then you also have storage

14:59 inside the doors. That's where you'll find your wireless headphones for the entertainment.

15:03 You can also manually control your blinds here in addition to this top blind as well.

15:09 But there is one function that I absolutely love, and it's with this seat here. So, right

15:14 now you're looking at vision of me kicking back and relaxing. It takes a little while

15:18 to fully extend, but someone of my height can actually fit in there while that is fully

15:23 extended, and that is an awesome place to be seated.

15:26 Behind here, you've got another Maybach logo with a storage area. This can be converted

15:31 into a fridge. Well, it can't be converted into a fridge, but you can option it with

15:34 a fridge for your champagne as well. And then finally, this centre section opens up to bring

15:40 out your... It's just ridiculous, to bring out your table, and this is where you can

15:46 do some work or have a bite or, I don't know, whatever else you want to do here. So, pretty

15:51 awesome setup here in the GLS 600.

15:54 Now, what use is a car this size if the boot isn't very big? Well, you've got a power

15:59 tailgate. Once that opens, it exposes a little over 500 litres of cargo space here. Under

16:04 the cargo floor, you have a tyre repair kit, so no spare tyre, warning triangle and reflective

16:10 vest and all that sort of stuff. You have hooks off to the sides, a 12-volt outlet,

16:14 a little switch here to lower the rear so that getting your bags in and out is a little

16:19 easier, so that will drop the car down. You've also got over on the side a first aid kit.

16:24 What does it look like with my bags in there? Let's have a little sticky beak. So, laptop

16:29 and then our suitcase. I almost feel bad putting this in, you've got those chrome strips there.

16:35 But yeah, it all fits in nicely and I love this as well, little rubber strips there to

16:39 stop your bags moving around as well.

16:42 There is one other thing I want to show you. So, you can't drop the second row because

16:45 we have the four-seat layout here, but in terms of the detail, you've just got leather

16:50 everywhere. It just sort of continues throughout the entire car. Maybach logo there, you've

16:55 got two of those Burmester speakers and then more of that piano black striped stuff along

17:01 the top there. So, look, I reckon it's actually a pretty decent space when you consider how

17:05 much room is taken up by those two back seats that, you know, one of them pretty much fully

17:10 reclined. So, pretty impressed with that for boot space.

17:13 Okay, so we've just hit the road in the GLS 600 and of course it's started raining because

17:19 Melbourne in summer. Anyway, now powering this is a familiar engine. So, instead of

17:24 going down the path of that V12, and I mentioned that sort of earlier, they've gone with a

17:29 twin turbo V8 and it is a great engine. I really love this engine, but it's just not

17:34 a V12, which is what you kind of synonymise with a Maybach. But anyway, it is a four-litre

17:40 twin turbocharged V8. It produces 410 kilowatts of power and 730 newton metres of torque.

17:47 That is just a massive amount of grunt and it needs to be massive because this weighs

17:52 a lot. It's around that circa two and a half ton mark, so it is carrying a fair bit of

17:57 weight to it. And it sends all of that torque through a nine-speed automatic transmission

18:01 and that transmission's used across a lot of Mercedes-Benz products and it's actually

18:05 a pretty good transmission. It means with this engine, it doesn't need to dive back

18:09 through the gears to give you the torque that you need. So, even here in comfort mode, I

18:12 can just lean onto the throttle. It's giving me a nice push in the back and getting everything

18:16 moving nicely. And if I want a bit more urgency, I just bury the foot and it really just gets

18:22 up and goes. It is an absolute beast of an engine. Mercedes-Benz claims a combined fuel

18:27 economy of 12.5 litres per 100 Ks. We are currently sitting on, as I flick through the

18:32 menu here, 13.4. Now, that's actually pretty impressive. I thought it was going to be a

18:36 whole lot higher than that because I have been having some fun in this. I think that's

18:39 actually really reasonable when you consider the type of engine this is and the size of

18:43 the car as well. So, pretty damn good if you ask me.

18:46 Let's talk about drive modes. There is a bit to get through here, so just stick with me.

18:49 I'll run you through the top level. So, you've got Individual, Sport, Comfort, Maybach, Curve

18:55 and Off-Road. But I'm going to focus on three of them. That's Maybach, Curve and Sport.

18:59 And let's start off with Maybach. It's effectively an extension of the Comfort mode and what

19:04 it does is it switches off the stop/start system. So, if you do have somebody in the

19:09 back there, they're not going to feel that rumbling of the engine turning off and on.

19:13 And while it is incredibly smooth, the way that it does come on and off, it's something

19:16 that you don't want to have. In addition to that, it also takes off in second gear. So,

19:21 when you are taking off from a set of lights, it is really smooth and you don't feel that

19:25 one-two shift which can happen pretty soon after take-off.

19:28 The other thing that I find incredibly remarkable here is the ride. We're sitting on 23-inch

19:34 alloy wheels. It should not be anywhere near as good as it is and that's partly thanks

19:38 to this. There's a stereo camera built into that window just there. What it does is it

19:43 scans the road ahead and as you hit bumps, it's able to pre-amp that and it softens up

19:48 the suspension to the point where when you're going over speed humps, you can literally

19:52 hit a speed hump at 30 or 40 kilometres an hour and you don't feel anything in the car.

19:57 It is literally just the weirdest sensation in the world and you have to feel it to actually

20:01 understand just how it does it and it really just blows me away from an engineering standpoint.

20:06 Now I want to put the whole suspension thing into context. We've got our undulations here

20:10 which mimic a country road and we've driven plenty of cars here that are just not very

20:14 good at all across this surface. What I'll do now is dial this up to the maximum speed

20:19 here in Australia which is 130 and we'll hit these undulations.

20:27 It's insane. It just feels like I'm driving straight over it. It's just remarkable.

20:33 And if we pop it down to curve mode, this is another thing that I find remarkable. As

20:37 we go through the corner here, it's lifting the side of the car up and that's to reduce

20:42 the amount of body roll you feel behind the wheel and then as you go back to straight

20:46 ahead, it drops straight back down and it's using the 48 volt system to do that. So 48

20:51 volt gives it a whole lot more current that it can send through and it means that it can

20:54 react far quicker to situations like that where it can bump the car up. If you do want

20:59 an explanation of how that works, click up here to watch a video we shot with the GLE

21:03 that had that same technology. So it combines all of this to give you that nice and soft

21:08 feel behind the wheel and ultimately that huge level of comfort. So yes, it's comfortable

21:12 but what does it feel like if you whack it into sport mode? So keeping in mind it is

21:17 absolutely drenched here at the moment. Let's see how this feels. Far out this thing is.

21:26 It feels big on the road but it's surprising it actually gets along really nicely and this

21:32 engine has some absolute balls. It is moving far out. You just do not expect a car this

21:41 size to handle like this and to carry this much pace. Really the only thing I'm noticing

21:46 here is the brake pedal. I think it probably just needs a little bit more feel but I'll

21:50 tell you what, it is absolutely hoofing along here. I was absolutely not expecting that.

21:57 So yes, big tick on handling. Mercedes-Benz claims a 0-100 time of 4.9 seconds. This is

22:04 how it went when we put it up against our stopwatch.

22:14 Let's talk about road noise. So I'm in two minds about this. This car has insulated glass,

22:21 they've put in extra insulation from the engine bay as well so even when you do get up it,

22:25 it sounds good but it's not like a GLS 63 where it's just all noise from the exhaust.

22:30 They've kept it nice and subdued. I just feel there's probably just a little bit too much

22:33 tyre noise coming in and I think that's a virtue of the size of the tyres. I mean you

22:37 look at how much contact patch you have with the road on 23-inch alloy wheels. It's almost

22:41 impossible to make it quiet inside the cabin. Yes, it is quiet, I just don't think it's

22:45 as quiet as something like a Range Rover or a Rolls Royce. They really just dial it down

22:50 in terms of that noise that you're getting inside the cabin.

22:52 Now if you do own one of these and you are driving it occasionally and aren't in the

22:55 back there, what is visibility like? Well, down the front there it's excellent. I can

22:59 see the top end of that hood ornament which I think is great. The wing mirrors, I reckon

23:02 they could be bigger. They're fine for visibility down the side of the car. You've got a blind

23:06 spot monitor built into them as well but I just reckon they could be a touch bigger to

23:09 give you superior visibility down the side of the car. And visibility out the rear isn't

23:13 great. That envelope is very narrow thanks to the high beltline of the back of those

23:18 seats and also the headrests. But look, it's not the end of the world. You have that 360

23:21 camera and it's just easy to place this once you use the camera and the front and rear

23:26 parking sensors.

23:27 And finally, turning circle, 12.52 metres. Look, it is a pretty big turning circle but

23:33 it's also a pretty big car so it's about where you'd expect it to be. And if you are going

23:37 to do any towing, 3.5 tonne braked towing capacity.

23:40 So the Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600, what do we think? To be honest, it's better than I thought

23:45 it was going to be. To me personally, I don't think it looks different enough from a standard

23:50 GLS to kind of intrigue that many people but when you look at it as a value proposition,

23:55 if you spend this kind of money with any of the other brands I mentioned at the intro,

23:59 you're really not going to get anywhere near the amount of features that Mercedes has crammed

24:03 into this. So while I think it is a little bit of a compromise in terms of the design,

24:07 yes they have put giant wheels on it and lots of chrome and stuff, but at second glance,

24:11 unless you go for a crazy colour, you're probably just going to mistake it for a standard GLS.

24:16 If you put that stuff to one side, the engine is phenomenal. It is just an absolute hauler.

24:20 The ride is fantastic and if you're in that back row, I mean, you have everything there

24:25 that you possibly need. So yes, it's expensive but in comparison to its peers, I actually

24:30 think it's not bad value for money. So let me know what you reckon in the comments section

24:34 below. They've actually sold a stack of these in Australia already, so you're probably going

24:37 to see a few of them out on the road every now and then. Keen for your feedback. Have

24:41 you bought one? If you have, very nice. Let me know what you use it for. Do you sit in

24:45 the back or are you up the front there driving? I'm really keen to get your thoughts. If you

24:49 did enjoy this video, please make sure you share it with your mates and if you haven't

24:52 done so already, subscribe to our channel so you can find out every single time we drive

24:55 stuff like this. But until next time, take it easy.

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