Mercedes-Benz GLE SUV GLE 350 de 4Matic AMG Line Premium Plus 5 seats 9G-Tronic auto 5d Owner Review

Sadly this format only let's me put a max mpg of 100, so far it's done 14 miles diesel and 1000 miles electric, so well over 1000mpg. It does, in this cold Jan weather which badly affects electric only range, 50 miles when driven efficiently. 10 hours to charge from flat at home on a standard plug, only 20 mins at a Lidl 50kw fast charger. Bear in mind my previous Jaguar ipace did 130 miles on a full charge at this time of year driven as efficiently as possible. And the Merc has a usable boot, so much bigger than the Jaaaaaaaag and about the same as a range rover - happy dog and room for stuff. The GLE isn't pretty on the outside but has a glorious cabin, drives beautifully and delivers on its promises. Things like lane assist gives you a gentle pat on the shoulder vs the jag which shoves you across the road into oncoming traffic and is dangerous, the merc is so relaxing. It's a step down from a range rover and previous E63 wagon so lacks cooled & massage seats and rear climate, despite this being top spec and it being offered for this model in other markets, come on Mercedes, this really should be competing with a range rover. Two negatives excluding its looks (gen 1 cayenne grows on you!) - why on earth does it come with summer tyres, applicable for 30% of the year! Less serious are the running boards which get caked in winter road debris, perhaps mudflaps will solve that one. So, hugely impressive electric range and doing the sensible thing of using a diesel engine in a phev suv. It drives very well and handles sharply but the mass is evident, careful if you push this one around but if you go for a GLE63s you'll have a lot of fun, it feels planted for an suv X5 phev £80k. Defender phev £80k. GLE350de £64k via car wow for comparable specs bar double the range of the Mercedes. Yes Volvo does 7 seats and is the safest car on offer but those poor petrol engines will pop after 40k miles, will do 20mpg combined as the battery is so small that you won't bother plugging it in. I was sceptical about this GLE350DE but am impressed, great work Mercedes, this is the answer until EVs can deliver.