2006 Luxury SUV Review, Comparisons & Road Tests

"Luxury SUVs" seems too prosaic a phrase to capture the essence of vehicles that can crawl up the sides of mountains and still comfortably cruise the highways at triple-digit speeds. "Sport/ utes" is way too blue-collar to fit with their well-tailored interiors and copious electronic amenities. And "crossover" feels too trendy to reflect the heritage and technical acumen of their manufacturers. It's just what we need then: more vehicular acronyms. Perhaps we should simply call them "The Mercedes" and "The Range Rover."

They have much in common. Both are powered by 300-horsepower, aluminum, multivalve V-8s, and their torque is distributed to all four wheels through sophisticated automatic transmissions. Each is almost 16 feet long, seats five, and glides over terra firma on air-sprung suspensions. And each is targeted at buyers who value the sporty side of the motoring equation yet also want every amenity and comfort feature known to man crammed into a spacious interior.

Unfortunately, that mix of characteristics is not inexpensive. The suggested retail price of a 2006 ML500 is $49,220. Equip it with lots of stuff from the options list and "value added packages," and the price can jump to staggering levels--$63,515 in the case of this ML500. The Range Rover Sport comes in with a higher base price, $56,750, reflecting a deeper list of standard equipment, but, after the options are added, its bottom line becomes just as stagger-inducing at $64,900. So which is more luxurious after all the gear is piled in?

Because one person's luxury is another's costly extravagance, we'll skip that debate for now, but there's no quibble about which is of these luxury vehicles is the sportier. Despite similar powertrains and overall dimensions, the ML500 is much quicker, and the reason is simple: weight. Not only does the Mercedes weigh over 100 pounds less than its predecessor (due to elimination of the two-speed transfer case, which has been relegated to an off-road package), it's around 700 pounds lighter than the Range Rover.

As sporty as the Sport is, especially compared with its Rover siblings, it's no match for the ML500 because of its weighty (but fabulous) Terrain Response system. This electronic off-road wizardry makes the Range Rover the superior, well, rover of the range between the two, but it doesn't help in timed comparison tests, nor is it of much value on the city streets.