Review Car

2011 Mercedes Benz M Class

The 2011 Mercedes Benz M Class delivers the rugged looks, room, safety and utility that high-end SUV buyers seek along with a V6 engine that keeps pricing down to earthly levels. 2011 Mercedes Benz M Class models still come standard with dual front air bags that know when to deploy with partial or full force, front and rear side air bags, window curtain air bags that drop from the headliner, as well as seatbelt pre tensioners and automatic seatbelt force limiters. A child-seat recognition system prevents deployment of the front passenger air bags when an appropriate child safety seat is installed. Beginning last year, the company’s Tele Aid emergency calling system was standard equipment, along with new downhill traction control having a crawl mode for slow descents on steep icy streets, or even off-road.

The 2011 Mercedes Benz M Class come standard with ESP, Electronic Stability Program, which corrects slides and is invaluable; it works with Brake Assist, which activates the pedal with full force when sensors say it’s needed.

The 2011 Mercedes Benz M Class is purposeful and compact in appearance, with a sculpted front end and sharply sloped hood. Its styling has been freshened for 2011, including a new grille, new wheels, tighter-fitting bumpers, halogen headlamps with projected beams, halogen fog lamps, revised tail lamp lenses with a single rear fog lamp integrated in the left tail lamp, and side mirrors now containing the side turn signals. The 2011 2011 Mercedes Benz M Class uses a traditional body-on-frame construction. Though heavier and more prone to squeaks than the uni body construction found in most sedans and minivans, this design is durable and better suited for towing, preferred by many truck buyers.

2011 Mercedes Benz M Class retains its leather and burl walnut trim, but the center console, rear console and instrument cluster have all been cleaned up and made simpler to view and use, including the addition of a covered storage area with 32-ounce cup holder. The gauges are very clean. Overall, the controls are easy to locate, and they work with a soft, satisfying click. A fully automatic and filtered climate control system is now standard, using an air conditioning compressor with much larger capacity, and six temperature sensors in the cabin to provide efficient and accurate air temperature and flow. There’s a traditional Mercedes look to the white-on-black gauges, which turn ivory-on-black when lit at night. The digital clock is intelligently located where it can be easily read inside the tachometer, and an ambient thermometer is located inside the speedometer, although we believe a compass located there would be more useful. The compass is on the overhead console, one of six functions on the trip computer, along with date, present and average fuel consumption, miles to empty, and a stop watch. The cup holders that fold out of the dash on each end are the best.