>> Back in the day a big Benz was an S-class. Not any more. This is a big Benz. Let's Check the Tech in the GL450.
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>> Now the first thing you notice in our big boy is a pretty big navigation screen. I'm not a big fan of the resolution on this, it's okay but it's not class leading. BMW and Lexus have better looking interface to be quite honest. In terms of control, you mainly use this little juggy wheel right here, this little joystick. You know, I normally hate these things, but this one's better because it's really stiffened up, and it's larger. So it doesn't move too easily while you're underway. But I still hate it. The other options you've got of course are voice command on this system, but not touch screen.
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That's just not happening here, and I wish it was. Now our GL450's a very entertaining car. First of all, up here on the head unit you see we have the screen used for the audio system with a lot of very good obvious control. These are soft buttons that use the actual hard buttons alongside them. Now the system is AM FM, no HD radio, Sirius satellite radio, no XM. There's an AUX jack, unless you get rear seat entertainment, which we have. So the AUX jack in the glove box goes away, that's kind of annoying. You can however, get an iPod adapter in the glove box specific to the iPod. In terms of discs, you have to hit the eject button here, and that moves the whole display down, kind of trick. Up here is your DVD nav slot, ignore that. Below that is a single disc CD audio slot. Then if you want to load up more, you've got your six disc over here in the glove box. And that also will eat MP3 CDs, but not WMA. Now in terms of hooking up your cell phone to a GL450, well it's a modern Mercedes so you've got two choices. One is bluetooth, you know how that works. The other one is a Mercedes cradle that would live in here in the console. You'd get the right cradle that fits your phone. Now here's the rub. It only works for one of five major types of Motorola phones, regardless of your carrier. So you got to check that out first, they have a website for that, wirelessformb.com. Now that's gonna work better if you use the cradle, but again, limited phone choice. Bluetooth will cover most people. Big kudos to the rearview camera on this car, I mean that's outstanding color, resolution, contrast. You can literally see rocks, pieces of paper, there's a little tiny scrape in the pavement. That's the best one I've ever seen, big thumbs up to Mercedes for the best rearview camera ever. In terms of motive power, our GL450 has not a four point five, but a four point six V8. Go figure. Three hundred and thirty five horsepower. It's a revvy thing, it loves to go to the sky, sixty two hundred RPM. Transmission is an interesting seven speed automatic, silky smooth as you might imagine, controlled by this little dainty shifter up here, which is very much the Mercedes style. Down for drive, up for reverse, push for park. Real simple. But there's more than that. You've got almost invisible paddles behind the wheel here. Right is for up shifts, left is for down shifts. Now managing the output of that power train, you can option up disctronic [assumed spelling] adaptive cruise, radar based adaptive cruise. You set the distance to follow, and you know how that works. This car also has a variety of drive train technologies. You've got an electronic stability program here which you can disengage, you normally wouldn't. You have downhill speed regulation on our vehicle, which lets it walk and crawl down steep stuff. There's also a ride height control knob here, and this one over here lets you lock the front, rear, or both discs, or leave it in automatic. Our backseat passengers are entertained as well, they get the optional rear seat entertainment, dual headrest monitors, I like that, doesn't get down in the way of your rearview mirror. You've actually got hardwired headphone jacks on this guy. The actual drive for the rear seat entertainment is located behind the feet of the right rear passenger, little hard to get to but once you're there you're rewarded with two sets of RCA AUX jacks. Our rear seat passengers are not left for a lack of comfort either, they've got a full climate system. That's optional by the way, with a array of buttons and controls, it's the same as in the front, really nice. A ton of vents everywhere you look in the back compartment. And Mercedes headlight washers do not screw around. Nearby pedestrians better bring their Macintosh, and I don't mean a Powerbook. Now our GL450 with a V8 and a seven speed automatic starts at a pretty reasonable fifty five thousand dollars. It's a lot of Mercedes for fifty five grand. But it didn't cost fifty five, it cost a lot more. Check out this sheet of options. The big one, for forty five hundred dollars, premium package one. You gotta want this, DVD nav, Sirius radio, parktronic distance sensors, power tailgate, premium sound, rear audio controls, hands-free. We've also got the backup camera a la carte for five hundred dollars, and the rear seat entertainment rig was another twenty six fifty. That plus some luxury options with leather and some wood trim. Our fifty five thousand dollar car was seventy two out the door.
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