Mercedes-Benz R-Class

The R-class is a luxury six-seat, MPV-ish, 4x4 thing that looks like a pimped piglet grown over-large. Mercedes calls it a ‘Sports Tourer’. We try to ignore them.

• Comfort

  You can get Airmatic suspension as an option, which seems to suit the R-class down to the ground. There's loads of space, the suspension knocks out all but the worst the world can throw at it and it cruises without wind noise. It makes a lot of sense, and you don't have to look at it when you're on the inside.

  

• Performance

  Now that the R63 AMG is dead there are four large engines on offer for the big piggy; a pair of 3.0-litre V6 diesels with 200kW and either a 3.5-litre V6 with 200kW or a fat 5.0-litre V8 with a healthy 285kW. The rational one is the larger diesel, the R320 CDI, 0-100km/h in 8.7 and on to 216km/h. The R500 hits the benchmark in a neat seven dead and on to just under the 240km/h mark. Bit quicker than you thought then huh?

  

• Cool

  Certain sexually transmitted infections have more street kudos.

  

• Quality

  Hugely solid and a nice feeling all round, but you can't help but feel that you're in the corporate limo. Not exactly bursting with character, but solid feeling.

  

• Handling

  Underneath, the R-class is basically an M-class SUV so we're talking 50/50 split 4x4 and a fine-but-not-startling handling balance. It's actually quite a lot better than it looks, with little body roll and good-enough steering, but this is more ‘tourer' than ‘sports'. The now-deleted R63 AMG could put the wind up anything on the road with the 378kW it had at its disposal, but it was too crazy to live.

  

• Practicality

  You can have either a five or seven-seat R and when we say ‘seats' we mean ‘armchairs'. The LWB car adds 24cm over the shorter model and when you fold the seats down on that enormous thing you get a truly huge 2385litres of space. If you need a posh transporter then the R-class actually ticks lots of boxes - but it feels a bit like the one-stop shop for C-list boyband transport.

  

• Running costs

  Huge insurance valuations and simply chews petrol (the 280 V6 CDI is the best and only scrapes 9.3L/100km) mean that the R-class isn't that cheap to run. Oh, and residuals are a bit on the quiet side.