Mercedes-Benz R-Class

Our verdict

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.

14 out of 20

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 either 190 or 272bhp and either a 3.5-litre V6 with 272bhp or a fat 5.0-litre V8 with a healthy 306bhp. The rational one is the larger diesel, the R320 CDI, 0-62mph in 8.7 and on to 134mph. The R500 hits the benchmark in a neat seven dead and on to just under the 150mph mark. Bit quicker than you thought then huh?

16 out of 20

Cool

Certain sexually transmitted infections have more street kudos.

10 out of 20

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.

14 out of 20

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 507bhp it had at its disposal, but it was too crazy to live.

12 out of 20

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.

14 out of 20

Running costs

Huge insurance valuations (everything is group 18 or above) and low mpg (the 280 V6 CDI is the best and only scrapes 32mpg) mean that the R-class isn't that cheap to run. Oh, and they're all in the highest tax bracket and residuals are a bit on the quiet side.

10 out of 20