After being in the big daddy Mercedes-Benz GL450 the other day, I can really appreciate this right-sized ute. That big GL felt lumbering, a bit bouncy and basically overkill, unless you have a Jon and Kate Plus Eight situation.
No, the GLK is perfectly sized to fit four or five adults and a bit of cargo in the back. No golf trips to speak of but you could definitely throw a few bags in back without intruding on the passenger compartment.
I split my time between driving in sport and eco mode. I enjoyed sport much more. The throttle seems sharper, transmission hangs in gears longer and overall it's a more enjoyable experience. I still haven't tried an eco versus sport mode testing run, but I will. I do enjoy the stop/start technology, and bet it would go a long way to better fuel mileage, especially for one who deals with gridlock on a regular basis.
The GLK made its debut for one of the Sex in the City movies and despite that, I think it's a tough-looking car. It's boxy and angular and looks close to the ground. The LED accents look cool at night and the xenon headlights illuminate the road enough that it looks damn near like daytime.
The interior is Mercedes quality and the infotainment controller is easy to use now that I have the basics down. It took a minute to get used to the iPod control, but I love having the jog dial to switch through a random selection of songs. You can just keep rolling until you find something you like.
I think $38k seems like a fair base price for this model, but the as-tested price of $54,000 is hard to swallow. I do like the premium package for $3,450 and the hard drive-navigation setup for $2,790. The rest of the options I could drop for price of about $44,000.
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