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By
EWAN KENNEDY
14 November 2005
Mercedes has added a turbo-diesel model to its M-Class 4WD. Though the
recent hikes in fuel prices have certainly had something to do with this
introduction, previous M-Class diesels have always been popular.
Officially, fuel consumption of the new ML320 CDI V6 is just 9.6 litres
per hundred kilometres by Australian standards.
Whether owners who have just paid $82,900 for a
car are overly concerned with fuel consumption is another
question, but there are environmental benefits in the production
of less carbon dioxide as well and hopefully Mercedes buyers are
conscious of the air we are all breathing.
For the press launch of the new ML320 CDI,
Mercedes combined the drive program with a serious off-road test
course to give journalists the chance to also sample the Off-Road
Pro-Engineering Package. This Package adds a two-speed transfer
case to a vehicle that normally comes without a transfer case. The
package also has height-adjustable air suspension that can give
the M-Class as much as 290mm ground clearance. A clearance
considerably above that of even a dedicated off-road 4WD.
The result is a vehicle that can wade through
some serious water crossings, as well as work its way along deeply
rutted tracks and over boulders, logs and the like. Tests that it
passed with flying colours – and plenty of flying mud as well
– during the hours of severe work to which the new M-Class
diesel was subjected.
In the end it was traction that beat the
Mercedes ML320 CDI, not ground clearance. A big overnight storm
had created very slippery surfaces on which the tyres couldn’t
always get a grip. At times the big Mercs had to be towed out by a
dedicated 4WD with chunky off-road tyres.
Again, the tyre compromise problem had reared
its ugly head. As almost all Mercedes M-Class will spend their
time exclusively on normal sealed roads, the tyres had been
designed for those conditions.
It is no coincidence that tyre makers are well
aware of this problem and are doing their best to surmount it –
or at least come to a better compromise. But it was an unfortunate
coincidence that Goodyear Tyres announced a new range of 4WD tyres
just days after the Mercedes event.
These new Goodyears, with the interesting title
of ‘Wrangler Silent Armor’, are aimed at providing the
strength and traction required for off-road use, but are claimed
to be as quiet in on-road conditions as a conventional
passenger-car tyre. At this stage we haven’t been able to drive
on these new tyres so can’t comment on the claims.
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Marque Publishing Company
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