Mmm Mmm Good....
Eight years after wowing the Canadian automotive press as a rookie contender in the
Automobile Journalist's Association |
| Eight years after its debute, the Mercedes M-Class is ready to wow the public again. (Photo: Mercedes-Benz Canada) |
(AJAC) of Canada Car of the Year awards, the Mercedes M-Class is set to do it again. Only this time, the 'car-like' luxury sport utility vehicle segment is no longer a novelty. In the years since the M-Class was named the AJAC's Car of the Year in 1998, the 'crossover' category, as it has now become known as, has exploded in size, with every manufacturer of note pumping out at least one model. The market segment proved so enticing as to prompt Porsche, till then a sports car company, to jack up its own heritage and design to produce the
Cayenne.
Those intervening years weren't all that kind to the
 |
| The all-new M-Class leaps back into the fray after a complete and thorough redesign, which includes a new engine, a longer, wider and lower body, and all-new design treatments both inside and out. (Photo: Mercedes-Benz Canada) |
M-Class, as Japanese and German automakers consistently upped the ante with well-built and well-appointed small to midsize, sporty SUVs. Those fading fortunes are all but memories come 2006, however, as the all-new M-Class leaps back into the fray after a complete and thorough redesign, which includes a new engine, a longer, wider and lower body, and all-new design treatments both inside and out. The only constant from the most recent version of the outgoing model is the choice between a 3.5-litre V6 (the ML350) and a 5.0-litre V8 (ML500).
