Great Drive, Poor Visibility
by David Finlay (30 Jan 07)

I don't think Mercedes-Benz always succeeds when it drifts from its home territory of building large saloons and estates, but the R-Class MPV is an exception. In many ways it is a superb piece of work - so much so that you might image this was the sort of thing Mercedes had been building for decades. After a week with the R 320L CDI, though, I'm niggled by some of the stranger aspects of its design.

It's not a car that fits comfortably into any niche. The proportions are that of a vastly extended estate car, but it's more than that. The general feel is of an MPV, but an unusually sporty one, and one with fewer seats (six) than the number you might expect it to have (seven). And it shares its platform with the M-Class SUV, but otherwise it seems to have no relation to that model, apart from the fact that it has four-wheel drive as standard.

In long-wheelbase form, the R-Class is colossal. That's good news for passengers in the second and third rows, who get an enormous amount of legroom - actually a variable amount, since the seats in the middle row can be shifted forwards or backwards as required. Passengers no.5 and no.6 will have to be relatively short, though, since the sloping roofline means they have far less headroom than the others.

Up front, the headroom variation is remarkable. The driver's seat is height-adjustable to such an extent that you can make yourself feel like you're conducting a coupé or a van or anything in between. Whichever you choose, it's unlikely that you will ever see any part of the car more than an inch ahead of the base of the windscreen, which is a bit of a problem because there's a large front end tucked away out of view.

There are parking sensors, but all they do to begin with is switch on a series of yellow lights in the centre of the dashboard. You don't get an audible warning until the first red light appears, and by that time the front number plate is less than a foot away from the obstruction. If you're not already aware that you're within touching distance of the brick wall, the car in front or whatever it might be, this could get messy.

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