Mercedes-Benz GL versus Audi Q7 and Land Rover Range Rover review (2006)

SUVs may be on an even stickier wicket than the English cricket team currently are in Australia, but it doesn’t seem to have slowed down the glut of new models.

The reason is largely down to the US. Plenty of Americans still love big cars and the European offerings are simply more luxurious and more advanced than anything they can buy that’s home grown.

New engines

The price of fuel in Europe means that even those who can afford the £60,000 needed to buy two of these three prestigious vehicles balk at the sub-15mpg that seems all too easy to achieve. Until recently going for an oil burner meant major sacrifices in performance, but no longer. Range Rover has its new TDV8, 3.6-litres and twin turbos. Mercedes’ GL can also be bought with a V8 diesel, this one 4.0-litre. And the Q7? Well, Audi has been a bit slow off the mark, and currently offers only its 3.0-litre V6 turbo diesel.

VIDEO: watch all three of these SUVs in action

In the near future it will top its rivals with both V8 and V12 diesels, but for now it has to manfully pitch up against some hard-slugging competition. Land Rover is on a real high at the moment. There’s the all-new Freelander and the Range Rover Sport is selling like hot cakes. But for some buyers it’s still only the real McCoy that will do, and that means a proper, full-sized Range Rover, seen by many as a luxury saloon rival rather than an off-roader.

Our review of the new Freelander

And how they cost you. There’s only one model under £50k and it’s easy to spend over £60k. The V8 petrol models simply guzzle fuel yet the Range Rover’s 3.0-litre BMW diesel is rather overwhelmed by the two and half tonnes of steel and leather. Now the all-new 272bhp V8 provides the answer. It’s not from BMW this time, but the 2.7-litre V6 from the Discovery with another couple of cylinders added on. The Range Rover can no longer have it all its own way. Always much more than merely a 4x4, rival manufacturers have woken up the British car’s special status and they want a slice of the cake.

Tips on insuring your expensive 4x4

New kids on the block

Inevitably they are German and, equally inevitably, they have gone about tackling the Range Rover in a deadly serious way. The Mercedes GL goes for sheer brutal size as its trump card. At over five metres in length, its one of the longest cars on sale in the Europe, and there’s room for a third row of seats if you tick the right boxes on the order form. Its V8 turbo-diesel is bigger, at 4.0-litres, which means its output of 306bhp is a good 12% more than the Range Rovers.

Audi’s Q7 takes a completely different direction again, curvaceous and sporting and quite unlike any other 4x4 we have ever seen. It’s as long as the GL too, but with only a 3 litre, 230bhp V6, is Audi technology good enough to pull it off? Not on the rough stuff, that’s for sure. No-one has yet equalled the Range Rover trick of coupling high luxury with off-road performance that stands alongside that of a Defender. Range Rovers seem to have an uncanny ability over the really rough stuff, be it rocks, water or the desert. Great axle articulation is one key factor where cars like the Q7 can’t begin to compete.

Off the road…

The Mercedes GL is a purposeful rival though. It’s got the full suite of serious off-roading functions: Downhill Speed Control, Hill Start Assist, plus numerous electronic systems. You’ll probably want manual control for the gears for more serious off-roading and the GL’s rocker switches on the steering wheel just aren’t up to the job, simply too fiddly and illogical. So the Audi loses out to its two rivals on the treacherous stuff, but the worst most owners will tackle is a wet field or an untarmaced lane. The Audi tackles loose gravel just fine, but wet grass is a different matter. It slithers and slides and with its road-biased tyres the Q7 simply gives up sooner than the Range Rover and the GL.

VIDEO: watch all three of these SUVs in action

The Mercedes is far more competent but again it’s the Range Rover that’s peerless. 2007 models get the Terrain Response that debuted in Discovery 3. Now all you need to do is dial in the right conditions – deep ruts, grass, snow, mud or sand – and the engine response, transmission, suspension and traction settings are all optimised. For those used to playing with diff locks and low range gearboxes it may all seem like cheating. We love it.

And on it

On the tarmac, though, it’s difficult not to fall in love with the way the Q7 drives. Switch the suspension to the Sports setting and everything sharpens up nicely. The Q7 is the only one that can compete on-road with the Porsche Cayenne or BMW X5. The GL is easily the quickest though. The 0 to 60 time of 7.6 seconds is eye watering for a vehicle this size, eclipsing the 8.5 seconds of the Range Rover and 9.1 of the Q7. The Mercedes drives well too, more so than the Range Rover which looks and handles like a much taller car.

Our view of the new BMW X5

Each of these huge vehicles will tow over three tonnes, enough for a big horsebox and a couple of drays. Lot’s of engine torque is important and the argument that there is no substitute for cubic inches stands up here. The V8s in the Range Rover and Mercedes knock the Q7’s V6 into the wilderness. All provide a supple ride and great comfort inside for passengers. The high driving position is a feature loved by owners of SUVs and these full-sized vehicles offer the view and perceived safety that these owners demand.

There’s a real sense that no compromise is needed when you pick a Range Rover, with the highest quality leather and a real sense of class. Even the suspension lowers to help you get in and out. But the Q7 measures up extremely well too. It has the expected high quality Audi feel, an intuitive MMI interface for the controls and comes with the benefit of seven seats. Not that the GL is left wanting. It too gets an interior that’s up to the mark and its trump card is this: press a button and the third row of seats rises majestically out of the floor.

Verdict

So does the Range Rover hang onto its crown? The Audi and Mercedes are roomier, but that’s a two-edged sword. Both can feel too big for comfort on UK roads. The Range Rover’s class still betters the GL’s more functional appearance, even though the British vehicle isn’t quite as powerful. The Audi, could arguably, mean big trouble for Land Rover. But not until they fit a bigger diesel. So yes, the Range Rover is still king of the hill. But not by much.

Read more Mercedes reviews
VIDEO: watch all three of these SUVs in action