A whole lot of grunt

Need a seven-seater family vehicle that can tow a caravan, boat or jet ski? The new Mercedes Benz GLE 300d is just the vehicle for you.

I picked it up from Armstrong Prestige and I have to say, I was quite intimidated by the size of it. Its exterior has beautiful lines and I loved the obsidian black (there’s black then there’s black!).

Its 500Nm of torque is perfect for towing and 180kW means it’s got plenty of power. The base model starts at $128,200 plus ORC but mine was specced up to $150,450 with 22-inch AMG multi-spoke wheels, paint job, luxury seating and AMG sports package. It looked mean.

Formidable is probably a better word than mean. A lot of my female friends wanted the Audi Q7 but quickly changed their minds when they saw this. I found this perplexing, but fact is the ladies liked it; it’s big enough to fit the family in and something with a whole lot of grunt.