OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
My wife has seen this a few times on her way home from work so we decided to pop-in and give it look-over and test drive yesterday. Pictures are pilfered from the dealer's website, I didn't snap any during our adventure.
Size and space wise, this is the same platform as the Jeep I believe, and it shows. They feel INCREDIBLY similar. Dash and centre console fit the same, as does the leg area and the doors are remarkably similar. Of course this being a coupe, the rear section is a bit different.
Pros:
- The 4.0L twin-turbo V8 is intoxicating. It's a hair over 500HP (503 IIRC) and the boost comes on hard and fast. The engine note is utterly superb.
- The traction control, even in comfort, is very generous with what it allows you to do. Inducing wheelspin and a bit of a step-out on the rear is possible before it transfers more power frontwards
- The exhaust note with the Sport+ exhaust selected is wild, I'm very surprised for a stock vehicle how loud it gets. It cracks and pops as well as burbles with this mode selected, though you can very easily make it more sedate by moving it to Comfort.
- The seats are very comfortable, great bolstering, good materials selection
- The (surprising) analog gauges are very nice and very responsive
- The stereo is excellent
- Tri-position seat memory for both driver and passenger seat was welcome
- Heated and cooled front seats
- Generous trunk space
- Brakes were excellent. Not as crazy grabby as the SRT Brembos, but very confidence inspiring and excellent pedal feel
- Handling seemed very good, though I didn't have anywhere to really push it.
- Neat little unobtrusive runningboards are great for kids and short people
Cons:
- Infotainment system feels dated in terms of appearance
- No touch screen
- Menus are very deep and things are needlessly complex to navigate
- No analog HVAC controls, means going through what seems like a million menus to change something like fan speed. This is not the case on the BMW I'm currently driving or the Jeep.
- Small LCD screen in the middle of the cluster also feels dated when compared to the beautiful LCD's that BMW and Audi are using, or even FCA.
- No heated wheel
- No HUD
- No rear heated seats
- Very poor rear visibility (though I assume this is the case with any of the coupe body style SUV's)
All-in-all and extremely satisfying vehicle to drive, though it won't be appealing to somebody who wants a lot of electronic tech along with a wicked powertrain. The current body style GLE is far better in that respect with a huge sweeping LCD that does both cluster and dash duty and feels significantly less dated.
Size and space wise, this is the same platform as the Jeep I believe, and it shows. They feel INCREDIBLY similar. Dash and centre console fit the same, as does the leg area and the doors are remarkably similar. Of course this being a coupe, the rear section is a bit different.
Pros:
- The 4.0L twin-turbo V8 is intoxicating. It's a hair over 500HP (503 IIRC) and the boost comes on hard and fast. The engine note is utterly superb.
- The traction control, even in comfort, is very generous with what it allows you to do. Inducing wheelspin and a bit of a step-out on the rear is possible before it transfers more power frontwards
- The exhaust note with the Sport+ exhaust selected is wild, I'm very surprised for a stock vehicle how loud it gets. It cracks and pops as well as burbles with this mode selected, though you can very easily make it more sedate by moving it to Comfort.
- The seats are very comfortable, great bolstering, good materials selection
- The (surprising) analog gauges are very nice and very responsive
- The stereo is excellent
- Tri-position seat memory for both driver and passenger seat was welcome
- Heated and cooled front seats
- Generous trunk space
- Brakes were excellent. Not as crazy grabby as the SRT Brembos, but very confidence inspiring and excellent pedal feel
- Handling seemed very good, though I didn't have anywhere to really push it.
- Neat little unobtrusive runningboards are great for kids and short people
Cons:
- Infotainment system feels dated in terms of appearance
- No touch screen
- Menus are very deep and things are needlessly complex to navigate
- No analog HVAC controls, means going through what seems like a million menus to change something like fan speed. This is not the case on the BMW I'm currently driving or the Jeep.
- Small LCD screen in the middle of the cluster also feels dated when compared to the beautiful LCD's that BMW and Audi are using, or even FCA.
- No heated wheel
- No HUD
- No rear heated seats
- Very poor rear visibility (though I assume this is the case with any of the coupe body style SUV's)
All-in-all and extremely satisfying vehicle to drive, though it won't be appealing to somebody who wants a lot of electronic tech along with a wicked powertrain. The current body style GLE is far better in that respect with a huge sweeping LCD that does both cluster and dash duty and feels significantly less dated.
