I don't know about you guys down south, but we Canucks have had the B-Class for a couple months now, and the R-Class just arrived. While at the dealer today to pickup a waterpump, they had an open house and were giving demo rides for the new B, R, and M classes.
I took out an R-500 after signing my life away in case of an accident, because ours was in excess of $80,000. The 7 speed gearbox was nice and kept the engine in the peak power zone, so acceleration was quicker than I'm used to.On the highway there was essentially no road noise. It was incredibly quiet. Perhaps I should've tested the nice sound system? There are paddle-shifters (or buttons at least) on the back of the steering wheel and the gear selector is a little stalk on the steering column. It is totally electronic and you flick it up for reverse, down one step for neutral and down another step for drive before it auto-returns to its rest position. You push the button on the end for park. Everything in the car is electronic, including the steering wheel positioning. Makes me wonder how long such niceties will last. There was a massive 5 ft long panoramic sunroof for the 2+2 bucket seats in the back. The salesman is over 6 ft tall and sat in the backmost seat with headroom to spare. The R-Class feels a little like a minivan although the hinged rear doors open normally, and are fairly long. I've read they're almost as long as a Maybach's rear doors. Overall a nice ride and interesting vehicle, but I'd probably opt for an E-Class wagon first. The seating in the R is higher than a car, but lower than a van or truck, although there's not too much additional ground clearance, so I don't understand that too much. If I want something higher up, I'll try the new M-Class, which is apparently much better than the 1st gen. It also has the 7 speed auto transmission. My favourite thing was the mileage indicator showing 20 L/100 km (11.7 mpg). Apparently I wasn't the only one today stomping on the gas to see how fast it could go... Tim 1982 300TD Moby
