Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo

[WRXtranceformed]

Not rental cars so much, but I got the chance to volunteer after Quail Hollow thanks to my well-connected Charlottian gf! We got to drive the official MB player cars from the golf course to the airport where they were to be loaded up and shipped to Ohio for the next MB-sponsored PGA Tour event.

I got to drive two S550s:


and 2 GL550s with these exact AMG rims:


Impressions:
S550s were both very nice. One had a backup camera and one didn't, which really surprised me that a car of that caliber would even have one as an optional attachment. If I'm spending that much money on a luxury exec car I would demand something that simple. A/C seats were nice but they have those available even on IS250s. The nav/audio interface was really confusing, although I figured it out after about 5 minutes of fooling around. It has this wheel that is similar to the iDrive I guess on BMWs. Even after I figured it out, it forced me to spend a lot of time looking at the screen and less time paying attention to the road which could lead to disaster. I mean there's no way around it; in order to navigate the menus you pretty much have to take your time sifting through them.

There was a suprising lack of control / buttons mounted to the steering wheel as well. I don't claim that the Japs do everything right, but I felt SO much more comfortable jumping back into my Acura where everything was thoughtfully and efficiently placed and I could navigate menus with one touch buttons.

The car also had about a million hideaway pockets to store stuff. Which I don't really get unless rich people tend to be pack rats and need tons of places to store stuff.

The car had tons of understeer but braked exceptionally well thanks to a sick caliper / drilled rotor setup. I stomped on it a couple of times with TC "disabled" from a stop and it gets up and goes, although the power delivery is overly smooth and doesn't feel like a strong pull until you get to about 65+. You can tell this was meant to be a high speed Audobahn cruiser.

GL550 4Matic: Holy balls this is the nicest SUV I've ever driven. What seemed and felt like real, un-plastic-clearcoated wood trim, better steering wheel buttons and navigation ability (although for some reason the ones I drove didn't have the local airport in the POIs like the S550 did. I wonder if you have to pay extra for that?? lol). Both had what I guess were factory installed TV headrests, chrome steprails and wow does the overall car look so mean. Especially from the front and behind. For being a big SUV it stopped very well and had sick acceleration. Even though some quick internet research shows that my Acura would be quicker through the 1/4 I really don't feel like my car would win in a stoplight race against that thing. 391ft lbs @ 2800 RPMs + AWD = rape

I mean that thing moved out. The suspension adjustability was nice too, I could feel a noticeable stiffening and softening effect. The car was oddly more comfortable for me to drive on the "sport" setting. There were a ton of offroad settings too that I didn't really get to play around with but I would love to take that thing through a muddy field just to see what kind of AWD donuts I could do.

Anyway I had a blast driving these cars! I can say with most certainty that I will probably never own a car like the S550 no matter how much success life brings. The price isn't what turns me away, nor the lack of features for the price (although that doesn't help its cause). The thing is just so BIG. My car is just almost too big for me as far as owning a 4 door sedan, it would just be a pain in my ass to drive something that large that wasn't a truck in an urban setting. The GL550 on the other hand, wow that is not a bad grocery-getter. I would not be embarrassed to be seen in one of those!