2020 Mercedes-Benz GLS development drive: Sand ridin'

07/01/2019

The 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLS580 gets the company’s 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 and 48-volt electrical system.

When you build the S-Class of sedans, like Mercedes-Benz does, you also must build the S-Class of SUVs. In this case, it’s the company’s GLS seven-passenger people hauler, and if we were somewhere on the road it would probably feel like the company’s big sedan. But we’re off road, way off road in the Nevada desert, taking sand dunes like we’re in a Can-Am Maverick, leaving long, sweeping tire tracks across a swath of mountainous dunes.

Like I said in my GLC drive, Mercedes likes overkill, and the GLS can overkill with the best of them.

Will anyone, and I mean any one person, take the GLS to the Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan or Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado or Oregon Dunes in, well, Oregon? Probably not, but rest assured, they could.

We got a sneak peek at the 2020 GLS580 a few weeks before the official first drive, and the most exciting part, besides the new off-road gear, are the additions of the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 and the E-ABC (Active Body Control) suspension system with the 48-volt electrical system.

This was a development drive but we did get some preliminary numbers. The GLS580 will deliver 483 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque and it felt easily faster than the outgoing non-AMG model and maybe as fast as the one from Affalterbach. The GLS450 will get a 362-hp, 369-lb-ft turbocharged I6. This bigger-engine GLS came with the off-road package, which features fully-variable all-wheel drive and a low range, a center locking differential that allows for 0-100 percent of the power to be sent fore and aft, hill-decent control and special algorithms for the ABS, traction control and 4Matic.

It also comes with a special control panel in the center console and two additional driving modes: off-road and off-road plus. Off-road is for light terrain like sand while off-road plus is steep and difficult terrain like rocks and stones. Additionally, buyers get an underguard for the entire body. Like the GLE with the optional E-ABC system, it can rock itself out of deep sand. All GLS models get air suspension but not all have E-ABC.

But the one I’m riding shotgun in does. Creeping down a bumpy sand trail in between sand dunes is even more of a magic carpet ride than usual. I’m staring at the central screen which shows the vehicle and all four dampers AND what they’re experiencing by way of a little line that bumps up and down like a heartbeat monitor. A little jiggle in the front right, a little hill on the monitor. A big bump in the left rear reads as a big spike. All of this, including ride height, angle and more are not only being translated to the driver and passenger, but to the computer and to each other, so the system can decide the best way to coddle passengers.

I swap out for a non-E-ABC vehicle and though it’s still pretty smooth, I’m looking at the bumper in front of me (a vehicle with E-ABC) and it’s barely moving, despite the drifts and mounds of sand on the path. At speed and on an angle the GLS never gets hung up. When it gets close the driver just gives it a little more power and we barrel on through, with a four rooster tails of sand behind us. It does get stuck once, when on purpose the driver tries to go straight up a 60-degree sand incline.

Here is where the wheels dig in, looking for purchase. Without missing a beat we get into those off-road modes screens, select free driving assist and the GLS begins going up and down, up and down, slowly adding throttle. In about five seconds we’re backing down the hill dislodged from sand that went up to the hubs of the wheels. Not only is it impressive, it’s also hilarious to watch and feel.

Could this be your full-time off-roader? Absolutely not. It’s still a behemoth of a vehicle with a track width that’s more than 4 inches bigger than a new Jeep Wrangler. It’s also more than 200 inches long has a wheelbase of more than 121 inches. A narrow trail crawler it is not. But if you happen to be at a mall or Starbucks or that yoga studio and the ground opens up in some sort of mega-earthquake or rapture situation, rest assured, the GLS will get you back home, be able to carry all of your important stuff, and get you a safe distance from the impending apocalypse. Especially if there’s lots of sand.

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