The GL-Class is Mercedes-Benz’ first entry into the full-size sport utility vehicle (SUV) segment. The GL features three rows of seating, a four-wheel-drive system with true off-road capability, as well as 7,500 pounds of towing capacity. It also comes with all of the safety and luxury accoutrements that Mercedes customers expect from their vehicles.

Mercedes’ research with its own customers revealed that many people who own a Mercedes sedan also own a full-size SUV, purchased instead of Mercedes’ own midsize ML-Class. Those customers said the ML simply wasn’t large enough for their needs, which included seating for as many as seven people, more cargo capacity than the ML provided, and/or the ability to tow a horse trailer or an Airstream trailer, for example.

One look at the luxury import segment and you see—very quickly—the preponderance of growth in the SUV category. With the launch of its M-Class over eight years ago, Mercedes anticipated what has since become an industry-wide trend. And while the M-Class has certainly enjoyed its share of success, its reception was hampered by the lack of a third-row seat at launch and, once a third row was finally introduced, the marginal comfort and accessibility of that seating position. More recently, Mercedes has aggressively rounded out its offerings with the R-Class, a unique take on six-passenger travel and, in the spring of 2006, its new GL450, Mercedes' first 'pure' three-row SUV.