Automakers have begun to offer truly unnecessary levels of power for three-row crossovers and SUVs. From the new Mercedes-Benz GL63 AMG to the more mainstream Dodge Durango pictured above, there are plenty of high-horsepower engines available on three-row CUVs and SUVs. But could you single out one as the best? That's what we're asking in today's Thread of the Day, inspired by a forum thread created by Zoomin. 40,000, power-hungry enthusiasts who need a three-row SUV can get into a Dodge Durango R/T with a 5.7-liter V-8 producing 360 hp and 390 lb-ft of torque. The Ford Flex EcoBoost manages 365 hp and 350 lb-ft from its twin-turbo 3.5-liter V-6; we've tested an all-wheel-drive Flex EcoBoost accelerating from 0-60 mph in 5.9 seconds. When that's not good enough, perhaps a 550-hp Mercedes-Benz GL63 AMG would be more your style? In a recent comparison test with the 2013 Range Rover Supercharged, the Benz completed the 0-60 mph sprint in 4.7 seconds. Power isn't everything, though, and one suggestion included the Audi Q7 TDI. Powered by a 240-hp turbodiesel 3.0-liter V-6 with 406 lb-ft, the three-row CUV is EPA-rated at 19/28 mpg city/highway.
That was last May. Five months later, our 13-window Bus of Bronze whooshed past the 25,000-mile plateau. This thing accumulates miles like Willie Nelson鈥檚 bus. Course, ours smells better and is easier to park. 844 on scheduled pit stops鈥攐il changes, tire rotations, fresh brake fluid, dust filter, and so forth. On one scheduled maintenance at 20,000 miles, Benz mechanics were required to inspect the trailer hitch. Sure looks like it. Other issues were covered under the four-year/50,000-mile warranty. These included new rear brake rotors (they were vibrating); a new backup camera; a few trim pieces whose chrome had peeled; and a start/stall issue the dealer couldn鈥檛 pinpoint but that has since evaporated. None of which cost us a dime, but the wobbly rotors certainly induced a few knitted brows. Mind you, stopping nearly three tons of SUV in only 179 feet understandably taxes the whirling parts. In city traffic, the GL450 is something of a moose in a Pilates class鈥攁 bit ponderous, awkward, blending into traffic only when woolly-mammoth-size holes open up, and its steering tells you almost nothing at all. This is one SUV in which you will study the camera before backing out of your Safeway slot.
Of course, the trade-off is that our bus is otherwise one of the world鈥檚 finest long-distance interstate cruisers, its height and massive windshield offering vast downrange sightlines. Plus, it鈥檚 quiet鈥? dB quieter than, say, the Land Rover Range Rover Supercharged at wide-open throttle. On the slog from Ann Arbor to Montana, one of us slept quite soundly for three hours in the super-comfy middle seat, leg-twitching dreams and all. The air-spring suspension delivers a magic-carpet ride in its default setting. It鈥檚 actually too pillowy, with plenty of porpoising on accel and decel. The Sport setting imposes firmer discipline, but you rarely remember to dial it to Sport until you鈥檝e already wallowed through that first hairpin. Throttle tip-in is peculiar鈥攇ooey at first, producing little forward motion, then all of a sudden, 鈥淗ang on, Newt, she鈥檚 headed for the alfalfa! 鈥?And that鈥檚 when two bags of groceries topple. Also requiring a little practice is the grabby long-travel brake pedal, which mandates a delicate application or the third and fourth bags fall over, too.
Our bus鈥檚 next adventure will entail some minor Montana off-roading, testing its 8.5-inch ground clearance and super-slippery running boards, which true off-roaders consider an infected pustule on the nose of two-track travel. Not surprisingly, the 362-hp V-8, asked to haul 5855 pounds to 60 mph in 5.9 seconds, has a serious fossil-fuel drinking habit. 90,845 SUV, maybe fuel isn鈥檛 a worry. Thing is, we all share the same planetary atmosphere, so maybe it should be a worry. Those repeated 26-gallon fill-ups certainly scorched our nerve endings, not to mention our credit cards. What we have here is a veritable living room of a family road tripper, an incredibly opulent and comfortable Teutonic freighter that is as capable as a Chevrolet Suburban at twice the price. It ticks all the boxes of irrational desirability. Carries them all, too. Somewhere in southwestern Pennsylvania we realized we were driving faster in our Mercedes-Benz GL450 4MATIC seven-passenger long-term SUV than the Porsche 914 2.0 behind us had probably ever driven.
Oh, and that 914 was strapped to a trailer hitched to the back of our big root-beer-brown GL. Adding roughly 4000 pounds to the Mercedes鈥?burden had essentially no effect on it, even over curly, undulating highway through the hills. Surely, it was slower than when the truck was unburdened (0 to 60 mph, 5.9 seconds; quarter-mile, 14.4 at 97 mph). And goodness knows the distance required to stop the thing was considerably longer than at the test track (70 to 0 mph, 179 feet). And remember, this is with the 鈥渟mallest鈥?gas engine. We could have ordered up a 429-hp GL550 (67 more horses than in our long-termer) or the 550-hp GL63 AMG (188 more). Neither is even remotely necessary for the light-duty work we have in mind for our 40,000-mile test. Or we could have specified a GL350 BlueTec with its 3.0-liter turbo-diesel churning out 455 lb-ft of torque (49 more lb-ft than in our tester). Didn鈥檛 need that, either.
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