Travel in class with the R280

Ultimate family transport for Mercedes-Benz fans

Th R-Class is not a vehicle that everyone would think: Yes I would love one. It is cradled in niche after niche.

First niche is the fact that it is an MPV.

Secondly it is a ‘sporty MPV; which means it’s not as spacious as one that is upright.

Thirdly it is a luxury vehicle by Mercedes-Benz.

This simply means that the sales people trying to push this car has to get potential buyers to jump over three obstacles.

Even if you are in the market for a luxury sporting MPV, you may not necessarily like what Mercedes-Benz has done with the R-Class’ styling.

It looks exactly like what a Mercedes-Benz Sporting MPV would look like

but that means that those who are not fan of thebrands may find it difficult to understand.

Actually I do think that it is a rather elegant design but there is no escaping the size of the vehicle and I think that is what catches people off guard.

The proportion is well balanced and the overall shape is clean, simple and pleasing. It’s not going to win any beauty contest but it is a practical shape honed down to be as muscular as mildly toned 30-something, and they are really the target buyers for the R280.

The R-Class is pure Mercedes-Benz, you can take all the badges from outside and in the cabin and there would be no confusing it with anything else. The build quality is very good and the choice of materials commendable.

There is really nothing to complain about the interior because all the seats are comfortable, even the third row of seats, small and compact tough they may be , are well proportioned and can handle adults for short journeys.

The R280 comes with Mercedes-Benz’s Airmatic DC air suspension and this means you can choose the level of comfort that the suspension can offer.

The comfort setting is really soft, it’s as close to a magic carpet ride as you can get on an MPV but the inadequate damping means that suspension will crash over speedbumps at anything faster than jogging pace. But hey, you selected comfort because you are not in a hurry so it ceases to be a problem.

Normal setting gives you the typical firm but comfortable Mercedes Ride while the Sport setting really lets you feel every ripple on the road. The thing is, the sport setting is only practical when you are in a hurry, because it does give the R-Class taut handling but ride quality does suffer. Use the sports setting sparingly and leave the suspension in comfort or standard mode most of the time.

Personally I prefer the comfort mode but my kids get motion sickness from the gentle rolling and pitching movement, so I leave it in Standard most of the time. I guess this means that Mercedes has judged their standard ride quality very well….

The 2.8-litre engine has quite a job lugging this very generous body but like all Mercedes engine, it is a plugger, it will work hard and hardly complain. It may not be the most refined V6 powerplant in the world but mounted as it is on elastomers and insulated from teh cabin by thick padding,  the noise is hardly audible, it only becomes noticeable beyond 4,500rpm, even then the engine emits a decent mechanical hum while the exhaust barks gently from behind.

You can cruise at decent highway speed in the R280 but if you cannot expect to hustle it in the city because acceleration is best described as laid back and the car’s size prevents it from nipping in and out of gaps in traffic.

The engine develops 233 hp and 300 Newton metres of torque, which is enough to make it a decent drive but overtaking long convoys on single carraigeway roads will take a bit of planning because you need the engine to spool up to beyond 3,000 rpm before you get that wall of torque to accelerate past slower traffic

The R-Class is an MPV so outright speed is nto crucial, to prove that point, I will remind you that MErcedes Benz had to discontinue the R65AMG, the superfast version of the family transport because nto enough people wanted it….

So the fact that it has a 2.8-litre engien rather than the larger 3.5-litre motor is a question of ego.

Price? RM458,888.