Regular readers — listeners of our podcast — will know there are a lot of points I consistently harp on with modern Mercede-Benzes, from an over-reliance on trends and tacky-looking gloss black trim inside, to too many controls buried behind behemoth touchscreens and using downsized compliance engines where they don’t belong. In the case of the 2024 Mercedes-Benz GLS 580, which was updated this year, they had a prime opportunity to homogenize their biggest SUV with those maligned modernities — and opted for none of them.
The result is brilliant. This is pretty close to exactly what I want a big Benz to be; elegant, effortless, and effective. As part of its relatively subtle facelift, it receives a new fascia with a slightly larger four-bar grille, blockier tail lights, and some new colourways to keep up with the Joneses. I personally don’t love the new grille, but I recognize the need to stay contemporary and Mercedes did so pretty tastefully. Ditto with the Diamond White paint on our tester; I usually can’t stand white on any SUV, but after warming up to it, I came to appreciate the regal appeal of the pearly off-white shade on this behemoth.
I needed no warming up to the new two-tone Bahia Brown leather interior, garnished with open-pore anthracite wood trim and a very generous dressing of what (largely) appears to be real aluminum trim and controls to make the space pop. It’s gorgeous and incredibly successful at unobtrusively incorporating a lot of the tech you’d expect from a vehicle of this calibre. Said tech gets a modest update, with the newest version of MBUX running on a beautifully crisp 12.3-inch display, which can be controlled by the touchscreen, physical switchgear and a centre console trackpad, a new steering wheel with its own capacitive controls as seen on other Benzes, or MBUX’s already-quite-good voice controls.
As far as I’m aware, this kind of flexibility in control is unique to Mercedes. Literally every function can be utilized from any or all of the above control methods, and that makes it very easy for anyone to learn and get used to MBUX in any way they like. On the topic of controls, I appreciate this the GLS maintains uniformity with other Benz SUVs, opting for a ultrawide screen configuration and corresponding utilitarian dashboard layout complete with honest-to-God buttons for just about every function, instead of incorporating everything into the huge portrait-oriented display that’s infected Benz’s cars. I wish they did more of this, because this kind of ergonomic brilliance and pragmatism is what I want in a Benz.
One of the other big points I want in a big Benz is big, velvety V8 power. The GLS 580 delivers in spades; for 2024, the familiar 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 gets a bump to 510 horsepower, and its mighty power delivery is just as seamless as ever. It’s augmented by a delectable baritone backing vocal, and routed to the road via a stealthy nine-speed automatic transmission. It’s a gem of a powertrain combo with tons of character, and it’s even surprisingly frugal if you keep a light foot, averaging a fairly impressive 12.3 L/100 km combined in my time with it.
The GLS 580 glides down the road very smoothly and nearly silently, soaking up big heaves like they’re not there. It’s calibrated with a distinct focus on leisure in its demeanor, with responses from the driver controls and chassis feeling relaxed and muted. There’s only just enough precision dialed in to control this behemoth at higher speeds, wisely leaving extra pretensions of athleticism to its AMG brethren.
The seats are very comfortable, if perhaps lacking a tiny bit of thigh support, but the hot stone massage function goes a long way to helping forget about that. There’s a good amount of storage inside the GLS 580 and a healthy amount of room in all three rows of seating, plus generous cargo space behind that third row. The Burmester audio system does a terrific job ensconcing you in serenity, as if the GLS’s nearly silent wind and road isolation weren’t enough. Our tester was equipped with a neat removable tablet in the second row of seating to control entertainment, sun shades, and seat massage functions, among others.
For all the GLS’ pampering, there’s a couple of pain points that need to be mentioned. The first one is pretty disappointing quality control with the leather seats, as the material is quite thin and was already showing wear and lifting off the seat bottoms and backs on our nearly new tester. The massage function on the rear right seat didn’t work, and the heads-up display would occasionally show a blue-hued, pixelated display — or on one occasion, not work at all.
The other — and this is more of a nitpick — is that the GLS doesn’t feel quite as polished as I hoped it would. Being that it bears an “S” in the name, indicating it belongs at the top of Mercedes’ SUV lineup, I was expecting a level of refinement on par with the S-Class sedan. It’s not here. The automatic start/stop system trips up at slow speeds, and can take a good couple of seconds to start and get into gear. This can be frustrating when you’re trying to make a quick left turn, and the S 580 with the same powertrain doesn’t exhibit this problem.
Similarly, while the GLS generally rides and drives wonderfully, it lacks that last nth-degree of serenity I was looking for. The ride can feel flinty over sharp bumps, and the driver controls aren’t quite as glass-smooth as you’d find in Mercedes’ finest — or a Range Rover, BMW X7, or even the Lincoln Navigator or Cadillac Escalade, for that matter. They all feel like they are doing their damnedest to be the smoothest operators they can possibly be, leaving nothing on the table. The GLS falters here, feeling more like an embiggened GLE rather than a tall limo like the others.
Some of that might be a function of unticked option boxes, like the $8,900 E-Active Body Control that actively senses the road in front of you and adjusts the suspension in anticipation, for a surreally smooth experience. Admittedly, is a bit of an ask on top of our particular GLS 580 tester’s already lofty $156,630 sticker. The X7 M60i we reviewed last fall had nearly the exact same sticker, but had every single option BMW had to offer, and was a considerably better performer without sacrificing drivability in the slightest. Mercedes locks that behind the much more dear AMG model.
But that certainly doesn’t mean there’s not a lot to like in the 2024 Mercedes-Benz GLS 580. Its cabin is a beautiful breath of fresh air in an era of ergonomic demise, its engine offers the rare trifecta of performance, efficiency, and charisma all at once, and it’s an absolute delight to live with. The only thing holding it back from a standing ovation is the other bourgeois behemoths it shares a stage with, and the fact that it’s holding back some talent from us.
