[Mako]

well I brought my C63 in for service yesterday and got a GLK as the loaner. Got to drive it about 80 miles, highway and city driving.

Base price is about $2K-$3K cheaper than the X3 28i, but you can tell why
-interior is bad, for the people complaining about the lower doors on the X3 with the plastic part, well the GLK is the same and the rest of the door is just as cheap, along with the dash, I felt like I was driving a Sante Fe (not a bad car, just not worth $36K)
-Engine is horrible, I was getting 18 mpg, half city and half highway, not pushing it too hard. I am getting 19.5 MPG out of my current LR2 which weighs a lot more than the GLK. The performance is also pretty bad for 268 horsepower, quicker than my LR2 but not even close to the 35i, I have not driven the 28i so I can't compare it but I bet its a tad slower. The feel was just sluggish.
-steering feel was very loose at speeds over 25, not good, I could move the wheel a couple inches going 55 mph and the car would go perfectly straight!
-strange to say this but hood is ugly to look at, maybe I am just used to my current cars but the C63 and LR2 have nice looking hoods from the drivers few, it adds to the enjoyment of driving, the GLK was just plain and smooth all the way across.

Good things: base seats were nice, better than the X3 base and my LR2 seats, the steering wheel had really soft leather on it, wasn't expecting that. Base sound was decent and sunroof was great (haven't tried out the X3s yet). little things that the non navigation version had were nice, like even without nav it still would tell you the street name you were on (on the screen behind the steering wheel) along with direction. Many different ways to measure MPG, from reset, from start, and a little bar showing you the current MPG, also always loved their cruise control, shows you digitally the speed thats set, along with bars next to the the gauge and you can adjust it by 5 mph at a time if you want instead of just 1 mph. I have also always liked the full keypad for entering phone numbers on the merc's. A lot of the car's design was stolen from the C series but seems cheaper (materials).

I have completely ruled this car out for a nice small SUV, I think the Audi and BMW blow it away, and probably some cheaper SUVs would get my vote over the GLK. Mercedes needs some work on this car, better engine, better handling, better interior...