In the biggest clean-diesel push by a European automaker yet, Mercedes-Benz is set to roll out three Bluetec sport-utility vehicles, joining the E320 Bluetec sedan in showrooms. The 2009 GL320, ML320, and R320 Bluetec models (pictured here, left to right), supplant the older-tech CDI diesel models in the Mercedes range. They employ a 3.0-liter V-6 with a variable nozzle turbocharger and common-rail direct injection, producing 208 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque, and matched to a seven-speed manu-matic transmission.
The company is claiming the diesels will improve fuel economy by 20 to 30 percent, and return a cruising range of up to 600 miles. As for performance, we enjoyed a brief but informative drive in the largest of the three, the GL320, not to mention an extended visit with the E320 Bluetec, we can say that the 3.0-liter engine is startlingly quiet and truly V-8-like in its pulling power (it has more torque than the top-drawer GL550's 5.5-liter gasoline V-8).
Although the E320 Bluetec brought to market the first stages of Mercedes' clean-diesel technology — including a particulate filter and an oxidation catalytic converter — these new vehicles introduce AdBlue urea-injection to further mitigate noxious nitrogen oxides. Unlike the outgoing CDI models, which aren't for sale in California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, or Vermont, the new Bluetec diesels are 50-state-legal. They reach showrooms this fall.
More photos after the break, courtesy of Mercedes-Benz.
