Back in the late 1990s, one of the vehicles creating the most buzz and attention was Mercedes-Benz’s new M-Class SUV. Mercedes-Benz had only really been making one other sport utility vehicle, and that was the venerable and blocky G-Class introduced in 1979. While the G-Class was selling well, Mercedes-Benz felt like the approaching turn of the millennium could mean the old bus needed a successor. The M-Class was launched in early 1997 to great anticipation.
Around the same time, the Australian actress Natalie Imbruglia signed a record deal with the Bertelsmann Music Group or BMG. Her first single, Torn, was inescapable on late 1990s daytime radio and MTV heavy rotation, and 1998 turned out to be an extremely successful year for her. Having relocated to London in the mid-1990s, she treated herself to a brand new Mercedes-Benz ML 320 in black as her debut album proved to be a million-seller. What’s more, her latest music video shows the same exact car.
Imagine It’s 1998
(Click here if you can’t play the video embed)
Looking back, from nearly 30 years in the future, it’s almost difficult to grasp how big a deal the new Mercedes SUV must’ve been, especially as the manufacturer underestimated the demand for it. Magazine tests of the time mention year-long wait lists for the M-Class, even if they also note the discrepancy between the car’s badge and the actual perceivable quality.
The drivetrains in these body-on-frame SUVs were usually 1990s Mercedes-Benz, with the ML 320 V6 the most common choice at launch, but you could also pick the ML 270 CDI diesel and, a model year later, the V8-engined ML 430 became available, and another year later the hot rod version, the ML 55 AMG with its flared wheelarches and an AMG-crafted engine.
The thing is, with the M-Class, the drivetrain was the solid stuff. Everything around it was flimsier, in tune with Mercedes’ strive to make more profitable cars by cutting costs. The tide had turned around the W202 C-Class and W210 E-Class: sure, the engines were great, but combined with 1990s water-based paints, the rot set in both figuratively and literally. 1990s-2000s Mercedes-Benzes are some of the rustiest cars you see on the road today, and rust belt M-Classes will have rotten wheel arches and doors like any other salty truck.
In its November 1998 issue, CAR Magazine compared the ML 320 to the Land Rover Discovery 4.0 V8 and the Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo with the 4.7-liter V8. While the Mercedes was outgunned in displacement, it’s wasn’t the least powerful (the Disco is), and the magazine proclaimed the ML’s drivetrain the best of the three, with a smooth-shifting transmission. In addition, it was said to handle the best, have the best packaging, and the best fuel economy, but was “seriously compromised by its cheapskate interior” (and even called “amazingly poor” in a photo caption). CAR continued, “If on-road ability is what you want and you can live with the interior, go for the Merc.” Otherwise, they recommended the Land Rover over the Mercedes, and declared the Grand Cherokee the best all-rounder.
The DaimlerChrysler merger had been a reality for just six months when the magazine issue came out, and I presume it must’ve been well read at both Daimler and Chrysler. And yes, the car was initially called the M-Class even if the badges say “ML”; BMW claimed the M for itself.
You Could Get It With A Manual Transmission
My dad drives a 1998 ML 230, the relatively rare base version with the 2.3-liter, 150-horsepower M111 four-cylinder, which I didn’t yet even mention above and which wasn’t sold in all markets. It’s about a third too little for the car, since it reaches 50 mph ponderously and does nothing after that. It was built with a 5-speed manual gearshift, but it currently has a 4-speed. This is because the fifth gear initially started making a terrible chafing sound and then exited through the gearbox drain plug when it was opened.
Since my dad bought it mainly to drive between the summer cottage and the forest nearby, this is not really an issue, but longer stints on the road without a fifth gear are a bit rough, since it’s not exactly a quiet vehicle to begin with.
At least it’s not as rusty as they often tend to be, and most everything else works fine, including the sunroof, and the beige leather is in fine nick. Slamming the doors doesn’t produce the sort of Solid German Bank Vault sound you’d usually associate with Mercedes-Benz vehicles, but rather a hollow slap, and the door cards are some of the creakiest I’ve ever encountered.
I like the car in an ironic way, because it’s quite turrible, but it’s also a 1990s youngtimer classic. A friend, back in the day, used to think the M-Class shared actual parts with the Chrysler Voyager because of the way it looked inside out, and I can’t blame him. Not all ML-Classes were built in Alabama, as Magna-Steyr assembled them from 1999 to 2002 at the same plant that also later built the Chrysler 300C for the European market, among other cars.
“We Spared No Expense”
The one reason why the W163 generation M-Class can be cool is its starring role in Jurassic Park 2: Genetic Boogaloo. I mean, The Lost World. In 1996, before the cars were launched, Mercedes-Benz provided the filmmakers with pre-production cars to use in the dinosaur theme park movie.
Since the original 1993 Jurassic Park film featured Ford Explorers and the M-Class was Mercedes realizing the potential within premium SUVs beyond the old Geländerwagen, it only makes sense that these would feature in the film. As Jurassic Park sequels come, the movie is far from being the worst, but the M-Class has never looked better than in The Lost World – partially due to all the cool stuff that’s bolted onto it for movie magic.
The W163 received a facelift soon enough to address some of the quality issues and to lose the grey bumpers that are painted despite looking unpainted, and the later interiors really are better. The first generation soldiered on til 2005, when it was replaced by the W164, which arguably was neater built. Mercedes also never replaced the G-Class with the ML, as the classic looks kept selling and the old truck received updates after updates. Plans included replacing it with the large GL-Class, but that didn’t kill off the G either, and the W463 generation was so heavily revised in 2018 that only the headlamp washers, the door handles, and the spare wheel cover were carryover – yet it kept the internal chassis code.
These days, you can pick up first- and second-generation M-Classes for a few thousand, but no usable old G-Class is available for anything close to that. In fact, the W163 is one of the cheaper 4×4 trucks for sale on the market here: Suzuki Jimnys easily cost more, as do Lada Nivas. And those are even unibody.
Yet, after all this, I completely understand Natalie Imbruglia’s choice of holding onto her ML 320. Since it represents the beginning of her career as a recording artist, when she really broke through, it’s absolutely worth keeping around even if it must have needed a thing or two to stay on the road all these years. It looks great in the video, especially with the chunky monoblock wheels, and I applaud her for cherishing it. As she says in her Facebook post about the music video for “Beautiful Love”:
Also … some intel! The merc in the video that I wake up on is the first car I ever bought brand new, it was in 1998 and I’m so attached to it I can’t let it go!
Just imagine walking into a Mercedes-Benz dealership in London and ordering the newest, hottest thing on the showroom floor as your first new car. No wonder she’s keeping it for as long as possible.
Top graphic image: Natalie Imbruglia/Landgirl
Genetic Boogaloo. Best thing I have read all week.
I can understand that it’s hard for Natalie to part with that Mercedes. Even when they offered her something newer she was pretty, um, torn.