ML 500

STORY

The M-Class was Mercedes-Benz's first modern SUV, and it arrived at exactly the right moment. Launched in 1997 and, unusually, built at a brand-new plant in Alabama, the original W163 rode the wave of the luxury-SUV boom the Americas were driving, offering car-like comfort and the three-pointed star in a rugged, family-friendly package.

It even reached Hollywood, playing a starring role in Jurassic Park: The Lost World before it was on sale. Early build quality drew criticism, but successive generations sharpened the formula, and the M-Class matured into a genuinely luxurious, capable mid-size SUV.

In 2015 it was renamed GLE to fit Mercedes' unified naming scheme, but its significance is hard to overstate: it established the template for every SUV the brand now builds, and those cars have become the commercial backbone of the company.