Autoblog

Motor Trend has gone and named the 2007 Mercedes-Benz GL450 its SUV of the Year. We apologize if you were waiting with baited breath for the December issue of MT to arrive because you like to find these things out for yourself, but if that's the case then we can't help you. The GL450 beat out 22 other SUVs including such contenders as the new Acura RDX and MDX, four variants of General Motors' GMT900 platform (Escalade, Tahoe, Suburban and Yukon Denali XL), the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator, as well as Ford's own version of the Hail Mary Pass, the new Edge. The GL450 was no doubt aided by its ability to repel side impact barriers, set slalom cones on fire, and swallow an entire home's worth of furniture (how do the Germans engineer this stuff?), all of which you can check out the GL450 doing in this "controversial" commercial.

Forget for a minute who won Motor Trend's SUV of the Year award and let's examine the 22 contenders (follow the jump for a complete list). MT editor Angus Mackenzie admits himself that only three out of the 22, the Mercedes-Benz GL, Jeep Wrangler and Toyota FJ Cruiser, have any real off-road capability. In fact, the vast majority are really crossovers, or CUVs, built on unibody frames like a car and meant for fair weather excursions where the road is always on an even keel. It's appropriate that the MT editors picked an actual SUV as this year's winner, as next year we might be reporting on Motor Trend's CUV of the Year.

[Source: MT and Mercedes-Benz]