Mercedes-Benz has given its luxury off-roader a facelift for the start of the Lunar New Year, having nipped and tucked a few essential features in a bid to tempt seasonal buyers. The 2009 ML350 is sharper on the outside, with fresh styling touches giving Mercedes' urban SUV a more distinctive character over the softer-looking outgoing model.
The new generation M-Class presents a more muscular look with new alloys and distinctive reshaped wings with integrated mudguards. The ML350 receives a newly tailored bumper, re-contoured bi-xenon headlamps and a more dominant chrome-trimmed radiator grille.
The rear of the vehicle similarly features a new-look bumper with integrated reflectors, LED tail lights that help to emphasise the vehicle's width, and dual-flow exhausts that hint at the sporty nature of this heavyweight (2,135kg) SUV.
While it's a smart looking package on the outside Mercedes says it has focused just as much of its effort on fine-tuning the interior and chassis to keep up to date with its X5 rival.
Mercedes has noticeably improved the quality of the materials used in the cabin compared to the outgoing model, with a new two-tone colour scheme lending the cabin a fresher feel.
Leather now adorns the door linings as well as the new sports front seats, while a new four-spoke multifunctional steering wheel - trimmed in leather and highlighted with chrome - lets the driver operate the in-car entertainment system or call up information to the instrument display.
