2025 Mercedes-Benz GLE580 4Matic Quick Test: The Aston of the GLE’s Class

The GLE for folks who value refinement and understatement over extroverted performance signaling.Frank MarkusWriter

Andi HedrickPhotographerSep 17, 2025

Pros

• Luxury trappings
• Surprising straight-line speed
• V-8 panache

Cons

• Nickel and dime options
• Missing some lux features
• Feels heavy

The Germans sure do love offering powertrain choices. Take the Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class for example. If the GLE is the size of SUV sausage that best suits your needs, you can choose between four-, six-, and eight-cylinder engines with varying levels of hybridization, plus rear- or all-wheel drive and tuning from GLE350 mild to AMG GLE 63 S 4Matic wild. We’ve tested nearly all of them, but the luxe-oriented, V-8-powered GLE580 has eluded our grasp. Until now. So, where does it fall on the desirability spectrum against its sibling rivals and V-8 competitors like the BMW X5 M60i, Porsche Cayenne S, and Range Rover Sport P530e?

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Why It’s Important

There’s direct, to-the-dollar overlap at two points along the GLE-Class spectrum: The 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder GLE450 is priced right on top of the four-cylinder plug-in hybrid GLE450e, and the mild hybrid 3.0-liter Mercedes-AMG GLE53 shares the GLE580’s base price. Pricing aligns largely because Mercedes reckons 0–60-mph performance also roughly aligns with these models. But in both instances, each vehicle’s personality is quite different.

Our test sample 2025 Mercedes-Benz GLE580 leans hard on luxury. It seems to have been dolled up to let its driver tell folks: “My SUV is sort of a comfier take on the Aston Martin DBX.” Indeed, its M176 twin-turbo V-8 engine is a gentler, mild hybrid riff on the M177 version Mercedes supplies for the Aston. But more to the point, its $6,500 Cote d’Azure blue paint, Yacht Blue Manufaktur leather interior ($10,600), and Piano Black with Flowing Lines trim ($860) all look like they could have been plucked from the color and trim wall of an Aston Martin commissioning lounge. (Note that if those were the only two options you really wanted, the gear Mercedes forces you to take along with them adds a total of $24,850.) What price, fashion?

Pros: What We Like

We kinda love this upper-crusty Benz’s stealthy speed. It’s very much the silent, immaculately dressed, and mild-mannered-looking bodyguard who, as it turns out, can parkour his way into a roundhouse kick when conditions demand it. We were expecting it to match the GLE53’s performance, which is roughly in the BMW X5 xDrive50i/Porsche Cayenne S neighborhood. What we got was an other-side-of-the-tracks, 3.9-second to 60 mph time and a 12.4-second, 110.2-mph quarter mile.

This GLE580’s acceleration chart aligns almost perfectly with that of the Cayenne GTS (the base price of which also aligns pretty well with the 580’s as-tested sticker). In fact, its straight-line stats put it closer to the AMG63 (and the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S E Hybrid and BMW X5 Competition) than the AMG53. But those rigs wear their athleticism bulging out of their look-at-me bodywork. There’s no missing them, whereas nobody sees the luxe-trimmed GLE580 coming. That said, its braking and handling numbers in the chart below align more closely with the Cayenne S and the other less in-your-face competitor models.

We also love the 11-point seat massagers, the scent dispenser, floormat carpet pile that tempts one to go barefoot and luxuriate their toes—you know, “the little things.”

Cons: What We Don’t Like

We found it cheeky of Mercedes to let this SUV’s sticker hit $122,910 before we got heated rear seats ($580) or rear side-window sunshades (another $580). The rear seat-back angle isn’t adjustable, and rear-seat ventilation isn’t even an option. At night, the screens are too bright by a factor of two or three, and yes, we dug through menus to make sure there wasn’t some other way to dim them besides the roller control in the lighting switch zone. There wasn’t.

And where many will feel the three-pointed star does all the status signaling they need, others may kind of wish the $91,250 model was a little easier to differentiate from the $63,500 one.

Finally, it drives big. Feels heavy. The simple truth is the number of times a driver’s foot strays into the bottom two-thirds of the accelerator pedal’s travel is so tiny that the performance we mentioned above is probably flabbergasting for most owners, as well.

The Bottom Line

We can see the 2025 Mercedes-Benz GLE580 occupying an unserved sweet spot in the GLE’s vast lineup as the luxury standard bearer that can be hustled impressively when it really counts.