SALT LAKE CITY — There's a ruggedness rooted in the military origins of Mercedes-Benz's G-Wagen that makes up for interior and exterior styling that's earned mixed reviews in the past.

But for those who prefer refinement and highway performance over off-road ability, Mercedes’ mid-size offering, the GLE, fits the bill well. The performance-minded 2016 AMG GLE63 4Matic marries performance and style in a way that is truly stunning.

“It’s tough to top AMG performance combined with this amount of luxury," said Specialized Sales and Leasing of Salt Lake City owner Abdul Kisana.

Pros

From the outside, the GLE is typical of German SUVs and crossovers.

The car's most prominent feature is a long, low hood line similar to the Mercedes sedan. Style lines cut the front end into three parts, top to bottom, and the shark-like nose pushes forward with a huge chrome Mercedes emblem on the grill.

The taillights wrap around the rear deck and create a sense of motion with three horizontal lines on top of one another growing longer with each line. The blacked-out seven-spoke wheels round out a look that is muscular and aggressive.

Even better than the exterior styling, however, is an interior that is simply gorgeous. White leather and dark wood surround both driver and passenger, and the seats and cup holders are heated and cooled. The large leather-wrapped steering wheel and instrument cluster are classic Mercedes.

The elegant interior distracts momentarily from the beast lying under the hood. More than 550 horses from the AMG V8 feed a beautiful and throaty exhaust note, and the twin turbo boost makes highway onramps more fun than in many two-seaters, let alone a weighty SUV.

The combination of 4Matic all-wheel drive and sticky tires help bring this beast to a stop just as impressively as the engine and transmission bring it up to speed. The handling is excellent, the body roll is minimal and the GLE is more confident over highway seams and potholes than some Mercedes sedans and coupes.

Cons

Rarely do I drive a vehicle and not have something negative become obvious fairly quickly. Usually, it does not take long for an annoyance or two to become readily apparent, but I really had to nitpick the GLE to come up with some cons.

Compared to other luxury and performance vehicles, however, the cockpit, or lack thereof, is not driver-centric. Everything from the large touchscreen to the climate and multimedia controls faces straight ahead and requires a bit of a reach from the driver’s seat.

Mercedes-Benz’s COMAND infotainment system is good, but the center console-mounted control stick takes a little getting used to. Combined with the touchscreen, however, everything is easy to access.

Yet Mercedes chose to add a myriad of shortcut buttons to the area just below the touchscreen that allows the driver or passenger other options to engage the system. Not only is it mostly unnecessary, but it adds complexity to what is otherwise a simple and beautiful console layout. It even has a telephone dial pad.

In-betweens

Mercedes’ performance arm, AMG, was founded independently of Mercedes-Benz in 1967 and primarily built racing engines. In 1976, AMG relocated to Affalterbach, Germany, and began customizing Mercedes cars for power, styling and handling.

By 1993, the two companies began to cooperate to sell vehicles at Mercedes' dealerships. It wasn’t until 1999 that Mercedes-Benz, then Daimler-Chrysler, purchased a controlling interest in AMG and began branding the performance cars built by AMG as Mercedes-AMG.

The Mercedes-AMG GLE63 4Matic has three separate driving modes (in addition to off-road and snow mode) that provide adjustment for the steering, transmission and suspension. These three modes are called Comfort, Sport and Sport +.

Very few vehicles combine this level of utility, refinement, luxury and performance in one package. Driving the AMG GLE 63 is an experience not soon forgotten.

Specs

Vehicle type: front engine, all-wheel drive, five-passenger, four-door SUV

Engine: Twin-turbo and intercooled DOHC 32-valve V8. Aluminum block and heads, direct port fuel injection.

Displacement: 333 cubic inches, 5.5 liters

Power: 552 horsepower, 516 pound-feet of torque

Transmission: seven-speed automatic with manual mode

Wheelbase: 114.8 inches

Performance: 3.8 seconds zero-to-60 mph (top S trim package); standing quarter mile 12.2 seconds at 115 mph (S trim)

Fuel economy: EPA estimated city/highway 13/17 mpg

Price as tested: $84,786; 7929 miles

The Mercedes-AMG GLE63 4Matic has three separate driving modes (in addition to off-road and snow mode) that provide adjustment for the steering, transmission and suspension. These three modes are called Comfort, Sport and Sport +.

Very few vehicles combine this level of utility, refinement, luxury and performance in one package. Driving the AMG GLE 63 is an experience not soon forgotten.

Specs

Vehicle type: front engine, all-wheel drive, five-passenger, four-door SUV

Engine: Twin-turbo and intercooled DOHC 32-valve V8. Aluminum block and heads, direct port fuel injection.

Displacement: 333 cubic inches, 5.5 liters

Power: 552 horsepower, 516 pound-feet of torque

Transmission: seven-speed automatic with manual mode

Wheelbase: 114.8 inches

Performance: 3.8 seconds zero-to-60 mph (top S trim package); standing quarter mile 12.2 seconds at 115 mph (S trim)

Fuel economy: EPA estimated city/highway 13/17 mpg

Price as tested: $84,786; 7929 miles

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