It is not often that I have a car for week and share the experience with four others. On recent trip to South Australia I did just that.

The five of us bundled our luggage and ourselves into an ML500 and spent five days touring the Barossa Valley and the Adelaide Hills.

If there's anything Mercedes-Benz forgot to put into the ML500, we couldn't think of it. As a curious friend said after taking a squiz around the cabin, "It's got a lot of stuff, hasn't it?'' Indeed. In fact, so much `stuff' - his highly technical term for all the driving, entertainment, comfort and communication systems - that we recommend spending considerable time doing a familiarisation tour before heading out on the road.

The $121,100 ML500 has just been given the larger and more powerful V8 used in the standard-setting S-Class, with 5.5-litres pumping out 285kW and 530Nm - a significant jump over the previous 225kW/460Nm 5.0-litre. This is mated to a high-range seven-speed automatic with a column shifter and paddles behind the steering wheel, controlling a permanent four-wheel drive system.

Adjustable air-suspension, offering comfort, normal and sport modes, has moved over from the options to the standard equipment list, which also now includes a reversing camera and xenon lights with self-cleaning and cornering systems. With a full compliment of passengers, sedately driving around the windy roads of the Adelaide Hills, sports mode was the only mode that kept the rear passengers from being swayed from side to side.

All the prestige essentials are there too of course. Rain sensing wipers, dusk sensing lights, sensing parking alerts - which together with the reversing camera, make parking this beast a breeze. There are also a raft of high-end SUV features like hill descent control and automatic hold for steep slopes.

The ML500 cabin is a nice place to spend some time. Everything around looks good, works well and breathes high quality.

The engine is smooth and very refined, but a bit of pedal pressure and you will be repaid by a lovely V8 burble being smuggled through all the noise damping and into the cabin. And the acceleration is great, posting 0-100km/h in 5.8 seconds - pretty snappy for an SUV that weighs about 2.1 tonnes.

The auto shifts effortlessly though the gears. Playing with the wheel-mounted paddles to force changes was amusing for a while, but the transmission is well enough sorted to think for itself without any problems.

Cornering produces the body roll expected in an SUV, but it's not excessive, especially when left in sports mode.

Although most of the ML500s sold will follow a genteel urban path and never see the grubbier side of life, even without the Off-Road package they're certainly down for a bit of dirt if it's offered. While we didn't tackle any full on off roading, it had no trouble with the fire trails and a bit of open terrain in the hills of the Barossa.

When it comes to fuel, while the official figure is 12.9L/100km - an improvement over the previous model's 13.4L - it's not hard to have it slurping around 16L/100km in combined driving. But that's not unexpected in a vehicle of this size.

If you are in the market for a luxury SUV with a lot of grunt, that you can get dirty, but don't mind the fuel bill, then this is a must on your shopping list.

AUTO SPECS
Price - $121,100
Engine - 5.4-litre petrol V8
Power - 285kW, 530Nm
Transmission - 7-speed automatic
Fuel- 12.9

By ANDREW KOCH