I somewhat take back what I said about the exterior. Looks odd and squashed from some angles in the high-res pics. Will wait to see it in person before making final judgements.

The interior however does look VERY good.

 

I agree with you. The white one I initially saw looks great but the new pictures kinda reminds me of R mini van.

 

Good point. I get kind of an R-Class vibe from this new ML too, which is not good.

 

Hmm, from certain angles it looks great but the rear 3/4 shot does exude R-class cues. But the interior is a 1000% improvement from the current generation ML.

 

i'm not liking the new mercedes designs. they look like they're trying hard to follow trends rather than to lead/innovate.

 

Well there is no such thing as "class-leading design". It actually bothers me when magazines apply such a label to cars. It's silly.

Design is a personal thing. Person A likes it, person B doesn't. There is no right or wrong.

I'm no fan of the new ML either in terms of design, but I'm sure the designers had their briefings from the top and those ordered them to create a design that appeals to a certain market. The reaction to the new ML in Europe has been a bit negative. However, I've noticed that on American-based forums, the reception has been far more positive.

This leads me to believe that this car was actually designed to appeal to American tastes. And it shows. The interior is very Americanized and almost un-Mercedes-like. The exterior looks very generic and "mass appealing" and has only a few "hidden" Mercedes' design cues. It's a very bland but somehow pleasing design that'll appeal to the traditional conservative buyers in this class.

The last-generation model looked so much nicer.