My sister just picked up the 350, loaded to the teeth. Not too shabby honestly, I was impressed with it. Handles very well, but the steering is still not as direct as I could like, but leaps and bounds better then the Lexus RX. The shifter stock/lever takes some getting used to some claim, I thought it was pretty straight forward. The new styling is far better then the old, inside and out. The car feels much plusher and better put together then the last ML. Biggest issue is the lack of an right arm rest to support your arm while driving. It helps on long highway drives to keep your arm at 2.
I drove one the other day at the Mercedes event. The ML500 is pretty peppy, lots of power and handles very well but for MSRP over $50k, I think it's going to have a problem competing w/ BMW & Lexus. Have you considered the Lexus GX470? Their service is guaranteed to be better. Good luck
Keep in mind things haven't got much better at Mercedes since this one was built. http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=59243
