excellent choice: solid, serene, safe, reliable tho a tad small in rear seats (same as c class on which glk is based, so no surprise). excellent highway cruiser, 6-11 hour non stop drives on highways leaves one feeling fine. found ex loaner as cpo, 19k miles for $30k, prem 1, real bargain.
update jun 2014: traded for cpo 2013 vw passat s 2.5 automatic in jun 2014, cut my operating costs in half but still get roomy, serene, engaged german driving experience. the glk needed $1500 to pass inspection, mainly new tires. the glk was a fine car but i was tired of the ongoing high costs and im thinking of a move to an area w/o a nearby mb dealer.
the cpo vw 3 free 10k interval services, two more warranty years with a cpo for $16600 before tradein, $9100 otd after trade, glk payoff, ttl. for $4k more i could have gotten a cpo 2014 passat wolfsburg 1.8. after several test drives over several days i chose the cheaper 2.5. why? i prefer cloth seats (s), steel wheels for snowy/potholed nothern roads, i have standalone plug/play sirius radio, 2.5 is fine in passat, saved $4k. passat is cavern-like roomy, quiet. my engineer pilot son who also has an mb c class agreed that the passat is almost 90% of mb at 50% of the cost.
i get 26mpg suburban, 36mpg highway in the 2.5 s. the new 1.8 is totally (!) transforms the jetta but not so much the passat, at least not $4k worth for me now. the 2.5 gets an undeserved bad rap from the car media.
