Car Review - 2001 Mercedes-Benz Mb100 Features & Specifications

2001 Mercedes-Benz Mb100 - Weekend getaway to Tagaytay: long stretches of highway culminating inward steep mount roads alongside enough of hairpin turns. Fresh air as well as cool weather, too!

The perfect venue to drive a small-scale convertible sports machine along the lines of say, a Mazda MX-5 or a Honda S2000, right? Well, yes, but inward our representative nosotros chose a unlike animate existence altogether: H5N1 Mercedes-Benz MB100 2.9 diesel. Mainly because ix adults as well as iv kids inward the Honda would live a little…tight.

So I climbed in, buckled upward as well as got laid upward to play weekend Bus Driver.

The outset fourth dimension I entered the MB100, I was surprised at how high the seating spot is. The pick out receive got of handgrip on the A-pillar isn’t only for convenience—it’s a necessity to clamber a large measurement upward as well as through the narrow door opening to the driver’s chair. Once I climbed up, nosotros faced a carlike musical instrument panel, alongside the iv basic gauges. The steering bike is pure G-Liner, though (well, perchance a footling to a greater extent than vertical), as well as my knees genuinely straddled the steering column every bit it plunged downwards betwixt the clutch as well as brake pedal. No left-foot braking for me inward this conveyance. Switches as well as controls were logically placed, except for the manual correct manus mirror, which is quite impossible to achieve from the driver’s chair.

The high spot pays huge dividends inward visibility, every bit I could come across far ahead over the roofs of sedans as well as fifty-fifty AUVs. A skillful thing, too, because the driver volition bespeak to programme ahead to line off stunts similar overtaking along the highway or changing lanes inward heavy traffic. The MB100 is long—it is later on all a 14-seater van. Yet it was non that hard to drive inward heavily-clogged metropolis traffic. Credit the rattling lite (but lifeless) ability steering as well as easy-to-modulate clutch. Cars seemed to give the van a broad berth also—probably intimidated past times all that slab-sided sheet metallic blocking their vision. We drove inward downtown Binondo through the El Shaddai crowds on Roxas Boulevard as well as took the Coastal Road to Cavite.

Clear of traffic, I floored it. The engine obliged, alongside abundant torque all the means to its 4500-redline. The MB100 acceleration tin move embarrass a sub-1.5 liter car, as well as nosotros overtook quite a few of those. But live prepared: alongside the torque comes exponentially increasing noise. Rev higher upward 3000 rpm, necessary for climbing or total acceleration, as well as you’ll all of a abrupt experience every bit if the residue of the footing has disappeared. It’s only you lot as well as the engine roaring in that location adjacent to your correct knee. Even shouting won’t help.

When driving on degree roads, I didn’t accept to live that careful inward choosing gears. One also high didn’t genuinely matter. Add fifty-fifty a hint of an upward slope, though, as well as the engine struggles—time to downshift! The rubbery as well as indistinct gearshift led to to a greater extent than than a few heartstopping moments when shifting from 2nd to outset on a rattling steep hill. Just earlier the MB began to plummet backward, I flora outset gear as well as away nosotros went again.

The van easily reached its top speed of 135 km/h on the Skyway. Still, I didn’t desire to keep that for also long, every bit the van was prone to drifting inward crosswinds. You’ll experience similar the captain of a sailing send every bit you lot plow the bike to compensate for the wind. Unlike its sedan namesakes, this Merc felt to a greater extent than than a footling unstable past times 110 km/h.

Interior fittings were strictly hard plastic. I would accept appreciated to a greater extent than infinite to dump materials similar a telephone or handheld, but the centre console ended abruptly earlier allowing for whatever storage room. The driver’s chair was narrow as well as lacked proper dorsum support. The raise passengers though were comfortable, alongside enough of room for walking virtually as well as reaching for stuff, but again, non many storage spaces. Rear headroom was compromised past times the dual fluorescent lamps (!) as well as the aircon vents that stretched all the means to the rear. Three-point seatbelts for the driver as well as navigator, two-point seatbelts for the rest.

Despite the large tri-star badges everywhere, the MB 100 is non a genuine Merc. Its Ssangyong Istana roots are apparent from the Hanglass windows to the Kumho tires, to the not-quite-ergonomic interior as well as imperfect mechanicals. The MB100’s designers tried to impart a high-tech expect to their creation, alongside a streamlined olfactory organ as well as multi-reflector head/fog lamps (which were woefully inadequate). Not bad, but thus what tin move you lot create alongside a van—it’s a fridge on wheels! If the Merc were a refrigerator, it would live a Samsung—cleanly styled, alongside only about unique features as well as skillful value for money.