This Is the Best SUV in America

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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This Is the Best SUV in America

© Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz

Americans turned their backs on sedans about a decade ago. In their place, drivers gravitated to sport utility vehicles, crossovers and pickups. Ford went so far as to eliminate most of the sedans sold in the United States. Ironically, it makes the best-selling vehicle in America, the F-series, a full-sized pickup truck.

Vehicle sales have reached the point where people might go back to smaller cars. Gasoline prices in many parts of the nation have risen above $4 for a gallon for regular. Electric cars, most of which are sedans, have become popular. (Ford recently said it would make an all-electric F-series.)

Given the number of SUVs on the road today and the ongoing brisk sales of these vehicles, it is hard to sift through the brands and consider them by size, price and the number of people they can hold.

Car research firm Edmunds rated the best 2021 and 2022 SUVs on a scale with the highest score of 10. It divided the SUVs into categories, so there is an apples-to-apples comparison. That is, small SUVs were ranked against other small SUVs, and luxury SUVs were ranked against others of its type.
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Among all the SUVs rated, regardless of category, the one with the highest rating was the Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class with a total score of 8.6. Edmunds puts it in the large luxury SUV category. It is extremely expensive, with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price range of $76,000 to $132,100.

The GLS-Class also gets very high marks from Car and Driver, which gives it a grade of 9 out of 10, and Kelley Blue Book, which rates it 5 out of 5. It is relatively new by SUV standards, first introduced in 2006.

Mercedes calls the GLS-Class “the pinnacle of SUVs.” It is hard to argue it is not at the top of the category. The AMG version of the car has a massive four-liter V-8 bi-turbo engine that puts out 603 horsepower and moves it from 0 to 60 in 4.1 seconds. It has Napa leather seats and Grey Linden wood trim. Parts of the interior are made of carbon fiber.

The only problem with the Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class is that almost no one can afford it.

Click here to see which are the best-selling cars in America.
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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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