Thoughts from the Curb

Feb 4, 2009 - Behind the Scenes: 2010 Mercedes-Benz GLK350 Test Drive

Going live today on Edmunds.com is my test drive of the 2010 Mercedes-Benz GLK350 4Matic. I think the article speaks for my favorable opinions of the thing, but here's the behind the scenes story of the above photo.

It was a rare rainy day in the Los Angeles area, which was good for flowers but crap for automotive photo shoots. Nevertheless, photographer Kurt Niebuhr and I ventured out in hopes that we could actually get something done. On our drive out to Los Angeles' warehouse district (location for many Edmunds shoots), the rain let up, but the roads were obviously still wet. While driving around looking for "beauty locations" (the non-moving shots), I stumbled upon an idea.

"What if we found a huge puddle and drove through it?" I pondered.

"I like the way you think," Kurt replied.

The search began and we quickly found a massive grouping of puddles at the end of a small warehouse street's T intersection. It was like the Great Lakes. Kurt got out of the GLK and set up on the opposite side of the intersection. I made my first run at between 25 and 30 mph, completely unaware of how deep the puddle was. Oh it was deep. Kurt was laughing quite a bit when I swung around to ask if that would work. Oh yes it would.

We ended up doing about eight runs and amazingly, the puddle kept replenishing itself from its surrounding tributaries. The '90s Honda Civic hatchback parked nearby received a thorough car wash of dirty rain water (sorry).

Even when charging through these puddles, the GLK maintained its impeccable composure. It only made me like it more.

-James Riswick

12:08 pm | Categories: behind the scenes at edmunds.com, car reviews Permalink | Alert Administrator

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