2016 Mercedes-Benz GLE400 4MATIC.

This year, the GLE400 4MATIC gets Mercedes’ 329-hp 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6. The new engine helps the GLE drive, feel, and look more like a real, honest-to-Stuttgart Mercedes than any M-class ever did. That’s true even though it’s assembled, as the ML always has been, at a plant near Vance, Alabama. “More like,” however, isn’t the same as “is.” This refreshed Mercedes still doesn’t seem to have its whole heart in this market segment.

The renaming wasn’t particular to this model but part of a larger scheme to establish a rough harmony between Benz’s traditional sedan and SUV lines. Basically, the SUVs are now branded as GL, with the third letter indicating each model’s position in the size hierarchy. So the GLE is bracketed between the smaller GLA and GLC (previously the GLK) and the larger GLS (formerly the GL). And, no surprise, the GLE400’s twin-turbo V-6 also is offered in the E-class sedan and seems destined to spread throughout the M-B range as a fuel-stingier alternative to V-8s. In the GLE range, as in the sedan, this V-6 supplants a 402-hp turbocharged V-8 model, which used to be called the ML550.

Naturally, this V-6 hits all the expected technical highlights: It’s direct injected, has variable valve timing, and is tuned to keep engine speeds low for better fuel economy (the EPA city rating rises 4 mpg over that of the former V-8, while the highway number increases by 3 mpg). Compared with the naturally aspirated 3.5-liter V-6 used in the GLE350, it has a shorter crank stroke and smaller cylinder bores. And it runs a 10.5:1 compression ratio, relatively high for a turbocharged engine.