The Detroit Newspapers's view

ANN ARBOR — After 12-year-old Domeda Duncan toured this year’s Detroit auto show, she said the vehicle she would most like to talk her mom into buying was the ritzy Mercedes-Benz Grand Sports Tourer Vision R — basically a fantasy version of the minivan. “I wouldn’t mind being dropped off at school in this,” said Domeda, then a seventh-grader at St. Cecilia Catholic School in Detroit and a member of the Detroit News Automotive Kids’ Panel, as she eyed the TV screens built into the headrests and the roomy executive-style rear seats.

We have good news for Domeda and bad news for her mother. A version of the Vision R concept crossover is on sale this fall as a production vehicle, the six-passenger 2006 Mercedes-Benz R-Class.

After we spent a week in one, we agreed with our young critic: This is one impressive way to be hauled to junior high school. In many respects, the R-Class, with its cool postmodern styling, establishes a new benchmark for luxury people movers.

Just don’t call it a minivan. Mercedes-Benz doesn’t.

In fact, it took great pains to create a whole new label, “Grand Sports Tourer,” for a vehicle that looks remarkably like an upscale companion to the Chrysler Pacifica that’s sold by its sister company.

Befitting its status as the king, er, queen of minivans, you’ll pay an eye-popping price for this latest Benz status symbol. Let’s put it this way: If the more mundane Pacifica is the vehicle of choice for many soccer moms, the ritzier R-Class, which is built outside Tuscaloosa, Ala., may be the vehicle of choice for polo and lacrosse moms.

A base Mercedes-Benz R350, equipped with a 3.5-liter V-6, starts at $48,775, including a $775 destination charge. Our test four-wheel-drive R500 has a base price of $56,275, including a $775 destination charge. With the 14 options on our vehicle, including $1,300 three-zone climate control, $690 silver metallic paint and $780 multi-contour front seats, the bottom line was a whopping $70,770, about the cost of two years’ tuition, room and board at Harvard University.

You’ll probably need that Ivy League degree to figure out all the confusing systems and gadgets in the R500. Nothing is easy to operate on this Mercedes-Benz, including the TVs, the cargo net and even the gas cap. One of us nearly gave up in disgust at the local gas station and returned home for an easier-to-operate vehicle, until we finally figured it out.

You need the owner’s manual and a lot of patience for almost every aspect of this vehicle. You also may be annoyed by the little mom-like messages that pop up on the instrument panel with reminders like “don’t forget key.”

Once we lived with it for a while, we compiled a list of dislikes, including the R-Class’s surprising lack of practicality. We couldn’t figure out why the CD changer was in the glovebox, why the Germans neglected to put a power-folding third row on such an expensive piece of machinery and why there simply wasn’t much rear cargo space.

If you’re a kid, though, you’ll fall in love with the second row, which is fabulous and feels like the first-class seats on an airplane. Passengers enjoy such amenities as heated seats, individual temperature and fan controls, sun shades and deep map pockets to store gear. The optional $400 second-row console on our test vehicle was swathed in leather with rich wood trim. The cup holders were ample and trimmed in aluminum — a cut above the square plastic juice box holders in many conventional minivans.

We were intrigued by the built-in bottle opener between the front cup holders. A panoramic sunroof, which is part of a $4,400 premium options package, extends to the third-row seat, giving the cabin a light and airy feeling. If you have kids, that package is almost mandatory because it includes the rear-seat entertainment system, a power liftgate and a navigation system.

From a powertrain standpoint, the R-Class is world-class. Mercedes-Benz outfitted its range-topping R500 with a powerful 5.0-liter V-8 that churns out 302 horsepower and 339 pounds-feet of torque. The engine is mated to a seven-speed automatic transmission with a clutchless tiptronic-style pushbutton shift mechanism and an electronic column shifter similar to the one that BMW installs on its luxury 7-Series sedan.

The vehicle comes equipped with a pushbutton start, or you can start it with a key by removing the pushbutton’s plastic cap. The seven-speed transmission not only adds to the sporty feel of the R-Class, but it also helps to conserve fuel. The R-Class gets an estimated 13 mpg in city driving and 18 on the highway (we averaged just over 15).

Our test vehicle was relatively easy to handle and park, thanks to speed-sensitive power rack-and-pinion steering and an all-independent suspension.

Our test R-Class was equipped with the optional $1,200 airmatic package, which automatically lowers the body to reduce wind resistance on the highway or allows the driver to raise the body when driving along rough roads. It also boasts a much plusher ride. Our test vehicle had a button on the dash that allowed us to choose “sport” or “comfort” settings for the suspension, a real bonus when you want to lose the mom-mobile feeling of many minivans.

The state-of-the-art technology is carried over into the safety features on the R-Class. Our test vehicle had such standard equipment as front side air bags and side curtain air bags that protect all three rows of passengers.

It also came with standard traction control, antilock brakes and electronic stability control that helps to keep the car from fishtailing on slippery roads. Side air bags that protect the body are optional for second-row passengers.

Buyers can also add the PreSafe system, a high-tech safety upgrade that, with the help of sensors, can anticipate a crash and rapidly prepare the cabin by closing the sunroof, adjusting the front passenger’s seat to the best position to handle a crash and tighten the seat belts of the driver and front passenger.

We should warn potential buyers to be ready for strong parking lot reactions to this newest Mercedes-Benz. People seemed to compare its profile to vehicles like the Pacifica or the local school bus. One man leaving a restaurant in Ann Arbor blurted out “that thing is ugly” and said it looks too much like a hearse.

That’s OK. We kept going back to the reaction of our kids’ panel. Kayla Hawkins, 9, a fourth-grader at Bates Academy in Detroit, said she couldn’t wait for the street version of the Vision R. “You’re going to feel good in that one,” was her wise-beyond-her-years prediction.