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By Thelma Louise

Specialist Motoring Reporter


A Mercedes that gives a back massage? Bye-bye Sven…

Stress relieving front seats take the strain out of city traffic.


Car seats will never be the same again after spending some time in a Mercedes-AMG GLE 53. Besides the fact that this a very spacious SUV with some extra spice as the AMG designation would suggest, its true beauty lies underneath the Nappa leather clad around the front seats. Those clever German engineers have outdone themselves again by creating the ultimate haven for your back and buttocks. By utilising two rows of bulging pressure points on the backrest and seat, this Merc allows you can choose between various massages, all adopting various patterns of movement. In addition, the massages incorporate…

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Car seats will never be the same again after spending some time in a Mercedes-AMG GLE 53.

Besides the fact that this a very spacious SUV with some extra spice as the AMG designation would suggest, its true beauty lies underneath the Nappa leather clad around the front seats. Those clever German engineers have outdone themselves again by creating the ultimate haven for your back and buttocks.

By utilising two rows of bulging pressure points on the backrest and seat, this Merc allows you can choose between various massages, all adopting various patterns of movement. In addition, the massages incorporate the heating elements inside the seats to create even more options, e.g. the hot relaxing back massage.

Not even Sven has so many options

And if your front passenger doesn’t like your choice, he or she can choose his very own massage as the two seats can function independently of each other.

Now don’t freak out when I tell you that you’ll have to fork out an additional R40 200 for this optional extra which Mercedes-AMG officially calls “multicontour front seats”. If you can afford the car’s base price tag of R1 851 280, then trust me, you will want seats that can massage your tooshie after a tough spinning session at the gym.

And come to think of it, I have girlfriends who spend more than that in a year at their favourite spa on their masseuse named Sven. I’ve  heard that this Scandinavian hottie can do wonders with those strong hands, but not even a tall, blue-eyed blondie work on your tired shoulders while you are sitting in your fancy Mercedes bumper-to-bumper Sandton traffic.

RELATED: AMG declares war on BMW

Now I can go on and tell you about the Merc GLE 53’s engine, which is quite powerful a 3.0-litre six-cylinder petrol powerplant which generates 320 kW of power and 520 Nm of torque, with and additional 16 kW available through electric boost.

I can also tell you that this power is sent to all four wheels via what Mercedes calls 4Matic+ via a smooth as gluten-free soap AMG Speedshift TCT 9G-Tronic gearbox.

I can go on to tell you about all the other creature comforts on board which includes the widescreen cockpit, the adjustable instrument cluster and the MBUX system which operates certain features through voice commands. But it might not even be necessary, as I’m pretty certain I had you at seat massage…

Visit mercedes-benz.co.za to see how you can further personalise the GLE 53.

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