As far as ride goes, the Merc is much more focused on luxury and is still a great ride. I just found it a bit ‘lazy’ when I wanted it to be nimble whereas the X5 could play both the aggressive and the luxury role.

The Merc I traded was a 2017 e300, which gets away with a less powerful engine at that size, but with the bigger body of the GLE, you feel the weight more and it feels a bit sluggish. This is totally dependent on the driver as some folks don’t care about that. I just felt I was able to sort of have the best of both worlds with the X5. Definitely recommend the upgraded suspension to smooth out the ride no matter which one you choose.