After the first winter days incl. new snow and icy roads, I have to praise the extremely ingenious driving characteristics of the R (with 4 Matic). Neither my predecessors cars (Q7 and Touareg) could keep up, let alone the A-Class (front drive) as a service vehicle. I never had a bad feeling with woman and baby to come through the so-called winter chaos. For me alone this is reason enough to always decide for an R-Class. By the way: my winter tyres are the Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D (235er). Must be said!