Compare the2025 Rolls-Royce CullinanVS 2025 Mercedes GLS

Both the Cullinan and GLS have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The Cullinan has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The GLS’ child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.

The Rolls-Royce Cullinan has standard driver and front passenger side knee airbags mounted low on the dashboard. These airbags helps prevent the driver and front passenger from sliding under their seatbelts or the main frontal airbags; this keeps them better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. Knee airbags also help keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The GLS doesn’t offer a front passenger side knee airbag.

The Cullinan’s standard pretensioning seatbelts also sense rear collisions and remove slack from the seatbelts to help protect the occupants from whiplash and other injuries. The GLS doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.

A passive infrared night vision system optional on the Cullinan helps the driver to more easily detect people, animals or other objects in front of the vehicle at night. Using an infrared camera to detect heat, the system then displays the image on a monitor in the dashboard. The GLS doesn’t offer a night vision system.

Both the Cullinan and the GLS have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, four-wheel antilock brakes, all wheel drive, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, around view monitors, rear cross-path warning and driver alert monitors.

The Cullinan comes with a full 4-year/unlimited-mile basic warranty, which covers the entire truck and includes 24-hour roadside assistance. The GLS’ 4-year/50,000-mile basic warranty expires sooner.

Rolls-Royce pays for scheduled maintenance on the Cullinan for 4 years and unlimited miles. Rolls-Royce will pay for oil changes, air filter replacements, cabin filter replacement, brake fluid replacement, inspections, and any other required maintenance. Mercedes doesn’t pay scheduled maintenance for the GLS.

The Cullinan has more powerful engines than the GLS:

As tested in Car and Driver the Rolls-Royce Cullinan (base engine) is faster than the GLS 450 3.0 turbo 6-cylinder hybrid:

For better stopping power the Cullinan’s brake rotors are larger than those on the GLS:

The Cullinan stops much shorter than the GLS:

For better ride, handling and brake cooling the Cullinan has standard 22-inch wheels. Smaller 21-inch wheels are standard on the GLS.

Changing a flat tire near traffic can be dangerous and inconvenient. The run-flat tires available on the Cullinan can be driven up to 50 miles without any air pressure, allowing you to drive to a service station for a repair. The GLS doesn’t offer run-flat tires.

The Cullinan has active sway bars, which help keep it flat and controlled during cornering, but disconnect at lower speeds to smooth the ride and offer greater off-road suspension articulation. This helps keep the tires glued to the road on-road and off. The GLS doesn’t offer an active sway bar system.

For a smoother ride and more stable handling, the Cullinan’s wheelbase is 6.3 inches longer than on the GLS (129.7 inches vs. 123.4 inches).

The Cullinan Black Badge executes Motor Trend’s “Figure Eight” maneuver quicker than the GLS 580 (26.6 seconds @ .68 average G’s vs. 27.2 seconds @ .66 average G’s).

Flexibility is maximized at the game, campground or a drive-in theatre in the Cullinan when its optional tailgating rear seats are deployed, allowing people to sit facing out of the tailgate. (Do not use while vehicle is in motion.) The GLS doesn’t offer tailgating seats.

The Cullinan has a much larger cargo volume than the GLS with its rear seat up (19.8 vs. 17.4 cubic feet).

The Cullinan’s rear cargo window opens separately from the rest of the tailgate door to allow quicker loading of small packages. The GLS’ rear cargo window doesn’t open.

The Cullinan’s power side reverse swing out doors make it much easier to load and unload kids and cargo. One touch opens the door, before you even get to the sport utility. The GLS doesn’t offer a power rear door.

The Cullinan has a standard heated steering wheel to take the chill out of steering on extremely cold winter days before the vehicle heater warms up. A heated steering wheel costs extra on the GLS.