Best Mercedes-Benz for Weekend Trips to Birmingham | Duluth, GA
Posted at Thu, Nov 12, 2026 9:27 PM
Birmingham sits about 147 miles from the Atlanta metro on I-20 West. Call it two and a half hours door to door, so your packing decisions actually count. Load the wrong vehicle the wrong way and you'll spend the whole drive with someone's overnight bag riding on their lap.
Will two adults with real luggage fit? Easily, in the 2026 GLE, which gives you 33.3 cubic feet behind the rear seats and a cargo floor that runs 68 inches once you fold the row forward. For a family of five or six, the GLS earns its size. We'll hand you the actual dimensions so you can measure your gear against the numbers, not marketing copy.
Will It Fit? Cargo Dimensions by Model
Mercedes-Benz publishes these cargo figures for the entire 2026 lineup, so the fit question comes down to arithmetic rather than optimism, and the table below maps each number to the gear you'll probably throw in the back for a Birmingham weekend. Everything from checked bags to a golf set to a stroller.
| Load or Item | GLE 350 (seats up) | GLS 450 (3rd row up) | E-Class Wagon (seats up) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cargo volume, standard | 33.3 cu ft | 17.4 cu ft | 33.1 cu ft |
| Cargo volume, seats folded | 74.9 cu ft | 84.7 cu ft (all rows down) | 64.6 cu ft |
| Cargo floor length | 68 in (seats folded) | 80 in (seats folded) | 68 in approx. |
| Cargo area height | 35 in | 35 in | 35 in approx. |
| Liftover height | 31 in | 30 in | Low (wagon sill) |
| Two checked-bag suitcases | Yes, side by side | Yes, but tight with 3rd row up | Yes, side by side |
| Stroller + two duffels | Yes | Yes (rear zone only) | Yes |
| Golf bag set (2 bags) | Yes, with one seat folded | Yes | Yes, with seats up |
| Bike (wheel off) | Tight without folding seats | Yes, with second row down | Yes, with seats folded |
| Six adults, any luggage | No dedicated cargo | 17.4 cu ft (bring soft bags) | No third row |
Sources: Mercedes-Benz 2026 model specifications; cargo volumes as published by the manufacturer.
The GLS asks for a tradeoff you should make with open eyes. Its third row genuinely earns a sixth passenger. Use that row, though, and the cargo zone behind it shrinks to 17.4 cubic feet, which handles soft duffels stacked tall and stops short of rigid suitcases standing upright. If everyone in the cabin is staying the weekend, pack soft or fold the third row and reclaim 42.7 cubic feet.
The E-Class Wagon surprises people who've never watched it swallow a load. It keeps the footprint of a midsize sedan, sits low enough that the liftgate sill falls right to hand, and still offers 33.1 cubic feet with both rear seats upright. On a two-adult trip, it's practically a GLE. Where the GLS pulls ahead is height for stacking.
How to Load for the Birmingham Run
Loading for I-20 West isn't complicated, yet the order you work in decides whether the liftgate closes clean or fights you later, because a Mercedes-Benz cargo floor rewards a plan and punishes the throw-it-all-in approach every single time. Have one before you start.
The cargo area fills better when you work from the back of the floor forward. We pack the same way for a two-adult trip and a six-seat one.
On our lot we fold the GLS third row flat in a single pull, and it's worth sliding the second row forward a notch so a rigid case sits square against the seatback and won't wedge at an angle. That one move saves a lot of shuffling at the curb.
Loading tip: Soft-sided luggage conforms to the cargo area's contours far better than rigid cases do. For a couple or a family packing light, compression duffels take up roughly 30 percent less floor space than the equivalent hard-shell roller.
Numbered steps for the GLE or GLS on a Friday afternoon departure:
- Fold before you load. For two adults with two full-size suitcases in the GLS, keep the third row up and load straight into the rear zone. If a third passenger isn't coming, fold row three forward, which unlocks 42.7 cubic feet and lets rigid luggage stand upright.
- Place the heaviest item first, centered and low. A large suitcase lies flat on the cargo floor against the seatback. It anchors the load and keeps it from shifting on the I-285 merge.
- Layer soft bags on top. Compression duffels or gym bags fill the vertical space above the suitcase without pressing on the rigid case. The GLE cargo area runs 35 inches high (enough room for two stacked layers of soft bags).
- Shoes, jackets, and flat items go last. They fill the gap between the top bag and the headliner. Nothing rolls around because the layer below has everything locked in place.
- Leave the rear side pockets accessible. The GLE and E-Class Wagon both carry cargo-area side nets. Cables, water bottles, and whatever you'll want on arrival ride there, away from the main stack.
- Confirm the liftgate closes before departure. The GLE's power liftgate shuts to a 31-inch liftover height. If anything stacked above that line presses on the glass, repack now, in your own driveway, instead of in a Birmingham hotel parking garage.
Job Done: Which One Makes the Trip
For a couple heading to Birmingham for the weekend, the GLE does everything you need and asks nothing back, with 33.3 cubic feet of cargo space that swallows two full-size checked bags plus an overnight bag and still leaves room to spare behind the rear seats. At 21 city and 28 highway miles per gallon (EPA, 2026 GLE 350 with the standard 2.0L mild hybrid), the 147-mile run on I-20 is a comfortable one-stop affair, if you even stop. The GLS is the right answer when the headcount hits five or more, when that third row has to stay occupied, or when the load includes gear for a whole carful of passengers. Its 84.7 cubic feet of maximum cargo capacity is the largest in the Mercedes-Benz SUV lineup for 2026. Both carry a 7,700-pound tow rating, so a small trailer or a weekend camper won't be the thing holding you back on the Birmingham plan.
View Current Mercedes-Benz Offers
The I-20 corridor is a plain, easy drive out of Duluth. You pick it up via I-85 through the Duluth stretch, merge west past the Perimeter, and it runs almost door to door into Birmingham's downtown. The practical question isn't whether a Mercedes-Benz SUV can make the trip. It's which one fits your particular Friday-afternoon load. We've had owners of both the GLE and the GLS tell us they wish they'd weighed third-row-versus-cargo harder before they configured. The table above exists so you can weigh it before you sign.
Stop by our current inventory when you're ready to compare configurations in person. We'll open both liftgates.
