When I was young, we took a fair number of summertime road trips. Living in Georgia and driving to Ohio or Maryland to visit relatives always meant a steady two days of travelling in the back seat of the family car by the time we’d stopped at factory outlets and Big Boy restaurants along the way. In deference to the conventional mindset of his generation, Dad didn’t believe in station wagons. — he liked coupes. Especially those with small, cramped rear seats. My brother and I endured one such trip in the back of a ’79 Camaro teetering a full-size Igloo cooler on the hump between us. It was this memory that came back to haunt me as I sat behind the wheel of the 2011 Mecedes-Benz R-Class while rolling through the bucolic hills of New York an hour or so outside of Manhattan. If only such a car existed thirty years ago, maybe I wouldn’t still be holding onto this painful memory.

Of course, the R-Class isn’t really a station wagon. Just as it was uncool for my father to rock a wagon in the early ‘80s (all his friends were first-movers on the minivan craze, and he skipped that too), today’s modern families still shun the ever-versatile but stigma-ridden body style that comes from adding a useful cargo hold to a conventional sedan. SUVs — the decade-long fascination that replaced minivans when they became official loser-mobiles — are also no longer in favor. All the hip families now drive crossovers, and R-Class is one, even if the folks at Benz prefer to call it an SUV-tourer.

Regardless of how anyone defines it, the Mercedes-Benz R-Class is a spacious, comfortable multi-purpose vehicle, and it just received a major facelift for the 2011 model year. The treatment is essentially a nose job, with a revised hood, wider, more upright grille, new front fenders and resurfaced bumper. New LED taillights perk up the hind end, while the rear bumper gets new contours to match the front bumper and the restyled side skirts. Otherwise the sheetmetal in between remains the same as it has since the R launched originally six years ago. The changes, however subtle they may be, bring the family hauler in line visually with the rest of the current Mercedes-Benz lineup, which is looking its best in years.

The rest of the world is offered a choice of either a long- or short-wheelbase R-Class, depending on the engine; the US gets only the stretched version. Seating can be had with either two or three rows in other markets, but US market three-rowers offer a choice of six or seven total positions. My brother and I would have killed for the kind of comfortable, high-quality seats the R-Class offers especially the six-passenger setup with middle-row captain’s chairs. And don’t even mention the optional rear entertainment systems; we had two Delco speakers on the rear shelf spitting out whatever horrible eight-track tape happened to be playing up front. The Benz’s large panoramic sunroof opens up the cabin to the world outside, providing a pleasant diversion when the outdoor scenery becomes more interesting than what is on the video screens.

Configured as a two-row wagon with the rear seats removed, the R-Class swallows up to 85 cubic feet of cargo, although space behind the third row is scant for cross-country family travel at just 22 cubic feet if you count from floor to ceiling. Either way, a family of four should be able to travel easily with all its bring-alongs stowed inside rather than on a roof-top box as we did. And the floor is completely flat, so there’s no need to balance, say, a full-size ice chest for a thousand-mile journey.

Whether the old man would ever concede to the function of a station wagon is debatable still, but there’s no doubt he would enjoy driving the R-Class over that old Camaro, or anything else he’s ever owned for that matter. Three engines are available for 2011, but every version is equipped with electronically controlled all-wheel-drive and a super-smooth seven-speed automatic transmission. The base model is the 3.5-liter V6-powered R350 4matic with 270 horsepower and 259 lb-ft of torque, and the top model is the 5.5-liter V8-powered R500 4matic that makes a healthier 385 horsepower and 393 lb-ft. Both of these models sound like they are essentially the same as their 2010 counterparts, except that Mercedes-Benz has made a series of incremental improvements to the transmission and to improve overall fuel efficiency.

The R350 4matic delivers the kind of performance we’ve come to expect from a full-size family vehicle, which is to say adequate but not blistering. It will get to 60 mph in a tick over eight seconds if you hammer it, but it’s much more comfortable with gentle throttle inputs and has no trouble at all getting ahead of traffic when drive as such. The R500 4matic shaves a couple seconds off that figure, but is also no stoplight racer. It’s more adept at making sure-footed passes at highway speeds.

The one my father would likely prefer for long trips, however, is the R350 BlueTEC 4matic, with its miserly direct-injected diesel V6. Even though it’s packing a relatively mild 210 horsepower, the 3.0-liter twin-turbo drops an incredible 400 lb-ft of torque to make it the most flexible mid-range weapon of the bunch. Once under way, it moves out like any other R-Class, and the diesel engine is nearly silent in its business. Never mind it takes nearly nine and a half seconds to reach 60 mph, the R350 BlueTEC will be stopping for fill-ups a lot less frequently; it’s about 25 percent more efficient than the gas-powered R350, and roughly 35 percent more efficient that the R500. With an EPA highway rating of 24 mpg and a 21.1-gallon tank, this mighty cruiser should be good for just over 500 miles on a filling.

Ride and handling on all R-Class models remain consistent — smooth, quiet and sure-footed regardless of conditions. The suspension totally absorbs small imperfections on the road surface and deals with larger issues masterfully. The steering is light and easy enough to park easily, while offering a heftier feel at higher speeds. Brakes are more than adequate, another Mercedes hallmark.

As part of the model update, Mercedes has added some new options. Among these are a new blind-spot warning system, which alerts the driver of traffic in his or her blind spot by flashing an amber warning lamp in the appropriate rearview mirror housing. There is also now a two-tone interior option that adds a bit more character to the already well-trimmed cabin. As in the past, every Mercedes-Benz R-Class vehicle will be built in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The 2011 R-Class will arrive in showrooms shortly, probably just in time to make someone else’s summer vacation drive a little more enjoyable. I’ll try not to be too jealous of the lucky kids that get to travel in this kind of luxury and style as I work to erase my own childhood roadtrips from my conscience.

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