Now here’s a car for the COVID era: the 2021 N Mercedes-AMG GLS 63, a jacked-up, three-row monolith with sports-car speed and limousine excess. It’s like a panic room on wheels. Touch the accelerator and you and your family are transported from months of homebound boredom, far and fast and into the great wide open. A monstrous new 4-liter biturbo V8 engine hurtles the GLS 63 at a higher velocity than a hedge funder’s track toy, while its SUV ride height allows you to grab drinks from the Starbucks drive-thru without straining a tricep like you would in some ground-adjacent two-seater.

Not that you would need the caffeine. The GLS 63 can provide as much on-road stimulation…