Advertisement

Mercedes-Benz GLC review: the family-favourite SUV is now more efficient than ever

Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG
Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG

Driving to the airport to catch a plane to the Barcelona-based launch, I passed several of the outgoing first generation Mercedes GLC models, all doing their job: hustling the M25 at rush hour, few of them carrying more than one person yet, at the same time, most carrying GB stickers or roof boxes to show they’ve had a busy summer.

That first 2015 GLC's design simplicity speaks of a less ostentatious time at Mercedes, where Covid, war, the turning of the tides against SUVs and the rush into battery-electric power were just over the horizon, and basic shape was key to a car’s success with ornamentation kept to a merciful minimum.

Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG
Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG

Pedant’s corner

To add a bit of pedantic history here, the whole idea of what Mercedes called “the compact SUV” model range had its genesis in 2008 as two concept cars called Vision GLK Freeside and the Vision GLK Townside. Their names give you some idea of what Merc was after with what became later that year, the GLK: a family car which could drive comfortably on the motorway with high seating position for everyone to have a view, and also tow your boat, caravan, horse trailer and do a bit of trail finding when the need arose; principally a road car, but one with a bit of an edge when the going gets tough.

The GLC was the same idea, but in a better-looking and more efficient package, designed to take on the likes of the Audi Q5 and BMW X3. And it’s hard not to think that Mercedes was taken aback by just how popular this car would prove, so much so that it ran out of capacity at the Bremen factory in Germany and had to build it in Finland in a Valmet plant, then China as well, where the GLC went down like hot wontons.

Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG
Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG

The GLC is the single best-selling car that Mercedes sells – and that includes the A-class. There was a facelift in 2019, where the engine range was revamped and a bewildering number of models released, and since 2008 Mercedes has sold over 2 million GLK and GLC models, before the world fell in (or at least that’s how it feels in today’s motor industry).

However modern it is and despite what one feels will be a huge demand for this fairly straightforward family SUV, there’s an end-of-days feeling about the GLC; even at Mercedes. One insider confided that despite its importance to Mercedes-Benz’s bottom line in the next few years, the launch of the new GLC would occupy just half the time devoted to that for any sort of battery electric car.

Sindelfingen built

The new GLC is now built in the main Mercedes plant in Sindelfingen, near Stuttgart. At 4,716mm it is 60mm longer, but the 1,890mm width is the same as the outgoing model, and with the mirrors extended it’s actually 21mm narrower (hurrah)..The luggage capacity of the mild-hybrid versions is up 70 litres to 620 litres, too, although the plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) lose 140 litres of that to the big, 31kWh lithium-ion battery mounted under the boot floor.

Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG
Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG

The main exterior changes are a set of slightly strange body adornments including some curious grille nostrils, although the press pack assures us that the aerodynamics are improved to give a Cd of 0.29. A few years ago, that would have been world-beating.

Under the skin there’s an updated set of 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol and diesel engines, with 48V mild hybrid drive and a nine-speed automatic gearbox. For those anxious to minimise their tax exposure, there’s a brace of plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) including both petrol and (uniquely in the UK) diesel, which have the 134bhp/324lb ft electric motor complete with torque converter, lock-out clutch and control electronics all crammed into the gearbox bellhousing.

These cars achieve a claimed official maximum of 80 miles on electric power alone, which is the best pure electric range of any plug-in hybrid in this price range. Mind you, at 2,355kg you might be wondering how this oil-burning PHEV can possibly beat the 50.4mpg WLTP tested fuel consumption of the 1,950kg non-electrified turbodiesel on a long run.

Inside job

Climb in and the materials rush towards you: piano black lacquer, vertically pin-striped dark wood, knurled metal panels, polished metal eyeball vents and soft leathers… They’re all there along with a huge, optional portrait touchscreen. It all seems well made - the best of its type and nicely put together - but it’s almost too much and we might argue that it’d be better with slightly less of everything.

Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG
Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG

Touch-sensitive steering-wheel buttons and the central touchscreen now control what used to be the domain of switches and a large capstan control. It’s not my cup of tea, but some folk like them, though you’ll be accidentally hitting the former when doing a tight reverse.

The GLC touchscreen is one of the better of its type, but there are tricks that you need to learn, especially if you aren’t an Apple smartphone user, and the graphics are slightly overdone, with too many star-burst details and colour flourishes.

Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG
Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG

It packs a decent stereo and the satnav is okay, with a huge map, but the cursed augmented reality screen pops up like a nuisance caller obscuring the map just as you’re trying to work out a route through a series of close-coupled junctions. You can turn it off, of course, but that’s not the work of a moment.

UK cars will come with more standard equipment: ambient lighting (actually quite nice), wireless phone charging, the 11.9-inch instrument binnacle and 12.3in central touchscreen.

Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG
Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG

On the road

We started with the 300 turbodiesel which carries the stigma of Blind Pew’s curse, but is actually one of the most advanced diesels in production. It growls away, doing most of its work several thousand revs below the 4,750rpm red line, while its near-instant response is augmented by a mild hybrid system that also adds a bit of drag when you coast. I quite liked this combination, which suits the standard nine-speed automatic transmission better than the petrol alternative.

The petrol feels slightly harsh by comparison and never quite works out just which gear it wants to be in. Stopping and selecting various Individual settings within the Drive Modes paid dividends, but the diesel always felt the better of the two.

Best by far, however, was the powerful PHEV diesel electric set-up, which has a combined power output of 330bhp and 553lb ft for a top speed of 134mph, 0-62mph in 6.4sec and humongous fuel economy.

Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG
Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG

“If you are really serious about saving CO2 you need a diesel hybrid,” said a long-departed Mercedes chief engineer, although discerning just how economical is difficult since the official economy tests are done with two impossible states, with the battery completely empty and the battery completely full.

For the record, Mercedes quotes over 706mpg and CO2 emissions as low as 10g/km, but perhaps a more realistic estimate is that when we stepped into the car in the Spanish Pyrenees, with its 62-litre fuel tank brimmed and the 31.2kWh battery at a full state of charge, the indicated range of over 950 miles would have got us to Calais without a refuel or recharge.

The petrol PHEV felt similarly long-legged, but not quite as good as the diesel. If you had one of these and a battery urban runabout, you’d barely fill the tank from one month to the next.

Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG
Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG

Driving the unicorns

When it comes to the ride and handling, we have to admit that what we have here is a load of unicorns as far as British buyers are concerned. Not one of the cars at the launch were representative of what you’ll be able to buy in Britain, which will not be taking either the air suspension option or the rear steering, which has the effect of making the car more manoeuvrable at parking speeds and more stable at high velocities.

Not that you’d uniformly want these systems, as the first diesel we drove felt bouncy and a bit clodhopping over larger, sharp-edged bumps. That said, on the rest of the models (all with 19-inch wheels and tyres, as well as the air suspension that you can’t have in the UK) the ride was a pleasant balance of supple body control and comfort.

Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG
Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG

The steering doesn’t have much feedback to the wheel rim, but it reacts quickly and has a decent progression from having rears-in-the opposite-direction-to-the-fronts at low speeds and vice versa at high speed. Obviously, this affects the handling, too and the big SUV turns into corners with aplomb, corners neatly and belies its weight, especially the PHEV pair. If I were a Mercedes-Benz customer, I’d be asking for this system in the UK.

The brakes, too, are pretty well matched with a separate motor-driven servo assistance which blends the retardation and friction braking better than most.

Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG
Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 e 4MATIC - Dieter Rebmann on behalf of Mercedes-Benz AG

The Telegraph verdict

In the UK, loud-mouthed opinionators pillory anything with a combustion engine and anything called a Sport Utility, as well as their drivers, although it’s interesting that in Europe the jury is still out on these things.

From the outside, this expensive family SUV looks just another affectation of the wealthy, but underneath it’s quite a piece of work, with (in PHEV form) a long range in electric mode, decent economy, tidy ride and handling (at least in the cars we drove) and a comfortable and well-finished interior.

It’s interesting that even the respected testing organisation Emissions Analytics thinks that we might get to net zero more quickly if we included hybrids as well as pure battery cars in the vehicular mix. But in the current world, no one appears to want to listen to anything but the sound of their own voices.


The facts

On test: Mercedes-Benz GLC 300 de 4MATIC AMG

Body style: Five door large SUV

On sale: now

How much? £62,000 (est) range starting from £51,855

How fast? 134mph, 0-62mph in 6.4sec

How economical? 706mpg (WLTP Combined)

Engine & gearbox: 1,993cc, four-cylinder turbodiesel, nine-speed automatic gearbox, four-wheel drive

Electric powertrain: AC electric motor with 31.2kWh battery, 60kW onboard DC charger, CCS charging socket

Electric range: 80 miles (WLTP, EAER)

Maximum power/torque: 330bhp/553lb ft

CO2 emissions: 14g/km

VED: £0 first year, £495 next five years, then £155

Warranty: 3 years / unlimited miles

Spare wheel as standard: no (not available)


The rivals

Audi Q5 55 TFSI e Sport

from £53,640

In the endless pantheon of Audi SUVs, this petrol plug-in version is the best all-rounder. The combination of 2.0-litre turbo petrol power and 14.1kWh battery energy gives a grand total of 362bhp, 273lb ft of torque and an all-electric range of 26 miles. It’s quick, well appointed and although the boot loses 95 litres to the battery, it still swallows 450 litres.

Audi Q5 55 TFSI e Sport
Audi Q5 55 TFSI e Sport

BMW X3 xDrive 30e xLine

from £53,730

Petrol plug-in hybrid based on a 181bhp turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol unit, with a claimed 32 miles all-electric range from its 12kWh lithium-ion battery and a combined output of 288bhp/310lb ft. Boot space is down to 450 litres and there’s more body roll than in other X3s, but it’s a decent all-rounder and saves a lot of petrol around town while retaining the range of a good tourer.

BMW X3 xDrive 30e xLine - Uwe Fischer
BMW X3 xDrive 30e xLine - Uwe Fischer

For new and used buying guides, tips and expert advice, visit our Car Advice section, or sign up to the Telegraph Cars newsletter here and to join the Telegraph Motoring Club Facebook group click here

A-Z Car Finder