The Mercedes-Benz GLC is a lot of things: it has all the elements of an exciting performance car, a gorgeous interior befitting a luxury brand, and it’s not shy to get its tyres dirty off-road when need be.
It’s an exemplary showcase of what an all-in-one SUV can be, and it’s a sign that the Stuttgart-based automaker is still at the top of its game.
Customization is the name of the game
The model I was given during my short time with the GLC was the base 220d 4Matic Avantgarde, which gets its motivation from a 2.0-litre, turbocharged diesel engine producing 167kW and 440Nm.
You can also get a more powerful 300d turbo-diesel with 215kW and 550Nm or the 300 turbo-petrol with 207kW and 400Nm, but rest assured the entry-level drivetrain is no slouch.
It’s all but silent on startup thanks to the 48V mild-hybrid tech that the carmaker now includes as standard on most of its cars, and you won’t get an immediate sense of what the SUV is capable of as you cruise around the car park.
The cabin is quiet and the ride comfort is as good as what you’d expect from an SUV of this calibre, but the first time you hop in you’ll want to spend time playing around with the screens and settings to find your ideal setup – a process that can be rather lengthy if you’re new to the brand.
That’s not because it’s a cumbersome exercise, but rather because there’s so much to experiment with, and Mercedes has made it easier thanks to some handy features like the auto-adjusting driver’s seat.
Simply plug your height into the touchscreen and the seat and steering wheel will adjust their height and length to suit you, and you only need to do this once as there is a memory function that can support three different drivers.
With step one down, you’ll want to turn your attention to the enormous screens running the brand’s Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX) software, which runs well with no input delays and has a comprehensive suite of settings for you to check out.
An appreciable aspect of the design is that you still have access to physical shortcut buttons for the driving modes, camera system, driving settings, and volume controls, and while the climate settings are digital only, they are always displayed at the bottom of the screen for quick adjustments.
It’s here that you’ll find the ambient lighting controls, which is a sight to behold and really makes the GLC feel special once the sun goes down.
A driving mode for every occasion
There are five driving modes to choose from – Off-road, Eco, Comfort, Sport, and Individual – the latter of which lets you pick and choose settings from the other modes, like having Comfort suspension with a Sport throttle curve.
Switching modes is as easy as pressing a button, but you will get a warning when trying to switch to off-road, and it’s best to choose one for the journey ahead rather than constantly cycling through them.
Eco does what you’d expect with sluggish engine responses minimizing the revs, which works well with the Stop/Start system, though you can easily turn this off with a small switch below the engine start button.
Comfort is what the SUV starts in by default and what you will likely use for most trips, and it lives up to its name with suspension that absorbed every speed bump I came across.
Of course, Sport mode is where things get exciting, and while you won’t mistake the GLC for a full-fledged AMG, the 2.0-litre engine provides plenty of excitement on a quiet road with only minor throttle delays.
Helping things out is a nine-speed automatic gearbox controlled by paddle shifters, and the accelerator pedal delivers satisfying feedback when you decide you need more grunt.
This is also a good time to bring up the digital driver screen, which has a display to suit every taste.
The Sport display is an intense red affair that can even show the G-forces acting on the car, and the classic setting can be customized to provide information from energy usage to the navigation tool.
Perhaps the most in-depth configuration, though, is the off-road display, which you can put on both the driver and infotainment screens and provides everything from the car’s angles to tyre pressure, a compass, and the work being done by the suspension on each wheel.
Of course, at this price point, there are other vehicles that are arguably better suited for the hardcore 4×4 crowd, but a brief stint on a dirt track showed me that the Mercedes can still deliver a soft ride when the going gets tough.
To briefly touch on fuel consumption, my worst trip in Sport mode came to 10.3l/100km while driving to work in Eco mode ended with 7.6l/100km.
The latter figure is noticeably off from the claimed usage of 5.2l/100km, especially since the morning traffic should allow the mild-hybrid system to shine, but with more restrained driving it’s likely you bring the consumption down quite a bit more.
Living with it
Living with the GLC was an enjoyable and largely effortless affair thanks to all the features at hand.
The heated seats are a welcome addition for cold mornings, and in the afternoons, there’s an enormous sunroof that’s easy to operate with an overhead switch that you slide your finger along to recall the sun visor and open the front half.
The Mercedes also has one of the best navigation systems I’ve come across, as it can use the camera system to pull up a view of the road ahead on the central display.
When you are travelling on a road with multiple lanes, the camera will project blue lines and arrows onto the screen showing which lane you need to be in for an upcoming turn, which eliminates those aggravating moments with other apps where you aren’t notified about a turn until it may be too late to force your way into the right lane.
Regarding interior space, the boot can swallow an impressive 620 litres, and the back bench took three co-workers without anyone complaining about being cramped, but the front seats feel a little snug on account of the large centre console and dashboard.
On my short list of complaints, it’s disappointing that keyless entry and adaptive cruise control are not standard on a car like this when it really feels like they should be.
The piano-black finish on the console is easy to scratch and leaves fingerprints, which is likely why the review model had a cleaning rag stored under the armrest.
The cupholders don’t do a great job of keeping taller bottles steady, and the closeable lid on the centre console is clunky to operate.
It’s also worth noting that the SUV is 4.7 metres long and 1.8 metres wide which made for a very tight squeeze navigating a Sandton car park, and while there is a park assist option, I had to brake and then finish parking myself after it came worryingly close to clipping the other cars in multiple tests.
Verdict
While other carmakers may be entering the luxury market, Mercedes-Benz has been doing it for far longer than most, and that lineage is on full display with the GLC.
Its R1,265,619 price tag is eyewatering, but when you consider that more and more brands are crossing the R1-million mark in South Africa, the Mercedes is actually an impressive value-proposition for what’s on offer.
It’s an appealing jack of all trades when it comes to driving with solid performance all round, and you get a stunning interior with all the bells and whistles to make the experience feel special.
Even after several days behind the wheel, the GLC never lost its wow factor for me, which at the end of the day, is exactly what you want from a car like this.
Mercedes-Benz GLC 220d Avantgarde
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