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Mercedes were surprisingly late to the SUV market, but with the market burgoning as they say better late than never. The GLC has some tricks up its sleeve, but was it worth the wait?
There are no prizes for guessing that the GLC is related to the C-Class which results in a bumper to bumper length of a little under 4.7 metres, but intriguingly the GLC is 31 mm shorter than its saloon cousin, so it shouldn’t be too difficult getting it into parking spaces.
We suspect that very, very few GLC’s will ever find their way off the beaten track but if you do want to get your SUV dirty there are a few clues that the Merc is road biased. Most stark is the wading depth, which at 300 mm is better than a car, but an Evoque can cope with 600 mm and a Range Rover will cope with a mighty 900 mm so it is clear where the GLC’s development time was spent; the black stuff.
Given this it is interesting that on the SUV continuum the GLC is in the middle, proving safe and predictable in the twisty stuff but not trying to pretend it is a sports car. This could be a bit of a missed opportunity as the Merc doesn’t excel in any one area of ride, handling, or refinement but tries to hit the middle ground in each category.
When it comes to practicality things are rosier, with a 550 litre boot it is spot on for this class and provides a useful increase over the C-Class. The 50 litre fuel tank is a bit stingy but when combined with the 220d power unit and the latest 9 speed automatic gearbox the cruising range is respectable.
The GLC doesn’t excel in any one area but it does provide impressive official fuel consumption, and for many the lure of the three pointed star will be strong enough to overlook any shortcomings.
