CLASSY COMPACT
Andrew McCredie gets a fi rst drive in the 2015 Mercedes- Benz GLA
BURLINGTON, Vt.
Mercedes- Benz describes its all- new crossover in press materials as a “wanderer between automotive applications,” so it was fitting that this week’s North American press launch for the 2015 GLA took place on the undulating backroads of this wanderer’s paradise.
The launch also coincided with Mother Nature’s psychedelic show of fall colours, making the day and a half of driving all the more exhilarating.
Despite these visual and visceral stimuli, however, the exhilarating nature of the sport luxury crossover trumped even the best the great outdoors could muster. Spirited and nimble were two words that kept springing to mind as we bounded over Vermont’s hills and dales, and back to the historic shores of Lake Champlain.
The GLA is an important vehicle for Mercedes- Benz for a number of reasons. First, it rounds out not one but two categories in the German automaker’s global portfolio: along with the B- Class and the CLA, it completes the Mercedes- Benz compact segment, and it brings to five the number of SUV model series under the Benz badge. And so with a GLA, GLK, ML, GL and G model series, you’ve got to think there can be no more SUV segments to fill. Second, the 2015 GLA gives the automaker an entry into the ever- expanding sport luxury crossover segment, with its main competitors cited as the BMW X1, the Audi Q3 and the Infiniti QX50. Secondtier competition is deep and diverse, and includes any one of a dozen or so sport- oriented crossovers, from the Range Rover Evoque to the Lincoln MKC to the Acura RDX.
There are two 2015 GLAs in the offing — the base 250 and the hopped- up 45 AMG — and while the power and performance of the latter on paper leaves its stablemate in the dust, the former proved the better steed for much of our drive route — a statement in itself that will send the AMG- olytes running wild- eyed for the hills, but a fact all the same given that the terrain for the rollicking trek was predominantly two- lane roadways, many of them pockmarked from unforgiving winters past, and with more blind corners than a Call of Duty town map.
The 45 AMG’s 355 horsepower — that out of a 2.0- litre turbo engine no less, a world- record output for a series production four- cylinder — and its performanceoriented all- wheel drive were akin to that oft- used old saw about bringing a gun to a knife fight. True, on the newly paved rare bits, the GLA AMG roared to life, but just as quickly had to be shuttered as another blind corner, or dawdling Subaru ( of which there are many in Vermont), came into play. A sub- five- second zero- to- 100kilometres- per- hour time isn’t ideal in such circumstances.
The 250, on the other hand, with its 208 horsepower, 250 pound- feet of torque and dialed- down all- wheel drive system, was the perfect fit for the drive, with more than enough giddy up and go, and a surprising sense of better control when the road roughed up a little. And the naught- to- 100- km/ h time of seven seconds made things that more manageable.
Before you AMGers wallow in a bucket or two of Ben & Jerry’s, the state’s favourite sons in iced desserts, the GLA 45 AMG more than lives up to its badging. The power is awesome, the brakes are incredible, the exhaust burble is intoxicating, the cabin a boy racer’s dream.
But for the stated target market laid out by Mercedes- Benz Canada — that being young families, a questionable statement in itself, and 30- somethings dipping their toe in the Benz pool for the first time — the GLA two- horse stable’s sweet spot is the 250 ( base price: $ 37,200), and when paired with the premium package ($ 3,800) a formidable CUV. If you’re heart is set on the 45 AMG but your accountant’s isn’t ( base price: $ 50,500), for just $ 1,700 more throw in the sport package — which adds a sport brake system, 19- inch AMG wheels, an AMG styling package, and aluminum trim — and you’ve got a CUV that has the style to go with that aforementioned formidable substance.
When I first laid eyes on the admittedly well executed exterior of the GLA, then sat in its equally well designed cabin, I couldn’t help but ask myself: Does the world really need another sport luxury crossover?
Two days later, having just handed over the key fob at the departure’s bay at Burlington airport, I took one more look at the GLA and answered my own question: If they keep making new ones like that, it sure does.