Drivers agree the EQA is a great little city SUV
Our next Mercedes-Benz EQA long-term test update sees a driver swap and a reluctant agreement on opinions, as Nile Bijoux takes the wheel.
Itook the keys for our long-term EQA for its final month or so, partially so I could see what it was like to live with an EV – beyond weeklong road tests and summer road trips – but also to see if my colleague Damien O’Carroll was talking bollocks or not. As much as I don’t want to admit it, it seems he wasn’t.
To start, the EQA is incredibly inoffensive as a car. It’s small, and its styling barely gives away the electrical underpinnings. Even the smooth grille could be mistaken for a GLA to the untrained or unknowing eye. And the power delivery isn’t that abrupt, like you might expect from an EV.
There’s a definite shove off the line, thanks to the instant torque application of the motor, but it won’t pin you back into the seat. It’s more considered than that, more Weezer than Foo Fighters.
It’s comfy too, with the extra weight of the batteries and a retune in the suspension setup doing well to absorb the worst of Kiwi roads. Much better than the GLA too, which was quite brittle.
But it’s not perfect. I didn’t enjoy the brakes for the first few days of driving – they have that annoying mushy feeling that many electrified vehicles have, because of the regenerative braking, but the actual brakes themselves bite quite hard when you get to them.
That meant a few jerky stops and hasty apologies to any passengers, until I got used to keeping the brakes in full regen mode, just before the rotors come into play, to come to a stop.
Thankfully, when you do need to stop in a hurry, the brakes work well.
After getting used to that, general driving is quite pleasant. The car steers nicely, and the adaptive cruise is great at any speed. It’s also a good way to dodge around the brake issue.
The audio system is great too as it’s a Burmeister system, but it has an extremely irritating tendency to ignore the disabled setting of ‘‘don’t turn down my music when I’m coming to a stop, you stupid machine’’ and turn it down anyway. Not much, mind, just enough to notice and annoy me.
Really, I’m echoing a lot of Damien’s previous thoughts. Which is annoying, because that kind of means he’s right.
The EQA is, genuinely, a great little city SUV, hamstrung by a couple of minor things that could be easily fixed in a midlife update. Or even over-the-air, in the case of the music thing.