HIGHWAY ROBBERY
BOXY AND BLAND
POSTMAN Pat has promoted and given company car.
It’s this new Mercedes-Benz GLB. Its designer gave us a long explanation of what influenced the design, how the light falls on a particular surface and all sorts of other mumbo jumbo.
What he really meant is that the GLB is a rectangular box with round edges – a bit like Pat’s post van.
Mercedes showed a concept version of the GLB at the Shanghai motor show earlier this year.
It featured a selection of Tonka-like body kit parts and details that made the car look a lot more purposeful than it does now in production form.
The GLB isn’t an ugly motor, just extremely bland. Merc’s GLA, which is a smaller crossover, looks a lot better and that is far from my favourite Merc.
Space
a been new
Mercedes will say that one of the chief selling points of the GLB is that it comes standard with seven seats.
In fact there is just one model that comes with only five seats – the GLB 220d 4Matic AMG Line Premium.
Mercedes will have done its research into this but I’m not so sure that seven seats are that useful.
Put the third row of seats up and you lose most of the luggage space and you’ll only be able to fit quite small children onto the seats themselves. I’ll wager that most GLB owners will rarely use the full seven.
You have three engines to choose from, four if you include the AMG
Mercedes-Benz GLB 220d 4Matic
REAR MIRROR MONSTER: Needs more Tonka factor.
BACKSIDE BEAUTY: cardboard boxes.
PLAYTIME PLEASER: seats.
Sexy if you like
It comes with seven
version. There’s a 1.3-litre 163bhp four-cylinder petrol engine that you’ll find in the GLB 200 and a 2.0-litre diesel engine with either 150bhp in the GLB 200d or 190bhp in the GLB 220d.
The first of those is offered only with front-wheel drive, the second with a choice of 2wd and 4wd, and the last only in 4Matic 4x4 spec. There’s also an AMG version of the car called the GLB 35, but we’ll focus on that more a bit later.
For now we’ll concentrate on the GLB 220d 4Matic AMG Line Premium at £42,950. The cheapest GLB is the 200 at £34,200 but, as explained, that’s a front-wheel drive version only.
The advantage of the GLB’s boxy ★
WE all know that we’re being ripped off by motorway service areas but Admiral car insurance has carried out a survey that puts some frightening figures to the prices we pay.
Services on the A1(M) came out as top highway robbers by charging £1.09 for a bar of Dairy Milk chocolate that in a supermarket would cost as much as 135% less. Admiral also discovered that the South West of the country has the most rip-off service area prices, followed by the North East.
★
We should rebel against this outrage by stocking up on snacks for a trip at a supermarket before we hit the motorway.
NAUGHTY NIGGLES: You won’t be able to sit in them unless you’re a child. A small one.
TASTY TOUCHES: Top notch infotainment.
FAST OR LAST: There’s a very fast one but don’t bother with it. This diesel does the job.
WONGA WONDER: Practical but we’d want something prettier for this money. styling is that it’s easy to get in and out of. The car is based on the same platform that’s used for the A-Class and the A-derived GLA but is 100mm longer in the wheelbase.
It sits between the GLA and slightly bigger still GLC.
Step inside and you’ll find the same dashboard layout as the A-Class and, the
since that means Mercedes’ excellent full-width digital screen, it’s no bad thing. All the controls will be familiar to the A-Class driver.
There’s plenty of legroom front and back with a rear seat that not only splits 40/20/40 but which can also be slid back and forth over a range of 140mm.
Again the boxy shape pays a dividend and that’s in headroom.
Another GLB strong point refinement.
The diesel engine is quiet and smooth and works well with the standard 8-speed automatic gearbox.
There’s very little wind or road noise is its and, best of all, the ride comfort is very impressive. More impressive than the A-Class.
At the vehicle’s launch we got the chance to drive the GLB off-road.
This car is well able to tackle terrain that no owner would dare take his or her 40 grand car across.
Concept
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Mercedes doesn’t offer some of the off-road styling bits that were on the concept car, especially if there’s widespread criticism of the GLB looking too boxy and dull.
We mentioned the Mercedes-AMG version of the GLB earlier.
Called the GLB 35, this 306bhp high performance version will cost around £45,000 when it arrives in showrooms early next year.
It’s quick, as you’d expect, but ultimately rather pointless because it’s not fast enough to be a great show-off vehicle, but much quicker than it needs to be.
The best version is the one we’ve tested and if you don’t have an issue with the way it looks you’ll like it for its space, comfort and refinement.