2016 Mercedes-Benz GLC Coupe review, test drive

We head to Italy to drive Mercedes’ new SUV-coupe to see if it has what it takes to put this niche segment on the mainstream path.

Published on Aug 13, 2016 06:00:00 AM

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2016 Mercedes-Benz GLC Coupe review, test drive

What’s it like from the inside?

Stylistically, the interiors are all very Mercedes, so you have things like the rounded steering boss, the seat-shaped electric seat controls and sadly the ‘after-thought’ display screen. Being based on the C- class, the finishing of everything is to a very high order.

With a sharp coupé roofline, headroom is expectedly not great, but that’s about it as far as space goes. Mercedes state that the Coupe’s shoulder room, elbow room, legroom and even the entrance height are all identical to its more practical SUV sibling and sitting in does bear this out. It’s wide, spacious and very comfortable. I didn’t get a chance to sample the rear seats on a long drive, but the driver’s seat was comfortable, and even after a full day of driving, it had me feeling quite relaxed.

What’s it like to drive?

I really wanted to see if this car could handle fast highways, tight cities, and off road, and so I didn’t spend too much time fiddling with the equipment on-board and instead spent most of the time driving. With a Coupe and some beautiful Italian mountain roads, who could resist. Sadly though, there was no off-roading to be had. Mercedes calls this a sportscar that is an SUV or an SUV that is a sportscar. That may be quite a stretch, but the car does have a decidedly sportier edge to it. I seldom like the handling characteristics of SUVs but this one was genuinely entertaining. The tight Aosta valley mountain roads brought out the quick steering and tight body control. With a steering ratio of 15:1 compared to the regular SUV's 16:1, the Coupe's steering feels quicker. The suspension on the car I drove was the Dynamic Body Control sports suspension with steel springs and adjustable dampers. Unique to this segment, the Coupe has an air suspension system, but we drove the steel sprung variant as that’s likely headed to our shores.

For most parts, we drove the car in Sports mode which adjusts the suspension, steering, engine and gearbox for a lively driving experience. However, even in Comfort mode the suspension did have a bit of a sporty edge to it. Ride quality was hard to judge given that the city roads, highways and even the mountain bits were all superbly surfaced. Mercedes did say we would have a bit of a rough stretch throw in but this turned out to be merely small ruts or surface cracks, nothing like the moon-like surface that we have for roads.