2020 Mercedes GLA 220d review: revised SUV guns for Audi and BMW rivals
The A-class, launched in 1997 as an innovative multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) which sold well even into its second generation, was never liked much by Mercedes-Benz marketing. What they wanted was a Mini; front-wheel drive, stylish and cheap to build – and that’s what they got in 2013 when the third-generation A-class was launched.
What we didn’t realise then was that Mercedes marketing was set to dominate the world with this car, in the process stretching the three-pointed star’s credibility to near breaking point. The A-class now has eight derivatives including two separate SUVs – it’s getting hard to keep up.
A frisson of quality
This sort of stretch has gone down well with those looking for a frisson of premium quality but who don’t really understand what that means or what it costs. Personal Contract Purchasing (PCP) financing options have ensured that the public never gets to look too closely at the list price, which is all fine as long as before they climb off the three-year hamster wheel of the contract plan they are signed back up on it again. All’s well? Hum.
Apart from the level of debt that builds in such circumstances and the uneasy feeling that Mercedes is buying back its own cars and renting out its reputation, some A-class models are simply not premium products. Spend lightly and you end up with quite a good-looking car, but with a cheap and noisy twist-beam rear suspension, a Renault drivetrain and a very unremarkable cabin.
At the top of the tree, however, the A-class is a class act. The interior looks like something you’d fly to Mars in and the drivetrains are the acme of Merc’s abilities.
At least that’s what I was thinking as I walked up to the new, Mk2 GLA parked in Mercedes’s Milton Keynes headquarters. The GLA is the second A-class SUV after last year’s well received seven-seat GLB. The GLA is more of a crossover, however; think jacked-up body with cosmetic skid plates for urban cowboys who seldom go anywhere where they haven’t built a road.
Different style…
A keen student of BBC’s Repair Shop, I think I’ve discovered the source of inspiration for the weird grille patterns that are appearing on Mercedes these days. Old-style fretwork wireless grilles and loudspeakers are clearly in vogue again, though whether that fashion travels quite so well out of the Mercedes design studio and on to your drive is a moot point.
There’s a slightly pinched and weird look to the front of this second-generation GLA, especially the huge dog-bone lower air intakes and stormtrooper headlamps, which all appear to have come from another and altogether bigger car.
And different proportions
This is a differently proportioned car from its predecessor, shorter by 14mm but at 4,410mm it’s shorter than Audi’s Q3 and longer than BMW’s X2. At the same time the GLA is 30mm wider at 1,834mm and 104mm taller at 1,611mm. There’s more space inside, however, since the wheelbase has been pulled out by an additional 30mm.
The GLA can be had with front- and four-wheel drive, and a variety of transverse-engine drivetrains, starting with the Renault-engined 1.3-litre, 161bhp petrol turbo GLA 200 and the Mercedes 2.0-litre 222bhp turbo petrol GLA 250.
Diesel choices consist of the continued, Mercedes-developed 2.0-litre OM654q turbodiesel unit with 148bhp and 234lb ft, or 187bhp and 295lb ft as tested here.
Specification
In AMG Premium Line specification, our test car also came with the MBUX connectivity system with augmented reality satnav, which basically consists of superimposed arrows on a picture of what’s ahead – it’s less good than it sounds. The car was on lowered “comfort” suspension, with McPherson strut suspension and a proper multi-link independent rear end.
This 4x4 model drives the rear wheels via a propshaft and spur gears from the transverse engine/transmission with front-to-rear torque split controlled by an electronically-actuated, oil-filled multiplate clutch pack. There's no old-style transfer box to give a set of crawler gears and in Normal mode drive is 80 per cent to the front wheels, Sport mode directs 10 per cent more drive to the rears and the Off-Road mode splits drive 50/50 per cent front/rear and introduces a hill-descent braking mode.
Our test car had 19-inch alloys with aggressively treaded Bridgestone tyres; the only option was £595’s worth of grey metallic paint. To add to the big numbers, it weighed 1.67 tonnes, tows two tonnes and costs £41,430.
Interior appointments
So this is a Ford Focus-class crossover which costs so much it attracts the luxury-car VED tax – keep breathing and climb inside. The dash will be familiar to anyone who’s seen the adverts or driven the A-class in any of its derivatives.
There’s certainly a wow factor, with jet-turbine ventilators, the new steering wheel adorned with switches and twin 10.25-inch screens (only the far right one is a touchscreen). While it’s important to remember that only the top models get this level of equipment, it’s all fairly straightforward, even if there are strange things in there. The steering-column stalks feel like bent toothbrushes, the door pockets wobble alarmingly and the inner functions of the software remain frustratingly out of reach at times; you wish for the old control capstan system of previous models.
And try not to have any sort of conversation in the car, or the utterly annoying Mercedes voice control system will interrupt like that bloomin’ Microsoft paperclip until you repeatedly swear at it and it slinks off to wherever it lives.
The seats are comfy with a driving position 140mm higher than in the A-class hatchback, which extends the views a bit. The rear is also comfortable, with a bench that slides forward and back. The quality falls off a bit as you move back in the cabin, but it’s still convivial.
The boot space is 425 litres with the rear seats up and 1,420 litres with them folded flat, while a powered tailgate is an optional extra.
On the move
Dynamically this car is an interesting mix. The suspension is actually a bit harsh over UK roads, especially with these particular tyres. Around town, the suspension makes a meal of low speeds and bumps. It clambers over road imperfections and the drivetrain feels noisy and uncouth, particularly the twin-clutch gearbox which clanks down the ratios jolting the drivetrain and making you wish for a conventional, torque converter automatic.
The engine, as it is in other Mercedes models, is economical and powerful, but feels and sounds harsh when you drive it hard. The 4x4 system and increased ride height means there’s an isolation from the road surface compared with the hatchback and shooting brake versions of the A-class.
The steering is plain weird, like pushing the curved part of a spoon against a blancmange, which wobbles then finally yields. The wobble in this case is around the dead-centre position, although once you’ve turned into the corner the weighting and directness improve markedly.
Speed up, however, and you start to understand what the Mercedes experience is all about. The suspension smoothes out (although you still feel every bump on a B-road), and the body control is first rate. The tyres howl like wolves if you push them through a turn, but the chassis has a good balance, the brakes are well worked, with a progressive action and decent stopping power, and the whole set-up is more fun than any crossover has any right to be.
And when you’ve finished whizzing around, show the nose even a whiff of a motorway and the economy swings up to 45mpg, the engine quietens and runs on its torque and it feels grand enough to be a proper Mercedes-Benz.
Conclusion
Like all crossovers, the GLA ends up doing nothing fantastically well, but it seems that’s just fine with those who increasingly buy these strange push-me-pull-you cars.
At the top of the price list, the quality and appeal of the A-class cabins is undoubted and this car is better to drive than it has a right to be, but you pay through the nose and in this class the rival Audi and BMW models make a strong and slightly cheaper case for themselves.
THE FACTS
2020 Mercedes-Benz GLA 220d 4MATIC AMG Line Premium
TESTED 1,950cc four-cylinder turbodiesel, eight-speed semi-automatic gearbox, four-wheel drive
PRICE/ON SALE £41,430 as tested/now
POWER/TORQUE 187bhp @ 3,800rpm, 295lb ft @ 1,600rpm
TOP SPEED 136mph
ACCELERATION 0-62mph in 7.3sec
FUEL ECONOMY 49.6mpg (WLTP Combined), 41mpg on test
CO2 EMISSIONS 130g/km
VED £215 first year, £475 next five years, then £150
VERDICT It’s hard not to smile when behind the wheel of this car, but it’s very expensive and around town the drivetrain and ride quality are uncouth. That it drives better than it has a right to doesn’t alter the fact the German rivals do the job just as well if not better, and for less money
TELEGRAPH RATING Three stars out of five
THE RIVALS
BMW X2 xDrive 20d M Sport, from £39,265
Diesel with an eight-speed gearbox and four-wheel drive, the BMW X2 handles well (naturally) and provides similar levels of accommodation to the Audi and the Merc. Trouble is, despite its pretensions to schportiness, it sits far too close to the X1 for comfort. And if you want a sporty SUV, shouldn’t you buy a conventional estate car instead?
Audi Q3 Edition 1 35TDI 150PS S tronic, from £40,265
Diesel, semi-automatic and four-wheel drive, this Audi comes with an impressive amount of standard equipment – although the options list remains impressively scary. Criticised for its ride quality, the Q2 is nevertheless a good looking thing, with a lovely interior and an economical, refined four-cylinder diesel. It drives much better than its predecessor, too.
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