[Axe77]

2023 Mercedes GLC 300 Petrol 4MATIC

Initial ownership review

At the time of writing this review, I have completed about one year of ownership and covered approximately 10,000 kms with the car.

Prologue:

Summer, 2023. Life was proceeding fine with my (then) 8 year old 3GT (BMW ownership review link) and the workhorse do-it-all Jeep Meridian (Jeep ownership review link).

On a regular trip to Pune one weekend in my 3GT I happened to drive around with my pal in his petrol 3GL and coming from two diesel mills for several recent years now, I was just smitten by the smoothness and overall driving experience of the B48. I had just bought the Meridian a year or so ago and I was clear that the GT had a solid 2 - 4 years of usable life easily. But the desire to own a really nice premium petrol car felt far more immediate.

I started generally tracking some used petrol cars on CarWale across a broad spectrum. Some typical searches were for petrol variants of the 6GT, X3s and X4s and frankly even the 3GT. I did come across many of these, including specifically a 2020 petrol 3GT which seemed like a good flip for my diesel mill, but somehow I found the used car asking prices a bit too rich for my comfort. Besides, the wife veto’d it saying that if we are going to buy another car, as much as she loved the 3GT, she’d like a change from it for some freshness - fair enough tbh.

Came across some 6GTs too but they were either too expensive and even though new ones were coming at some good deals, when it came to pulling the trigger the thought of plonking serious money on a car that’s being permanently discontinued in the near future somehow didn’t agree with me.

Came across another nice low run 2020 X4 but again, as per some fellow Mods, the asking price was about 8 - 10 lakh too much. Never even got around to discussing the cost of the 3GT with the dealer for a flip since his asking for the X4 itself was way too high.

Finally I got around to thinking that perhaps I should approach this the other way. Retain the 3GT and flip the Meridian so I clear the path for a slightly bigger budget with a new German petrol. This way, I get a modern petrol, I rid my garage of the DEF linked BS6 diesel and instead retain the more agreeable BS4 diesel GT in the garage. My outlook on the Meridian when I bought it was overall 4 - 5 years and that’s also the time horizon I could see for the 3 GT at the time. Pound for pound, we figured it’s the 3 GT we’d like to hang on to over the Meridian; selling the Meridian also liberates more immediate cash / EMI headroom and we should simply buy a new luxury car instead.

The wishlist:

- Petrol. E20 compliant at that.
- Proper luxury offering, no value luxury, semi luxury etc. Within that too, really only Mercedes and BMW. I had not kept Audi, Lexus or JLR in the reckoning on account of my own perceptions and bias.
- Strong engine, no underpowered engines as has become the trend with some models, specially with Mercedes and its 200 petrol trims.
- Rough use ability on factors like ground clearance etc. Low slung sedans were a no-no. Didn't need to be an off-roader either.
- Comfortable seating for 4 and great boot space for road trips and similar.

Options considered:

Shortlist came down to the following options: X3, X5, GLC and the 6GT as an outside contender.

6GT: To be honest, if the 6GT had been a continuing model, this is the car I would have gone for in a heartbeat. I’d have retained the Meridian as a workhorse, flipped the 3GT for the petrol 6GT and swapped the Meridian at the 4 - 5 years mark for a Hycross / EV or similar. End of matter. The 6GT ticks the most boxes for me personally - it’s got a great boot, is extremely comfortable to be chauffeur driven in and the B48 petrol is a delightful engine to pilot. Sure it won’t handle like a 5 series but that’s a compromise I can live with for the overall package that it offers. The only irritant I'd have felt is the spare wheel in the boot (and not inside a dedicated wheel well) but I'd have grudgingly accepted that in a world where many premium models don't have a spare wheel at all.

I was getting some extraordinary good deals on it too from the showroom but I just couldn’t bring myself to select a car that was being discontinued altogether in the immediate future.

X3 M40i: BMW Infinity went out of its way to organize a test drive of this car for me. The highlight of this car is of course that B58 engine, which is a class apart from the GLC 300. Being eligible for BH plate also meant I could take the sting away from its rich CBU pricing with the 20% (in MH) registration charges. But the car at the time was only available in a black interior / white exterior option and our overall experience seated inside the car was extremely underwhelming. While I loved the engine without a doubt, my wife and I both simply couldn’t imagine plonking well upwards of 90L (on road, BH) on a car that looked and felt inside the way the outgoing X3 did. At the time I had bought my 3GT, I had gotten a good discount partly because I couldn’t choose the interior / exterior color options - I had to settle for the inventory available. I was not willing to spend this much money again and not be able to get a interior / exterior color combination of my choice. We also felt that if we were going to spend as much as 90L+ on a car, we’d rather just stretch a bit more and get an X5 and move a clear segment up. It would offer a properly one size up vehicle with better 2nd row comfort than the X3. So the X3 really fell into no man’s land for us.

X5: Hand on heart, this is THE car I would have picked but let it pass purely because I didn’t want to stretch the budget to the X5, knowing I had an impending superbike purchase also coming up in well within 6 - 12 months. The car is almost a complete package, its an acceptable external footprint size, its got brilliant driving dynamics and looks modern, without yet falling prey to BMWs recent design misadventures. My only significant peeve with the car is that for the price and segment it operates in, the back seat is strictly mediocre. Better than the one segment lower GLC / X3 of course, but still mediocre for class under-thigh support; no recline function for added comfort etc.

GLC: That brings us to the GLC. While it’s definitely pricey for what it offers, it offers a sweet combination of space, SUV practicality, luxurious interior, an 'adequately fast' petrol engine, with perhaps the key shortcoming being lack of XL sized comfort in the rear seat where a 6GT or X5 would have served better. I think we took about 2 test drives and were pretty much sold. A minor pull factor was also the fact that it would allow us to experience a new luxury brand. We're not a family that frequently buys luxury cars and in the next decade, post turning 50, I am more likely to temper such expensive purchases. It seemed a good idea to therefore experience the Mercedes for a change, specially since it will share at least a few years with a BMW. If I was buying an X5 of course, I would not have let this aspect prevail. But it played its part in the decision vs a soon to be dated X3 and a "to be discontinued" 6GT for sure.

[Axe77]

Table of contents

This post is reserved for a Table of Contents for this initial review as all ongoing key updates, including travelogues and service milestones. I will update this post from time to time as the thread progresses.

The initial review:

Prologue
The Purchase
Likes and Dislikes
Design and Styling
The Driving Experience
Specific incidents and general service
Photolog: The first year

Key service milestones & notable incidents

[___]

Road trips and more

The Southern Sojourn: To Bangalore, Goa and back | June 2024.

[Axe77]

The purchase: @ Autohangar Prabhadevi

I met with a very senior sales person Heswyn (absolutely fantastic) who is a riding buddy of a colleague of mine. He put one of his SAs from the Hughes Road branch in touch with me and in charge of the sales process. I decided to trade in the Jeep with Autohangar itself to save myself the hassles of dealing with chasing paper transfer etc with car trading platforms, dealers / dodgy agents etc. It was given over at a little over 19,000 kms to Autohangar Mercedes. Incidentally, Autohangar actually stretched themselves and finally paid me 30.5 lakh for the car, that’s about Rs. 1.5 lakh more than all other offers including their own initial offer. I know from what it was quoted at subsequently that it would have barely fetched a lakh or so over that when they went to sell it, such was the resale value of the Jeep.

Overall the decision from shortlist to test drive to booking the car took just a little over 2 - 3 weeks max with delivery of the car probably within another week from booking.

Coming to the Jeep, while we certainly enjoyed our time with the Jeep including its rough and ready go anywhere nature, we were equally hankering for something significantly more luxurious and completely next level when it comes to the overall package and the GLC suited that bill to the tee. This is definitely a decision that’s completely driven by want & heart rather than need & head.

Final Price, extended warranty, accessories

I did not go down the path of pitting one dealer against another and just let Heswyn and his team come up with whatever were the best terms I could negotiate with them on various fronts. I had opted for BH plate for this purchase. The final on road BH price along with extended warranty up to 6th year worked out to just under 78 lakh - Rs. 77,99,643/- to be precise.

The pro forma invoice for the car is in the image below. I’ve manually edited in the correct negotiated amount for the insurance, which I procured from HDFC Ergo. The recurring BH amount I’ll have to pay every 2 years is ~Rs. 1.5 lakh.

The only add on accessories that I purchased at the time of delivery (or very shortly after) were the 4 mats and boot tub, which totalled to about Rs. 24,000/- (Rs. 14,967 + Rs. 9,043 respectively).

A parting shot of the Jeep a few minutes before I handed it over to the folks at Autohangar.


It was raining GLCs that day. On the day I collected my car, two other GLCs were delivered the same evening. Another black GLC had been delivered just a few days ago when I had visited the showroom to see my allotted car in person.

Que: Can anyone guess which one of the cars below is mine?


Ans: Neither!! It’s the one standing behind these two (with the yellow ribbons). Funny story - I had forgotten this too. I had originally posted the above image showcasing one of them as mine. Realised while reviewing the pics that mine was the one behind these two, with the yellow ribbons.


Mercedes certainly know how to make the day special.


The sense of occasion on delivery is in keeping with that special feeling that the Mercedes interiors bring.


The goodie bag. Again, a tastefully curated basket.


Weekend outdoor activity and weekend reading, both in one frame

[Axe77]

Welcoming home the 3 pointed star

At the time of writing this review, I’ve had the benefit of a little over 10,000 kms with the car over a period of one year. This includes city driving, the usual weekenders within 200 kms of Maharashtra and also a longer road trip (my longest in a car actually) from Mumbai to Bangalore and back via Goa. More on that later in this thread.

A lot of this review will not be akin to an official review but instead be centered very heavily from my own personal preferences, use case and also relative to the cars I have / had in my garage, whether or not they are direct competitors. Please do keep that context in mind while reading this review.

Likes

• Fast, smooth, petrol that is fun to drive. No underpowered “200” spec engine here like the previous GLC 200, current E 200 etc.
• Dynamically accomplished car. Mercedes is getting better at being thrown around corners (although I dare say its still no BMW)
• Tech laden overall with a reasonably comprehensive suite of ADAS (although Level 2 ADAS is still missing).
• Plush interiors that feel really special - there’s definitely a sense of occasion every time you step into the cabin.
• Excellent 15-speaker Burmester sound system.
• Pleasantly designed exterior that is easy on the eye. No major design faux pas here.
• Spare wheel in a wheel well, which doesn’t impede into boot space like the GTs - this is important to me.
• Specific to my car but I just love that beautiful Mojave Silver - Sienna Brown exterior - interior color combination.

Dislikes

• Touch interface overkill. More physical buttons please Mercedes!
• As expected with this segment of luxury SUVs, back seat comfort is strictly average in terms of under-thigh support. Seatback angle is all right though but a recline function would have enhanced comfort.
• Some parts quality, for example the tray in front is fidgety and doesn’t seem well built.
• Some unacceptable squeaks and creaks from a car that is otherwise built to a high order.
• The ride quality has a sharp edge to it over rough roads, specially at low speeds. Dynamic suspension would have been very welcome.
• Some glaring feature misses like keyless entry, ventilated seats, massage function, projector headlamps etc, some of which were even present in the outgoing model.
• The menus seem a bit overcomplicated with several layers to get into for some controls.

[Axe77]

Design and Styling

Design and Styling: Exterior

Understated, classy and elegant. Look at it from any angle and it’s unmistakably Mercedes - and that’s a good thing. Viewed head on, the large grill with the dominant logo is what is most visually striking. The headlights (which for its premium positioning are disappointingly not a projector set up) fuse neatly into the grill and there is the typical small logo at the front end of the bonnet. There is some element of chrome but not the overkill cringe inducing sorts.

The car is beautifully proportioned, having marginally increased in size with this generation. The rear again is typical Mercedes SUV with a nice flowing tail light that thankfully doesn’t connect all the way through the middle like some modern day Koreans and Mahindras. There’s again a healthy dash of chrome at the bottom and this time there is a slightly cringe fake twin exhaust in this section. I’ve never been a fan of such fake exhausts but again, not a fatal flaw.

I personally prefer straighter cleaner lines (like those you’d associate with VWs and Audis) and I don’t like the excessively soft curvy design aesthetics. Most modern Mercedes are tending towards the latter a bit more than I care for but not to a point where it’s a visual eyesore. Again, safe, clean timeless lines from the rear too.

Viewed side on, the chunky 19” wheels with the running footboard between the front and rear wheels establish its SUV status. The GLC feels a nice size from the outside - not as diminutive and underwhelming visually as the GLA but it certainly has nowhere the full size street cred that its bigger sibling the GLE holds. I can say this from first hand experience since I’ve got a colleague’s beautiful white GLE parked right adjacent to my car in the office and another colleague's gorgeous blue GLA parked a few cars further down.

Overall then, full marks to Mercedes for retaining the clean lines of its best selling SUV and not botching it up. Having seen the latest all new generation of the X3, I am grateful that Audi and Mercedes continue to deliver designs that are aesthetically pleasing.

Nice clean proportions when viewed side on.


Rounded look continues but again overall clean proportions. Viewed from this angle, the fake exhaust tips are the only design faux pas in my book.


Nice butch stance despite become a touch shorter although it definitely doesn't have the presence of the bigger GLE.


Regular headlights, no projector headlamps.


Functionally not fatal though. The headlight throw seems adequate.

Design, Styling and Functionality: Interiors

Front

I am (helpfully and entirely coincidentally) sitting in the front seat of the car as I type this. So it’s like having a cheat sheet for writing this out.

Step inside the car and there is an instant sense of opulence, sophistication and sense of occasion. When seated in the passenger seat, the dominant visual element is the pinstripe dashboard - perhaps the one thing that I dislike and find garish about the interior. It’s also one of the exceptional parts in the front that is not particular nice to touch. While I’ve made my peace with it, I would certainly have preferred the faux wood like finish that is there on the smaller GLA.

Dominating the centre is a vertically oriented large screen, distinct from the drivers cockpit - a feature that makes the car seem a tad older than current gen GLEs and E classes that have the uber modern continuous running unit from the drivers cockpit till the centre.

There’s a generous dose of interior lighting, customizable in enough ways to keep my 12 year old amused when he’s seated in front. The overall fit, finish and feel are to an extremely high order and everywhere you touch the materials feel nice. The air vents too are really stylish and move around with a nice satisfying click as you adjust its settings.

Every other contact point is nice to touch and in this tasteful Sienna Brown interior trim in particular, the car exudes a really inviting ambience overall.

In term of functionality, there are decent size cup holders in the door for both occupants. There are two nicely adjustable cup holders are also there in the centre console area which can be opened or closed with a pop out tray - the tray itself is a bit fidgety top operate specially when locking it open. Incidentally, this is something Omkar and I noticed with the GLC Coupe AMG as well. While build quality overall seems top quality, some small aspect like this fidgety tray detract from that experience. The centre arm rest too has handy storage underneath it, with even a tray within it to create two sections. Overall, full marks on cubby holes and storage, which are more than adequate and very well designed too from a functional perspective. I can fit most decent sized bottles in the side storage in the doors.

The other aspect is the ever so slight squeaks that come and go in the Mercedes - this apparently is not isolated and since I’ve bought the car, I’ve heard multiple owners mention this from their test drives or ownership reviews. These few quality niggles are outliers though and for the most part, the touch, feel and build of everything you touch and operate is absolutely delightful.

In terms of ergonomics, comfort and convenience, the Mercedes does well. There are memory seats for both passengers the controls for which in typical Mercedes fashion are ergonomically well placed on the side door pads instead of lower down below the seat like most other cars, my BMW included. The front seat also usefully stretches out a bit to give that extra under-thigh support, something I’ve got in manual guise in my 3GT Sportline variant as well. My usual preferred seating spot when I'm being chauffeured is in fact very often in the front. Overall the seats are well designed, comfortable and well bolstered in all the right places.

On the flip side though, the leather on the seats is not genuine anymore (disappointing but sadly a direction many manufacturers are going towards) and that certainly detracts from its premium "feel" a bit. They're also inexplicably no longer ventilated - a ridiculous omission in this mid life update with Indian summers being what they are. Inexplicably, and as if to add insult to injury, the product planners retained "heated seats" a feature that's far less useful overall than ventilated seats in our country. Finally, the seats have lost the terrific massage function (which I think was there in the outgoing version, not sure) but it does retain the less impactful "seat kinetics" feature.

The full view of the dash and the front. Well designed and opulent but for that garish pinstripe running across the length.


Nice chunky steering wheel with soft touch leather that’s very comfortable to hold. Some may find the wheel too busy but I’ve frankly gotten used to each function and what it does. Fewer menus would have been welcome though.


3 memory functions for the driver AND the passenger seat, placed conveniently on the door pad. Materials are again of high quality to touch.


Controls up top are again touch based. Operates the sunroof and the blind covering it along with some other basic functions that include emergency helpline calling.


The headrest is beautifully designed with button enabling a fore and aft movement to find the optimum support point.


Storage up front is more than adequate. The cupholders in the centre are nicely adjustable. 4 USB C ports! No cigarette lighter though up front.

Rear

Step into the rear and the same feeling of richness continues. Ingress and egress is very slightly hampered by the side steps, which tend to touch your calves and you need to be particularly careful in monsoons when they can dirty your trousers. The seat height is just right, neither do you sit too low nor do you have to climb uncomfortably high up.

Typical with German SUVs in this segment, under-thigh support at the back is strictly average and while the seat back angle is comfortable enough (not too upright), at least a seat recline function would have been nice to enhance comfort. The seat cushioning is excellent but the 2nd row is best experienced with 2 passengers, with the centre armrest folded down for that extra comfort. It’s definitely sub-optimal for 3 large adults sitting abreast, with the prominent hump running down the middle being predictably uncomfortable for the middle passenger. Having a child or smaller adult in the centre isn't such a bad experience though. There are two AC vents in the centre but no separate climate control for the rear. Two handy USB C ports are placed underneath it and helpfully, a storage niche between the two that can house a phone too.

The centre armrest is a basic design with two cup holders that can pop out with a click-press. Unhelpfully, these cupholders are open at the bottom so you can really only keep a cup or a phone or similar large item. It can't house an airpod case or smaller stuff that would just fall down through the partial opening at the bottom. My 3GT has better storage in the centre arm rest. Not only does it have a proper twin cup holder (with no gaps at the bottom) it also has a flat storage behind the cup holder. Minus marks here to the 3 pointed star. The arm rest can drop down for ready access to the boot, a handy feature. The storage at the bottom of the door too is a bit slimmer and larger bottles that comfortably fit in the front door pad can't be fit in the rear one. Overall on the storage aspect, where the front excels and is a design delight, the rear is underwhelming and has basics that are off point.

There are manual blinds on either side which are quite welcome to cut out the glare and also offer some privacy. The pano sunroof looks lovely at night when you pull back the blind below it. But annoyingly, the sunroof blind is of a pretty thin material. I would have preferred it to be a little thicker so it’s more effective in cutting out the sun / heat during the day.

Full view of the second row. Seat back incline angle is comfortable. Generous leg room but underthigh support is predictably wanting.


Useful sunblinds, manually operated. No electric recline function here like what you get in the similarly priced and more rear occupant pampering E-class.


Fit and finish of all materials here is again excellent.


2 more USB C ports here with a useful cubby hole above it, which can hold a phone. Twin blowers above but no separate climate control for the rear.


BMW designed this better in my 3GT. The ‘open at the base’ design detract from its usability.

Boot Space

Boot space has increased a meaningful amount from the outgoing GLC and is now a very useful 620 litres. Most importantly, the car comes with a spare donut wheel that sits below in a conventional wheel well. While the 3GT had brilliant boot space, the inefficiency of the donut placed in the boot (and not a concealed boot well) was a slight irritant in terms of placing luggage. The GLC sorts this issue. The Q5 incidentally does not have a spare wheel at all and if I was comparing the two, I would have rejected it on this ground alone.

The boot is well shaped, has a retractable cover and has the usual conveniences like bag hooks, lights, etc. The split seats can be pushed down to create a nice large flat loading bay if you ever want to put the car to use for apartment moving duties.

Week long travel luggage packed, completely with my foldie bicycle. Love the size of the boot on this one. Donut spare wheel below it for added peace of mind.

There are no cigarette lighter ports inside the car unfortunately, only USB C. These are useful for some stuff like dash cams, tyre inflators etc. There is one fortunately in the boot, on the left side, image below.


Given its extreme location at one far end of the car, I just picked up a wire extender for the cigarette lighter, just to be on the safe side so the tyre inflator can access the furthest tyre as well. Although my gut feel is most good inflators like Michelin etc have pretty long cables per se.

Still to receive the above, only just ordered it.

UPDATE: Thanks to this super useful post by BHP’ian PSOSP who pointed me to another 12V cigarette lighter port placed in the footwell under the glove box (it is indeed there where he mentioned). Should have checked the manual maybe but incidentally even the SA I had asked wasn’t aware of this one. He pointed me to the one in the boot, saying the front has only USB C ports.

Features and instrumentation

The GLC definitely is feature packed for most part with a few surprising omissions. For instance, it does not have a keyless touch entry, which even my Meridian had. So one has to use the key fob to open the car - annoying when you're out nearly 80 big ones bringing home the 3 pointed star. But other than that, the cockpit is thoroughly modern and heavily digitized, it’s got a lovely pano sunroof without compromising on head room for rear passengers, automatic climate control, a handy does of USB C ports (front and back); wireless Android and Apple CarPlay, paddle shifters, ambient lighting settings that will feel inadequate only in front of the updated gen Audis, wireless phone charging, touch type controls on the steering, ADAS (not level 2 though), cruise control etc etc.

There is such a thing as too much soft touch / electronic features. My few gripes with the GLC is the relative lack of manual controls. While the tactile bits of the instrumentation have decent feedback, I find that the GLC requires me to take my eyes off the road much more than the 3GT. I would have much preferred controls like AC etc to be adjustable with manual buttons which with muscle memory, you can operate without taking your eyes off the road.

The soft touch buttons on the steering are nice to use and while some complain that this causes accidental touches and operation, I’ve not found this to be an issue at all once you adapt to it. What is a bit annoying is the excessively complicated user interface. Some of the menus are overcomplicated and you sometimes need to dive into a few layers of menus to change settings. This applies to both the centre MID as well as the drivers cockpit. While I have, as the primary user learnt and adapted to this, I struggle particularly getting my driver to get familiar with these settings - its been much easier to teach him the basics on my relatively more straight forward 3GT.

The car is voice command enabled and comes equipped with the Mercedes Me connected car tech. An interesting feature of the centre screen is the transparent bonnet feature. It gives a real time video feed of the road surface under the car (bonnet specifically) - specially useful if you’re in a precarious rough road situation - the car needs to be moving along consistently though for this to work properly as its using its cameras to generate this feed in real time.

Overall then, tech laden as one would expect, perhaps a bit too much on certain aspects but nothing fatal here to complain about. ADAS fans may feel shortchanged by the lack of level 2 ADAS but its not something I particularly care about so not a big miss for me personally. One thing I must make a mention of before I close this section. The volume of the 80 / 120 beeps are extremely calm and muted compared to how I've seen many other manufacturers implement this. They're distinctly audible, make no mistake but definitely not jarring - well done Mercedes on this front!

The various display modes in the driver MID. Centre is the default mode with other modes including a Minimal one and a Sports display. Toggling up and down through the default classic shows information like tripmeter with FE, avg speed, etc, plus music, map and a few more. Other displays include those for offroading as well as a full screen map. I’d have liked it if the CarPlay map could similarly beam on the driver console.


While the fuel readout says E10, I have specific email clarification from Mercedes India that this model is E20 compliant. Air pressure is helpfully mentioned here in both kPA and PSI. That courtesy doesn’t extend into the MID though where you simply have no option to display the air pressure in PSI. Extremely annoying.


There are some funky displays available on the central MID if you’re in the mood for something different. I hardly ever display anything but the Apple CarPlay screen though.

PS: If you want a really detailed pictoral review, there's no better place than our GLC Official Review. Since my car interior / exterior color combination is the same as the one in the official review thread, I have not gone overboard duplicating the pictoral review here in the same level of detail.

[Axe77]

GLC 300: The Driving Experience

The Engine

Ah, finally the bit that we petrol heads live for. What's it like to drive.

The GLC 300 4MATIC is powered by a 1,999 cc, 4 cylinder petrol engine, churning 255 BHP (praise the Lord, for the power is now adequate!!) and 400 NM. Continuing the stat attack, which I can't be bothered to re-write so I've shamelessly lifted off Aditya's very detailed official review ...the car has a kerb weight of 1,945 kg. This means it has a power-to-weight ratio of 131 BHP/ton and a torque-to-weight ratio of 206 Nm/ton. The engine comes with a 48V mild hybrid system. The mild hybrid part of this is an integrated starter generator that sits between the engine and the transmission and takes over the role of the alternator and starter. It can also provide a power / torque boost. When quick acceleration is required, the electric motor helps by providing up to 23 BHP and 200 Nm of torque. It also helps with energy generation when it's not giving any output in terms of power / torque. Thank you kindly, Addy - I owe you a coffee once this goes live!!

For me, from all the numbers jargon thrown above, its two key aspects that put this Mercedes squarely into consideration. The car sporting a 300 spec engine and not an underpowered 200 spec one. That was absolutely essential as I'm just not a fan of some of these Germans providing utterly underpowered engines in these premium cars. The second is the handy inclusion of 4MATIC in the petrol GLC - certainly a 'nice to have' feature in an "SUV", even if its not going to so much as peek over a kerb, let alone climb on top of it. We do tour a lot and while I have no off-roading aspirations in this very expensive German soft toy, its nice for the car to have basic abilities that one would associate with an SUV, specially since we do like road trips including to off beat locations and any additional capabilities for those dodgy last mile access is always welcome to have in the back pocket.

In terms of the drive, the car is very smooth, its quick to accelerate specially with that mild hybrid system giving it a smooth boost at take off and you're never found wanting of power at any speed, whether in the city or out on the highway. This is not a push back in your seat, manic kind of acceleration but the most sophisticated smooth, linear fast car. It’s guaranteed to bring a smile but won't leave you giggling yourself silly like a 6 cylinder B58 would. Addy's official review reminds me that the engine revs till 6,500 rpm, which is just short of the redline (6,750 rpm) but honestly these are not stats I'm focused on while driving. For me its more about whether the car feels nice and smooth to drive, is fast when I want it and can be thrown around the odd corner without a care. The gearbox is a 9G-TRONIC AT that is quick enough to upshift although purists will certainly find the ZF gearbox on the BMWs a hint superior.

The car comes with four driving modes: Comfort (default), Eco, Sport and a customizable Individual setting. Toggling between these is pretty easy and quick too with a direct button on the centre console facilitating this. My default driving mode is in comfort where the steering is nice and easy to handle and power on tap is more than enough. In highway driving I tend to toggle between approaches. On the excessively monitored highways or routes like the MTHL Atal Setu and Bombay Pune expressway, I have now found myself using cruise control generously and driving is so boring on some of these sections that I sometimes even move from the Comfort into Eco mode sometimes. Even in comfort mode, the car cruises at 100 - 120 kmph at a really low and comfortable RPM and munching long distances in this car is absolutely effortless with very low fatigue levels.

On more interesting highways like inner smooth B highways or even other sections of 6 lane divided highways like the JNPT road, I generally operate in either Sport mode or my Individual setting (which is mostly Sport oriented on the dynamics front and set to comfort for the engine). In Sports mode, the throttle responses are distinctly more engaging but more importantly the steering also weighs up just that extra bit for those occasions where you wanna feel a tad more alive tackling curves.

Overall, no complaints from this engine which is an absolute peach to drive. My sense from some brief drives in the BMW 3GL petrol is that the 4 cylinder B48 possibly still holds a marginal edge on refinement and power over this Mercedes one, but not in any meaningful enough way to create buyer's remorse for the GLC buyer. NVH levels inside the cabin are superbly contained and while the engine is slightly more audible when pushed around, its audible in a 'welcome way' offering some pleasant aural input even though these are no pops and bangs of course by any stretch.

In the overall reckoning, I'm still a happy puppy with this setup and highway drives are a pleasure whether cruising easy or whether getting on with a bit more shove - it'll do both happily.

Ride comfort, handling and dynamics.

The car is running 235/55 R19 Continental Contact6 tyres and with its simpler suspension setup absent dynamic chassis control or similar, I'd say the car performs adequately with a few sore spots. The ride is stiffer than I'd credit a Mercedes for and at low speeds, I do feel it filters bumps into the car distinctly more than I'd care for, specially if you have aired up the tyres to the manual recommended 37 PSI. I've found running 32 - 34 PSI improves the low speed ride making a bit more palatable, but never fully comfortable still at low speed.

At higher speeds, including highway drives, the car is a lot more comfortable and absorbent of any road undulations, highway joints etc. Straight line stability is excellent and dynamically, Mercedes are getting more and more sorted at tackling curves and even sharp corners with body roll being minimal. But make no mistake, when it comes to steering setup, its an excellent Mercedes, but its still no BMW. You cannot throw it into corners with the excessive aggression that you can with a BMW. For outright hooliganism around corners, the BMW still holds the edge. Personally, I'd have liked the steering to weigh up a bit more for an even more engaging drive. As its currently set up, its something 95% owners won't have any problems with. Its only in those 5% scenarios that you may want just that litte extra more stiffness in the steering.

On the positive though, the Mercedes is far more comfortable at munching miles. I've done some back to back highway drives in both cars in recent months and I find my fatigue levels far lower at the end of a long driving day in the Mercedes compared to my 3GT.

Overall then, the GLC again scores with distinction, in the top percentile on most factors and honorable mention worthy at least, wherever its not the top dog.

The various modes that are available.


A quick summary of the four main modes (including how I've custom set my "Individual" mode).


There is a fifth offroad setting ...


... with a suitable warning before you can choose it.


The offroad display that you can choose in the centre MID.

Mileage & Fuel Economy

My volume weekday miles are in the Lower Parel area (Mumbai residents will understand the reference). Until the day I buy a Camry or a Hycross, the average Lower Parel commuter trains oneself to ignore looking at in-city FE. My best guess is that my combined cycle city running FE (which includes overall running within the city including more open roads too) is likely hovering around 6.5 - 7.5 kmpl. Pure highway drives when one is on one's best, camera shy behavior generally yields anything between 11.5 - 13 kmpl. This would include generous doses of cruise control at 90 - 100 kmph. Get a little frisky along the way, even within these speeds, with some pedal to the metal acceleration thrown in and this can very quickly plummet to 9.5 - 10.5 kmpl or thereabouts, depending on the extent of misdemeanors.

For a heavy, 4MATIC equipped, turbo petrol engine, these efficiency figures are perfectly acceptable to me and I consider them par for course.

Braking

The technical version of this section is that Mercedes has equipped the GLC with Active Brake Assist. My own personal expert opinion after 10,000 kms of driving:

Press brakes. Car stops. As per expectation. If it were any different, this review would have opened with it.

The most important takeaway from this section that I'd like to leave internet users with is also our most reported typo - its "brake, not "break". (Maybe I should open with this section after all!).

[Axe77]

Specific incidents and general service.

1. Initial squeaks and creaks

When I first took delivery of the car, I found the infamous squeaks and noises that in fact, it’s the Jeep that was (in)famous for. I took the car to Autohangar at Lower Parel and this was clearly not new to them. They did some lubing or similar around the door beading and that seems to have addressed for most part.

There are still some occasional creaking sounds that come from the boot but its nothing that disturbing anymore, unlike the initial noise which was more invasive.

2. Broken clasp on boot tray.

At some point on a long drive where my boot was filled to the brim, I managed to somehow break the clasp at the end of the tray that hooks, rendering the tray as good as useless. It really didn’t warrant buying a pricey new tray and a jugaad solution was called for to manually fix it. Autohangar were completely unhelpful to a point where for an entire week, I did not even get an answer on how much a new tray costs.

Fed up, I went to Landmark near Eros theatre, a place that’s known to be a trusty station for many classic Mercedes owners as well. Spoke to an extremely helpful SA there who put me on to an old mechanic. He said he’ll figure something but if I’m ok to leave the car behind for a day. Voila - the man came up with some old part which he fixed on to the tray leaving it functionally, as good as new. Exactly the sort of solution I had been looking for.

The cost: A princely sum of … NOTHING!! I gave the mechanic a handsome tip for his enterprise and efforts but more importantly, within 3 months of ownership, Landmark had won over my service, despite the car being an Autohangar sale.

Top left: The original clasp.
Top right: The empty spot with the clasp having come off.
Bottom left: The Landmark mechanic took charge and promised it back in a day.
Bottom right: Jugaad fix done, tray back in place and a happy puppy of an owner is Landmark’s newest customer.

3. Front bumper scraped

I had a minor scrape in heavy traffic which left a minor scratch on the left side of my front bumper, dislodging the sensor as well and one of the clasps that holds the bumper.

Again, a quick trip to Landmark and they fixed it back in place. No charge whatsoever and about 20 mins spent at the workshop.

[b]4. The fuel lid incident.

This is a a big one. I was on a weekend trip to Nashik and decided to fill up before existing Nashik city on my return. The car was showing about 260 kms of range but I still wanted to fill up on my usual XP 95 or similar before leaving so the journey doesn’t warrant a fuel halt.

Come what may, I couldn’t get the fuel lid to open. Luckily, the car had enough range to bring me home but given how unpredictable Nashik highway traffic can be, I ended up hypermiling the car a fair bit for the first half of the journey to bring her home safe and sound. Fortunately, I was not alone and as a large group, we also had my 3GT with the driver on this journey as well as fellow BHP’ian RJ2285 for company.

The car was sent to Landmark the following day and as expected the culprit was the internal motor that opens the fuel lid, which was promptly replaced within warranty - sorted as a same day job. My bigger fear and question to the team was that this is severely confidence busting and what if I were on a much longer journey where coming home on the remaining fuel was not an option. A fuel lid not opening is not reassuring AT ALL so wanted to understand and learn the internal manual override function for this. Apparently, while older GLC models had some complicated manual override access via the boot, the current GLC is a simpler set up and the lid can in fact be pried open in such a situation with minimal effort. Now this is not reassuring from a “fuel theft” perspective but I’d rather have this risk (minimal in where my car is kept mostly) rather than the much more frightening prospect of an truant fuel flap that doesn’t allow me to refuel. Brings me back to my primary gripe. Keep the basic stuff more mechanical guys and pipe down on the electronics overkill!

Top left and right: The damaged part and the replacement one under warranty.
Bottom left: The cable that slots into this part, which in turn operates the flap.
Bottom right: The sheer relief at seeing the fuel flap in “open” position - a welcome sight after 48 hours since the predicament occurred.

5. The first annual service.

Date: End November 2024
Kms: ~9,700 kms.
Cost: ~36,000.
Pricey if you ask me, I don’t think this work is worth more than 20 - 25k max TBH but those days are past I suppose. I found the labour quite rich in particular, specially since it was a “same day” job essentially. Landmark returned the car the same evening with a courtesy home drop.

The usual basic stuff, details in the image of the bill below.

6. Miscellaneous

Just for completeness in one place, I'm also cross linking a few updates I had posted on the official review thread before this review went live.

6.1 There was an 80A Fuse recall plus a software update toggling the change of default setting for ABA. (Discussed here).

6.2 My maps had suddenly stopped working which was again fixed with some software update. (Discussed here).

[Axe77]

Photolog: Moments from the year gone by

South Mumbai skyline early morning.


Gotta admit it - SoBo just hits you different.


Mod fleet lined up. Lunch with the Bangy Mods.


Sunset at Sula Nashik. With its garage mate as well as RJ2285’s immaculate Superb.


At the main Sula vineyard here. My wife was wondering why I’m going out of the way to park them alongside. #TBHPthings


The return journey from Nashik. Parking in a line is not an issue as BHP’Ian RJ2285 suffers from the same #TBHPthings bimaari.


Parked here at Utopia Nashik. Luggage loading = another angle to shoot the cars from.


At Nashik with BHP’ian Omkar for the Mahindra 3XO media drive. Parked right behind is BHP’ian Dippy’s gorgeous white Thar.,


Somewhere on the outskirts near JNPT road. Reviewing the GLC Coupe AMG with Omkar. That was a FUNNNN car.


Old Mumbai. I don’t think I’ve owned any vehicle in recent times that’s not been photographed at this spot. Ok wait …. not the N Torq, but that one’s not allowed to stray far from home.


SoBo + sunrise.


Outside Kala Ghoda Cafe. Hang around here any 3 mornings in a given week and chances are you’d have seen Moderator Navin at least twice.


Had to end on this one, coz I’m just a sucker for lakeside pics.

Hope you enjoyed reading the review as much as I enjoyed penning it. Holler if you have any questions.

[Axe77]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line.

[CEF_Beasts]

Congratulations on your GLC, wishing you lakhs of happy kilometres

TBH, had I been in the market in 2023-24 for a Luxury Mid-size SUV, the GLC 300 would’ve been my ideal pick, over the X3 30i, if it had been available in 2021, I would’ve definitely gone for it.

Simple reason being a tourer should be comfortable and my X3 has a below average rear bench, which is now being felt by the family. They refuse to do very long drives in it now, that duty is now being performed by the HyCross in the garage. No complaints on the driving aspect though!

My dad has started taking the X3 to office alternating with the Innova and the city fuel economy has come down to 7-8kmpl, which is quite similar to what you’re experiencing in the city. On the highways with XP95 diet the onboard computer does go upto 14-15kmpl.

What I’ve completed in 2.5 years, you’ve done that in 1 year (10000 kms). The RFTs in BMWs definitely sour the overall experience, where Mercedes always scores.

[100Kmphormore]

Congratulations Axe, many smiles and miles with the GLC. Car looks like a dream, especially the colour. Did you not consider the GLE? Would have been a weekend car of sorts as well, since its available in the 6 cylinder 450 AMG trim

[Hayek]

Congrats Axe. Had been wondering how come you replaced the Jeep so soon - glad to note that it was just the desire for a more “heart pleasing” car.

Does seem like a great car - but it reminds you of how much prices have risen. I had evaluated the GLC300 in late 2016 - it was brand new then (the previous generation) and cost ₹54 l ex showroom. Am surprised it does not have the new Mercedes Benz virtual cockpit. I agree that iDrive is a far superior interface than touchscreens, and do hope BMW stick with it for the foreseeable future.

Best wishes and hope to see a lot more on this thread.

[dawnthegreat]

Congratulations on one year of owning the GLC! That SoBo skyline shot is spectacular, can you share the exact location? Would love to recreate with my car

[GTO]

Axe77, big congratulations on the GLC300! This generation of the GLC is wonderful. Looks great, is fun to drive (unlike the boring previous-gen) and has impressive interiors (unlike the bland previous-gen). I still think you sold your Meridian too early, but hey, when the heart wants something...it just wants it . Your garage is shaping up really sweet (including your bikes too).

Just like your 3GT, here's wishing your GLC also gives you many years of driving pleasure & fun road-trips.

[RJ2285]

Fantastic review Axe77, of a stunning car! It oozes luxury both inside and out. I thoroughly enjoyed tailgating you on the drive from Nashik to Bombay, and those beautiful sunset shots you captured at Sula were amazing. I loved them! Looking forward to our next road trip together. Wishing you atleast 10 years of peaceful ownership with this incredible beauty.