Mercedes-Benz GLA: A thing of beauty but a bit vague on the road

The good-looking Mercedes-Benz GLA is an attractive design both inside and out. The PHEV element has its drawbacks dealing with both ICE and EV platforms.

Mercedes-Benz GLA

Mercedes-Benz GLA
Rating	★★★☆☆
Price	€48,690 - €53,533 as tested
Engine	It’s a Renault
The Spec	Comprehensive, but AMG Line kit will spool up the bill rapidly
Verdict	Is the gloss coming off PHEVs? Quite possibly.

Some time ago – it must have been because the pubs were still open – a close neighbour was in discussion at a West Cork bar with a mutual friend who likes to hop a ball.

My mate was telling our mutual buddy about his new Mercedes acquisition and how delighted he was with same.

”You know that thing has a Renault engine,” our mutual blowhard buddy expounded, causing my friend to nearly choke on his pint.

“Mercedes did a deal with the French crowd to buy engines off them and they’re fitting them across the range,” he added knowingly.

Within minutes my friend was on the phone demanding to know if his new – and expensive – Mercedes was indeed one of those machines “tainted” (his word) with this intolerable liberty taken by the German giant. If he was paying “Mercedes money” for his car, then he wanted a Mercedes – unsullied by French, or any other influence.

I assured him his new Merc was not indeed ‘tainted’ but Renault engines – or at least engines jointly developed by Daimler and the French company – were indeed now part of the units on offer from Stuttgart across their model line-up.

Relieved that his particular car was all-German and he could still hold his head up in polite company without fear of being accused by various know-it-alls of having purchased a pig in a poke, my friend was still shocked that such an accusation could have been levelled at him.

Being of an age whereby if he purchased something which said ‘Hoover’ on it, he expected to be the owner of a Hoover, not a Hoover with ‘made under licence by Groover’ written on it. 

And that’s understandable too. Nevertheless, he was left shocked by the whole experience and felt undermined by the thought that Mercedes would sell him something that did not have a definitive three-pointed star emblem on it.

But, in the modern age whereby industrial giants regularly break bread together and work closely in tandem on the development of new product, my friend should not have been shocked by the Daimler/Renault alliance. He should have understood it for what it was: a co-operative venture between two car companies.

Mercedes-Benz GLA futuristic interior

While the initial alliance between Mercedes (sorry, parent company Daimler) and Renault mainly focused on small capacity turbodiesel engines which were installed largely in A-Class and B-Class models, the co-operation between the Franco-German companies has latterly also come up with a small petrol engine and it features in this week’s tester.

That car is the new GLA 250e which is one of a slew of Mercedes PHEVs coming your way. It is fitted with 1.3 litre turbo petrol engine (which outputs some 156 bhp in its’ own right) and this is bolstered by an electric motor which delivers a further 101 bhp and contributes to a total system harvest of 218 bhp.

In turn all that translates into a 0-100 km/h time of 7.1 seconds, which is pretty fleet, and a top speed of 220 km/h, which isn’t that shoddy either. 

Fully charged, the system will also allegedly deliver considerable economy – 1.7 l/100 km (156.9 mpg) and around 40 km of electric-only motoring.

Footling around town this will be very handy of course and if you keep the thing charged regularly and mind it properly, it will deliver petrol-free motoring for much of your daily needs.

However, if you allow it to fall off the charging cliff, then expect to be returning around 6.2 l/100 km (45.1 mg) which is quite a way away from the manufacturers’ claim.

The fact that – by comparison with a normal GLA – you’re hawking around a 150 kg battery pack unnecessarily when it is not charged is a large factor in the ‘real’ consumption figure, but so too is the small matter having to learn to drive the thing most expeditiously.

If you’re heavy-footed, you will extract the max. from both ICE and electric motor, rather than getting the best from one or other.

But because the two systems are intricately interlinked, it can be an exceptionally fine line between one and the other.

To this end, the car is programmed to start on electricity only, so the combustion engine never kicks in on start-up and gives proceedings a hushed and funereal air.

The corollary is, though, that when you’re out and about and motoring on petrol only, the electric end of the package will kick in and provide what we have already seen to be spirited performance. That performance, though, means rather less efficiency on the consumption front.

Mercedes-Benz GLA

There is much to like here but there are downsides too. For instance, the eight-speed dual clutch auto, when in ‘comfort’ mode, seems to be constantly in search of the correct cog; in ‘sport’ it is even more edgy; while and in ‘eco’ mode you get full electric motoring for however long that lasts and you can also accelerate to a speed of 140 kph (87 mph) which is impressive enough, but with a similar collorary.

Given that the GLA is a genuinely eye-catching beast and that its good looks are a regular feature of conversation when it is being discussed, it is disappointing that two elements of the car’s on-road behaviour seem to have been diluted.

I found the steering a tad too vague for my tastes. Initially I thought the thing suffered from terminal understeer, but then I realised that the front wheels offered loads of grip, somehow the electromagnetic steering failed to comprehend. As a result the steering felt a little too dead and without any great driver feedback.

Also, the added weight of the car meant that the suspensions had to be adjusted to cope and as a result the body control was excellent, but the ride quality was terribly firm and did not compare well with other siblings. The adoption here of a torsion beam suspension at the back to cope with the underfloor battery layout didn’t help.

The interior of the car is as good-looking as the exterior would suggest and for a small SUV, the GLA is actually quite a roomy thing for passengers and has a decent boot too. 

The Mercedes MBUX infotainment system is also a joy to use, although you still have to turn off stuff like the lane-changing warning system every time you get in the car.

This is all very well for motorway driving or M50 commutes, but not of much use in rural Ireland. Equally annoying is the lack of a spare tyre. If you’re interested in buying this car, make sure you specify you want a spare tyre of some description.

All told the GLA 250e is a nice car – good to look at and rewardingly practical and functional for a small SUV/Crossover. It is far from being a great car and is beset by the same difficulties – mainly weight related – as with so many PHEVs.

And, it is worth remembering too that the tax benefits for owning one of these things has been much diluted in recent weeks, so they are no longer as pocket friendly as they used to be.