Mercedes-Benz GLA review 2021

CarExpert

It's bigger than an A-Class, but smaller than a GLC. So, does the 2021 Mercedes-Benz GLA250 strike the perfect balance between hatchback and SUV? Paul Maric tests the GLA250, which is the most expensive GLA on sale before you hit the AMG models, to see whether it's worth the step up in price from the smaller A-Class.  Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 00:57 Interior: 04:28 Infotainment: 05:56 Safety Tech: 09:38 Practicality: 10:41 On the road: 14:36 Verdict: 18:44  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #review #mercedesbenz #gla

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. So the craze of turning hatchbacks into SUVs continues because

00:05 Mercedes-Benz has just launched the updated version of the GLA, which is the SUV based

00:11 on the A-Class. This is the current top-spec non-AMG version, which is just under $67,000.

00:17 Now, keep in mind, this one has a stack of options on it, so if you are looking at buying one,

00:23 just double-check what comes standard with the car. We're going to be talking about some stuff

00:26 that may be optional today. Now, this competes with cars like the BMW X1, the Audi Q3, the Lexus

00:32 UX, there's a few other cars in that segment that go right up against it. Today, we're going to do

00:37 a detailed review of the Mercedes-Benz GLA 250. If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of

00:42 this review, you can use the time codes up on the screen there, or if you're on YouTube,

00:46 just scroll down and use the chapters below. And if you haven't done so already, I'd love it if

00:50 you could subscribe and also press the bell icon so you can find out every single time

00:54 I drive a car with lots of options. Let's talk exterior. You've got eight different

00:59 colours to choose from, and all but black is going to cost you extra, with the bulk of them

01:03 costing around $1,500. This one here is closer to $2,000. It's actually a really nice-looking

01:09 colour as well, and it works well with the red seats, which we'll have a closer look at when

01:12 we dive into the interior. But let's have a closer look here at this design. So the GLA,

01:18 I don't know, I guess it's the executive SUV. They haven't really gone with a super sporty

01:22 look for GLA, and I think this kind of matches that demeanour. Keep in mind there is a GLA45

01:27 and a GLA35 as well, so these go all the way from quite sedate through to, you know,

01:32 bald herring. So it should be impressive to see what this is like in GLA45 trim, but this gets

01:37 you to the point where you don't have to spend AMG money, but you still have that balance of

01:41 performance with the 250. Okay, design, grille, I like this. The Mercedes-Benz grilles have really

01:47 evolved. You've got this cool 3D element, a giant Mercedes-Benz emblem at the front,

01:52 and then they've offset the body colours with those little chrome highlights, but also black

01:57 down the bottom here. This is a piano black. I'll be keen to see how this goes over time as you clip

02:01 kerbs and come out of driveways and all that sort of stuff. I don't know how well that's going to

02:06 last, but it does sit quite high off the ground, so it shouldn't be too much of a concern.

02:09 Now, jumping over here, you get LED headlights as standard, but this car has the optional Matrix

02:15 LED setup. Mercedes-Benz calls it Multi-Beam, but in effect it's the same thing that you get with

02:19 the Matrix headlight. That includes daytime running lights and an indicator built into that beam.

02:24 Okay, moving on to the wheels. Your standard wheel is a 19-inch alloy on the GLA250, and it comes

02:30 with run-flat tyres, but this has the optional 20-inch wheel which deletes run-flat tyres,

02:36 but this also has adaptive suspension, so that will kind of help with the fact that they're

02:41 quite low profile, and it should mean that it actually rides nicely instead of quite harshly,

02:45 which is what you can get with run-flat tyres because they have such a firm sidewall.

02:48 So I quite like the design of this optional 20-inch alloy wheel, but keep in mind this is

02:53 going to show up any wheel marks that you get, so stay away from kerbs. This also has the AMG,

02:59 the Sportline package, so you get these perforated rotors with Mercedes-Benz writing on the caliper.

03:05 Let me know if these are actually functional or not. I mean, obviously, you know, cross-drilling

03:09 helps with heat dissipation, but I don't know if this is just a design thing or if they actually do

03:14 something here, but it's good to see they have them. It gives the car a bit of a sporty appearance.

03:18 And then, of course, wheel arch flares for your off-road image. Jump around to the side here. I

03:24 love this matte black roof rail coupled with that panoramic roof. You get privacy glass over here

03:30 as part of another package, and then come around to the back, LED taillights built into here,

03:34 a 4MATIC badge because that is Mercedes-Benz speak for all-wheel drive. Now, like this,

03:39 this is kind of a trademark Mercedes-Benz thing. You see this on a lot of their SUVs.

03:44 It's a protector for the bumper bar, so when you're loading bags and things into the car,

03:48 you're not going to damage all of the paint and stuff that you normally would if you drop a bag

03:53 onto there. Now, a couple of interesting design elements down here. You've got diffuser down the

03:57 bottom, but also fake exhaust pipes. Now, the interesting thing with these is, and let me know

04:01 in the comments below, designers put them in, but I don't really understand the logic of them.

04:05 If you don't have an exhaust there, why have that there? So, let me know in the comments below,

04:10 do you think that is a silly thing to have? Is there a reason for it? Do you just not care

04:13 altogether? Just in terms of design, I think this is quite a smart and handsome looking car.

04:18 It's sort of not overtly SUV-like, and I think it sort of sits in that middle ground between being

04:24 quite sort of softly designed and then being an SUV, so it sort of straddles that line a bit.

04:28 Righto, let's look at the interior of the GLA, and we'll start with the key. You've got lock,

04:33 unlock, boot, Mercedes-Benz in the centre, a nice sort of brushed aluminium at the bottom,

04:38 and then it's blank on the rear. This is a proximity sensing key, so you just leave that

04:42 in your pocket and then use the push button to start the car. Now, in terms of styling, look,

04:47 it's pretty good. I think that they've done a really nice job here, and when you do sit inside

04:51 the car, you're immediately drawn in by these giant screens in front of you. I love the fact

04:56 that these air vents move around like this. They've got LED backlighting. You open and close

05:01 them by turning them. Just looks really nice and high-end. There's that lashing of piano black,

05:06 which I'm not a massive fan of because it marks really easily, and you can see all around these

05:10 surfaces that you can see fingerprints and other stuff on them, so not the best for design stuff,

05:16 but look, I mean, it's all the craze at the moment, and then over here you've got this

05:19 faux carbon weave inlay, and then the dashboard has the stitching alongside it. So look, it is

05:25 nicely presented. I just think stuff like this piano black, I just wish there was an option to

05:29 have something else fitted there instead. Now, in terms of touch points, centre console is nice and

05:33 soft, same with the door, and we do have a tool for measuring how soft our touch points are. We

05:38 have tested all the surfaces in this car. If you want to see how this compares to other cars that

05:42 we've tested, just go down to the description to see the link. Now, what about build quality? So,

05:47 this all feels really nice and sturdy. Nothing's moving around too much. It all feels really

05:54 nicely put together. Moving on to infotainment, today I'm going to run you through MBUX,

05:59 the main infotainment system, the screen ahead of the driver, plus the head-up display. Now,

06:04 if you do want a detailed review of MBUX, you can click up here to watch a detailed review. Today

06:09 will just be a brief overview of the main features. So, MBUX is two 10.25-inch screens that

06:15 sit here ahead of the driver. It's both a touchscreen, it allows you to move everything

06:19 with your fingers, or you can use this touchpad below, or on the steering wheel you have controls

06:24 on the left-hand side for the left screen, and controls on the right-hand side for the right-hand

06:28 side screen, plus the head-up display. So, the map display is nice and sharp, and if we go back

06:33 here to the home menu, you'll find your shortcuts to access all the main functions of the car.

06:39 You have AM, FM, DAB plus digital radio, along with Bluetooth streaming, and also the ability

06:45 to store music, and also stream over USB, and over the air as well using LTE. This car has

06:51 Mercedes me built into it, so for example, if I go into the apps here, and if we go to hotels,

06:56 it'll tell us which hotels are near us, and then it will pull data off the internet to find things

07:00 like ratings for those hotels. So, you can see here while this loads, it'll bring up a picture

07:04 of the hotel, along with the user ratings, and the distance from where you are right now. So,

07:10 this will be super handy stuff if you are traveling somewhere. And then in terms of

07:13 smartphone connectivity, you have wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. I'll show you what

07:18 that looks like first here with Apple CarPlay. Disappointingly, it's not a full screen integration,

07:24 so it sits in this tiny little window here, so it doesn't really look that good, but it does

07:29 move around nicely. It's all nice and responsive and quick there for Apple CarPlay. I'll show you

07:33 what Android Auto looks like. So, you can see here it's the same story with Android Auto. It's

07:38 not a full screen integration. We'll see what that looks like on the home menu. That's all nice and

07:43 fast as well. Moving onto the screen ahead of the driver, you have a stack of customizability

07:48 options here, which is cool. So, you can control everything from what the center looks like and

07:52 what it does to the overall design. So, using this little pad here, you can flick through the

07:57 different options for that center design. Using the home button, it brings up the rest of the

08:01 context menu, so you can have everything displayed from navigation through to telephone or the

08:05 assistant systems. And then finally, you can change the style and display. So, let's go down

08:10 to progressive. Look at that. That looks nice and snazzy, and it changes everything else as it goes.

08:15 So, it is really cool to see here that, I don't know, Mercedes-Benz has kind of got with the time

08:19 when it comes to technology, and I love being able to just change the look and feel of all of this.

08:23 And that translates to the head-up display as well. Using these controls here, you can flick up to

08:29 the head-up display, and then every segment of that head-up display can be changed. So, we can

08:34 move from having our speedo in the center, navigation to the left, to just having the

08:39 speedo or having none of it at all. So, lots of customizability options for the driver.

08:43 Now, what about the sound system? So, it comes standard with a nine-speaker sound system, but

08:48 like I mentioned earlier, this car has options on it, and one of them is the 12-speaker Burmester

08:53 sound system. So, you get a little bit more punch out of it, and I think it is worth ticking. If

08:58 you're an audiophile, it really enhances the experience. I know when, I'm going to harp on

09:02 about my Tesla here, but when I drive that around, it has a really, really good sound system. So,

09:06 I love being able to listen to music when, you know, the world goes past you.

09:11 And in terms of connectivity, this car is now exclusively USB-C. So, you've got one up the

09:16 front here for smartphone mirroring, another two in the center console, plus some in the rear,

09:21 and don't fret if you don't have USB-C devices. Mercedes-Benz can provide you one of these,

09:25 which is USB-C to USB-A, so that solves that potential drama. Plus, there's also a 12-volt

09:31 outlet. You also have wireless phone charging on the mat up the front. So, in terms of connectivity,

09:35 this car is really well sorted. Let's talk about safety technology. You get autonomous

09:39 emergency braking that works at low speed and high speed. You get cruise control, but this car

09:44 has the optional adaptive cruise control. It also has the optional self-steering package that

09:48 semi-autonomously steers the car while the adaptive cruise control is running. That also

09:53 includes a lane-changing assistant. So, all you do is indicate and then the car will change lanes

09:57 on its own, which I think is a pretty cool function. Now, in terms of parking aid, you have

10:02 semi-autonomous parking, but you also have the optional 360-degree camera fitted to this car.

10:07 Lots of options. Let's see what that looks like. Okay, so I've got to start the car to show you

10:11 this, so we'll flick that on. One push of this button brings up your semi-autonomous parking

10:16 feature, but you can then scan through the camera here to see the front view, a more detailed view

10:22 of the front view with your 360. You have the full around view with curb cam, so you know if you've

10:28 jabbed those wheels. A reverse view and then a closer reverse view with the 360 camera. So,

10:34 there is a lot of detail here and it's quite a high quality camera as well, so it should make

10:38 parking much easier. Okay, moving on to practicality and what about storage? So, you can put

10:43 your phone down the front there on the wireless charging pad or if you have a smaller phone,

10:46 it'll fit in here. The cool thing is with the cup holders though that if you don't want to have

10:51 these little grabby things in the way, you can click them out of position. So, you get a little

10:56 bit more room in there and then inside the door, you also have room for a bottle with extra storage

11:01 on the side. There's a center console here. It's actually quite deep. Have a look at this. It takes

11:05 the whole bottle, which is pretty cool, although it's not very wide, but it gives you a good

11:09 opportunity to store things out of the way of prying eyes. There's a glove box down here. It's

11:14 actually a really decent size. It'll fit the bottle easily and shut, which is a nice novelty.

11:18 You have netting down the bottom and then also a spot for your sunnies up here.

11:22 Moving on to comfort, you get dual zone automatic climate control. Now, here's a question for you.

11:28 There's a button here that says air conditioning. We get what that means, but what does rest mean

11:32 underneath it? I've seen that in quite a few cars and I'm curious to know if you guys know. Let me

11:36 know in the comments section below. You also get heated seats as standard, but this car has the

11:40 optional cooled seat package as well. You also get a sunroof standard, which is cool. This one has a

11:45 panoramic glass roof as well that opens. Now, have a look at these seats. They look pretty fancy,

11:51 don't they? So, this is the optional interior package you can get with the perforated seats,

11:56 the red highlights to suit the exterior. And then in terms of actual seat comfort,

12:00 they're really nice. You have plenty of adjustment here, plus a little more adjustment on the seat

12:04 itself. I love the way the steering wheel sits in the hand. You've got the paddle shifters attached

12:08 to the back of it. The flat bottom sits beautifully in the hands and all of these controls are very

12:13 easy to reach. Okay, second row of the GLA. In terms of legroom, it's not terrible. I do have

12:18 my seat quite far back, but I've got adequate knee room there and I have absolutely loads of toe room.

12:24 Headroom is okay. It's just sort of touching up on the side here, but for the most part,

12:29 I'm fitting okay. Now, in terms of creature comforts, you have mat pockets, air vents here

12:34 that can be changed and controlled. Over here, you have USB outlets. That's where your other

12:39 two USB slots are for USB-C charging. You have a little tray there for stuff. Center armrest as

12:46 well. And then you have bottle holders there. They expand nicely. And I've said this before,

12:52 but I love the engineering in this. It's got its own little mechanism there that folds away. That's

12:56 cool stuff. And then in the doors, your bottle fits in there with a little bit of room either

13:00 side. You've got two ISOFIX points on the outboard seats and the seats also slide forwards and

13:05 backwards. So you can in effect get more boot room by moving the seats forward if you need to.

13:10 Oh, look what I've just discovered. You've got speakers in the roof behind your head as well.

13:15 Okay, cargo space. What are we talking? So SUV means there should be plenty of space, right?

13:22 Yeah, look, it's actually not too bad. You've got just over 400 litres of cargo space here with the

13:27 second row in place. You've got this little protector. And then if we dive under, you have

13:32 a whole bunch of fun things. So optional sound system comes with a subwoofer in there. You have

13:37 a tyre inflation kit because remember, this one doesn't have the run flat. So you get all these

13:41 little bits and pieces as part of that. Off to the side here, you have a 12-volt outlet,

13:46 a couple of nets there for storage and then hooks on the side. Let's see how it fits our bags.

13:51 I think there shouldn't be too much of a drama that should fit in sideways.

13:55 Look at that, Bob's your uncle. Now, if you do want more space, you can drop the second row.

14:00 I'll show you how that works. First up, remove your cargo blind, which comes out fairly easily.

14:06 Slight pull of that. Now, unfortunately, you can't drop the second row from here. You can only drop

14:12 this centre one. So what you're going to have to do is go around to the side,

14:16 manually pull this lever. That comes down. We'll do the other side as well.

14:22 And that then gives you just over 1400 litres of space.

14:29 We've just hit the road in the GLA 250. Powering this is a 2-litre turbocharged

14:37 four-cylinder petrol engine, makes 165 kilowatts of power and 350 newton metres of torque. It's

14:44 all mated to an eight-speed dual clutch transmission. Now, the dual clutch transmission

14:49 is interesting because once we're moving, it's fine. Like I can get stuck into it now and it

14:53 picks up really nicely and everything's fine. At low speeds, though, it can be a little bit

14:57 jittery and indecisive. So, you know, if you're on a hill or you're just confusing it with a low

15:03 speed manoeuvre, it isn't quite confidence inspiring. But once you're moving, everything's fine.

15:08 Mercedes-Benz claims a combined fuel economy of 7.5 litres per 100km. Let's see what we have

15:16 achieved. Okay, so we're on 11.3 litres per 100km. That's significantly higher than the official

15:22 claim. Keep in mind with an average speed of 16 kilometres an hour, we have been doing a fair bit

15:26 of city driving, but that is still pretty thirsty for such a small car. And also keep in mind that

15:31 it requires a minimum 95-ron premium unleaded fuel. Righto, let's talk drive modes. So you

15:37 select them using this little lever here, and you have Eco, Comfort, Sport and Individual to work

15:43 with. Eco and Comfort, much of the same thing. Eco drops things like air conditioning to increase

15:48 fuel economy. And then if we slide over to Comfort, that then puts the suspension in its

15:54 softest setting. Now, while we're driving here on a country road in Comfort, it is a little bit

15:59 floaty, so it feels nice and smooth, but the problem when you get it as floaty as this is if

16:04 you hit consecutive bumps one after the other, it becomes unsettled and really sort of moves about a

16:10 fair bit. So it's not the most confidence-inspiring feeling, and they do that to compensate for the

16:15 20-inch alloy wheels. You put those on the car, soft suspension, it smooths out the ride in and

16:20 around the city, but when you get out to the country here, it doesn't have that compliance

16:23 level. But if you book country driving to one side, it is remarkable how well they've been

16:27 able to make this car behave in and around the city on cobblestones, potholes, speed humps,

16:32 that kind of thing. The only other downside I've noticed here as the speed picks up is the amount

16:36 of cabin noise. We did notice this on the A45 as well, so it may be the tyre package that's fitted

16:41 to this car, or it could just be something that's inherent to this platform, but it can get a little

16:46 bit droney in here as the speed picks up. Let's talk Sport mode. So, one flick of this switch

16:51 firms everything up, the steering gets heavier, the gearbox goes into a Sport mode, and you can

16:57 see it holding revs there. It's got a little bit of a snarl to it as well, so you can actually hear

17:02 the rush of noise as the turbos suck in air. It's actually pretty impressive and quite responsive

17:11 as well once it's in gear. You do have these paddle shifters attached to the wheels, so you

17:14 can take over control of the shifts yourself, but the Sport mode is really sufficient for this. It's

17:19 really always on top of it and always has you in the right gear. Now, Mercedes-Benz claims an

17:24 official 0-100 figure of 6.7 seconds. Let's see if we can match that.

17:29 Right, let's talk about handling. So, we've got a little corner coming up here,

17:42 tip it in. So, being an all-wheel drive, it actually hooks up really nicely. I'm enjoying

17:50 the noise from that engine. Feel through the steering is really good. I mean, it's not A45

17:55 good, but it does feel nice and dynamic, and it means that you don't need to fork out all your

17:59 money for an AMG model when you're getting 80-90% of the thrills here with the 250.

18:04 What about the turning circle? 11.4 metres. Not the tightest in the world, but it does a commendable

18:11 job for an all-wheel drive. You're able to do turns in tight spaces without having to revert

18:16 to a three-point turn. Let's talk visibility. Surprisingly, this doesn't actually feel all

18:22 that much bigger than an A-Class. So, I can clearly see out the front there, the wing mirrors

18:26 are big enough on the sides, got that little blind spot monitor built into it. Out the back,

18:29 the aperture of that window is fine as well. Overall, it doesn't really feel like you're

18:35 driving an SUV. It feels just like, I guess, a hatchback on stilts.

18:38 So, the GLA 250. Look, it is a pleasant car to drive. I just don't think it's all that composed

18:46 over country roads and continuous undulations, especially with those 20-inch alloy wheels and

18:50 the adaptive suspension. So, I'd probably stick for the 19s and maybe throw the adaptive suspension

18:55 in as well. But outside of that, the engine's nice and responsive. It's quite perky. The gearbox can

19:00 be a little jittery at low speeds, but once you're moving, it's all good. It is loaded with technology

19:05 inside. There's plenty of room as well, so you do feel like you're getting extra value over an

19:09 A-Class. And now, in Australia at least, with a five-year warranty, it really gives you the reason

19:15 to buy this over something like a BMW or an Audi instead. So, let me know your thoughts in the

19:21 comments section below. What do you think about the new Mercedes-Benz GLA? Are you thinking the

19:26 GLA 45 will be a bit of a good all-rounder? Let me know in the comments section below.

19:31 Now, if you did enjoy this video, make sure you hit like, subscribe and also press the bell icon

19:36 so you can find out every single time we drive something new. But until next time, take it easy.

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