Brand new Mercedes-Benz GLC (inc. 0-100km/h & autonomous) review

CarExpert

While it doesn't look all that different to the old Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class, the 2023 Mercedes-Benz GLC300 has finally launched in Australia and Paul Maric has taken it for a spin to see if it's any good.  Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  More Mercedes-Benz content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mercedes-benz More Mercedes-Benz GLC content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mercedes-benz/glc  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior 00:47 Interior 03:34 Infotainment 05:02 Safety Tech 06:49 Practicality 07:44 On the Road 11:00 Driver Aids 17:17 Performance 18:49 Verdict 21:25  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  #mercedesbenz #glc #review

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. So, Mercedes-Benz has just released a brand new GLC. It's been a bit

00:06 of a while between drinks, but this has become bigger. It's also become more expensive as

00:11 well. It's about 10% more expensive than the outgoing version. It's only available in one

00:15 specification here in Australia, and it is the GLC 300. It's priced at just under $105,000.

00:23 This competes with things like the Audi Q5, the BMW X3, and the Lexus NX. Today we're

00:30 going to do a detailed review of this car, so if you do want to skip ahead to other parts

00:33 of this review, you can use the time codes that are on the screen, or if you're on YouTube,

00:37 you can scroll down and use the chapters below. And if you haven't done so already, subscribe

00:40 to our channel and press the bell icon so you can find out every single time we drive

00:44 a new Benz. Let's talk design. So you've got nine colours to pick from. They're all free

00:50 except two of them, and they're the two "manufacture" colours, so they're nice and fancy, but most

00:57 of your colours here are free, which is great news. On the design front, it actually looks

01:01 kind of similar to the outgoing GLC, which isn't such a bad thing. I think that that

01:04 was a pretty sort of decent looking car. So big grille down the bottom here, massive Mercedes

01:10 Benz logo, that thing is enormous. Three-pointed star there on the bonnet as well. A little

01:14 bit of chrome as well. This comes standard with the AMG line for Australia. Camera down

01:19 the bottom there and a bit more chrome as well. Full LED headlights. You can also option

01:24 as part of a $7,000 option pack that includes digital headlights, which is what we have

01:29 fitted here. This actually debuted on the S-Class, and it's cool to see that they have

01:33 filtered this down to vehicles like the GLC. So it works really well at night. You get

01:37 some fantastic projection too, so pretty impressive setup there. Bit of aero down the bottom here,

01:43 and then we whip around to the side, you get 20-inch alloy wheels as standard. Decent bit

01:49 of profile there, so 45 profile, and they're also quite wide, so staggered width, 255 up

01:54 the front here, and then they're wider at the back, so that's going to give you better

01:58 road holding in effect, so we'll see how that works when we go for a spin. AMG line also

02:03 comes with the, I guess, the better brake option. It's a perforated brake setup with

02:08 big calipers there. So, machined finish on the outside and then piano black on the inside

02:12 there as well. Wheel arch cladding, but it matches the body colour. Grand clearance is

02:18 under 200mm, so while it does have an off-road mode, you're really not going to be doing

02:22 any rock hopping or anything like that. Up the top here, body colour on the wing mirror

02:25 with an indicator built into there and a camera there for the 360 camera. I quite like what

02:30 they've done here with these side steps. So, obviously, if you have kids and stuff like

02:34 that, side steps are great for getting in, but you don't need to have kids access this

02:38 part and the downside with big side steps, like on my Raptor, for example, when you get

02:43 out of the car, you always dirty your jeans. So, it's good that they actually have a bit

02:47 of a taper and then at the back here it gets a bit bigger, so the kids can stand on it,

02:50 but you still have that profile that runs down the side and you don't end up sort of

02:54 getting yourself too dirty as you get in and out of the car. A bit more chrome around the

02:57 window sills there. Roof rails, you get panoramic glass roof as standard. Privacy glass, then

03:03 come around to the back with me. So, you're going to find yourself LED taillights back

03:08 here. They look really nice. They're a frosted finish too. 4MATIC there because this comes

03:13 in one spec with all-wheel drive and then GLC 300 just here. Fake exhaust pipes. I really

03:18 don't understand why they do that, but there anyway. And then, finally, you also have a

03:23 brake light up the top here. So, let me know what you reckon about the new GLC in the comments

03:28 section below. It's a big step up in price. Do you think it is too much of a step up in

03:31 price? Let me know down there in the comments section.

03:34 So, we are inside the GLC. This is what the key looks like. You've got the Mercedes logo,

03:40 which locks. You have an unlock button, a boot button, and then it's blank on the back.

03:45 Nice and cold to the touch as well. You have a start button up the top here, and it's a

03:50 proximity sensor in case you can just grab the door handle and in you go. There is also

03:55 a fingerprint reader as well, so that allows you to bring up your personal settings, which

03:59 is kind of cool. So, yeah, look, this is a massive step forward over the previous generation

04:05 of GLC. I mean, it just looks a lot more premium, and to be honest, it kind of needs to. For

04:11 $105,000, it needs to actually look like it's worth that, and I think they've done a great

04:15 job here with these materials along the top of the dashboard. LED lighting, everything

04:19 just feels really nice and solid and expensive, which I think is good news. Big tech stack

04:26 here and ahead of the driver, too, that I'll run you through shortly as well. While it

04:30 does all look nice and premium, there is a lot of piano black here in the centre. What

04:34 about your touch points? So, soft there and soft on the door as well. How soft are they?

04:40 We've got our durometer. We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin. If you want to

04:45 see how this car compares to others that we've tested before, have a look at the link in

04:49 the description below. Now, build quality. All feels really nice and solid, and this

04:57 is what the door sounds like. So, let's talk infotainment. So, you've got this enormous

05:04 display here and then another smaller screen ahead of the driver. This measures around

05:09 12 inches in size, and I guess it kind of makes you feel like you're buying an S-Class.

05:14 It is just a really high-end looking setup. It features what's called Zero Layer, which

05:18 is their new layout for this infotainment system. You can change back to the classic

05:23 view by pushing and holding the home button, and that goes back to what MBUX used to look

05:28 like. But I actually quite like this setup. You can then customise what appears around

05:33 this section here, too. So, there is a lot of stuff that you can actually do with it.

05:37 Shortcuts up the top there as well, and you can customise all of those as required. And

05:44 then you also have connectivity with the car through the phone app and also remote connectivity

05:48 up here as well. So, it's a fully featured system, which is good to see. Now, I mentioned

05:52 earlier this car has the optional package that also includes the better Burmester sound

05:57 system, but in addition to that sound system, you're also getting AM/FM/DAB digital radio,

06:02 and it's an excellent sounding sound system. Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, both of those

06:07 are wireless. This is what Apple CarPlay looks like. It took a little while to start up there,

06:12 but that's a full-screen integration, or pretty much a full-screen integration. Nice and snappy.

06:17 This is what Android Auto looks like. Not a bad setup there, actually. I like this new

06:23 look Android Auto. Nice and fast as well, so all pretty straightforward. So, here ahead

06:28 of the driver, you can actually go to town customising what this looks like as well.

06:31 So, you can change what appears in the centre, but then you can also change the full display

06:37 as well. So, there is a fair bit of configuration available to you there. There's also where

06:42 you change all of your head-up display settings as well, and it is an enormous head-up display.

06:49 Safety tech. So, you've got autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection.

06:55 You have an auto-dimming rear vision mirror. Blind spot monitoring built into the wing

06:59 mirror. You have radar cruise control, and this option pack also brings with it a semi-autonomous

07:04 steering function that we'll test a little bit later on. In addition to that, you have

07:09 a rear cross traffic alert, front and rear parking sensors, in addition to a 360 camera.

07:13 I'll show you what that looks like. Look at that. The quality of that is excellent. I

07:20 love that too. You can kind of just zip around and have a look at different things there.

07:25 You've got different views you can look at. That is a really nice setup. So, looking out

07:30 the back there, you can clearly see what's going on there. Likewise, at the front there,

07:35 you can do like a wide-angle view too. This is a really impressive camera. Very, very

07:41 nice. This is what the horn sounds like. Now, let's talk about your practicality, and we'll

07:46 start off with your connectivity. So, in here, you have a USB-C outlet. You've also got a

07:53 12-volt outlet hidden under there. You've also got a wireless phone charger hidden under

07:58 here as well. If you go back here, you've got another two USB-C outlets. So, there is

08:04 a stack of locations here to charge your devices. And your coffee cup, well, it fits in here

08:09 without any dramas, and it's the perfect size because whether it's small or big, it actually

08:14 fits in really nicely. I also like this too. So, if you go to put your bottle in, you actually

08:20 have these teeth that retract, but then you can actually move the entire container out

08:25 of the way. So, you have a bit more storage space there if you need it, and then you can

08:29 put it back into the position if you need to. In terms of bottle storage, small bottle

08:33 fits inside the door, and so does the big one, which is good to see. Other storage,

08:38 this centre console is nice and deep there too, and you have a glove box down here that

08:43 is really quite large as well, which is very good to see. Now, just before I run you through

08:48 the comfort features, you can actually get, I think, three interior colours here as well,

08:52 so you can change it up if you do want to. You've got dual-zone automatic climate control

08:56 up the front here, seat heating as well. You have seat memory for both the driver and front

09:00 passenger, and you adjust your seats up here, so you can go forwards, backwards. You can bring

09:05 the bottom section out, you can change the backrest, you can move the headrest as well,

09:12 so it's a pretty sort of decent setup there. You also have the ability to adjust lumbar

09:16 support down next to the seat as well. Seats are nice and comfy too, perforated as well,

09:20 which means you won't overheat in summer. On the steering front, steering is electrically

09:25 adjustable for both tilt and reach, and on our reach test, all of this stuff is easy to reach

09:30 while you're driving. So, second row, what's it like back here? So, knee room is not too bad,

09:35 toe room is pretty good, headroom is not too bad as well, so you can see that extra wheelbase has

09:40 helped with legroom here in the second row. Air vents, you get matte pockets, a little bit of a

09:46 storage nook there, which is nice to see. You've also got storage inside the doors for your bottle.

09:51 Bottle can also live here in the centre armrest, so you give this a double tap,

09:56 bottle goes in there, and then also fits inside the door as well. You've got ISOFIX points on the

10:04 two outboard seats for the kids, plus three top tether points, and what about our window test?

10:09 It's auto up and down, boom, goes all the way down as well, very nice to see.

10:17 Let's check cargo space. So, you're on a longer wheelbase, the vehicle is longer as well,

10:21 that means you've got better load opportunities back here. So, you have just over 600 litres of

10:28 cargo space available, a little bit of netting off to the side with some storage there, 12-volt

10:32 outlet. Beneath the cargo floor, we have space saver, spare tyre, plus a couple of tools.

10:39 Show you what it looks like with our bags in there, so there's the laptop bag,

10:45 and then that's the suitcase, so plenty of room, it's actually not a bad storage space.

10:49 And then if you do want a little bit more space, you can drop the second row

10:52 just by pulling these levers and that disappears out of the way,

10:56 that gives you just under 1700 litres of cargo space.

11:00 So, we've just hit the road in the GLC, this weather is absolutely appalling,

11:09 it is raining cats and dogs and it is nine and a half degrees outside. So, yeah. Anyway,

11:16 so it's going to limit what we can do today, but we'll see what we can get away with.

11:21 So, I'll run you through the only engine that's available in GLC for the moment. I think there

11:26 is AMG stuff coming, so a 43 and a 63, and they'll probably mimic what's on offer there in the C-Class

11:32 range as well, but this is all we have here in Australia, the GLC 300. So, under the bonnet,

11:36 it uses a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine, four-cylinder. In addition to that, it also uses

11:43 a 48-volt mild hybrid system. It's actually a really, really nice system and they haven't gone

11:51 sort of too crazy with what they're trying to do with it, but the thing I love the most is when

11:54 you come to a stop, it has an integrated starter generator, so basically as you're rolling to a

12:00 stop, it's able to switch the car off and then when you roll out of the brake and onto the throttle,

12:05 you cannot even feel it switch on, like, I don't even understand how they do that,

12:09 it is so imperceptible, and that's all thanks to that integrated starter generator. In addition to

12:14 those seamless restarts, it's also able to then give you an additional 200Nm of torque as required

12:21 as well, so pretty nice little setup to have. It does add to the overall weight, so the vehicle is

12:26 heavier than the previous generation, but the fuel economy is offset by virtue of that 48-volt

12:31 mild hybrid system. So how much does all that make behind the wheel? 190 kilowatts of power,

12:40 400Nm of torque, and that's all mated to a nine-speed automatic transmission.

12:45 I'll give it a little punch here.

12:46 Yeah, it's not too bad. So, look, I mean, in theory you're getting 400Nm from internal combustion and

12:54 then 200Nm from that starter generator. It doesn't sort of blow you away, and the gearbox is a tiny

13:02 bit laggy there, but it is nice and smooth, which is the main part. Now let's talk fuel economy. So,

13:07 Mercedes-Benz claims a combined average of under 8 litres per 100km. We are currently sitting on

13:12 9.4 litres per 100km from reset, so not an amazing figure, but also not too bad as well when you

13:19 consider the size of this vehicle. Obviously, the more highway driving that you do, the better that

13:24 fuel economy is going to end up becoming. Okay, sine wave time. It is raining hard at the moment.

13:32 This is something that we attack at 130km/h, so 130 is the maximum speed limit here in Australia,

13:40 and it just gives us a good indication of what the body control on the vehicle's like,

13:44 and it simulates overtaking on a country road, that kind of thing. So I'll jack the speed up

13:49 here to 130. Yeah, look, it's nice. It's surprising. The ride is actually really nice and

13:58 smooth, and then when you're in and around the city, it is very just soft and comforting. It's

14:05 actually surprising how well they've been able to strike a balance there between the sort of

14:09 elements of sportiness, but also ride comfort, especially on these big wheels. I mean,

14:13 they are big wheels and wide tyres as well, and it is hard to achieve that balance. I think they've

14:18 actually done a really good job here. We are going to hit the worst road in Australia. We do this at

14:24 90km/h to see what the ride is like on a corrugated section of road. It also includes a condensed set

14:30 of sine waves as well to give us an idea of how the body copes with some of these sudden hits.

14:36 All right, so far so good. It's actually really coping nicely with this. This is a

14:43 terrible stretch of road. Here's our sine wave. It's shaking the crap out of the car.

14:51 It's actually doing a great job. So yeah, very impressed with the way the ride is here,

14:55 and certainly not something I was expecting right now. So yeah, nice.

15:00 There are a litany of drive modes here, and they are a little bit clumsy to activate. You've got

15:04 to use this button down here that's labelled 'dynamic', and then you can go between 'off-road',

15:09 'eco', 'comfort', 'sport' and 'individual'. Pop it into 'sport' mode. See what this feels like

15:16 for a lap of the track. It's feeling a little sharper, a bit more noise here inside the cabin

15:21 now as well. It is very wet, so I can't really drive too fast, especially around turn one here,

15:26 which is understeer city, but we'll see how we go. It actually has a fair bit of

15:39 traction, and that's all thanks to that staggered tyre width. So even the front tyres are wide,

15:44 but at 285 on the rear, you actually have a lot of rubber there on the road.

15:48 And this actually feels significantly more dynamic than the previous generation of the GLC.

15:54 It has a little bit of body roll, but it is perfectly manageable. Feel through the steering

16:01 is great. The brakes feel really good as well. They have that perforated setup there with the

16:06 cross drilling. It doesn't actually feel front-wheel drive biased either. It's giving me

16:11 a really nice distribution of torque between the front and the rear axle there.

16:15 It's actually just really fun to drive as well. So I think they've actually done a good job with

16:23 this. It is quite impressive that they've been able to transform the GLC from being a bit sort of

16:27 mopey into something that is actually pretty engaging to drive, especially

16:31 like right now when it is absolutely drenched out here.

16:35 Now let's talk road noise. It's actually not too bad. It's nice and quiet inside the cabin. You do

16:46 get a little bit of noise on course-chip country roads, but outside of that, it's all pretty

16:51 straightforward. We actually measured it with our calibrated sound meter. If you do want to see how

16:55 this car compares to others that we've tested before, have a look at the link in the description

16:59 below. Let's talk visibility. So I can see clearly down the front of the vehicle there.

17:03 Wing mirrors are reasonably sized. Visibility down the side is good, and I have that blind

17:07 spot monitor there as well. Visibility out the back isn't too bad. Sort of a pretty decent

17:11 envelope. And then these cameras are excellent, so it means that if you are parking in and around

17:15 the city, it's all very straightforward. Okay, so time to test the semi-autonomous systems

17:20 in the car. So what we do is on the three outer lanes, we activate the semi-autonomous steering

17:26 function, and then as the banking gets steeper, that's a really good indication of how willing

17:31 this car is to input steering torque when it comes to a tighter turn on the road. So let's

17:39 set this to 70 k's an hour. The steering wheel has gone green there. You can see that up the top.

17:43 So the first lane, it's good. It's holding us pretty central to the lane there, which is great.

17:49 So I'll change lanes now to the next lane over. Okay, let's see how it goes here and wait for that

17:57 to activate. All right, that is doing a nice job there. It's keeping us pretty central.

18:04 All right, let's jump over to the hardest one. Let's see if it will work up here on the

18:10 banked lane. So I'll slowly let go of the steering wheel.

18:16 That doesn't look like it. It's interesting the steering wheel has gone green, saying it's

18:20 active, but it's not willing to hold us here in this lane. If I let go of that,

18:26 it kind of tries to hold us in, but then it's bringing us back in slowly.

18:31 It is bringing us back in, but it definitely shouldn't be crossing the line like that. So

18:37 we're actually testing the iX1 here today at the same time, and that actually managed to do this

18:42 well. This is kind of veering all over the place here. So yeah, good for lane one and two, but not

18:47 good for our steepest lane, lane three. Performance testing. Now, before I get into some

18:52 performance testing, I want to tell you about Help Me Car Expert. I drew our inspiration from

18:57 Help Me Car Wow. We basically have a set of dealers that we vet, and to help you get the

19:03 best deal and to find the best dealer to deal with, we can put you in touch with them. So

19:07 hit Google up, type in Help Me Car Expert, and that'll take you to the Car Expert website. We

19:12 are a big company. We have like 50 full-time staff and have some people that want to make your buying

19:17 journey as good as humanly possible. Now, we're going to put this into sport mode. It is so wet

19:25 out here, so I don't even know how this is going to go, but that's in sport mode now, and I might

19:29 also disable traction control as well just to be on the safe side. We'll go all the way through to

19:37 120, and we'll see what happens. So here we go.

19:42 It's not so bad off the line here. All right, 90, 100, and there is 120. All right, pull this up.

19:59 So the official time from Mercedes-Benz is 6.2 seconds. So let's see how we went up against our

20:08 device here. 6.5, so given it is pretty wet, I think that's actually not a bad effort, and then

20:14 80 to 120, 4.64 seconds, so not a bad time there as well. Let's go back and do a break. Obviously,

20:21 it is super wet at the moment, but not much we can do about it, so we'll do a break from 100 and

20:27 mark it as wet on our sheet. Okay, let's get this up to 100 k's an hour.

20:31 There's our marker, here we go.

20:36 Sensors dirty, it says, because it is very wet. So 100 to zero, 3.47 seconds and 46.26 metres,

20:51 which I think is pretty commendable given how wet it is, and hey, if you do want to know more about

20:55 the app that we use for performance testing, I've left a link in the comments section below,

21:02 and if you do want to see how this car compares to other cars that we've tested before,

21:05 have a look at the link in the description. And now the reverse acceleration test.

21:10 So pop that into reverse, here we go. Oh, that's very modest, 26 kilometres an hour.

21:25 Okay, so Mercedes-Benz GLC. I think this car is fantastic. It has all the punch now,

21:31 it really handles nicely. I think they've done a great job with the interior, they're bringing in

21:36 a stack of technology, adding the room that it desperately needed. Really, it's just a great

21:40 round package, but it is expensive. It's $105,000 now, plus this option pack as well,

21:46 it really is pushing up there. With that in mind, the rest of the competitors are doing the same.

21:51 The X3 has gone up in price, the Q5 as well has gone up in price, but I don't know, I look at

21:56 something like the XC60 we drove recently in base model trim, it was around the $70,000-$80,000

22:02 market. I don't see where you're getting $20,000 worth of extra value in this, and it may just be

22:06 that Volvo is yet to catch up on the jacking up price thing. It is an unfortunate reality in the

22:12 world we live in at the moment. So yeah, look, if you do put the price to one side, I think this is

22:15 probably the leader in this segment now. They've done a great job with it. So let me know in the

22:19 comments section below, are you willing to spend this kind of money? I am keen for your feedback,

22:23 let me know down there. Have you bought one of these? What colour and did you end up ticking

22:27 that option box as well for the sound system and the other bits and pieces? Let me know in the

22:31 comments section below. If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it and you share

22:36 it with your mates, and if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the

22:39 bell icon. But until next time, take it easy.

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