Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Despite the natural inclination to stay indoors during Bahrain’s blast of summer heat, it’s actually the best time to get out and about … as long as you have a fine piece of machinery around you with powerful air conditioning.
Luckily for me, I had two of them, in the form of the Mercedes-Benz GLC250 and the GLC43 AMG Coupe.
As mentioned, test drives are great in summer. A large slice of the population has gone away on holiday, while those remaining in the kingdom shelter in their homes or offices from the heat. That means one thing … quieter roads and longer stretches of tarmac to put two beautiful beasts through their paces!
First up was the GLC43 with its rather distinctive shape. It features a sloping roofline, curving more sharply at the back for what would be the classic coupe shape were it not for the presence of rear doors and the fact that you’re looking up to that roofline, not down to it.
The involvement of Merc’s sporting AMG division brings a twin-turbo V6 petrol engine, 367BHP, a nine-speed automatic transmission and rear-biased all-wheel drive.
There’s also an air suspension set-up that’s intended to keep the car level at all times, plus some shapely bodywork, upgraded brakes and a high level of equipment in the cabin.
In summary, it makes this car an absolute pleasure to drive. Whether or not you like the looks, you’ll appreciate the craftsmanship, the materials, the comfort, and the intuitive layout of switches and controls. Yes, that includes the famous Mercedes ‘UFO spaceship’ touch controls for the centre stack!
There’s nothing quite like slipping into a Merc with its rather peculiar setup. Plug the seatbelt in, feel the tensioner tighten around your chest. Engage ‘Drive’ with the steering column-mounted stalk and you’ll like the smooth, easy progress the GLC makes, the nicely weighted steering and the comfortable ride.
Chugging along on the highway is such a smooth experience, especially complemented by the high-quality audio from the stereo speakers. Most importantly, it’s also a real blast to put your foot to the floor and accelerate hard, overtaking pretty much anything on four wheels you’re likely to come across.
However, one thing I did notice is that it doesn’t react too well to deviations in the road. It’s a tall and heavy car on big wheels and chunky tyres, and it wants to wobble. Whether you’re in Eco, Comfort, Sport or Sport Plus mode, and whether you’re driving in a straight line, over bumps, through bends – it has a much stronger affinity with jelly than you’d want in a luxury car.
That quibble aside, there’s no shortage of finely crafted hardware, as ever with Mercs. The engine is a brilliant combination of hard-charging and flexible, while the whole package feels like it’s built to last. It comes with very good infotainment and safety electronics packages, too.
Finally, space is readily available too, whether there’s tall adults in the front or rear, and the boot had room for photographer Honey Sharma’s various tripods, cameras and other equipment too.
Just a few days later, I was given the GLC250, a very similar model with a few differences.
Now, if I’ve got my research right, the GLC-Class is the successor to the GLK and the result of Mercedes-Benz wanting a good share of the premium mid-size SUV pie. The GLC-Class is a fairly new one, starting life as a 2016 model, and it adopts the ‘G’ moniker from ‘Geländewagen’ (or off-road vehicle) and ‘L’ from ‘Luxus’ (or luxury). The ‘C’ denotes its sizing, which is equivalent to the C-Class.
The 250 definitely feels like the ‘lite’ version of the AMG, which of course it is in a way, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, where it loses out in the power department (a two-litre, four-cylinder, 211BHP petrol engine), it more than makes up for in comfort.
I actually found myself sinking deeper into the seats in the 250 and there was minimal, if any, of the wobble found in the 43 even when going over some of Bahrain’s most treacherous potholes or when I took the car over some wasteland to check its off-roading capabilities.
It’s extremely easy to drive for an SUV, with little noise intrusion into the cabin and good visibility all around. Just like the 43, the 250 comes with Dynamic Select modes which offer you the option to pick between Eco, Comfort, Sport, Sport+ and Individual settings from the toggle next to the spaceship on the centre console. In Eco mode, the drive feels relaxed, with upshifts coming early. Sport mode naturally turns up the heat with more aggressive revs and gets you going quickly. Individual mode lets you customise the engine and steering response as well as air-con fan speed and auto stop/start.
In both vehicles, I particularly liked the Active Parking Assist with Parktronic. This feature helps you park and un-park the GLC with the help of sensors. All you need to do is work the gears, throttle and brake pedals; the vehicle will steer itself in and/or out. This feature is aided by the 360-degree view camera which gives a bird’s eye view of your surroundings.
The rest of the touchscreen options are easy to navigate and use, both on the centre console and on the dashboard display. The only issue I had was connecting my phone to Bluetooth, a process which seems overly complicated, requiring too many clicks and then being finicky even when it does work. I’d love Mercedes to refine their connectivity options in their next iteration of models.
Overall, both of the GLC cars were fun to drive and come highly recommended. Which one to go for is entirely up to you to decide, whether that be based on budget or personal preference. If it’s power and swagger you’re after, then the GLC43 AMG is the way to go. If it’s comfort and grace, then the GLC is your port of call.
The Mercedes-Benz GLC43 AMG Coupe is available now from BD33,000, whilst the GLC250 is available for BD25,500. For more information, call the Al Haddad Motors Showroom on 17785454 or visit the Mercedes-Benz website on www.bahrain.mercedesbenzme.com
