2015 Mercedes-Benz GLA: compact SUV or larger sport wagon?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/10/2014 (4336 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BURLINGTON, Vt. – The fall colours are starting to hit in Vermont and it’s been a beautiful day of driving through the rolling hills and verdant peaks of the Green Mountain State.

There’s only some green right now: It’s more like the red, yellow, ochre and gold mountain state, and drives like mine are a big part of this area’s tourist draw. The locals say as stunning as it is now, the colours will only get more spectacular as the next week unfolds. Hard to believe.

We’re not here as tourists, though. We’re driving the 2015 Mercedes-Benz GLA250 4Matic and GLA 45 AMG 4Matic, an all-new vehicle for the tri-star brand they’re calling an entry-level SUV, yet to me, it reads more like a slightly enlarged compact sport wagon.

But as Chris Goczan, national product manager for Mercedes-Benz Canada says, they don’t care what customers call it, as long as they take one home.

The GLA 250, starting at $37,200, is aimed at introducing more people to the Mercedes brand, much as has been found with its compact-sedan sibling, the CLA 250. It’s Mercedes’ most affordable SUV, coming in well under the $48,600 GLK and $62,000 M-Class and Goczan said they’re hoping it appeals to non-Mercedes customers shopping the high end of mainstream crossovers such as CR-V or Escape.

The key competitors are BMW X1, Audi Q3 and Lexus NX, each with similar starting prices to the GLA 250.

The GLA is compact and that does show up in the cargo area. While the space is decent for the size, and the rear seats do fold for more space, it isn’t a vehicle you could pack groceries and luggage for four for a week at the cottage. Four people and four duffle-sized bags would be no problem.

The GLA 250 shares the same 2.0-litre small-turbo four-cylinder as the CLA and B-Class, which is rated for 208 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque.

Like the B and CLA, the GLA uses a seven-speed dual-clutch automated manual transmission. If you’re not familiar with the concept, it’s different than an automatic transmission that uses a lossy torque converter to engage and disengage the flow of power and uses fluids to push the gears around to effect gear changes.

In a dual-clutch transmission, the process is identical to a manual transmission with two actual clutches that provide the same low-loss mechanical linkage and gears that move around just like if they were shifted with a gearshift. Solenoids engage and disengage the clutches and shift the gears. Why two clutches? To effect the fastest possible gear changes, one clutch is set up to engage the even-numbered gears and the other engages the odd-numbered gears.

Gears on each side are anticipated based on whether you’re accelerating or decelerating, and when a gear change is called for, the one clutch disengages and the other engages, thus connecting the next gear up or down, depending on which is appropriate.

The dual-clutch system is just as efficient as a standard transmission but with lightning-fast gear changes. (However, if you like to shift, it’s not as much fun as a regular manual transmission.) Operationally, it’s just like an automatic transmission: you put it into drive and go. You can select a sport shifting program for better acceleration or you can control it yourself with the steering-wheel paddles.

I’m driving the GLA after a week driving the CLA 250, and it really seems as though the GLA 250 has more jam than the CLA 250. Goczan admitted the GLA transmission shift program might be tuned more aggressively than the CLA.

It’s very sporty, able to conquer the twisty roads between here and Woodstock, Vt., quite well. In many respects, it feels more like a sports sedan. But where the CLA would often hold a higher gear through turns in the interests of fuel economy and at the expense of acceleration coming out of a corner, the GLA does downshift more readily. Yet there doesn’t seem to be a significant penalty in fuel economy relative to the CLA.

The GLA 250 fuel economy is rated at 9.8 l/100km city, 7.4 highway and 8.7 combined. The GLA 45 AMG is rated at 10.5 city, 8.1 highway and 9.4 combined.

The GLA 250 comes standard with a host of luxury features, not the least of which is Mercedes’ 4Matic all-wheel-drive system. And while they’re not touting the GLA as as something that will bring the Rubicon Trail to its knees, they did pack in some interesting off-road capability, including increased ride height for better clearance, a downhill speed regulator (aka hill descent control) for going down steep hills, a display showing the steering wheel angle, your angle of inclination, both front to back and side to side, as well as a compass.

Other standard features include heated front seats and collision prevention, which works from seven to 250 km/h and warns of a potential collision and applies braking automatically to avoid, or reduce the seriousness of, a crash.

Mercedes’ attention assist system, which monitors 72 parameters of driving, is also standard. After about half an hour, it has built a profile of your driving and, if you get drowsy, it knows if you’re departing from your typical driving style and advises you to pull over and refresh yourself.

The electronic stability program includes dynamic cornering, which slightly brakes the inside wheel in a corner to reduce steering angle.

While the GLA comes nicely equipped as a base model, Mercedes expects the premium package ($3,800) to comprise the largest percentage of sales. It adds a rear-view mirror, passive blind-spot assist, panoramic sunroof, COMAND navigation with Mercedes apps and automatic climate control.

If the performance of the GLA 250 isn’t good enough, there’s also the GLA 45 AMG, tuned by Mercedes’ AMG skunkworks division to produce 355 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque from the same size engine as in the GLA 250.

“Basically, what they were able to do was shoehorn in a turbocharger about the size of my head,” Goczan said.

They also endowed the AMG with a wonderful throaty exhaust note, augmented on deceleration and downshifts with “controlled misfire,” according to Goczan, which offers a great braaaap sound.

Mercedes makes no pretence at all about off-road ability for the GLA 45 AMG. It has a reduced ride height and stiffer suspension for improved handling and rides on 19- and 20-inch wheels.

The GLA 45 AMG starts at $50,500.

Check out my slideshow for a look at both the GLA and our trip through Vermont. It was quite the ride.