Mercedes GLA

Just back from four days with the in-laws in Italy, where Avis at Ancona airport treated us to the delights of a Mercedes for a change. In this instance a 2wd GLA180d in what the keyfob told me was "Business Line" trim.

And to my faint surprise, it was actually quite nice. I haven't driven a Mercedes in ages - I think the last one I tried was a previous generation SL500 a couple of years ago, which is quite a different kettle of poisson. When renting cars in sunny places with nice roads, you always hope for something petrol-powered and sporty (obviously an SL500 would have been nice), and always invariably end up with something diesel-powered and defiantly unsporting, or worse a Lancia Ypsilon. Which is usually a crying shame. But this smallish Merc was actually quite likeable. My wife was a fan too – she even commented how nice it was to the woman at Avis when we were handing it back, which is a first. And apparently she would happily have one for herself.

To drive, whilst a turbodiesel equipped (apparently) with just 108 "cavalli" is never going to shift a Teutonic faux-SUV thingy very fast, they must have been especially well-watered (or well run-in - they had 26k kms on the clock) German horses, because it was rather perkier than I expected with a decently swelling mid-range and just enough oomph to not irritate. Yes, there's a grumbly dieseasel soundtrack at low speed and under acceleration, but it smoothed out well enough at a gallop. Economy-wise, it consumed about 20 litres over 350kms, so that's what, about 5l/100kms. Ok, but not amazing. It had a nice and surprisingly slick 6-spd manual gearbox and generally well-positioned controls (apart from M-B's absurd column stalk that I shall return to abuse later). Sharp brakes – almost automatic-esque. Stood the car on its nose several times before I got used to them. Handling was well controlled and actually rather decent too, with some roll but otherwise a generally planted feel. It was wearing what were probably 17" alloys (didn't check but they looked a bit widdly) and it rode well – good absorption on scarred road surfaces and generally a quiet, comfortable and refined cruiser (apart from a bit of whistle, presumably from the large wing mirrors). It felt like a solid and quiet piece of kit on the motorway - a "proper" car if you like. I can see how it is possible that the turbo-nutter GLA45 AMG versions gets quite good reviews – the basics are pretty sound. Even this basic 180d was a reasonably pleasing car to drive if not especially exciting with a small diesel fitted.

To sit in, it is relatively curious. It's not an especially big machine and you don't really get the sense of elevated ride height that is usually one of the USPs of this class of car. And in fact, if you look at the picture of it next to my father-in-law's old-shape Qashqai, you can see that it has a lower roofline. It also has a relatively high belt-line which you notice when inside, meaning it lacks the airy elevated feel of most SUVs. At which point, you rather wonder what in fact the point is. That apart, it was quite pleasant inside. The general design and lay-out is decently attractive with twin cowled dials over the instruments that looked almost incongruously sporty and "retro" (and frankly far nicer than the latest featureless black slabs) and aviation-esque circular vents set in a slab of one of the less offensive types of metallic-finish I've seen applied to a dashboard. The iPad/tablet-style media screen still looks silly to me but my wife liked it, so go figure. And it works just as well anyway although I had to download an App to get the system to play songs from my iPhone, which is a first for me in any car and would have annoyed hugely had I been in a rush. The seats (inoffensive grey cloth with Mercedes' offensively-cheap black artico bolsters) were comfy and the driving position good. A little cramped perhaps in terms of spreading your knees left and right but generally fine. Not particularly good rearwards visibility but it was fitted with a reversing camera so that didn't matter much. The bonnet is also rather longer than you might expect with visible SLK-style twin bonnet ridges (a nice touch), meaning that the all-round parking sensors come in quite handy. It also has a couple of typically Mercedes quirks, like the "one column stalk to rule them all", which is just obtuse and annoying, and the parking brake arrangement down by your left knee (electric these days but otherwise looking and feeling much like the one in my old W124, minus the clunk). Rear accommodation looked fine – didn't try to put anyone large back there but my mother-in-law seemed perfectly ok. Boot is quite shallow and thus not hugely big, but I confess I didn't look to see if it had any underfloor storage. Equipment levels were good, with all the usual infomedia stuff, the aforementioned reversing camera, folding wing-mirrors, cruise, and a noticeably decent stereo - didn't see any particular logos but it just had a good crisp and undistorted sound that stood out for being so good even at teenaged volumes.

Externally, it's a mixed bag. Higher-spec GLAs can look rather smart, but the combination of non-metallic black paint, smallish wheels and boggo halogen headlamps didn't do the shape many favours. Still, that didn't stop my wife and assorted members of her family commenting favourably.

So overall, another small diesel SUV-type thing that I surprised myself by rather liking and not actually hating at all. Having had a few as rentals recently, I can see why people prefer these to normal Golf-sized hatchbacks. My wife certainly seems to have a taste for them. And if you said to me would you like an A-class or a GLA, it would be GLA every time.