Where Acura failed miserably with the ZDX, Germany’s premium brands are thriving, with Mercedes being the latest to expand its coupe crossover offerings with the New York Auto Show-bound GLC Coupe.
The production version of last year’s GLC Coupé concept sets its sights not only on BMW’s X4, but the similarly stylish Porsche Macan and Jaguar F-Pace SUVs.
Based on the conventional-bodied GLC, the GLC Coupe imitates the styling of the larger GLE Coupe featuring the same sloping roofline that finishes off with a large liftback tailgate.
“The GLC Coupé reflects our iconic Mercedes-Benz coupé design while symbolizing the bipolarity of our brand – it is ‘hot and cool’,” commented Gorden Wagener, Head of Design at Daimler AG. “With its design idiom of sensual purity, it perfectly embodies our styling philosophy while at the same time representing contemporary luxury.”
With an exterior length of 4,730mm and a height of 1,600mm, the GLC Coupe is 74mm longer, but 39mm lower than the regular GLC, while sharing the same wheelbase at 2,870mm.
Mercedes claims that entrance height, shoulder room, elbow room and legroom are all on the same level with the GLC, but don’t expect the Coupe to offer the same headroom, while luggage capacity is down by 59 liters to 491 liters, rising to 1,205 liters with the 40/20/40 split rear seat folded flat.
The GLC Coupe will come as standard with a sports suspension that includes the DYNAMIC SELECT system with five transmission modes ECO, COMFORT, SPORT, SPORT+ and INDIVIDUAL, along with a more direct steering ratio (15.1:1) than the GLC (16.1:1).
Two suspension variants with continuously adjustable damping, the new DYNAMIC BODY CONTROL with steel springing and the AIR BODY CONTROL multi-chamber air suspension, will be optionally available.
North America gets only two version of the crossover, the 241hp 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder gasoline GLC300 4MATIC, and the 362hp 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 gasoline GLC43 AMG 4MATIC that reaches 60mph in less than 5 seconds. Both models are equipped with a standard 9G-TRONIC nine-speed automatic transmission and are expected to go on sale in the US in early 2017.
Europe will get a greater variety of engines, as customers will eventually be able to choose from eight variants, including the four-cylinder diesel 170PS (168hp) GLC 220d and 204PS (201hp) GLC 250d 4MATIC, the four-cylinder petrol 211PS (208hp) GLC 250 4MATIC, the 2.0L petrol-electric hybrid GLC 350 e 4MATIC Coupé with 320PS (316hp), and the aforementioned GLC 43 AMG.
A GLC 63 AMG powered by the C63 AMG’s twin-turbocharged V8 producing up to 510PS (503hp) will join the range later on.
Photo Gallery
