Best Of Both

Mercedes launches its answer to the Coupe-SUV craze.

Mercedes-Benz has officially launched the GLC Coupé, its answer to the coupe-SUV niche started by BMW some years ago. The car first unveiled at last year’s Shanghai motor show, and will be hitting dealer forecourts shortly.

Mercedes bills the car as the sports car among its mid-size SUV range. It comes with sports suspension as standard, as well as more direct sports steering, DYNAMIC SELECT and 4MATIC permanent all-wheel drive with a 9G-TRONIC nine-speed automatic transmission.

Mercedes claims that these factors combine to provide a superior ride comfort with decidedly sporty agility.

“The GLC Coupé reflects our iconic Mercedes-Benz coupé design while symbolizing the bipolarity of our brand – it is ‘hot and cool’,” said 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.”

The Coupé is almost eight centimeters longer and some four centimetres lower than the standard GLC, with which it shares its basic architecture. But the A-pillar is less steeply raked, while the continuation of the roof outline is lower, terminating in the elegantly flowing, muscular rear end typical of a coupé.

The rear window dispenses with a wiper, as the airflow does not break away until after the spoiler lip, which means that water is unable to strike the rear window.