GLA 250 4 Matic experience

vincitveritas

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For anyone thinking of buying one...

I have had a GLA 250 4Matic since May and here's my verdict on the first few months.

1) Petrol engine is a joy after the awful tone of my E-Class 200CDi (which was possibly the most unpleasent Diesel engine note of any car I've driven)

2) GLA Engine revs freely has plenty of pull and sounds smooth all the time.
I'm Averaging 37mpg on what is mostly a town route with 43 mpg on a motorway run (and I have a very light right foot ! )

3) That new Auto Gearbox - not so good, it changes up fine but changing down from 2 to 1 in particular you get a clunk 2 or 3 times out of every 5. Its worse when cold but its always present. Been to the dealer who reset the boxes electronics but it has made no difference - I'll be going back. Its certainly not as smooth in stop start traffic as the old slush boxes I'm used to. Anyone else experienced that with these new Auto boxes?

When you select Manual changes using the paddles it will fall back to auto after a very short time (10 secs or so ?) which is ok, but it seems to upset the auto selection for the next 2 or 3 auto gear changes - and takes a few changes to get back in its rythm.

4) Its noisy, Not excessive mind you but you do get a good deal of tyre and wind noise in the cabin. to give you some idea it noisier than the E220 I traded in (you might expect that), Its noisier than my sons 09 C180 and, surprisingly, its noisier than my 08 A150 Petrol auto ! seems to be a trend with Mercs over the last 3-5 years as they make them lighter and lighter but I'd rather have some extra sound proofing myself!

5) Ride. for me is fine, (The SE Exec model not the sport / AMG) , I like something suitable for the terrible state of our roads and for me I didn't notice a great deal of difference stepping down in size from an E220. (I prefer the softer suspension than the current trend for low suspension, low profile tyres and rock hard suspension) I think the GLA has found a good balance for a relatively small car.

6) Rattles. Loads of them ! Very disappointed, they are in the dash in the doors - I reckon at least 6 different sources - the annoying persitant one in the rear door the dealer fixed in one visit but a few weeks later a similar rattle started in two of the other doors to join the ones in the dash. Seems like they rushed this model out - I'd wait another 6 months and hopefully they will have ironed these out of later builds. The pain of the early adopter I guess :-(

7) The safety electronics have some glitches. I have had the 'Pre Safe Function Not Working' fault twice now, first time they just reset it and updated the sw, I wait to see what the 2nd solution is.
This is all to do with the radar sensing features. It does tend to give false alarms occassionally (such as driving towards a dip in a straight road - it seemed to think the dip was a blockage of some sort and sounded off). its also gone off a number of times with no other cars in sight driving along a straight road. annoying.

8) I know its very minor but I really commend the windscreen washers, they deliver an even coat of cleaner across the entire front screen. A good improvement in tech design - well done to the designer who worked on that.

9) Car does look small in the flesh (as someone else has noted) and many mistake it for the new A-class.

10) Wife dislikes the fixed head rests as they push her head fwd, they're fine for me though (I'm taller) and the seats are V. comfortable on long journeys.

11) Interior drivers side door handle doesn't always undo the lock and open the door on the first pull, you have to pull it twice - that makes it feel cheap and nasty

12) when I first had the car it made some very strange noises from the rear end, hard to describe, like rolling pebbles around in a bucket, or dragging a chain over a sprocket, accompanied by 1 or 2 deep metallic clonks - all from the rear. It only happened 2 or 3 times in the first month and seems to have gone away. I can only think that it was something to do with the 4Matic kicking in. I had it all checked out by the dealer and they couldnt find any issues with the operation of the 4matic system.


and 13) finally (really) If your lifestyle can take it, get the lighter interior it looks so much better than the drab dark options.
 
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vincitveritas

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Noticed a typo already , it was a 2011 E220 cdi not E200
 

eman

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now you need to change your profile from E220 to GLA. ;) :D
 

rhud

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Many thanks for a comprehensive warts-and-all report. Interesting that you have/had a W169 A Class and I would be interested to hear how the GLA's ride compares.

I am tempted by the GLA but would need to check out the ride. My A (my second) is excellent in most respects but the ride remains a little firmer than I would ideally like.
 
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vincitveritas

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I find the GLA certainly handles corners / roundabouts more confidently than the A without the roll you can get from the taller A class. Thus I'm sure you would get most reviewers saying the GLA was a better 'drivers' car - whatever that means.

On a normal straight run on typical A or m/way road in the UK I don't think you would notice a huge difference. The old A class always had a fairly light rear end which seems to pick up and trasmit bumps more readily. As i mentioned in my post, I prefer a more comfortable ride and I would say on balance I prefer the GLA.
 


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