John Laidlaw
Senior Member
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2013
- Messages
- 26,373
- Reaction score
- 9,163
- Location
- Wirral
- Your Mercedes
- Land Rover Discovery 4
Those of you who have in any way followed my posts will know that my usual transport- a W212 E300 Bluetec Hybrid AMG Sports saloon - has been long term poorly (now into the 6th week) and apart from a mind numbingly boring week with a B180 I have been driving a GLA200cdi sports for the best part of 5 weeks.
This gave me a chance to appraise what has been a surprisingly able and interesting vehicle.
as mentioned it's a GLA200cdi sports. Not overly equipped to be honest, I guess that's typical of any car hire firm. 15 plate with c6k on the clock when delivered to me, I've covered c1200 miles since delivery
First impressions
Looks relatively small , I guess it is really as it's on the A class frame, but to be fair it does look way bigger than the normal A class saloon - somewhere I would say between an X1 and X3 in size. Looks quite muscular with good design details
In sports trim it's relatively well equipped with EW all round , elec. mirrors, drivers elec. adjustable seat, reverse camera (very good but takes some getting used to and I think would be much better when combined with sensors), Artico seats (not the suede type, the full Artico hit), Alloys, 7g gearbox/flappy paddles, Collision avoidance system (on this car inop though), tyre pressure monitoring system, ECO system, Auto stop/start, Hold assist, good electronic handbrake. Excellent tailgate electric opening system. Decent screen (the stick on ipad type which actually I used to hate and now quite like!). Alloys of course (18in)
Missing? No lumbar support , no heated seats, no navigation module installed , no Comand online, no parktronic or sensors, no passenger seat electrics.
Driving
Just returned from a week long holiday to Southerness (near Dumfries) , wife, myself and our 3 kids (6 year old and twin 4 year olds)....this was a caravan holiday so we needed a fair amount of gear, including 3 x scooters and OK I took out the parcel shelf but the car just swallowed the lot! really impressed
Travelling on A and B class roads as well as motorway, dual carriageways gave me a chance to test it out over various surfaces and I must say very nice to drive, soaking up all the bumps and uneven surfaces with ease.
This model has the 2143cc diesel 4 pot (same as mine but without the hybrid drive) which sounds a bit throaty when pushed, on this GLA that seems to suit the character of the car, plenty get up and go for fairly heavy car. The gearbox is silky smooth (although the same as mine, MUCH smoother making me wonder if my E has had a fault from day one!). Brakes are confidence giving/no issues.
Economy has averaged c52mpg on the trip, with varying speeds (up to 80 on m'way)
Extremely comfortable on this long trip, even the 3 x kids accross the back seat on boosters had relativey few complaints (just 'are we there yet' of course)
Faults
on this car the collision avoidance system was inop and the radio reception poor/apart from that just missing some items probably as it's a hire car (no first aid kit and no tyre inflation compressor), presumably nicked!
Conclusion
I thought this was a really well sorted car/got used to the FWD quite quickly, spacious and very practical.
the wife wants one!
I would/will go for the 250 petrol 4 matic AMG sports trim, with all bells and whistles, totally ideal to replace the Ford Galaxy we have now (7 seats not really needed now)
This gave me a chance to appraise what has been a surprisingly able and interesting vehicle.
as mentioned it's a GLA200cdi sports. Not overly equipped to be honest, I guess that's typical of any car hire firm. 15 plate with c6k on the clock when delivered to me, I've covered c1200 miles since delivery
First impressions
Looks relatively small , I guess it is really as it's on the A class frame, but to be fair it does look way bigger than the normal A class saloon - somewhere I would say between an X1 and X3 in size. Looks quite muscular with good design details
In sports trim it's relatively well equipped with EW all round , elec. mirrors, drivers elec. adjustable seat, reverse camera (very good but takes some getting used to and I think would be much better when combined with sensors), Artico seats (not the suede type, the full Artico hit), Alloys, 7g gearbox/flappy paddles, Collision avoidance system (on this car inop though), tyre pressure monitoring system, ECO system, Auto stop/start, Hold assist, good electronic handbrake. Excellent tailgate electric opening system. Decent screen (the stick on ipad type which actually I used to hate and now quite like!). Alloys of course (18in)
Missing? No lumbar support , no heated seats, no navigation module installed , no Comand online, no parktronic or sensors, no passenger seat electrics.
Driving
Just returned from a week long holiday to Southerness (near Dumfries) , wife, myself and our 3 kids (6 year old and twin 4 year olds)....this was a caravan holiday so we needed a fair amount of gear, including 3 x scooters and OK I took out the parcel shelf but the car just swallowed the lot! really impressed
Travelling on A and B class roads as well as motorway, dual carriageways gave me a chance to test it out over various surfaces and I must say very nice to drive, soaking up all the bumps and uneven surfaces with ease.
This model has the 2143cc diesel 4 pot (same as mine but without the hybrid drive) which sounds a bit throaty when pushed, on this GLA that seems to suit the character of the car, plenty get up and go for fairly heavy car. The gearbox is silky smooth (although the same as mine, MUCH smoother making me wonder if my E has had a fault from day one!). Brakes are confidence giving/no issues.
Economy has averaged c52mpg on the trip, with varying speeds (up to 80 on m'way)
Extremely comfortable on this long trip, even the 3 x kids accross the back seat on boosters had relativey few complaints (just 'are we there yet' of course)
Faults
on this car the collision avoidance system was inop and the radio reception poor/apart from that just missing some items probably as it's a hire car (no first aid kit and no tyre inflation compressor), presumably nicked!
Conclusion
I thought this was a really well sorted car/got used to the FWD quite quickly, spacious and very practical.
the wife wants one!
I would/will go for the 250 petrol 4 matic AMG sports trim, with all bells and whistles, totally ideal to replace the Ford Galaxy we have now (7 seats not really needed now)