Quick review of new GLC 300 4Matic
04-04-2018, 06:40 PM
#1
Quick review of my new GLC 300 4Matic
Hopefully, the following is of some value to visitors. I've benefitted a lot from similar posts.
Special order, exactly three months from order date in delivery in N. California. Usage is mainly urban roads and hour-long highway drives, both usually in congestion. Coming from a 2015 E400 (loaded) so I have a decent comparison for most option packages.
Vehicle: GLC300 4Matic (SUV not coupe)
Special order, exactly three months from order date in delivery in N. California. Usage is mainly urban roads and hour-long highway drives, both usually in congestion. Coming from a 2015 E400 (loaded) so I have a decent comparison for most option packages.
Vehicle: GLC300 4Matic (SUV not coupe)
- Exterior: Diamond Silver Metallic. It's beautiful and with lots of favorable comments. Standard exterior package.
- Wheels: Standard 18" wheels, but with no-cost R31 5 Spoke option. This wheel size and the Pirelli run-flats that came with it provide a very good comfort/handling mix of ride quality.
- Tires: I considered a switch to non-RF's. To me, it feels like it would make a noticeable but, for my uses, not a meaningful difference. If you are frequently driving on undulating roads (such as some highways with the harmonic lips in some lanes), air suspension is worth the upgrade.
- Interior: Silk Beige MB-Tex. Standard interior is beautiful, no need IMHO to upgrade to leather. Carpets come in black, much more pragmatic than previous MB that came with beige carpets. Cargo space is carpeted. Excellent room on the interior. The family thinks seating comfort and room is superior to the E-class. The $350 top stitching is well worth it. I never found the E400's seat ventilation very necessary in our climate.
- Handling/acceleration: excellent combination of comfort and handling, akin to a non-sport sedan. No shortage of acceleration. Comfort and Sport dynamic modes make sense and are differentiated; Sport+ is jumpy to the point of being useless for my tastes; Eco mode is pleasant as well.
- Quietness: very good. Quieter than my 2015 E400 in all instances.
- Lighting: LED option but not Advanced Lighting package. I don't miss the cornering or auto high beam features in the E-Class.
- Burmester surround sound: get this package. Not because it's amazing, but because it's only pretty good and that means the standard sound is not very good (as the salesperson advised us).
- "Multi-media package"/COMAND: I was forced into this by the Advanced Driver Assist package. The map display, clarity, signaling of upcoming decisions, lane recommendations are all superior to smartphone versions. Routing decisions are similar to Apple/Google/Waze (a) without traffic and (b) if your route alternatives are all highway-centric. However, (c) if your route alternatives include surface roads, the results are terrible: COMAND is biased toward surface roads because it doesn't have very good surface traffic information and so presumes those roads are better than highways that it knows are congested. Voice Command is excellent and much improved: recognition is quite accurate including single-sentence address entry, e.g. "Get me to 2000 Lincoln Avenue in Oakland". Ditto finding an institution, e.g. "POI by name" then "Head Royce High School", or dialing a name absorbed through Bluetooth from your smartphone contacts. Also, many more global commands are available than noted in the manual. This includes the examples I just gave you. Bluetooth audio, media interfaces, and the other stuff that comes from COMAND are a big step down from Carplay for media access. A press and hold on the Voice Command button activate Siri with a slight delay. Overall, less confusing than prior COMAND versions.
- Premium driver assist / Distronic Plus with Steering Assist: a significant source of fatigue reduction and as capable as any of these systems can safely be. Better than the 2015 version: better curve following, smoother distance tracking, quicker to respond to cut-ins, modest passing assistance. Minimum following distance has been increased, and is now a bit too much: drivers behind me get anxious about me "not going fast enough." Most of the benefit is from Distronic plus, some from Steering Assist.
- Premium driver assist / Blind Spot Assist: no complaints. It's now more judicious about warnings.
- Advanced Parking Assistance Package: never got much use out of auto-parking, but was forced into this for the surround view. Given lines of sight on this car and our driving environment, it's a big help.
- Little stuff: front and back seat heaters; 115 V outlet. All good, not gimmicky.
- We didn't get and don't miss the following. Running boards -- the car is reasonably low, you'll probably just drag your pants on the running board. Panorama roof -- not selected for maximum interior quietness. If you are subject to claustrophobia, consider it since the safety cameras on the windshield combined with a high dash and high hood bother some people. I don't know if the safety cameras are standard. Air Body Control -- see above. Heads up display -- MB traditionally puts critical information including the next turn from the navigation in the center of the instrument display.
- Other: no good place to put a smart phone holder.
- Very happy so far
Last edited by atsf; 04-05-2018 at 09:41 AM.
04-11-2018, 04:33 PM
#2
Map update. COMAND maps seem about 1.5 years out of date, based on many no-left-turn restrictions that have been added in the Bay Area which are not reflected in COMAND. Enough is missing that in our rapidly changing area, it's difficult to rely on the maps in urban areas. MB says they will automatically notify of updates.
Other: no wiper or steering or brake noises as reported by others.
Other: no wiper or steering or brake noises as reported by others.
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ayilar (04-15-2018)
