I've been lurking on this forum while waiting for my GLK to arrive and thought I'd post a brief review after the 1st month of ownership. The GLK is my wife's primary vehicle, her prior was a 2003 325i. I drive BMW's myself and this is our first non-BMW since 1997. In the case of SUV's, BMW did not measure up (higher cost, lower quality, no RWD option).

Vehicle: 2013 GLK350 RWD (no 4-matic). Special order car in Polar White over Mocha Brown leather interior with Black Ash wood trim, lighting pkg, premium pkg w/pano, and sport app pkg.

We are very pleased overall with the GLK. The build and assembly quality is a step above BMW's X3 or 3-series, and all the Japanese brands. I also find it a step above the C-class, for the same money. IMHO it is the best looking SUV on market, hands-down and the Sport Appearance Pkg 20" wheels are stunning. The leather interior is a must-have special order option and is far nicer than the standard interior. It is the nicest interior in a small SUV of any brand. It is a great value, and MB dealers will negotiate further on the price than the competition (I got 10% off MSRP with no trades), making it such a great deal. We are still in the 1000 mile break-in period so I have not even used Sport Mode or floored it yet, but it feels plenty powerful even at low revs.

Plusses:
The ride is smooth, quiet, and composed with good handling.
An actual V6 with NO TURBOS unlike the competition's offerings!
Plenty of power/torque from the new DI engine.
Ability to get one without 4-matic, RWD drives better and saves fuel.
Looks to kill.
Lighting Package cannot be recommend high enough. Worth every cent.
Leather Interior is absolutely gorgeous and smells fantastic! Must have!
Make sure to order the black headliner; much better than lighter shades.
Appears to be fairly accessible for DIY repairs and maintenance.

Minuses:
The 3.5L DI engine is very noisy and sounds like a Diesel from outside car/windows down. *Per MB its "normal" for DI motors & same with other brands & further research backs this up unfortunately.
Steering is too light and lacks any feel (used to BMW's); on-center accuracy is good though and it does firm up well at speed (variable).
ECO start/stop cannot be permanently disabled even by dealer; must press button each startup to disable.

 

Hi, Jeff. Would you mind posting some pictures of the interior? I'm considering the mocha leather and am trying to find as many pictures as possible since I haven't been able to find it in person. Dealers around here don't stock GLKs with the real leather interiors.

 

You ordered virtually what I would have ordered excluding the upgraded H/K stereo. The leather is a beautiful colour with the light coloured exterior. Pictures when you have a chance please!

 

Dealers here never order it either (or any other leather) to keep the base price down they say. I can't believe it, when buyers see the Mocha interior in person I'm sure they would be willing to pay the extra upcharge. I don't have any pics yet, but when I was looking I did find a thread by searching google, where a guy posted some nice shots of Mocha in a GLK. Also search for the Car and Driver test of the GLK 350 RWD and look at the additional photos link, there are a number of pics of Mocha but they are small resolution It's a luxurious dark chocolate brown and looks almost like black when you are outside looking in, especially after I tinted the front side windows 50%. Not only that, but with leather you also get the quilted door panel inserts and Ambient Lighting along the dash trim. I'll try to get some pics this weekend and post them.

 

It's funny you mention that because that's actually the number one reason why I want the leather package. I really don't mean any offense to anyone who doesn't have the leather package, but I personally think that those huge slabs of plastic on the non-leather US-spec door panels (especially the rear door panels) are not befitting of a Mercedes. The inserts look a lot better to me. I think in Canada and probably other countries, they get the inserts on the door panels even with MB-TEX (or "Artico") seats.

The second reason I want the leather is that it puts the seat controls for the passenger side on the door where they belong. The memory for the passenger seat is nice, I guess, but really I just want the controls on the door.

The LAST reason I want the leather package is for the leather seats. I'm okay with the MB-TEX seats. I have them in my current car and they're fine.

Oh, one more thing. For 2014, the ambient lighting is not included in the leather package. It's now a separate option. Is it worth the extra $300?

 

Ambient lighting is OK. Salesman said you can change the color 3 ways, but I don't think that applies to the GLK as I can't find any reference to it in the manual. Standard orange/yellow color is a little blah. Oh yeah I forgot that the Leather Pkg also includes the passenger seat door controls and memory, which is nice to have in our case since I'm 6'5 and my wife is 5'4. I also hate the standard door inserts, they look like something you see on a Ford/GM product, pre-bankruptcy!*
*They are making nicer stuff now LOL.

 

Correct, the ambient lighting in the GLK isn't multicolor. I test drove a 2014 350 that had the ambient lighting listed on the sticker so I asked the sales guy to "demonstrate" it thinking that it was multicolor. He went into the settings where you select the color in an ML or other car that has the multicolor lighting and it wasn't there. Online in the Build Your Own it just says "ambient lighting," whereas for other models it specifies "multicolor ambient lighting." I'm also assuming that the lighting just comes on at night and there's no way to force it on or off because we couldn't find a setting for that either. Since it was broad daylight when I drove the vehicle and we couldn't find a way to force it on, I didn't actually get to see the lighting. Now that I think about it after the fact, I guess I could have put my hand over the light sensor. D'oh!

 

You could not see it in the daylight anyway. I just drove to work this morning on a cloudy day with the lights on and could not see the ambient light. It's a very faint glow from beneath the edge of the wood dash trim. I actually haven't driven our GLK in the dark much yet so I've only seen the lighting 1-2 times LOL. Bummer that it can't be adjusted. That explains why my salesman thought it could be though, since the ML can.

 

Do the quilted door panels look like they could be added to the regular plain door panels? Pictures look like the factory just attached this upgrade to existing design panels. Might be a cool updating mod for my 2012 with black leather.