thenew3

Wife is looking at getting into a 2015 GLK350. Our primary concern is rear seat leg room as we have two kids to stuff back there.

The oldest will soon not need a booster anymore but the youngest is still in an infant seat soon to move to a rear facing seat (Diono Rainer).

Currently I have the Diono Rainer rear facing installed in my W212 E350 wagon and it barely fits with the back of the seat touching the back of the two front seats (installed in center seating position). The oldest child's booster seat on behind the passenger seat has a hard time trying to clip in his seat belt with the diono in the middle.

I know the GLK is not as wide as the E350, but from specs I can find online, it seems the leg room is almost as much as the E350.

The W204 C300 we have is very tight in the back seat and doesn't fit the car seats. The W205 C300 loaner I had a while ago has much more back seat leg room.

Specs I found are approximately W204 33", W205 35.x", GLK 35.x", E350 36.x"

Does anyone have a GLK as well as a W212 E class and can you comment on rear seat leg room between the two?

Anyone use a Diono Rainer seat rear facing in the center position?

Thanks

Inyoury

You are not going to be happy with the tight space in the rear if you think it is already tight in the E class wagon. We have two kids 4 and 2. We have the Kiddy brand car seats. You can't fit anyone in the middle unless maybe a super model on a water diet... The leg room is fine for the kids. My wife and I aren't very big. I'm 5'10" 155lbs and my wife is 5'7" 112lbs. The if you both aren't tall, then it can be enough space. We went on one long trip with the GLK and it was pleasant. But the last two long trips We used my A6, a lot more room both length and width. If you are concerned about room, wait for the GLC. The GLK cargo space is also lacking. We can't fit our double Joovy stroller nor our Stokke brand stroller in the cargo space. For adults, it is difficult to get in and out of the rear. We knew we would t have any adults in the rear so the GLK was the Goldilocks size for my wife. You should take but car seats to the dealer and install them and see for yourself. That is exactly what I did.

thenew3

Thanks for the reply. I'm 5'11" 185lb, wife is 5'7" 130lb so about average size for us.

We're not too concerned about cargo space as this will be the wife's daily driver and mostly used for her to drop the baby off at day care and then go to her office (10-12 miles a day). She may use it to get some groceries once every month or two, so not much cargo.

We will use my E350 wagon for trips.

I just don't know how accurate the rear legroom specs are. from mbusa.com documentation it seems the GLK has less than 1" shorter leg room in the back compared to the E wagon. If that is true, than that should be ok for us to fit the diono seat. We'll only need it for another year or so then we can turn it forward facing which should give much more room.

Wife doesn't like the look of the GLC and I don't like the feel of the turbo 4 in the GLC (drove C300 for a few days and did not like the 2.0T). the 3.5 V6 is so much smoother and probably a lot more trouble free being it isn't turbocharged. We're not concerned about gas mileage as she only puts on about 4k miles a year.

We also have a MB fleet discount certificate that as of right now is worth about $2500 discount off the GLK.

Inyoury

The GLK second row leg room isn't as big as the E class. The substantially narrower second row makes the space more cramped for a rear facing car seat. If you put the rear facing seat in the middle you will not have enough room for the other car seat on either side. So he only option would be to put them on each side and say goodbye to the middle seat.

thenew3

That's ok, we won't need 2 car seats in the rear. We just need a rear facing in the middle, and then one of the outbound seats will be my 8 year old who is only 4'2" and 50 pounds (very slim).

Thanks

eki912

I don't know much about this, but one thing worth mentioning is, that as GLK is a SUV, sits a bit higher than your average sedan, putting your kids in backseat and putting the belts on etc is easier on GLK. Due to the height of the seats, you do not have bend down so low, like in a normal car to do that. But as recommended here, go to a dealer, with your wife, kids and seats and test the GLK.
The leg room itself on a GLK is not much, my only son is now 16, and he said it is tight behind when mother is sitting at front. My son is not a small boy though... so putting smaller kids there shouldn't be an issue. There is more than enough space for them.
And, please, do test drive the GLK or better still, let Your wife test drive it. I have a funny feeling she will like it. My wife wasn't too happy with SUVs, due to their size, height and looks in general. She preferred sportier ones, like Porsche 911.... but after sitting in, and driving one, she was hooked. Mainly due to the height ( that she did not like... ) , because she can see farther away easily, the big windows help too. And the size and solidness of GLK gives her confidence, she is not scared to drive beside a gigantic truck on highway.

thenew3

Thanks eki912. The fact that GLK is a small SUV is exactly the reason why the wife wants it. She's tired of having to bend down to get the baby out of the car each day. and with a skirt/dress on, it makes it even more of a hassle.

She didn't want the ML/GLE because she says it's too big for her. So GLK is just the right size according to her (as long as there is enough room in the back for the baby car seat).

She doesn't like the looks of the GLC, and I don't like the 2.0 engine in the GLC.

Our other choices are BMW X3, Audi Q5. but #1 choice is still GLK (She likes it's rectangular looks, plus the decent discounts available on it).

Inyoury

My wife used to have a Q3 3.0 TDi. Going from that SUV to the GLK, my wife loves the drive and power of the GLK better. As for the rear seats, it is a bit less leg room and a lot narrower than the Q5. Putting seat belts on my kids for both myself and my wife is very challenging. In fact, very annoying. For my wife she actually has to put one leg into the car and be half way inside the car to put and take off the seat belts for my kiddos. Also getting in and out of the rear is also not very comfortable. If you put the car seat in the middle, your wife will still have to get in the SUV and remove the baby or the attachment and get out. Which is not very easy.

There is problem with putting the car seat in the middle of the GLK. There is no isofix slots in the back part of the seat and in the middle. Therefore you much attach the isofix into the side seats from each side. If you do that, then the people sitting next to on either side of the middle car seat will not really be able to sit without something jabbing into their lower back nor be able to fasten their seat belts. So as I said before, take your car seat if you haven't already and place it in with the baby and your first child. You will definitely see what I am talking about. It is the weird placement of the isofix that messes things up plus the narrow seats and the narrow doors.

I have two kids and I have tried every combination of seating order for the GLK, BMW X3, Audi Q5, Lexus RX, Range Rover Evoque, Acura RDX/MDX and more.

thenew3

Unfortunately getting everyone together down to the dealer for a test drive is going to be very difficult, especially with 2 kids who can't sit still.

Luckily I found that the local Hertz rental car has glk's for rent. So I'm going to rent one for a day or two and test out the space.

We had a glk350 loaner for a couple weeks so we already know the wife likes the looks and the way it drives. We didn't have the baby at the time so didn't think about testing child seat fit.

Inyoury

That sounds like a great idea. I am not trying to pursued you from getting a GLK. We ended up getting one for many good reasons (mostly for my wife). But trying to put the car seat in the middle just doesn't make sense. The GLK has so many safety features that will make it safe for the baby in the side seats. I would recommend putting the baby behind the front passenger side and your older son behind the driver. That's the setup we have. That give plenty of space for more combinations of driver/passenger for daily drives.
I think if they made the GLK to have about 4 inches more leg room in the rear and 6 inches wider seatable space in the rear, it would be a perfect family car.

The driver and passenger windows as well as the windshield will bring in a lot of heat. I had 3M crystalline 70 in the windshield and crystalline 40 installed in the front two windows. On top of that I had crystalline 40 installed on the panorama roof. This greatly reduced the heat inside of the car. Very important for babies...

thenew3

Thanks for the feedback.

This will be primarily the wife's daily commuter car. To/from work and day care 5 days a week (6 miles each way), so total about 4k miles a year.

For trips we will use my E350 wagon.

The reason I was thinking the middle is because in the wagon, there is more open space in the middle for the rear facing child seat. If I put it behind the passenger seat, the passenger seat has to be pushed so far forward that my 8 year old can't even fit in the front passenger seat, nevermind the wife.
So I thought maybe in the GLK the same isseu will arise if we try to put the rear facing child seat behind the passenger seat, thus the middle may be a better position. I don't plan on use the latch anchors. I don't use them in the wagon due to there not being any in the middle seat. I use the seat belt to hold the child seat in place and plan to do the same in the GLK middle seat. My 8 year old is old enough where he doesn't need a booster, so he can just sit on either side of the baby seat. In about 1.5 years when the baby is 2 years old, we can turn the child seat to forward facing, at that point we can put it behind the passenger seat. We won't need the middle seat for anything at that point.
(I do all the soccer mom/dad duties in my wagon, the 3rd row comes in handy shuttling kids and their friends around on play dates)

I do plan on getting all glass tinted like I do on all my cars. I typically get formula one ceramic tint on all windows (40 or 50%) and 80% on windshield, with 5% limo dark tint on sun roof. Since the rear windows are already darker on the GLK, I'm probably going to get a lighter tint to keep it from being too dark.

BTW if the GLK had 4 more inches of leg room and 6 more inches of width, it would be known as the ML/GLE We had one of those loaners for a few days and wife thought it was too big for her.

Heck, if we win the lotto some day, I'd get myself a GL63 AMG, and get the wife a GLK350. then the GL can take care of all family hauling duties

Inyoury

The seat back for sedans needs to be tilted more due to the design. So you can afford to have the GLKs seat more up right since it is more like a chair.

The ML and GL are much bigger beasts. They also handle like boats IMO. You can change redesign the outside slightly to achieve roomier interiors and that's where I was going with the size increase.

If I win the lottery I would actually not go with a Mercedes, more towards a Ranger Rover or Porsche SUV for the wife and a Bentley for myself.

Any way, I don't think you can go wrong with a GLK. Best of luck on your choice and I hope you can get a killer deal.

OBP

I can verify that this is correct - with one forward facing harness for a 2 year old and one booster seat for a 6 year old, it was impossible for me to put anything in the center position. Both child seats had to be outboard. And the problem with the position of the Isofix anchors is right - trying to place the harness seat in the center makes it almost impossible for the outboard seat kid with a booster to fasten his seat belt. So it really is a two kids at the back and two adults in front configuration and that is about it as long as there are two car seats in the back.