2020 Mercedes-Benz GLE350 4Matic

The cheapest form of vehicle customization long has been done with a hair dryer and a plastic ruler.
 

Prying off a badge and replacing it with that from something more potent is the easiest way to suggest your car is more exciting than it is. Unsurprisingly, most proponents of this ignoble art quickly fall victim to overreach. A scruffy BMW 320i is never going to convince as an M3, especially when the badge has been applied at a slight angle. While such deception goes too far, the 2020 Mercedes GLE350 4Matic makes us consider a crime of omission rather than commission—simply taking the badge off entirely.

This entry-level GLE-class model does a remarkably good job of hiding both that it sits at the bottom of Benz's GLE range and that it is powered by a turbo inline-four. Granted, our test car's classiness was enhanced by the $2900 AMG Line Exterior package, which adds body colored fender arches, a "diamond block" grille treatment, and 19-inch AMG-branded aluminum wheels. An additional $1000 went to upgrading those wheels to 21-inchers and another $300 on the Night package and its black exterior trim. But it doesn't look like a car powered by a four-banger, does it?

Modest Power
That turbocharged 2.0-liter four makes 255 horsepower and 273 lb-ft of torque, neither of which seems like a huge amount given the GLE's 4794-pound curb weight. Yet acceleration is impressively brisk, if a ways off from what the 362-hp six-cylinder GLE450 manages. A 6.6-second zero-to-60-mph time would have made the 350 a rather quick SUV not very long ago. While that effort notably trails the GLE450 4Matic's 5.1-second effort, the 350 is 0.3-second fleeter than the Audi Q7 2.0T, although, as with the Audi, the Benz's acceleration trails off quickly once that benchmark is dispatched. The 19.2 seconds that the GLE350 needs to reach 100 mph is identical to that of the Q7 yet nearly six seconds behind the six-cylinder GLE450 4Matic.

But while that Audi feels and sounds every bit as if it only has four cylinders, the GLE does not. Its engine has enough low-end torque—peak twist starts at 1800 rpm—to give a convincing impression of a bigger, brawnier powerplant when under gentle use. It also seems to enjoy being worked harder, producing a muscular noise under acceleration and eagerly spinning to its 6250-rpm redline. You aren't going to mistake it for a V-8, but it sounds purposeful in a way that the Q7 does not. The 25 mpg we recorded for the GLE350 4Matic on our 75-mph highway fuel-economy test was 2 mpg better than what the more powerful GLE450 posted, yet it fell 1 mpg shy of the Benz's EPA highway estimate.





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