2020 Mercedes-Benz GLB250 4Matic

Let's do some free associating. When we say "compact," you say—well, honestly, this is kind of hard to do from inside a magazine.
 

Not exactly what Freud had in mind. But if your answer is closer to "small sedan" than "three-row SUV," we're sorry to say that you lack the creativity needed to work at Mercedes-Benz. No, when the visionaries in Stuttgart created their new transverse-engine platform for the puny A, CLA, and GLA models and saw that it was good, they stretched it into a seven-seat crossover just 0.9 inch shorter than the GLC.

Called the GLB, that crossover debuted in concept form last April wearing knobby off-road tires, more than its fair share of plastic cladding, and a roof-mounted light bar. Led on by Mercedes, the automotive community did some free associating of its own, dubbing the GLB a "baby G-class" and dreaming of post-soccer-practice rallies down dirt roads.

The reality, as usual, is something less than that. Confronted with the production-ready GLB, we noted a distinct lack of right angles and round headlights. What we found instead, over the course of a daylong drive through Arizona's Tonto National Forest, was a comfortable and well-engineered vehicle perfect for navigating the ever shifting needs of an affluent suburban household. Mercedes will launch the GLB250 first, though the AMG-tuned GLB35 is on the way. The 250 has the same 221-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four that powers the CLA250. That engine pairs with an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission in the GLB while the CLA has a seven-speed. All-wheel drive is a $2000 premium.

The GLB 4Matic we tested was bumped up from its $39,595 base price to $57,475 with the help of $1450 leather seats, a $1500 panoramic sunroof, and a $1650 Premium package, the key benefit of which is a pair of 10.3-inch display screens. Our test car did not have the optional third row, perhaps because Mercedes thought we would be disappointed by it. The quoted 29.1 inches of legroom and 34.8 inches of headroom in the third row put our comfort estimates somewhere between poor and abysmal. To its credit, Mercedes pitches the wayback as an occasional-use thing rather than a daily tool.





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