Mercedes GLC Coupe review: big on style, short on practicality

Most family SUVs are functional but boring and boxy looking. This newcomer adds a dash of flair, at the expense of practicality.

Mercedes-Benz’s four-door coupe SUV is guaranteed to turn heads on the school run.

Here are five things you should know.

It’s a handsome beast

It’s a tough job to make an SUV look sporty and stand out from the crowd, but the designers have done a stellar job with the GLC Coupe. It won’t appeal to all tastes, but the swoopy rear end, broad shoulders and massive 20-inch wheels give this big Benz a real presence on the road. The puddle lights, which project a gigantic five-pointed star on the road next to the car when it’s parked at night, are perhaps a little over the top, though. The GLC Coupe may be handsome but it is still a beast of a car and the long front bonnet makes manoeuvring trickier than it could be.

The Mercedes-Benz GLC 300 Coupe stands out in the carpark. Picture: Supplied.

The cabin exudes theatre

If you’ve paid more than $120,000 drive-away for a set of wheels, you want it to blow people away when you offer them a ride. The GLC300 Coupe’s cabin does a fine job of that. The huge tablet-like centre screen with pin-sharp resolution and quality graphics immediately catches the eye as you step inside, while the customisable digital driver display has a choice of screen layouts to satisfy most tastes. At night, the ambient lighting bathes the cabin in a range of colours ranging from sporty red to deep blue. There’s even a soft teal hue for those who prefer the middle ground. The cockpit feel is completed by a huge head-up display that delivers a wealth of information including speed, prevailing speed limit and navigation instructions.

The interior looks suitably upmarket. Picture: Supplied.

The choice is simple

The Mercedes-Benz website is enough to give indecisive buyers sweats and palpitations – the brand has the widest range of models of any carmaker, including Toyota. But there’s only one GLC Coupe model and it comes fully loaded, so there’s no need to flick through a long list of options. All the expected luxuries are there, including wireless smartphone mirroring and charging, heated front seats with memory settings, a power-operated tailgate, a panoramic sunroof and excellent Burmester audio system. In a pleasant surprise, metallic paint doesn’t cost extra.

There is only one model in the GLC Coupe range. Picture: Supplied.

There are compromises...

As with all so-called “coupe-like” SUVs, the GLC suffers a little from being neither fish nor fowl. It lacks the practicality of the conventional GLC wagon, yet doesn’t deliver the agility and driving thrills of a sports car. It’s big, heavy and relatively thirsty but doesn’t have the practicality and space you’d expect from an SUV. Things are fine up front, where the seats are comfortable and there’s plenty of space, but the rear seats feel a little cramped. The sloping roofline eats into head space for taller passengers and the high window line can make little ones feel a little claustrophobic. Vision out of the rear window is severely limited and the rear load area is smaller than the wagon version. It’s also a shallow space so taller items such as prams and walkers are a tight squeeze.

The coupe lacks the practicality of the GLC wagon. Picture: Supplied.

In more ways than one

The compromises flow through to the driving experience. Mercedes-Benz has done a good job of disguising the Coupe’s weight. The level of grip from the tyres is impressive and the firm suspension helps to reduce the typical body roll and pitching you feel through corners in a top-heavy SUV. But there’s no hiding the fact that this is a big car. It’s not really nimble enough to cut it as a performance car and the firm suspension means it doesn’t waft over bumps and road perfections in the manner you’d expect of a luxury car. The 190kW/400Nm 2.0-litre turbo is a little the same. It delivers brisk acceleration without feeling sporty and lacks the refinement and smoothness you’d expect at the price tag. An occasionally indecisive transmission doesn’t help its cause.