Mercedes-AMG GLC 43 4MATIC road trip review: A ‘mum’s taxi’ with attitude

Smart, smooth and with muscles to match. No wonder my wife loved Mercedes-AMG’s GLC 43 4MATIC

The GLC 43 and its big brother, the thunderous GLC 63, are meant to give you family practicality while reminding you of your lost youth.

Smart, smooth and with muscles to match. No wonder my wife loved the Mercedes-AMG GLC 43 4MATIC so much.

Massive wheels, four-wheel steering, kidney-hugging sports bucket seats, go-fast styling bits aplenty and a thick, flat-bottomed racing wheel clad in alcantara and all manner of customisable buttons, paddles and scroll wheels – what more could you want in a “mum’s taxi”?

This was the question I set out to answer when I tested out the “43”. What I found was a delicious blend of luxury, style and performance that appealed to both my wife and I.

The striking styling, luxury cabin and practical space was a winner for her, while the dizzying array of tech and performance had me smiling.

The GLC 43 and its big brother, the thunderous GLC 63, are meant to give you family practicality while reminding you of your lost youth.

There’s a loud button on the steering wheel which opens valves in the quad exhaust pipes, turning the not exactly serene standard muffler note into a bloodthirsty, throaty snarl with deafening backfiring noises that would humble a truckie.

You’ll be snapping, crackling and popping all the way from the breakfast table to school drop-off.

We took the GLC 43 for a trip up the coast to Hervey Bay, with the notorious Bruce Highway providing a really great test of this car’s all-round credentials given most of them will spend their days cruising motorways, not hugging chicanes.

The GLC 43’s cabin is snug, sporty and full of tech. Note the “happy dad” dials on the lower half of the chunky flat-bottomed steering wheel.

The rickety old Bruce is a good test of any suspension system, with its mix of glorious dual carriageway and shockingly poor, narrow single lane goat tracks as you weave through the caravans heading up north.

Despite being a fair bit smaller than our regular family cruiser, the GLC 43 was comfortable, smooth and always entertaining for me while everyone else slept.

It was lovely to know I had 310kW underfoot and nine gears to kick back through when the moment came to get around some traffic.

There are settings galore allowing you to customise the car just the way you like it and the on-board tech keeps you in your lane and back from the grey nomads in front without fuss while you chill out listening to the Burmeister surround stereo.

It was only while cruising along the new Gympie bypass that I discovered a bit of mind-blowing tech included with the Benz’s navigation system.

It prepares the car for each turn, meaning it will slow you down if you’re coming up to a sharp bend on the highway and, in town, pull you up at intersections. Combined with the adaptive radar cruise control, it’s pretty much hands-free driving and I loved experimenting with it.

The only problem was the maps on the MBUX system hadn’t updated to include the bypass road, so the car thought I was doing 110km/h through the scrub and madly rerouting me on to unseen back roads to try to get me back to the old highway, meaning the brakes would come on randomly applied as the car thought I was coming up to a road I needed to take.

We loved our trip in the GLC 43 and it more than matched everything the Bruce Highway threw at it.

But seriously, do you really need a practical five-seater that will pin you in your seat and scare pedestrians?

Yes. Yes, you do.

Mercedes-AMG
GLC 43 4MATIC

PRICE: Around $150,000 drive away as tested

Warranty/Service:

ENGINE: 2.0-litre turbo petrol four-cylinder mild hybrid; 310kW/500Nm; nine-speed auto with shift paddles

FEATURES: Rear steering, panoramic roof, augmented-reality navigation, adaptive digital headlights

THIRST: 9.7L/100km combined

Verdict

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Tech, space and grunt; what more could you want? Better value than price suggests.