Fire in the ice with GLE coupe

Coupe versions of premium SUVs are the ultimate show-offs, but don’t imagine the fastbacked GLE trades on looks alone.

Price range: Not available.
Powertrains: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbopetrol, 320kW/520Nm (GLE AMG 53), 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbodiesel six 243kW/700Nm, nine-speed automatic, AWD.
Body style: Five door SUV
On sale: Third quarter 2020.

PEAKING at two thirds the height of Aoraki Mount Cook, the 33-kilometre Timmelsjoch High Alpine Road is eye-widening, ear-popping wonder.

We’re heading onto the highest section on Austria’s side of a tarmac ribbon snaking over the Otztal Alps and into Italy's South Tyrol. A road that, when rendered impassable to regular traffic in winter, becomes a test ground for Mercedes Benz. Except today.

Achieving a view of 21 mountains above 3000 metres was an ultimate activity with the new GLE Coupe, hitting New Zealand in the third quarter of 2020, stymied by a white wall impenetrable to a fastback sports utility.

So it’s back to Top Mountain Crosspoint, a modernist structure that’s a gondola base station, a restaurant - oh, and Europe's highest motorbike museum – where a Mercedes man testifies the roadie-ruining snow is not so much unseasonable as unheard of.

If global warming is to blame then Benz can take solace its new line contributes less toward our planet’s ill-health than the last. All launch engines are Green-tinted, even the AMG flagship unit, being an in-line six with electrical assist shared with the AMG E53 you can already buy.

Alongside the GLE AMG 53 are a six-cylinder 400d 3.0-litre turbodiesel (replacing the old 350D) plus something fresh, a plug-in hybrid. Will we see it? Potentially in petrol rather than Europe’s diesel. 

All engines hook to a nine-speed automatic and 4Matic all-wheel drive, run on 20-22 inch rims and wrap into a body based on the latest GLE wagon, but shorter in wheelbase and overall.

The roofline is more sweeping but mainly it’s just detailing. Yet comparing old and new suggests the replacement is more polished, more powerful-looking. It’ll stand up well against l Porsche’s Cayenne Coupe, the recently revealed BMW X6 and Audi’s Q8.

The instrument console lifts from the wagon, so the introduces to the Coupe the impressive MBUX digital dash and touchscreen. Over-zealousness of the voice control’s ‘Hey Mercedes’ prompt has you avoiding uttering the ‘M’ word in any context (it’ll immediately brusquely seek instruction), but it’s swish. All the more with augmented-reality satellite navigation. When your next turn is imminent, the screen displays a camera feed of the road ahead and overlays an arrow pointing where to go.

The NZ spec has yet to be set yet chances are wood and ambient lighting packs, electric tailgates, full auto LED headlights, and ‘Artico’ faux leather interior trim if you don’t want to spend more for actual cow skin are on the list. High-speed auto emergency braking, lane departure warning with lane keep assist, rear and front cross traffic alert, blind spot monitoring, 360 degree parking sensors and cameras, adaptive cruise, semi-autonomous parking and driver attention alert will surely also bundle in.

There’s a certain simplistic beauty to the cabin layout, yet it’s very upmarket. Brasher-grilled and biggest-rimmed, the 53’s AMG specific interior enhancements include a racier steering wheel and sports seats, which add to the ambience, but even in standard form the chairs are plump and comfortable. It’s a stretch to suggest the roof doesn’t compromise the rear, yet contention about room improving seems valid. What makes it feel cosy is the falling window line. The boot grows, with 655 to 1790 litres, yet the wagon’s still more commodious. 

The route started on autobahn then tackled ever-steepening secondary alpine roads, with tight switchbacks and avalanche tunnels. That last part ran into darkness so only when ascending in sunlight next day did I realise how dizzying the drop-offs were.

The drive also reminded just how restricted side and rear visibility becomes in a high-sided car. It’s great to have cameras to ease parking but even with big wing mirrors occasionally the first I knew of an overtaking car was when the blind spot detection activated.

Driving the 400d and AMG 53 reminded the pure diesel has less power than the mild-hybrid petrol but, with exception of when it briefly throws in full electrical impetus, the latter has 180Nm less torque, making for difference in energy on the steepest climbs.

Given the GLE is no lightweight nor, despite how it looks, a fulsome paragon of aero efficiency, the cited 100kmh sprint time of 5.3 seconds (and 250kmh top speed) for the AMG is pretty decent. Outputs also beat those for the BMW and Audi rivals and Benz hopes buyers will note the 48-volt assistance makes its engine more efficient and economical, too. The diesel hardly guzzles either and it is almost as refined on the move.

If you just don’t care for parsimony and want only power? Never fear. While it has yet to officially announced for the Coupe, there’s no doubt a GLE 63 S featuring the full animal 500kW twin-turbo V8 is coming, given the old Coupe was so configured and the GLE 63 S wagon has been signed off. 

As on GLE wagon, the standard suspension system is steel-sprung, but with sportier tuning. Air suspension options - it's a self-levelling system and can constantly vary its stiffness based on the conditions – and beyond that the car matches the wagon in offering the expensive next step of 'E-Active Body Control' which uses cameras to detect road quality and optimise the system to suit. It also leans into corners, which enhances handling though, ultimately, it felt even more assured in the sports mode heading up to this mountain lair.

And if you’re wondering why there’s a bike museum up here? A whim of twins Alban and Attila Scheiber, heirs to the ski sports and resort empire their grand-dad doggedly started a century ago, isn’t as curiously located as it seems.

Timmelsjoch’s is Europe’s best motorcycling road. That reputation ensures this collection of 230 rarities – the oldest, a 1905 pre-Skoda Laurin and Klement, plus icons from Moto Guzzi, Ducati, BMW, Zundapp, Norton, Matchless, Triumph, Superior, Sunbeam, Harley-Davidson and Indian - a few choice cars and a Porsche tractor becomes a huge draw for the 80,000 bikers who pass through here every summer.