Get set to enjoy the surprising star qualities of Benz’s smallest sports utility.

PLAYING for a full house is the game plan for Mercedes’ first baby sports utility.

 In revealing pricing and specification details for the GLB, which rides on new large iteration of the A-Class architecture, Mercedes Benz New Zealand has also revealed it only has eyes for the full-blown edition configured for family use, rather than an alternate derivative that presents as an extra-sized hatchback.

 Going just for the line-up in its 200 front-drive and 250 and AMG 35 four-wheel-drive full chair count presentations is a different tack than that adopted in Europe, where the five-seater is more on the front foot. 

The strategy conceivably doesn’t discount the car still being seen as a rival for the BMW X1 and Audi Q3, but certainly allows it to square up as an elite-end alternate to the only like-sized German model in this space, the Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace.

Mercedes’ local arm doubts it will be any poorer ignoring the five-seaters, pointing – quite reasonably – that this configuration is still availed the seven-chair edition; it’s just a matter of folding down the rearmost seats. 

This doesn’t mean the five-chair car couldn’t be sourced, as it does build in right-hand-drive. Just don’t expect to be able to order it through official channels. It’s simply not an option. “The car comes standard with seven seats in New Zealand,” a spokesman affirmed today.

The decision is based on a logic of keeping things simple, although it also identifies that additional flexibility and functionality will tune all the more nicely into the emergent Kiwi love for compact SUVs.

In respect to ensuring it is ticking all the boxes, MBNZ has also … well, ticked all the boxes. The suite of technology, safety and comfort inclusions and equipment specifications for NZ achieves beyond some other countries’ standard provisions.

You won’t have long to make up your own minds. A first shipment provisioning the $78,900 GLB 200 entry car and $92,200 mid-range GLB 250 4MATIC will unpack in several weeks. The flagship AMG-reworked GLB 35 4 MATIC, a $104,900 ask, comes later in the year, exact timing yet to be determined. All GLBs take the shortest sailing time yet for a Mercedes’ car, being sourced from a new factory in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

That launch timing is exactly to the plan unfurled last year during the car’s international release, when MBNZ managing director Lance Bennett expressed his optimism about why GLB will resonate, notably through it being in the right price band for families for whom this might well be their first new Mercedes.

“With the GLB we now have the ability to transport an entire family’s worth of activity and adventure from a much lower starting price than before,” he said then. “We expect this … will see us attract entirely new customers where we have not had a suitable vehicle in the past.” 

Notwithstanding that these thoughts were expressed before the world had even heard of coronavirus, let alone felt its impact on new car sales, the comment likely will remain relevant. A first drive last year in Spain imprinted hugely favourable impression of its qualities.

The packaging is right up there. This is the smallest SUV Benz has ever tackled, yet it doesn’t feel that way. Even though it is not, by any stretch, a large car in overall dimension, and regardless that the handsome Benz styling suggests it as a big hatch, GLB is at heart a box full of chairs in which every centimetre of interior space is put to excellent use.

So clever is the employment of the additional room resulting from being on a wheelbase that’s 100mm longer than the other related models within the ‘compact portfolio’ - the A-Class hatch and sedan, B-Class, CLA and GLA – allows it a decent chance of being seen as a tangible alternate for anyone who now cannot stretch to a GLE (in which five chairs are standard and seven an option) due to need to reduce their spending.

Front headroom is a claimed best in class at 1035mm with an “especially comfortable” 967mm of legroom in the second row. True, it’s tight right at the back, but even with Benz’s admission that it only offers comfortable seating for those under 1.68m tall, that third row zone is hardly for emergency use only, not least because the second row is able to be slid forward by up to 140mm.

What does imprint more is that, wen running full occupancy, the luggage space remaining is miniscule. Stowing the back pair (neatly, into the boot) and it’s much more convenient, of course, as then there’s a loading space of 560 litres, expanding to 1755 litres when the second and third rows are stowed.

A lot of clever thinking (and using that VW for benchmarking) delivers decent head and legroom, excellent outward visibility and good stowage solutions, but one thought from the launch was that, before letting the kids in, you’d do well to pre-check for sticky little fingers. This is a premium car, flashiness extending beyond the fully digital dash with the MBUX interface (and occasionally over-eager ‘Hi Mercedes’ prompt). Touch surfaces use high-quality materials, buttons and knobs have a satisfying tactility and reassuring clicks and it’s beautifully trimmed, with cushy seats.

The NZ-market spec plays to that. Base trim includes the now familiar side-by-side 10.25-inch digital screens, keyless go, electric tailgate, Artico upholstered Comfort seats, adaptive cruise control, smartphone mirroring, wireless charging, advanced satellite navigation, illuminated door sills, leather multi-function steering wheel, reversing camera, Comfort suspension, rain-sensing wipers, 19-inch alloy wheels and aluminium roof rails. 

Standard safety gear includes nine airbags, active parking assist with Parktronic, adaptive high beam assist, blind spot assist, traffic sign assist, active lane keep assist and active brake assist with semi-autonomous braking.

The car’s other big flavour hit arrives with the driving. Family buses are generally not exactly highly-regarded for any kind of ‘fun-to-drive’ factor, and you wouldn’t think Benz would be the first brand to come to mind as a rule-breaker. But, truly, it was a surprise; that AMG car, especially, doesn’t let do anything to tarnish that sub-brand’s pedigree but, in truth, the non-performance-tuned editions are quite playful, too.

The steering feel is good, the car’s track neatly and though the 4MATIC’s enhanced traction is obvious, the front-driver has good grip. The dynamics are interesting, in a good way. Even the pliancy resultant from the extended wheelbase and tuning with mind to having to cope with optimal loadings are pluses for the ride-handling balance. Yes, there’s a touch of lean, but on the other hand it shouldn’t surprise if these turn out to be more comfortable and quiet on NZ coarse chip than other products on this base. In Spain we drove every model in both chair counts and found any thought about the seven-seater being less involving than the five, merely through the weight difference, was pretty much undone.

The GLB200’s turbocharged 1.3-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, with 120kW and 250Nm, sent via a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission delivers nifty delivery, but it’ll be easier to find excuse to seek an upgrade to the 250’s significantly more grunty (165kW/350Nm) 2.0-litre turbo. In addition to all-wheel-drive, it also adopts an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. 

The mid-grade edition also adds more kit, including a panoramic sunroof, powered and heated front seats with memory function, adjustable damping, sports steering and five-spoke 19-inch alloy wheels.

Also included as standard is an ‘off-road engineering pack’ comprised of speed-adjustable hill descent control and an extra driving mode specifically tailored for light off-road use. We found it useful on a rain-drenched and reasonably rutted dirt track but the fact that Mercedes closed off a dedicated off-road driving circuit simply because of the precipitation perhaps is reminder that this car is better considered a crossover at best.  

What of the AMG; could it be called a hot hatch? On first encounter the more hunkered and honed flagship was an eyebrow raiser. Even though hot-rodding SUVs has become an AMG speciality and even if GLB is more expected to get people to race circuits than on them, with 0-100kmh in an exhaust barking 5.2 seconds and 250kmh top speed, it surely places at least the Audi SQ3 and BMW’s X2 M35i on notice.

The same force-fed 2.0-litre unit employed in the other compact ‘35’ variants generates 225kW and 400Nm, so it’s considerably quicker than the other GLBs. It also evidences higher lateral limits. Only when pushed really hard did it find understeer on the first trial, but impression on that day from burling it through some exquisite hairpins was that the high traction and surety exceeds what you expect from a family chariot. A true driver’s treat? Well, put it this way … if the kids (or family pooch) are coming, pack sick bags. 

The NZ-market treatment includes AMG Night Package exterior trim features and unique 20-inch alloy wheels, the full-barp exhaust system, high-performance brakes, speed sensitive steering and AMG Ride Control sports suspension.

Inside the performance theme runs to a Nappa leather-wrapped performance steering wheel, Lugano leather sports seats, Energising Comfort Control, brushed stainless AMG pedals and carbon interior trim.