The Mercedes-AMG GLC 43 Is An Unhinged Tuner Car In Corporate Clothes, For Better Or Worse

Back in the 1980s, Mercedes’ go-fast division AMG made a name out of dropping a hilariously brawny worked-over V8 into the midsize Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan, creating a monster known around the world by a singular nickname—the Hammer. In contrast, the new Mercedes-AMG GLC 43 is a bit like the inverse of that, borrowing its engine from the CLA 45 S, which takes the sport compact car concept to its factory extreme.

If you remember the last GLC 43, it was an AMG-lite with a boosted 385-horsepower six shared with a variety of fairly common Mercedes-Benz products. Sure, it had plenty of potency for a fairly normal compact luxury crossover, and it made some solid noises, but the attitude gulf between it and the old 469-horsepower V8-powered GLC 63 was enormous, not to mention the gap to the 503-horsepower GLC 63 S range-topper. Now with both the GLC 43 and the 671-horsepower plug-in hybrid GLC 63 adopting hand-built turbocharged four-bangers with 416 horsepower and 469 horsepower respectively, the middle child of the GLC lineup sounds like it should be more AMG than ever before by sharing a combustion-powered heart with its big brother. What’s it like in the real world, though? Does this heart transplant simply work, or does it come with some unusual side effects? Let’s find out.

[Full disclosure: Mercedes-Benz Canada let me borrow this GLC 43 for a week so long as I kept the shiny side up, returned it with a full tank of premium, and reviewed it.]

The Basics

Engine: Two-liter 16-valve twin-cam inline-four with electrically assisted turbocharger and 48-volt mild hybrid system.

Transmission: Nine-speed wet multi-plate clutch automatic.

Drive: All-wheel-drive.

Output: 416 horsepower at 6,750 rpm, 369 lb.-ft. of torque at 5,000 rpm.

Curb weight: 4,553 pounds (2,065 kg).

Fuel economy: 19 mpg city, 25 mpg highway, 21 mpg combined (12.6 L/100km city, 9.4 L/100km highway, 11.2 L/100km combined)

Base price: $68,250 including freight ($81,200 in Canada).

As-tested price: $80,720 including freight ($96,150 in Canada).

Why Does The Mercedes-AMG GLC 43 Exist?

To print money! Alright, that might sound a bit jaded, but there are compact luxury crossover buyers out there who just won’t be satisfied with 260-ish horsepower and a zero-to-60 mph time of around six seconds. If they’re coming from a sports sedan with a boosted six, who could blame them? Rather than simply offer a GLC 400, Mercedes and every other German automaker knows that sporty badges offer added cachet, and with take rates on prior sport packages being relatively high, why not bring the mid-trim compact luxury crossover under the umbrella of a performance brand?

How Does It Look?

On first glance, the new Mercedes-AMG GLC 43 looks a lot like the old one. Mercedes took an evolutionary approach with its current generation of mainline cars, taking what’s already successful and filing down the edges. The contouring of the body side is subtler than before, the headlights more pointed, the greenhouse slightly softer, and the front fascia more shapely. The end result is a mature, handsome compact luxury crossover unlikely to polarize based on appearance alone.

What About The Interior?

Step inside the Mercedes-AMG GLC 43, and you certainly won’t mistake it for a car from any other brand thanks to a six-spoke steering wheel, extravagant mood lighting, and that unusually saccharine, surprisingly pleasant new car smell that only Mercedes seems capable of producing.

If the the Magic City illumination isn’t your cup of tea, there’s more to like beyond the glitz. A standard stitched dashboard and door cards are nice touches that you’d have to pay extra for on most competitors, the optional Burmester sound system features lovely aluminum grilles at a reasonable price, and the engineering that went into creating such a solid door thunk must be serious. In addition, there’s plenty of space for both passengers and trinkets, and the driver’s seat is all-day comfortable.

Is there room for improvement? Sure, but we’re mostly talking about minor stuff. I’m surprised that the standard seats don’t feature adjustable bolsters at this price point, I noticed some minor creaks from the bezel around the driver’s seat controls, and some of the controls themselves aren’t ideal. More on that later.

How Does It Drive?

Before we press the starter button, there’s an elephant in the room. This is an $80,000 as-optioned Mercedes-AMG with a four-cylinder engine. However, before you rush to the comments to bemoan the absence of two cylinders, consider the following: While the old GLC 43 used a lightly tweaked version of Mercedes-Benz’s corporate turbocharged three-liter V6, the new four-cylinder model uses essentially the same handbuilt, heavily revised engine you’d find in a CLA 45 S, or an SL 43, or a Lotus Emira. Its engine cover is even signed by the guy who built the motor, a step up in AMG pedigree over the old modelr. At the same time, 416 horsepower is nothing to sneeze at, so perhaps losing two cylinders will bring out a side we’ve never seen before from the GLC 43.

Well, on cold start, the GLC 43 is a recalcitrant, indolent beast. With the transmission fluid cold, the nine-speed transmission feels like its upshifts are controlled by someone just learning to drive a manual gearbox. It also takes absolute ages to set off from a stop, and you don’t want to mat the throttle through the transmission delay, else you end up rearranging the front bumper on whatever’s in front of you. Give the transmission some time to warm up and things still aren’t great. The multi-plate clutch is still slow to engage, the suspension is so underdamped it almost feels like the shocks are blown, and you really become aware that when you’re trundling along, you’re out of boost and driving a two-ton crossover with a two-liter engine.

Happily, there is a way to make the GLC 43 drivable. Twist the drive mode selector to the right, cue up sport plus mode, and the GLC 43 goes from being asleep at the wheel to perhaps being a bit too much. The shifts sharpen up immensely, the revs stay high enough to really keep the electrically assisted turbocharger spooled, and the damping goes from crashy to in-tune with the springs.

Suddenly, you’re driving a compact luxury crossover with the spirit of a tuner car, an Adderall-snorting BASE jumper decked out head to toe in Giorgio Armani. The snap-crackle-pop soundtrack and audible turbo whoosh is the stuff of grown-up Fast & Furious kids’ dreams, the upshifts have shove, the chassis always lets you know where all four wheels are, and instead of having power fall off up top like most modern turbocharged cars, this thing slams into the end of its leash at redline. It’s constantly champing at the bit, egging you on like that one college roommate that was a bad influence.

However, it might just go too far. Remember how peak torque arrives at 5,000 rpm? Well, although the butt dyno estimates it’s just as quick as the old GLC 43 from zero-to-60 mph with a launch control start, you have to work to get into the powerband from a roll. It’s hilariously entertaining, sure, but do luxury crossover owners want to do that, or would they rather have more low-end grunt for the sake of ease? I’m thinking the latter, and that’s before we even contemplate how important it is for a car like this to actually calm down while still feeling confident. There needs to be something in between lairy and apathetic, and there’s no grey to the temperament of the GLC 43.

There are three other downsides you can’t outrun with clever mode changes. The first is that occasionally, you get a downshift about as subtle as dropping an air conditioner out of a 34th-floor apartment. Then there’s the brake pedal calibration, which is unacceptably awful. There’s no discernible bite point, and the difference between an extremely gentle stop and leaving your passenger’s teeth marks on the dashboard feels exclusively like a matter of pedal travel, not effort. Oh, and the fuel economy isn’t brilliant compared to the similarly potent BMW X3 M50 xDrive. Then again, that BMW doesn’t have nearly as much Jack Russell Terrier attitude as the GLC 43, but that only matters to a handful of lunatics.

Does It Have The Electronic Crap I Want?

Inside the GLC 43, you’ll find almost every gizmo imaginable short of a dedicated screen for the passenger. The 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster features an almost overwhelming amount of configurability, and so does the optional head up display. A big 11.9-inch portrait touchscreen dominates the dashboard, offering everything from streaming to off road gauges to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Strangely, Apple CarPlay consistently failed to establish a reliable wireless connection during my week with the GLC 43, often briefly dropping out on drives longer than 20 minutes or so.

One big tech highlight is an optional 15-speaker Burmester 3D sound system. While a proper seven-band or nine-band equalizer would be nice, it’s easy enough to dial in your favorite settings, and both sound quality and staging are pretty good for the segment. In America, it comes bundled with extensive mood lighting with proper dynamic lighting modes

However, there are some electronics you’ll want that the GLC 43 doesn’t have. Stuff like an actual volume knob, real buttons on the steering wheel and console, physical climate controls, even power seat controls that aren’t capacitive touch. While the cabin of the GLC 43 looks great, Mercedes has made it a bit fiddly to use. Luxury’s meant to include ease, and the GLC 43 could use a little bit more of it.

Three Things To Know About The New Mercedes-AMG GLC 43

1. It has an extreme, often riotous personality once you get to know it.
2. The capacitive touch steering wheel controls will drive you mad.
3. The brake pedal is simultaneously excessively vague and incredibly touchy.

Does It Fulfill Its Purpose?

Compared to the competition in the middleweight compact luxury crossover segment, perhaps the Mercedes-AMG GLC 43 might be too wild, too extreme, too singular to truly achieve mass appeal. Then again, aren’t AMGs supposed to be unhinged? We’re talking about the same sub-brand that stuffed a 6.2-liter naturally aspirated V8 into a minivan and put a biturbo V12 in an Austrian-built ex-military vehicle conceived in the ’70s.

I like some of the new GLC 43’s spirit, and I love to press it hard and party with it, but it’s not complete enough for me to recommend you trade the old one in for it. It’s a better AMG than ever before, but a better sporty luxury crossover for everyday things? I can’t really say that it is. So, if you’re shopping for a compact luxury crossover and your idea of a Spa day involves sending a rental through Eau Rouge, give the GLC 43 a look. However, if you’re looking for something with bandwidth, give the Genesis GV70 3.5T, BMW X3 M50 xDrive or Porsche Macan S a shout.

What’s The Punctum Of The New Mercedes-AMG GLC 43

It turns out that a highly-strung hot hatch motor in a compact luxury crossover feels exactly how you’d expect it to.

Top graphic credit: Thomas Hundal

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