The 2.0L is mated to a nine-speed automatic transmission and with the new lower drag coefficient (0.31 vs the old 0.34) the new GLC should be much more fuel efficient than the outgoing model – unfortunately at this time the fuel economy figures have not yet been released.

In terms of interior appointments the GLC is very well equipped. As standard customers have a choice of wood or aluminum trim, keyless start, heated front seats, ARTICO leather upholstery, 40/20/20 split-folding rear seats and much more. Mercedes-Benz offers a few packages for the GLC including a Premium Package for $4,900, a Premium Plus Package for $2,900, an AMG Sport package, LED lighting package and their Intelligent Drive package which adds features like PRE-SAFE Brake (Autonomous braking), PRE-SAFE Plus for Rear-end collision avoidance, active blind spot monitoring.

The packaged pricing seems fair, with the exception that you are required to spend near $8,000 extra to get something that is very common these days such as proximity key entry and an integrated garage door opener. Thankfully Mercedes-Benz does offer some a la carte options like a heated steering wheel for only $250 and Air Body Control (air suspension) for $1,800 or even a trailer hitch for $650.

The GLC exemplifies what you expect from a Mercedes-Benz product and follows on the same design language that the rest of the lineup has established. The interior is well laid out, simple and sophisticated. The COMAND system is the heart of the control centre with both a dial and touchpad surface for control. This system does take some getting used to and is certainly not the most intuitive system on the market, but the screen is sharp and clear and when you finally do figure it out it is very responsive.

The rest of the interior is well appointed; the leather seating is comfortable and feels of quality as one would expect of a Mercedes-Benz product. The only complaint I have about the interior is the Dark Ash Wood trim on the centre stack blends in too much with the black rubberized dash material. Due to the lack of contrast the wood grain is lost and the centre stack simply looks like black plastic that is dirty. The Brown Ash Wood trim solves this problem and looks great – this is from someone that isn’t really a fan of brown wood trims.

The roads of Atlanta are pretty nondescript. For the most part they are flat, smooth and boring. As a result of the American love for the interstate we spent a lot of time on them and during this time it became obvious that the GLC loves this type of travel. It is extremely quiet with zero wind noise even during a windy day and road noise was for all intents and purposes also approaching zero. A full day of driving and not once did we feel we needed the radio to drown out any noise in the cabin.

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