Mercedes-Benz GLC Coupe Review & Prices

The Mercedes GLC Coupe is one of numerous coupe-SUVs on sale at the moment, but it may well be the one with the most road presence thanks to the big three-pointed star in its grille and a handsome design. It has a stylish cabin and feels stable in all conditions, but it’s lacking in space inside and it’s not very comfortable.

Think of the GLC Coupe as a high-end designer coat, compared to its slightly more subtle counterparts. You pay a premium for the label, but it’s not as practical or pleasant to wear in the real world as something a bit more modest.

And it’s not just the equally-posh Audi Q5 Sportback or BMW X4 that might tempt you away from the Mercedes, but easy-on-the-eye, budget-friendly alternatives such as Skoda Enyaq Coupe and Renault Rafale deserve a glance, too. While they’re all stylish SUVs, the Mercedes is the most head-turning of the lot.

Aggressive headlights mounted up high adjoin an equally moody-looking grille made-up of dozens of tiny three-pointed stars, as well as the enormous centrepiece. The roofline is one of the most rakish going, while the slender taillights and integrated lip on the tailgate are very sporty-looking.

The interior is equally stylish, featuring Mercedes’ 11.9-inch portrait-oriented infotainment system ‘floating’ in front of a curved dashboard with a trio of intricate air vents at the top. There’s a 12.3-inch digital driver’s display too, and both screens feature crisp graphics - though they’re not as quick to respond to your inputs as in a BMW or Audi.

Interior quality is a mixed bag, because while most of the surfaces are trimmed in plush materials and soft plastics, the centre console feels flimsy to the touch and the lovely wood trim on the dash feels a bit thin.

There’s plenty of space up front, with ultra-comfortable, highly adjustable seats and well-sized storage cubbies and door bins for odds and ends. Rear seat space is poor though, with adequate legroom but a serious lack of headroom; even adults shorter than six feet tall will feel their head up against the roof. The 545-litre boot is a touch bigger than the Audi Q5 Sportback and BMW X4, but it’s shallow; a Mercedes GLC SUV is a better choice for carrying big items.

You can choose from a range of mild-hybrid diesel, mild-hybrid petrol or plug-in hybrid four-cylinder engines which are all capable enough, but the PHEVs offer the sweet spot of performance and fuel efficiency. Look to BMW or Audi for a smoother six-cylinder engine, though.

Around town the GLC Coupe’s powerful engines make it easy to get up to speed, while the steering feels surprisingly quick for such a big car. It’s a shame that the gearbox is slow at times, and while powerful the pure-petrol engine takes a moment to pick up; frustrating when setting off at a junction.

The GLC Coupe is also rather uncomfortable, with stiff suspension bouncing you around on broken roads and thudding through the cabin over bumps and potholes. Motorways are generally quiet as a result of Mercedes’ excellent insulation, but again, rutted roads knock through the car and the engines can sound gruff when getting up to speed. Country lanes are uneventful, but the GLC always feels stable on a fast road.

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The Mercedes GLC Coupe starts from just over £60,000 in entry-level diesel AMG Line form. All versions come with an automatic gearbox and four-wheel drive, as well as a trick four-wheel steering setup, electric tailgate, high-beam assist lights and sporty bumpers.

That makes the GLC Coupe around £6,000 more than the GLC SUV, £7,000 more than the Audi Q5 Sportback and a whopping £9,000 more than the BMW X3. While it certainly feels like a posher proposition than the Q5, it’s not a superior car to drive, nor is it much better equipped.

Excluding the uber-spicy GLC 63 and GLC 43 AMG Coupes, which we’ve reviewed separately, the range-topping GLC 300 de AMG Line Premium Plus (yes, really) diesel-hybrid starts at almost £83,000, putting it far above the faster, better-to-drive BMW X3.

A well-insulated cabin is spoiled by bouncy suspension

In town

The GLC Coupe is generally easy to drive around town, as all of its 2.0-litre engine options are powerful enough for a quick getaway from the lights. It’s a shame that the standard-fit automatic gearbox is so slow, though, feeling a bit dim-witted at low speeds and taking a while to change gear; particularly noticeable on mild-hybrid versions.

Another issue is how much the GLC tends to roll forwards or backwards when switching between drive and reverse, which can make manoeuvres in tight spaces a bit unnerving. Add to that the heavily distorted parking cameras, poor rear visibility and overly-responsive parking sensors; the big Mercedes isn’t as easy to drive in town as an Audi Q5 Sportback or Polestar 3.

It’s also not particularly comfortable, with its stiff suspension provoking an audible shudder through the cabin over heavily pockmarked roads and bouncing you around over speed bumps. It’s a shame as the optional four-wheel steering means the GLC is easy to chuck around tight roads.

On the motorway

Mercedes has done an excellent job of insulating the GLC’s cabin, with minimal wind noise and road noise - so long as you’re on a smooth section of tarmac. The GLC Coupe is so well insulated that passing ambulances and police cars are all but drowned out.

Yet the uncomfortable suspension rears its head again at high speeds, because rough, rutted motorway sections not only vibrate through the car, but there’s an audible dull thud that appears - and it’s really rather jarring over long periods of time. At least the GLC’s seats are supremely comfortable.

The standard-fit cruise control is easy to use, but while there’s a button on the steering wheel for adaptive cruise control (and the GLC comes equipped with the necessary sensors), you’re greeted with a message telling you to pay for it if you haven’t specified the option. That’s really poor form considering some cars half the price come with active cruise as standard.

On a twisty road

If you want a fun-to-drive family SUV then the BMW X3 is where you should look, because while the GLC Coupe is perfectly capable of carving through corners, it won’t excite you in the process.

There’s buckets of grip from its wide tyres and very little in the way of body lean as a result of its stiff suspension, but again, our battered country lanes don’t gel with the GLC’s propensity to clatter over rough road surfaces - and in sport mode the big Mercedes is even less comfortable.

Still, it’s an easy car to drive fast, and the enormously powerful brakes give you the necessary confidence to carry speed on a twisty road.

Plenty of space and storage up front, but adults in the back will struggle

If you’re sat up front in the GLC’s cabin you’re in for a very comfortable experience. The seats are excellent, with highly adjustable settings including lumbar and side bolsters, as well as a steering wheel with lots of travel. The top of the steering wheel can get in the way of the driver display if you enjoy sitting low, though.

You can even input your height into the GLC’s infotainment system and it’ll automatically set your seating position. Not with a great deal of success, but it’s still a fun little gimmick.

There’s loads of storage too, with a deep, hidden cubby in between the seats as well as a pair of hidden cupholders, more storage and a wireless phone charging pad hidden away in another cubby beneath the infotainment screen. The door bins are long and can hold large water bottles, while the globebox is merely adequate.

Space in the back seats

The back of the GLC Coupe is far less comfortable than the front, and it starts before you even get in. While a lack of headroom is to be expected with a rakish roofline, the GLC’s silhouette is so low that it’s even a pain to stoop in through the shallow rear door openings.

There are a pair of ISOFIX child seat anchor points in the outer rear seats with easy to use flip-up covers, but loading in a child seat is a pain as a result of the low roof.

Once inside, legroom is fine - you get more more in an Audi Q5 Sportback - while headroom is cramped, even for adults of modest height. You don’t have to be six feet tall to feel your hair being ruffled by the headliner, especially in the taller middle seat. There are a pair of cupholders in the flip-down armrest and the door bins are well sized.

Boot space

The 545-litre boot is usefully long and wide, and it’s only 55 litres smaller than the GLC SUV, but you won’t fit bulky items in as a result of the low roofline.

The GLC Coupe’s boot is only 25 litres down on the BMW X3 and it’s an impressive 30 litres bigger than the Audi Q5 Sportback, too. The deep underfloor storage is handy and can easily fit several backpacks, or a large shop; perfect for keeping items out of sight or in a cool space on a hot day.

Unfortunately, GLC PHEVs lose a whopping 155 litres of space to fit the batteries under the boot floor, and at 390 litres the ‘e’ models barely have more boot space than the CLA Electric compact saloon.

The cabin looks fantastic and is generally plush, but some questionable plastics let it down

Mercedes interiors are some of the best-looking at the moment, and the GLC Coupe is no exception. You get a wide, curvaceous dashboard which wraps around onto the door cars and a swoopy centre console that curves up into the 11.9-inch, portrait-oriented infotainment screen; seemingly floating in front of the dash.

The ambient lighting is oh-so-stylish, and you can choose from a multitude of preset colour options - or you can pluck any colour you want from a spectrum. Pick wisely and your GLC can resemble a swish cocktail bar…or a TRON movie.

The infotainment system itself is easy to use, though it is a little sub-menu heavy and the touchscreen climate controls are fiddly to operate on the move. You can control the infotainment via a small, haptic touchpad on the steering wheel, but it’s a real faff at times.

In fact, the steering wheel is a bit too complicated for its own good, and it can take a little while to get used to. You’ve got four groups of touch-sensitive controls, with a programmable shortcut button on the spoke for the infotainment display, audio controls that span two spokes and a separate spoke for the cruise control.

The biggest disappointment in the GLC Coupe’s cabin are some of the plastics that Mercedes has used. While there’s a lot of (vegan) leather and metal trim around the interior, there are some plastics that are just too flimsy or scratchy to the touch. The entire centre console section which merges with the central display feels a bit nasty, for example, as do the door bins. Even the wood trim manages to feel brittle, even if it looks great.

The Mercedes GLC Coupe comes in a range of fuel options, from the entry-level diesel model through to a petrol, petrol-hybrid and diesel-hybrid at the top of the range. Long distance drivers are best opting for the pure-diesel model, with its claimed 54.4mpg.

Petrol-only models achieve a claimed 38.7mpg in mixed use, but in our testing of a GLC 300 we only managed 30.4mpg in mainly city driving with a few long motorway journeys and B-roads thrown into the mix. We managed 39.0mpg on a run up the motorway though, with few town roads at either end.

The plug-in hybrid models claim a ludicrous 129mpg as petrol and 166mpg as a diesel, but around town you’re bound to see increased fuel economy over the non-hybrids. Where the hybrids really benefit are as company cars, where their low CO2 outputs mean they fall into the lowest bands for Benefit-in-Kind tax. PHEV GLC Coupes can travel around 75 miles to a charge, depending on which fuel type and trim level you opt for.

For private buyers the lower price of the non-hybrids will likely prove cost-effective in the long run, unless you do a lot of mileage in town and have access to home charging. All GLCs are subject to the luxury car tax in years two to five, while the petrol model’s CO2 emissions mean you’ll pay over twice as much first-year road tax as in a diesel. Ouch.

The GLC Coupe shares its Euro NCAP score with the GLC SUV, meaning it earned a full five-star rating when tested in 2022. It earned excellent scores of 92% and 90% in the Adult and Child occupant criteria, respectively.

You get lane keep assist, a plethora of airbags, emergency brake assist both front and rear and a driver monitoring camera as standard in the GLC, with lane-assist cruise control as an option. There are a pair of ISOFIX child seat anchor points in the back, too.

We’ve not heard any horror stories about the GLC Coupe’s reliability since its launch in 2023, which comes as no surprise given Mercedes’ phenomenal second-place finish out of 31 manufacturers entered into the 2025 Driver Power survey for owner satisfaction.

Every new Mercedes comes with a three year, unlimited-mileage warranty as standard, and you can pay to extend the warranty on a yearly or bi-yearly basis. That’s better than the typical three-year, 60,000-mile warranty most European manufacturers offer, though not as impressive as the Lexus warranty which is extended automatically to 10 years/100,000 miles with regular main dealer servicing.