Mercedes-Benz GLA Review 2026

The Mercedes-Benz GLA is the latest posh small SUV to join a class that's bristling with competition from the likes of the BMW X1, Audi Q3, Volvo XC40 and Lexus UX. The GLA is based on the A-Class so its interior looks very similar aside from the fact that it has a lot more space. Engines are also shared with hatchback so you can choose from the same petrol, diesel and hybrid versions as well two fire-breathing AMG models which we’ve reviewed separately.

The Mercedes GLA throws into the mixing bowl everything you like about the A-Class – its posh image, high-tech interior and strong range of engines – then adds a tablespoon of practicality and a dash of SUV ruggedness. The result is one of the best small-but-posh SUVs currently on sale. 

Mercedes-Benz's SUV range follows the same Russian doll philosophy as its saloons – they look nearly identical (military-spec G Wagon notwithstanding) but every model is slightly bigger than the last. 

That’s a good thing for this new GLA because if there was a criticism of the old model it would have been that it looked too much like an A-Class on raised suspension – a major problem when your target audience is crying out for a chunkily styled SUV. Thankfully, its blunt front-end and boxier profile means this GLA isn’t going to be mistaken for a hatchback. 

It is also a lot more practical than the car it replaces. You get plenty of room for four adults and a boot that’s big, usefully square and that closes electrically – handy when you’ve got your hands full. 

It’s still based on the A-Class so you get a stylish interior design even if the quality isn’t as consistently rock solid as you’ll find in the Audi Q3 or BMW X1. A visit to the options list can do a lot to brighten things up – you can upgrade everything from the infotainment to the interior trims – so a cheap GLA can look quite different to an expensive one, but at a sizable price. 

Running costs are less noteworthy for the right reasons. The GLA comes shaped from the modern SUV mould so while it looks quite rugged, only the top-of-the-range diesel comes with four-wheel drive as standard. As a result, no GLA gulps down fuel like it’s going out of fashion and the 250e plug-in hybrid’s ability to travel short distances on electricity alone could make you some serious savings on your commute.

On longer drives you’ll find all GLAs are relaxing. Sure there’s some wind and tyre noise but it’s nothing like the drone you’ll get from the tyres in a BMW X1 and the GLA's lighter steering, standard automatic gearbox and crystal clear reversing camera makes it ideal in town.

Where the BMW steals a lead is in how fun it is to drive – the GLA can’t match the X1’s responsive steering or well contained body lean but it’s a minor criticism of a car that proves perfectly well mannered. 

Factor in that desirable Mercedes badge and it’s easy to see why you’d choose the GLA. It has the premium feel of the A-Class and doesn’t cost a huge amount more to run, but looks more chunky and has a lot more interior space. It could just have hit on the winning formula that was missed by the old model. 

Given that the GLA is based on the A-Class but is taller you won’t need a degree in quantum physics to work out that it drives like – a tall A-Class.  

It handles safely and predictably, yeah there’s some lean in bends but you wouldn’t describe the GLA as having anything other than good road manners. 

Fun? Er, no. That’s mostly because the steering is so numb it’s like the rack has been peppered by a machine gun firing tranquilizer darts. It filters out road noise so it’s more relaxing on a run, but if you want a small SUV that feels positive in corners, you best go try a BMW X1. 

On the other hand, the GLA is the better car at covering distances because it doesn’t produce the same surprising amounts of road noise as the BMW and it’s also more comfortable over bumps in town. 

The GLA’s also decent in the city. It’s raised ride height gives you a good view out the front which is matched by the large rear windscreen at the back. A left-foot-saving automatic gearbox is standard – it mostly shifts gear quickly and smoothly – and you also get a reversing camera with a crystal clear display that helps you take aim at parking spaces. 

Choose the 250e plug-in hybrid, which runs on electric at slow speeds, and you also get a car that is eerily quiet all the way up to motorway speeds.

The GLA comes with three petrol engines, two diesels and one petrol-electric plug-in hybrid. 

If petrol is your thing, we’d avoid the 180. Its 1.3-litre four-cylinder engine produces 136PS and it never feels that quick, getting from 0-62mph in 9.6 seconds. The 200 uses the same engine tuned to 163PS which gets the GLA from 0-62mph a second quicker, it doesn’t sound like much but it’s enough to stop the GLA feeling ponderous.

If you want it to actually feel fast, the GLA 250 offers close to hot-hatch pace. Its 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine produces 224PS which gets the car from 0-62mph in just 6.9 seconds – a pointless figure in the real world, really, but what it does mean is that GLA has plenty of overtaking power in reserve when you need it. 

The diesel range keeps things nice and simple – both the 200d and 220d use the same 2.0-litre four-cylinder tuned to produce 150 and 190PS, respectively. Diesel might be about as fashionable as flares in the 40s but they do make sense, giving the GLA lots of effortless midrange surge and the best realworld fuel economy. 

That leaves the 250e which is worth thinking about if you have a short commute and somewhere to charge it. It has a large battery, plus an electric motor and a four-cylinder 1.3-litre petrol engine that produce 218PS combined, so it can travel up to 37 miles on battery power alone. If that’s enough to get you to work and back, and you have somewhere to charge it, you could save a fortune in fuel bills. 

Euro NCAP hasn’t tested the Mercedes GLA for safety but you can expect it to perform as well as the mechanically identical B-Class which scored five stars in 2019.  

The GLA comes with airbags in every conceivable area of the cabin, gets lane assist that keeps the car in the centre of its lane on a straight road and attention assist that can warn you when you should probably take a break. Automatic emergency brakes are standard and it has a bonnet that pops up to protect pedestrians from the hard internals below in a collision. 

Top-end models’ safety can be bolstered with the Driving Assistance Package (£1495). Which adds autonomous driving aids that mean the GLA can accelerate, brake and steer itself in normal driving. It can even steer you around an imminent collision if there’s no space to stop.

The Mercedes GLA is ideal if you’re looking for a relatively small tow car. Even the least powerful petrol, the GLA 180, can tow a braked trailer up to 1600kg and with the rest of the range managing either 1800kg (200, 200d, 250e) or 2000kg (250, 200d 4Matic, 220d 4Matic).

The advantage of going for the GLA over its siblings is that you get a much more practical interior than in the A-Class, but without having to settle for the B-Class' odd beluga-whale like looks. It's a win-win situation (for Mercedes included because, well, the GLA costs more).

In the front, its seats seem to have almost endless runners – something that used to be the preserve of Mercedes saloons – so even if you're a towering metal-mouthed baddie from a Bond movie, you should have plenty of room. More the vertically challenged type with a penchant for taking people's heads off with your bowler? Worry not, the plentiful seat height adjustment means you're catered for too.

Factor in the near-infinite steering wheel height and reach adjustment, and you really can't go wrong.
There's more good news when you check out the back seat because even if you're tall, there will be room behind for someone the same size to sit comfortably.

Large footwells mean there's room for three people's feet, although the hard-packed middle seat won't be particularly comfortable over any kind of distance.

The GLA doesn't offer seven-seats (that small SUV niche's reserved for GLB – in case you're wondering why it exists) but it does get a big and practical boot. Its 495-litre capacity (445 litres if you go for the 250e hybrid) will swallow a set of suitcases without blinking and, with the rear seats folded away, capacity swells to 1385 litres. The seats don't fold completely flat and there's a short load lip, but the huge opening means you still won't struggle to get things in.

Features aren't in short supply either. You get a couple of smaller cubbies on either side of the load bay and a 12V socket which is useful for handheld vacuums and the like. All models also get an electrically operated boot lid which you'll be thankful for when you have hands full of shopping.

How nice your GLA is to sit in is intrinsically linked to how high you're willing to climb up the model line-up. That said, all GLAs have soft-touch plastics in most of the places you look and harder materials in the places you don’t. Plastic quality in a BMW X1 is more consistently good. 

Moving up the model range buys you nicer finishes, though. So while GLA Sport and Sport Executive models only get fabric seats with Artico (Mercedes-Benz speak for fake) leather bolsters and shiny black plastic trims, AMG Line Executive cars get carbon-fibre look trims and seats finished in Artico and (fake suede) Dinamica fabric. 

For standard leather that's the real deal, you'll need to climb the ladder one more step to an Exclusive Edition car (only available as a PHEV) which gives you three shades to choose from boring black (not the official description), Classic Red/Black or chocolatey Bahia Brown.

There’s a wealth of other equipment to choose from including things like a panoramic glass roof, ambient interior lighting and light-up kick plates, so it’s worth scouring the brochure to find the car that suits your needs (and wallet).

If you want a sure-fire way to know how much your neighbour paid for their GLA, just take a peek at its infotainment screens.

Basic models get a pair of seven-inch versions, one in the centre of the dashboard and one behind the steering wheel – the former's a bit mean when you realise a Hyundai i20 at half the price gets an eight-inch display as standard.

As you'll have predicted, things get better as you climb the range and ease open your wallet. Sport Executive models swap the seven-inch duffer for a 10.25-inch centre touchscreen that's a lot more in keeping with the Mercedes badge.

It adds Apple CarPlay and Android Auto – again, features that really should be standard – so you can use your phone's voice activation system and its apps on the car's big screen. Wireless phone charging is another welcome addition.

Several more branches up the specification tree (at AMG Line Premium) you get the whole caboodle – out goes the seven-inch digital instrument binnacle and in comes a ten-inch version to match the screen in the centre of the dashboard. The combination looks like one single vast display.

It's at this point that you also get Mercedes-Benz's augmented reality sat-nav, which superimposes its directions onto a live image of the road ahead. It looks like the route you're following is hovering over the road. Even now – two years since you first saw this tech in the A-Class – it still looks trick.

The cherry on top is the upgraded stereo – the decent 100W standard unit gets swapped for a 225W system with a subwoofer, centre speaker and a sprinkling of tweeters, adding an extra layer of detail to music along with a heavier thump of bass.

The GLA Sport kicks off the range and starts from £31,785 – that’s about £2000 more than BMW wants for a basic X1 – when fitted with the 180 engine, which is a 1.3-litre turbocharged petrol. If you fancy the punchier 200d diesel, you pay a premium of nearly £2500 on top of that. 

At the other end of the scale you’ll find AMG Line Premium models which come with Mercedes’ upgraded infotainment as standard – along with a host of other additions. With the 180 petrol engine it’s priced from £35,690 but that rises to £41,500 for a top-of-the-range 220d diesel with four-wheel drive. That’s about £1750 more than you’ll pay for a top-of-the-range BMW X1 diesel with four-wheel drive. 

In reality, though, you can have a GLA for much cheaper than the official list price, even when you buy direct from Mercedes. At the time of writing (December 2020) the official Mercedes-Benz website is currently offering a GLA 200 AMG Line Edition for £31,217 – down from £34,399 – or you can get a GLA 200 Sport for £31,316, reduced from £33,604.

The Mercedes GLA is the consummate modern SUV which means it doesn’t come with bank-balance crippling running costs. The cheapest petrol to fuel is the GLA200 which returns up to 42.8mpg under real world WLTP test conditions – that’s slightly better than the less powerful GLA180 and around 5mpg more than you’ll squeeze out of the top-of-the-range GLA250 petrol. 

Naturally, the diesels do a better job and the GLA200d is the least thirsty – it will get up to 53mpg, while fitting 4Motion four-wheel drive (only available on the diesels) drops that a few mpg. The top-of-the-range 220d has four-wheel drive as standard, but even it will touch 50mpg if you use a light right foot. 

The anomaly of the range is the 250e plug-in hybrid. It comes complete with the usual ludicrous PHEV mpg figure – 201.8mpg in this case – but don’t scoff to much, its ability to cover a commute on electric power alone means it could just be the best option for you if you have somewhere to charge it.

There are nine Mercedes GLA models in total so you can save your pennies on a relatively basic model or go all out and get yourself a car that’s brimmed with equipment. 

The GLA Sport is the basic version but it isn’t ‘basic’ in the classical sense: two seven-inch infotainment screens, keyless entry, a reversing camera and an electrically operated boot are all standard. Executive models are worth the upgrade though because they add a 10.25-inch centre scream, wireless charging, as well as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. 

AMG Line models get sportier looks inside and out and, as before, you can add the Executive infotainment upgrades. 

From there you can go to AMG Premium, which gets the brilliant augmented sat-nav, 64-colour mood lighting, upgraded 225W stereo and light-up kick plates. AMG Premium Plus – like it says on the tin – gets all the aforementioned plus multibeam LED headlights that can shape their light to the road, a panoramic glass roof that closes when it detects rain and a variety of offroad gubins that make it capable in the rough stuff. 

Still with us? Good, we admire your sticking power. The remaining three models are unique to the 250e plug-in hybrid, which gets a higher level of standard equipment to offset its tasty price tag. 

The petrol-electric kicks off in Exclusive Edition trim so you get the same infotainment upgrades as Executive models, front and rear parking sensors and LED headlights. 

Exclusive Edition Premium models get – for the avoidance of repetition – the same kit as AMG Premium versions of the standard model, while Exclusive Edition Premium Plus mirrors AMG Premium Plus cars.