COMPACT DREAMS

The compact luxury SUV segment has burst into life with the launch of the new Mercedes-Benz GLA. Is it the best of the breed?

- AATISH MISHRA

THE GLA IS AN IMPORTANT CAR FOR Mercedes-Benz. So important, that it might just be the car that supplants the E-Class at the top of the list of best-selling Mercs in India. It panders to exactly what people want — an SUV. And it’s an important one, bookending the Mercedes SUV range at the budget end of the luxury segment, while the G 63 does the same at the extravagant end. Could the two-pronged attack of its body style and price work? Quite possibly, because the new GLA has grown up!

Forget the fact that it’s bigger, we’ll talk numbers soon. What I mean is that it tries much harder to be an SUV now. It has shaken off that impression that it’s an A-Class Plus and has instead carved out its own identity within the range. It is as deserving of the letter G as a GLC. And I know there’s a whole gaggle of you who believe calling either of them an ‘SUV’ is sacrilegious. I hear you. But we’re not heading down that trail today. Because we have company.

The contenders

Nothing delivers perspective better than the BMW X1, the GLA’s closest rival. The Germans trade blows in every segment, and this is no different. Audi hasn’t launched the Q3 and the Q2 sits half a segment below (while priced even higher, let’s not go there…), leaving the X1 to rep Munich against Stuttgart’s blitzkrieg. But the X1 has provenance. It kicked off the compact luxury SUV niche. After championing RWD in Gen 1, it shifted to a FWD platform. It then got a mild facelift last year — a new grille and fatter tailpipes. xDrive variants were killed and we have the diesel on test, though you can also get a petrol.