This is the latest from Mercedes Benz, it is a compact SUV
that many of you are waiting for and we have got the exclusive details on the
GLA. As the entry premium segment begins to open up big time in India, its
great to see not just more and more new products driving in but also those
there are well engineered and better suited to our market than ever before.
In India, Mercedes Benz GLA will drive in to the market in
October and will join what’s now looking like a form mid able segment
comprising a vide array of vehicles that span Hatchbacks, Sedans, Crossovers
and SUV’s. So what’s the GLA all about? Based on Diamler’s MFA platform, the
car shares it’s under pinning and several components with its siblings the A, B
and CLA Class of vehicles. The Styling is rather aggressive and yet has a
prettier form then the toaster of fueled looks of the A Class and the CLA. The
Roof rails and the rear fender are what really separate this from the station
wagon like feel that the BMW X1 and even the Volvo V40 X suite.
The centre of excellence is sort of brand shrines for
Mercedes Benz which is why we won’t have this car with me but you got all these
other cars that are also lined up here today and it is of course sensible thing
which is where like I said the biggest plant but today we are going to that
manufacturing journey besides showing you this car. So we will start off by
driving to RASATATT where the GLA is manufactured and it is couple of hours from
here so let’s get going on that drive. Before we get going though I want to
quickly talk about the styling, now in the face is where you see the nice
aggressive new family look that Mercedes Benz is getting such great reviews
from the world over the GLA carries that through. You know it doesn’t really
try and be, just really bumped up tall SUV, I mean look how short it is but the
roof rails and the over all shape and appeal still very SUV Like. There is
little rise here in this Chrome line that you see here on the waist line and
that’s different to the A and the B and the CLA because in those cars including
the new C Class, that’s almost like a parabolic drop, here you see that there
is a rising line, that gives it again a different kind of SUV Character. There
are lots of muscles here that blends beautifully in to this really wide look of
the rear, the tail light to me is perhaps a nicest sweetest part of the design
very attractive and you got this Chrome strip which is again enhances the width
at the back makes the car looks more flaunted.
Inside the cabin is where the premium brigade scores over
the other mass compact offerings and Mercedes Benz particular has stepped up
his game when it comes to cabin finish. The car with me has a light popular
wood treatment which compliments the black plastic and surprisingly works with
all the metal inserts that the dash carries. Of course we will wait to see what
trims coming to India the rest of the package including the command system, the
climate control, sun roof, instrument all of that very much like the A Class.
The start stop system is also standard. The boot is also not generous but I was
still surprised by its rather ample 481 Liters volume.
Now the handling isn’t soft by any means but I will still
like to be little bit stiffer more German in that sense. In India, buyers are
going to like this, it is just the right kind of comfort settings I think
people in India like, the car has a very car like feel to the drive and what I
like is that you know that engineers haven’t tried to un naturally just give
you a sense of driving an SUV by just bumping it up and making the over all
suspension settings more SUV Like. It’s good that it feels like a car because
it is very comfortable and very easy to drive.
The GLA is sprightly quick and hugs the road well. Please do
make room for the fact that I have the 4 Matic Mercedes peak for all wheel
drive that sends as much as 50 percent of the torque to the rear wheels when
needed. Now of course now mistakes for the suspension set up on the car like
this will definitely be different with lets say the A Class or even the CLA,
but having said that it is the car like feel handling and other wise to get
from a Compact SUV like this one that makes it popular and that catches world over
and over. In India in
particular car like the Q3 and of course this car the GLA become even more
relevant, because they are compact, they are more affordable and yet they are
actually premium and slightly more raised from the ground than the Hatch back
or the Sedan .
So when you compare it to Q3 while I like that character,
the GLA has a smaller feel especially when you are inside the car, its not a
very roomy or airy cabin but one that feels compact and right.
Now we don’t get the portrait engines that the GLA is
available with here in Europe nope it going to be slightly more boring engines
from which I am afraid, similar strategy what you saw with the A Class and B
Class. Of course its done for a reasons so that the pricing is more competitive
but it will certainly not be the car that I am driving today in terms of power
and also the fact that by the way this is the 4 Matic and in India we will
probably get the just front wheel drives. So while the GLA 250 I had has a 2
Liter 208 BHP engine, we will get the GLA 200 Twins but with the special India
configuration so they are not the same engines or normal creature as we see
here in Germany.
So look at the petrol first and it’s the same 2 L unit but
with an output of 181 BHP made it to the 7G dual clutch gear box and the diesel
GLA 200 CDI will support a 2.1 L unit with 134 BHP of power and now we won’t
get the 6 speed manual transmission and that diesel unit though was also punch
out 300 NM of peak torque, it is a fun for car this size. So after my quick drive
across the Bardon Wotter work Country side I was at the town of RASTATT at the Mercedes
Benz Factory there. Though the RASTATT Plant has been around since 1992, it is
since 1997 that it becomes the mother plant for the compact cars from the
start, it was expended and upgraded in 2009 with the investment of 1.2 Billion
Dollors to accommodate the new MFA Platform, the RASTATT Plant has two assembly
lines, 1 produces the A and B Class while the other produces the A and of
course the GLA. You can tell from the headlight configuration of that AMG
version of the GLA, that car probably heading to the UNITED STATES. Now we talk
about this Platform which the GLA, the CLA, the A and the B are based is called
MFA or Mercedes Front wheel Architecture platform and it’s the production has
been divided between here in RASTATT and also the Plant in Hungry. Now in
Hungry where the B and the CLA are made here of course you have the B class and
the A Class made in the 2nd production house, the one we are in is
primarily for the A Class and the GLA. Now I can tell you that the lot of A
Class production move to the other hall once the B Class is moved to Hungry as
well simply because the Huge global demand for the GLA and so the production of
the GLA has now gone up as well. Total over all production here at RASTATT
stands at about 300000 units, last year they managed to make 286000 units and I
can tell you that in 2014 the production is likely to be much higher.
It is always fun being inside a car plant but here it is
also good to see the buzz on the shop floor, risk production cycle and a vide
variety of variants that have been produce together on both the A and GLA
classes and plenty of AMG’s too.
Recently Mercedes Benz India increases its own capacity
for its assembly plant in Pune to 20000 units annually. The larger plan there
is to assemble the A, the B, the CLA and the GLA and none of those Kicks are
freely available because remember there is Huge Global Demand of these models
as well. Eventually when that does happen, of course those kicks are come from here
the GLA as well as the A Class and perhaps the B Class as well but until then
of course you get CBU’s or fully built units which will also come from here in
RASTATT.
Do you think that at the start of this project, had you
already identified that its going to be GLA that one becomes a Key or really
very important member of this family and are you happy to see this?
“Ya, I would say not from the very beginning but during
development, so I would say half time we realize that when we thought for
instance in the beginning because this is our history that the A and the B
Class will be key what would be the new A Class coming from the Old A Class or
we thought it might be the most important question how is old and new B Class,
how are they compared and proceed by customers, I would say half way we
realized that it is the other models which are making it because they are new.
A and B Class are now old and it was the transition to new the A and B Class
and half way I would say we realized that this is other models that can make
it.
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