by "AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion)
Published 12/28/2017 at 01:03
by "AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion)
Published 12/28/2017 at 01:03
No Tags
STARS: 7
This is without a doubt one of my favorite new cars being sold today. Who wants to buy some organs?
Quick thoughts
The optional sport seats are fantastic. They hug you, without being restrictive. Not active adjusting, but bolsters can be adjusted
The interior mood lighting is quite nice, somehow less tacky than most.
It’s beautiful. Paint is great, body is aggressive while still looking “luxurious”. The wing I have mixed feelings about, but if any car deserves a wing, it’s the car with the highest output turbo 4 ever put into production.
Still being broken in so no going above 4k rpm or past half throttle, but it feels fast. Corners like a champ, love the transmission, love the comfort to sportiness ratio.
The interior materials are fantastic. Speaking of the interior, the front armrest slides forward and back with solid, chunky detents to hold it where you want it. Genius.
Okay that’s all. I could see this being my first new car purchase in a few years.... Never thought I’d say that about an awd automatic Mercedes “crossover”
Look at that color palette... Yes please
"Svend" (svend)
12/28/2017 at 01:18, STARS: 1
I like those, there are very few Mercedes I like.
"E92M3" (E46M3)
12/28/2017 at 01:28, STARS: 1
It’s more of a hot hatch, than a crossover.
"AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion)
12/28/2017 at 01:31, STARS: 0
I would agree, although Mercedes lists it as an SUV
"Dogsatemypants" (kb113400)
12/28/2017 at 01:36, STARS: 2
Crossovers are stretched hot hatches with a lift kit.
"syaieya" (syaieya)
12/28/2017 at 01:41, STARS: 1
I only wish we got the A class hatch proper.
The normal Cla/gla/ a class problems i can mostly remedy or overlook but i just like the a class that little bit more
"farscythe - makin da cawfee!" (farscythe)
12/28/2017 at 01:44, STARS: 1
he needs to lower it and take it round a track :p
"Eric @ opposite-lock.com" (theyrerolling)
12/28/2017 at 02:22, STARS: 0
Many are not hot, though. They’re just stretched hatches with a factory lift kit.
"Dogsatemypants" (kb113400)
12/28/2017 at 02:26, STARS: 0
True. I still w9uldnt kick that merc out of my garage.
"Eric @ opposite-lock.com" (theyrerolling)
12/28/2017 at 02:35, STARS: 1
I find these attractive, too. My wife is obsessed with getting an SUV because her mother once owned one and she thinks that she needs one. I point these out to her, but she also notices the Kia Niro & Ford Edge. I’d much rather get an E-class wagon or GLK, but she would rather have something smaller/slower/poorer handling just because it’s marketed as an SUV.
*sighs* She really has no clue and will probably need to suffer to see the light.
"gettingoldercarguy" (gettingoldercarguy)
12/28/2017 at 02:41, STARS: 3
It looks good, my issue is if you like modding it is super expensive to fix on higher tiered cars. If you have restraint, then badass. Me? I gotta mod. Just bought a flowbench for my garage.
"pip bip - choose Corrour" (hhgttg69)
12/28/2017 at 03:01, STARS: 0
your friend is an idiot, he needs to keep it.
"ihm96" (ihm96)
12/28/2017 at 03:33, STARS: 1
These are cool but I’d so much rather just buy a C43. The 45 AMGs just aren’t worth the price with how much better sounding and more fun Biturbo V6. Also the GLA interior is so much more cramped
"fintail" (fintail)
12/28/2017 at 09:19, STARS: 0
No front plate huh, well, I guess more some cars are immune to that anyway. I expect/hope no illuminated star either.
"BeaterGT" (beatergt)
12/28/2017 at 10:02, STARS: 0
That’s a hell of an investment!
"AMGtech - now with more recalls!" (amgtech)
12/28/2017 at 10:23, STARS: 0
The Germans still slip up and call them A-classes occasionally
"AMGtech - now with more recalls!" (amgtech)
12/28/2017 at 10:24, STARS: 0
Will you be my best friend?
"AMGtech - now with more recalls!" (amgtech)
12/28/2017 at 10:25, STARS: 0
The 45's sound way better than the 43's if you ask me.
"AMGtech - now with more recalls!" (amgtech)
12/28/2017 at 10:29, STARS: 0
No one gets the sport seats! I love the sport seats. Does it have the performance exhaust too? It makes delightful crackles, snarls, and pops.
Biggest downsides for me are the B-pillar position, I have to lean forward to look too the side. And high maintenance costs. IIRC rear diff is due every 10k, as is the air filter.
Super fun car though, I love them.
"gawdzillla" (gawdzillla)
12/28/2017 at 10:51, STARS: 0
still prefer a STi rolling my own gear
"AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion)
12/28/2017 at 13:56, STARS: 1
Yep, exhaust, the duel mode suspension, and then he picked options he liked from the various packages a la carte. Special ordered car because he really wanted white. I’m pretty impressed that Mercedes let him skip the package deals and break things up. Nice benefit.
Yikes.... When you say Rear diff, you don’t mean replacing it do you?
"AMGtech - now with more recalls!" (amgtech)
12/28/2017 at 15:08, STARS: 0
Awesome. I love when people go a la carte and make the car exactly what they want.
Lol no just a fluid service!
"E92M3" (E46M3)
12/28/2017 at 18:48, STARS: 0
These aren’t stretched though. About the same size as a Golf, and the same height as the previous gen WRX hatchback. I’ll give the Subaru Crossstrek a pass, but this is going too far. They know more people are searching for a “crossover”, as opposed to a “hatchback”.
"AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion)
12/28/2017 at 21:49, STARS: 0
I think after driving a high power heavily modded car with a ceramic clutch through Seattle traffic for years.... He’ll be perfectly content with this. Although I have heard him talking about a fairly cheap tune to boost hp and tq figures by about 60/80 respectively. We’ll see! I think he’ll eventually grab another cheapish Z and build it up as a project car
"AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion)
12/28/2017 at 21:51, STARS: 1
Is the Kia Nero new? Name was completely unfamiliar and even after looking it up my mind drew a blank... That doesn’t happen too often!
Oh man, an E-Class would be nice. Hopefully you can at least steer her away from an Edge. Is new car season coming up for you two?
"AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion)
12/28/2017 at 21:53, STARS: 1
No tacky star. He custom ordered this to get the options he wanted, and specifically mentioned how he wanted it to be very conservative. I’m actually shocked he went with the wing.
"AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion)
12/28/2017 at 21:57, STARS: 0
I would probably agree... But good god the rev hang is absolutely brutal. I realize it’s easily fixable with a tune but it’s crazy that a new performance car can be sent out to customers like that. Shifter is average at best, but again, that rev hang is so bad it masks the fairly mediocre shifting points... The driving dynamics should be pretty well dialed in when the same car has been on sale for a decade more-or-less.... It’s not like your money is going towards the interior.
"AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion)
12/28/2017 at 21:57, STARS: 0
Agreed. He tracked his sti, and 350z before that. I mentioned it and it sounds like this will hit the track too!
"fintail" (fintail)
12/28/2017 at 22:01, STARS: 0
That’s good to know. This might be the kind of thing you want with relatively modest options, to save weight, price, and complexity. I see it doesn’t have distronic, which wouldn’t be useful in enthusiastic driving anyway.
The spoiler is a bit much for me, too.
"AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion)
12/28/2017 at 22:06, STARS: 0
Zero driver aids. Didn’t see what he actually paid, but invoice on all add-ons was just a hair over 5k. I would imagine that’s quite a bit less than the average “off-the-lot” accessory package. I looked at his build documents and compared to the configuration tool online. Looks like Mercedes let’s you break up packages and cherry pick what you want, which definitely surprised me.
"fintail" (fintail)
12/28/2017 at 22:22, STARS: 0
You know how these cars can be, a 45K base car can have 25K in options. Some cars do better optioned up than others - this US spec MB version of a hot hatch doesn’t need most of the toys.
I think the options for most MBs became more ala carte for model years 2014-15 and up. It can make for some odd things - want a car with everything but lighting package? Order it. Leather and nothing else? Order it.
"Eric @ opposite-lock.com" (theyrerolling)
12/28/2017 at 23:58, STARS: 0
Yes, introduced this year, and it is spelled “Niro”. They’re so rarely seen that she noticed it and was intrigued. It’s a plug in hybrid compact crossover with pretty middling performance, but interesting for commuting and the excellent fuel economy.
She is tiring of her 10-year-old Mazda 3 Hatch (with a little over 80k miles). It has always had some quirks (that don’t affect me much when I drive it because it understands me) that particularly bother her, plus she has a deep obsession with the whole mom car thing (even though we likely won’t have a baby before the end of 2018). I just strongly prefer cars and really like the E-class.
I don’t hate the Edge, but the platform is really old. Ford makes pretty nice cars these days (after all, I bought one), but I’d rather have something truly comfortable, safer (SUVs are more dangerous than cars because they have poorer handling), and with better utility (high load heights are stupid)... But at the end of the day it is her car, so in spite of our carpooling and her generally driving, it really is up to her as it’s something she’ll need to live with for at least 8-10 years.
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
12/29/2017 at 11:21, STARS: 0
It is taller/fatter than the A-Class on which it’s based though. On its own one could argue the GLA is a hatch, but with the similar size but ‘normal’ height A in existence, where does that leave the GLA?
"gettingoldercarguy" (gettingoldercarguy)
12/29/2017 at 23:19, STARS: 0
I get that. Making sure you’re honest with what car you want vs. “All the Horsepowers/Brakes/Spring” is such an easy slope to fall down. Sounds like the clutch choice and probably a few surrounding mods made the car transition from customized joy to daily chore.
When I used to race rx7s I built a daily turbo 2 and went with a mild port and high comp rotors. Not nearly the power my friends could achieve with a bridge port (I think?) But try starting that shit when super cold, hot, idle, cruise, etc. Mine was fun to drive. Same thing with brakes that might fade a little early, but surrounding drivers don’t think you’re dragging school children across chalk boards on their nails.
Hopefully he’ll realize where that Goldilocks place exists for him.