M-Class (W166/C292) [Official] Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupé (C292)

[Rainer271]

I know it is the wrong forum area but what is the number of the new GLC?

What I have found at several articles is the moniker "X253". But I don't know if this is confirmed.

 

[Wolfgang]

Some shots with the designo exclusive package P62.

Source: Mercedes-Benz

 

[Wolfgang]

Arrived in Thailand.

 

[Mick Briesgau]

^Looking good in this picture!

 

[Monster]

It still looks like a bloated hatch back on stilts to me.

 

[kiki voinea]

Arrived in Romania

 

[hannaz]

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[Yaz]

When is this supposed to go on sale here?

There's a GLE coupe driving around NYC with a manufacturer's plates.

 

[Wolfgang]

^ That might be the training demo. Production vehicles should arrive in August at the dealerships according to Benzblogger.


2016 Mercedes-Benz GLE450 AMG Sport Coupe at Atlanta Classic Cars!

http://www.benzblogger.com/

 

[Wolfgang]

 

[Wolfgang]

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[tennmb]

Yes, that's the trainer demo, and I got to spend some seat time in this exact one yesterday.
I must say, I was a lot more impressed with this vehicle than I expected to be. Yep, it's a little goofy looking. I dont understand the awkward rear slope of the X6 or the GLC coupe, but obviously some people like it.
No question the car has presence that the ML lacks, which is odd considering it's still an ML underneath the skin. The trainer has the dynamic select air suspension, which completely alters the ride characteristics. The new COMAND screen is well executed in this design with excellent size, clarity and placement. It doesn't look like it was stuck on the dash as an after thought.

 

[DexterMorgan]

 

[Wolfgang]

Benz: We could have done an X6 before BMW
SUV coupe was on the drawing board but small cars were given priority, says Merc
Mercedes-Benz says it could have beaten the BMW's X6 to market with its own 'SUV coupe' but chose instead to prioritise developing the MFA family of front- and all-wheel drive small cars.

Now, seven years after the X6 launched, Benz has finally pitched a direct rival into the market in the form of the GLE Coupe, which goes on-sale in Australia in September.

And Wolf-Dieter Kurz, Mercedes-Benz vice-president product group SUVs and sports cars, insists – perhaps predictably – that his company made the right call.

It's a hard proposition to argue with considering the MFA cars have been a huge success. The X6, meanwhile, is a niche seller and BMW is only now building its first front-wheel drive car, the 2 Series Active Tourer.

"We had the focus in the past on expanding the portfolio and I think we were very successful in doing so," Kurz said. "And now we are coming with the SUV coupe and other manufacturers are coming with vehicles that look similar to B-Class."

Kurz was speaking at the global launch drive for the GLE coupe in Austria overnight Australian time, where motoring.com.au sampled the GLE Coupe for the first time.

Pricing will be published on Friday at midday, while drive impressions will go live from 8:00am next Tuesday morning, June 23. motoring.com.au has reported on the GLE Coupe line-up previously.

In the same way as the X6 spins from the more mainstream X5 SUV, so the GLE Coupe is based on the luxury GLE wagon. GLE is the new name for the ML-Class SUV, which has been updated and also goes on-sale in Australia in September.

The X6 was critically panned upon launch for its ungainly five-door coupe on-stilts body, which reduced functionality and interior space while costing more money compared to the X5. But the first generation, replaced in 2014, managed nearly 300,000 sales globally.

The five member MFA family, comprising A-Class, B-Class, CLA-Class sedan and shooting brake and the GLA small SUV has proved an enormous success for Benz, with more than one million sold since the B-Class was launched in 2011.

MFA now accounts for 28 per cent of all Benz sales and has played a key role in closing the sales gap to BMW and Audi.

Kurz confirmed Mercedes-Benz had been studying an SUV coupe in the early 2000s and could have beaten BMW to market with the model.
"Yes, we were also looking at that time but then made the decision that we are focussing on the A-Class portfolio to be expanded.

"It's also for economic reasons; are you going to ask the decision are you putting your investment into the whole A-Class range or are you investing into more niches?

"It's also a question of capacity," he added. "Where do you put your R&D guys in which type of vehicle to be developed?

"Of course the development of a new vehicle costs the same effort if you do a vehicle of one million in lifecycle or 100,000. So that is why the investment decision was taken."

Benz will follow up the GLE Coupe with a swoopy version of the compact GLC wagon. The mainstream BMW X3 rival has its global reveal later today in Germany – and you can read about it here tomorrow.

The X4 rival, unsurprisingly dubbed the GLC Coupe, has already broken cover as a concept in Shanghai this year and goes on-sale as a production model next year.

http://www.motoring.com.au/news/2015/mercedes-benz/benz-we-could-have-done-an-x6-before-bmw-51904

 

[Wolfgang]

Mercedes-Benz unveils eight-model GLE SUV range

ROB MAETZIG/FAIRFAX NZ
A new Mercedes-Benz GLE coupe.

An eight-model fleet of new Mercedes-Benz GLE SUVs is soon to arrive in New Zealand, spearheading an unprecedented SUV product offensive by the German luxury vehicle manufacturer.

While five of the GLEs are conventional in their design and are essentially very heavily facelifted versions of the M-Class models they will replace, the big news is that the other three vehicles are coupes that will take direct aim at the BMW X6.

The world's motoring media is in Germany and Austria at present to drive the GLEs, with Fairfax New Zealand the only kiwi press at the event.

ROB MAETZIG/FAIRFAX NZ
A new Mercedes-Benz GLE SUV.

The sheer size of the launch event means media attendance must be staggered over a number of days.There is an embargo until the middle of next week on driving impressions. But we can reveal the New Zealand pricing for these new Benz SUVs which will go on sale in September.

Entry GLE model will be the four cylinder 150 KW/500 Nm turbodiesel 250d - the first SUV in its class to emit just 140 g of CO2 per kilometre with a conventional powertrain thanks to its low 6L/100 km fuel efficiency. It will come very well specified, with standard features including a nine-speed 9G-Tronic automatic, and it will retail for $104,900.

ROB MAETZIG/FAIRFAX NZ
Motoring journos get an inside look at a new Mercedes-Benz GLE coupe.

A GLE 350d, which will offer 190 kW and 620 Nm from its V6 turbodiesel, will be $124,900. First petrol model will be the twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 engined GLE 400 which will boast 245 kW of power and 480 Nm of torque, and will retail for $131,900. A GLE 500 with its 4.6-litre 320kW/700 Nm V8 will cost $154,900.

Top conventional model will be the GLE 63 S AMG with a 5.5-litre bi-turbo V8 that develops 430 kilowatts of power and 750 Newton metres of torque. This model will retail for $205,900 and promises to offer blistering performance - it will be capable of getting to the open road speed limit in a mere 4.2 seconds, and its chassis has been throughly revised from the outgoing M-Class for a more athletic drive.

All these prices are slightly more than those for the equivalent M-Class models on sale in New Zealand.

ROB MAETZIG/FAIRFAX NZ
A new Mercedes-Benz GLE SUV.

Meanwhile, the GLE Coupe range will start with a 350d at $139,900, continue through to a 270 kW/520 Nm 3.0-litre V6 engined GLE 450 AMG for $153,500, and the top model will be a 63 S AMG that will offer the 430 kilowatts of power and 750 Newton metres of torque and carry a list price of $210,000.

Prices for the two lesser-powered coupes almost mirror asking prices for the BMW X6 equivalents which cost $139,500 for an xDrive 30d and $152,500 for an xDrive 40d. The top X6 is the M50d which retails for $180,500 but which does not carry the same level of performance equipment and luxury specification as the 63 S AMG.

Mercedes-Benz New Zealand managing director Horst von Sanden says arrival of the new GLE-Class models in both SUV and coupe forms will continue the success story of the outgoing M-Class, which was the brand's best-selling SUV in New Zealand.

The arrival of the GLE will also mark the start of an exciting time internationally for Mercedes-Benz, which currently has five SUV models on the world markets, and in rapid sequence will now renew or extend no less than four of them - with the fifth being the compact entry-level model the GLA which is almost new anyway.

"For good reason Mercedes-Benz has declared 2015 to be the year of the SUV," said Mercedes-Benz Cars' vice-president of the SUVs and sportscars product group, Wolf-Dieter Kurz at this week's media event.

"Strictly speaking we are launching no less than three models," he said of the GLE. "There's the GLE in a classic SUV, the sporty Coupe, and the AMG variants of the Coupe which stand out with the extra notch of performance."

Dieter told journalists the M-Class was a very successful model, with more than 1.6 million units sold.

"With the new GLE we plan not only to continue this access story, but to exceed it. One thing is certain - the new premium SUVs bearing the Mercedes star have everything it takes to achieve this."

The brand's portfolio of offroad-capable vehicles includes the famous G-Class, which has been on sale for 36 years now and which pioneered the use of the G nomenclature for its SUVs - the G stands for Gelandewagen or cross-country vehicle.

Under the latest use of this nomenclature, the intent of all the Mercedes SUVs are readily apparent. The GLA is the SUV version of the A-Class range, while a brand-new GLC model, revealed to the media this week as a replacement for the former GLK, is the offroad-capable version of the C-Class range.

The GLE will be the SUV version of the E-Class, and towards the end of the year Mercedes-Benz will present a new GLS, a full-sized model that is already being officially described as the S-Class of the SUVs.

- Stuff.co.nz

 

[SKY]

After having watched Jurassic World I have to say the front end of this car with the AMG pack and the front-side view, which are the only two angles the movie show, look very good.

 

[Wolfgang]

Mercedes GLE Coupe 2015 review



Mixing style and substance, the Mercedes GLE Coupé takes the rugged nature of the regular GLE off-roader and adds some extra design flair. This isn’t just a car for posing, though, as the range of engines and nine-speed auto gearbox back up the bold looks. There are some drawbacks, however: the styling won’t be to everyone’s taste, and the questionable ride and higher prices might hamper the GLE Coupé’s chances.
BMW has had its own way in the SUV-coupe market for years with its swoopy X6, but now Mercedes is looking to hit back with this, the GLE Coupe.

The recipe is similar, as the sporty car blends a svelte, curved roofline with off-roader proportions – and as it offers all the luxury you’d expect from a Mercedes, it’s a contender on paper.

In the flesh, first impressions are good, as the cabin has that cosseting, refined ambience you expect from a plush 4x4. It borrows some of the layout from elsewhere in Mercedes’ range, and while the familiar central tablet display and rotary controller aren’t as intuitive as some rival systems, the upright centre console, flanked by the two air vents, is simple and slick.

Things are more sparse in the back, although there’s plenty of legroom. The sloping roofline impinges on headroom a touch, yet even tall adults will still be comfy on long journeys.



There’s no doubting the cabin quality, then, but the exterior styling might be more of a sticking point. Sporty SUVs split opinion at the best of times, so with the heavily sculpted front end and rakish profile, the GLE Coupe certainly makes a statement. There’s no disguising its vast proportions, as the car has a huge footprint on the road.

It’s an imposing SUV, helped by the AMG bodykit, which brings a deep front bumper and adds an aggressive look. However, from the rear the GLE Coupe is more svelte and apes the brand’s AMG GT supercar, with a curving hatch and narrow tail-lights. Fitted with the older 5.5-litre twin-turbo V8 engine if you go for the 577bhp AMG GLE 63 S, it’s actually more powerful than the GT.



There’s also a 3.0-litre turbo petrol V6 in the GLE 450, plus the entry-level 3.0-litre V6 diesel in the GLE 350d tested here. It serves up 255bhp, but on the road its torque makes a bigger impression. There’s a healthy 620Nm on tap at just 1,600rpm, so despite the car’s considerable bulk (it weighs 2,250kg), there’s plenty of shove in any gear.

It’s helped by the smooth nine-speed auto box, which makes the most of the muscular motor’s performance. It’s fairly quick to kick down – especially in Sport mode – and is effortlessly relaxed when cruising. However, it still doesn’t feel quite as slick or as well integrated as the eight-speed auto in the X6.



You get a gentle hum from under the bonnet, and while things become noisier if you use all the revs, in general the big four-door SUV is impressively refined. There’s very little wind noise, and not much road roar, either, despite our test car’s huge wheels.

All GLE Coupes are fitted with Mercedes’ Dynamic Select system and Airmatic adaptive suspension as standard, which means you can alter the throttle response, steering weight and firmness of the dampers. In Comfort the Coupe wafts along serenely on undulating roads, but larger bumps and expansion strips do upset the body, and it takes a while for the GLE’s chassis to settle back down.



Sport mode highlights this, as the car feels more fidgety, but the upside is it cuts down on body roll and makes the GLE more agile, taking on a subtle, extra focus. In this setting, the weightier steering gives a more reassuring feel of solidity, yet there’s no more feedback from the chassis, and the car is still devoid of any life from its front axle.

With prices from £60,680, the base-spec GLE Coupe isn’t cheap, but it does come well kitted out, boasting leather, sat-nav, a reversing camera, DAB radio, heated seats, a power tailgate, adaptive air-suspension and 21-inch wheels as standard. Yet despite the hefty price, the engine means the 350d won’t break the bank to run. It’s the one to have for efficiency, as Mercedes claims 39.2mpg with 187g/km of CO2.

That’s still some way down on the quicker, cleaner and cheaper BMW X6 30d, but at least the GLE’s 650-litre boot trumps the BMW by 70 litres. It’s a usable shape, too.

So, the GLE Coupe is a strong all-rounder that debuts a bold new direction for Mercedes’ SUV design. With a decent chassis – some ride issues notwithstanding – strong engines and a smooth gearbox to back it up, the BMW X6 has a fight on its hands.

Source: Autoexpress

 

[Wolfgang]

Source: Autoexpress

 

[ThroughandThrough]

2016 Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe First Drive
Bengt Halvorson
June 22, 2015

The 2016 Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe is a strange beast if you try to read too much into its form factor. But as we found this past week, it makes a lot more sense if you take it quite literally by its badge.

Let’s face it, the term ‘coupe’ has been diluted to the point of ambiguity. Some purists are surely going to cry foul at luxury automakers’ persistent use of the term to describe a slightly swoopier version of sedans (like the Mercedes-Benz CLS), traditional two-door touring coupes like the E-Class Coupe, or now, here, a more rakish, flamboyantly styled counterpoint to the 2016 Mercedes-Benz GLE (which was until recently called the M-Class, in case you haven’t been keeping up with all of this luxury brand’s nomenclature changes.

The GLE Coupe—including its high-performance Mercedes-AMG GLE63 Coupevariant—seems to live in this blissful muddled state. It feels a bit like it’s double-dealing with respect to design details, and it definitely comes on strong at first glance. It wears the body cladding of a tough, trail-capable vehicle—and actually steps up that cladding in the higher-performance models like the GLE 63 AMG we drove part of the time. Yet elsewhere in the body, there’s an overly chromed look that’s at its best in the fine grille detailing yet at its worst in the garish chrome bar that’s strapped across the back.

It’s all saved by the profile, though—a profile that, as we see it, looks even better than that of the new X6. Huge 22-inch wheels bring an almost concept-car look to the Coupe, and they really help make the profile ‘pop’ from the side.

The Coupe models do seem to wear that clashing cladding with a bit of irony. There’s no Off-Road Package available here as there is for the rest of the GLE lineup; it doesn’t even have a true diff-lock mode, so its 4Matic all-wheel-drive setup is strictly for performance-oriented traction, snowy driveways, and—possibly but unlikely—the occasional muddy path.

Awesome acceleration, (near) coupe-like handling

Stick to the pavement, and the GLE does everything right. It's the first model in the Mercedes-Benz SUV lineup to combine the use of an air suspension with an adjustable damper system, and on the road, we found the combination to work flawlessly. Individual, Comfort, Slippery, Sport, and Sport+ modes for the allow different settings for the powertrain response, steering, and suspension.

With its 5.5-liter, twin-turbocharged V-8 making either 550 horsepower and 516 pound-feet in the GLE63 or 577 hp and 561 lb-ft in the GLE63 S, these models offer great drivability yet near-supercar-level performance—with 0-60 times of 4.3 and 4.2 seconds to 60 mph, respectively, and transient response that’s astonishingly quick for a vehicle with a curb weight that exceeds 5,000 pounds.

There’s no way around it: These models feel portly, but no more, truthfully, than the X5 and X6. After spending a few hours with the GLE Coupe models on some narrow roads with choppy surfaces at times, we found ourselves liking the Sport setting better for the steering—it actually felt more settled and comfortable—so we think we’d use that at all times through Individual settings while varying the other settings to suit the conditions.

The sounds you hear from the driver’s seat are quite inspiring, too. In the GLE63, the exhaust crackles with overrun and snorts from special exhaust baffling; you’ll catch yourself pulling the left steering-wheel paddle repeatedly just to hear it on downshifts. The GLE450 isn’t quite the same level of auditory perfection, but as long as you have your mind on driving rapidly, it’s great.

In both of these models, however, engine noise was too everpresent, even during cruising. While we can see the kind of enthusiasts that will be drawn to the GLE63 being delighted by its tenor, it’s not as much of a great thing in the GLE450, where the V-6 takes on a raspy, coarse note while cruising on long grades or at higher speed.

Back-seat space in the GLE Coupe is a mixed bag; in legroom and ease of entry it’s excellent, yet it leaves the X6 looking generous in useful headroom. Put anyone much more than six feet tall in the back seat, and their head will almost certainly hit the back of the carved-out headliner space (just fore of the hatch opening) before it hits the seat’s headrest.

Take a look at how nicely the seats fold down, and how long, wide, and perfectly flat the cargo floor itself is, and the GLE Coupe’s reason for being is abundantly clear: Unless you plan to stack cargo at the far back of the vehicle—which would impair visibility anyway—you’re really not giving up much functionality.

Great seats, yet modest upgrades up front

Those back seats are, after all, expected to be empty most of the time, as GLE Coupes are expected to be snapped up by affluent empty-nester couples. As such, the upgraded seats that are included in the GLE450 AMG offer improved bolstering to help hold you in place in corners—and they were great for our backs and seating position on the test drive. The GLE63, meanwhile, gets even more aggressively bolstered sport seats, that may even be a bit too snug for some (although in either case, they beat the rather flat seats in the base (non-Coupe) GLE models.

Although the GLE’s interior carries mostly over from the M-Class, it inherits the freestanding (and larger, at eight-inch) infotainment screen that other models in the lineup have gained the past couple of years. Only in the GLE it feels a bit cobbled, as it doesn’t include the circular, better-detailed vents and upgraded climate controls that have otherwise been included in recent new and redesigned models like the GLA (and now GLC).

When you consider who will almost certainly buy the GLE Coupe—those empty nesters, maybe of the age that used to buy a big touring coupe like the CL—and why, this model makes enough sense for us to believe that this model will add sales ot the GLE lineup without cannibalizing sales from other segments.

After misfires like the Acura ZDX and, to some degree the original X6 (and looking downmarket, the Honda Crosstour), this niche isn’t exactly a sure thing. The 2016 GLE Coupe reads as a bit duplicitous at times; yet it’s a model that will have its buyers the most charmed and passionate.

As the kids move out and you reach out for something a little more indulgent, it’s okay to consider a Coupe. Or perhaps an SUV with a ‘Coupe’ badge is just enough.

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1098813_2016-mercedes-benz-gle-coupe-first-drive

 

[DJRaze99]