Yahoo Autos 2024 Mercedes-AMG GLA35 Tested: A Jackrabbit That Just Can't Chill
The upper echelon of the Mercedes-AMG range consists of cars that offer impressive performance while still coddling occupants with as much luxury as the Germans can shoehorn into a single vehicle. That's all well and good, provided you have a small business loan's worth of money to play in that arena. So what happens when AMG wants to make a smaller, more value-oriented offering? Something's got to give, and in the case of the 2024 Mercedes-AMG GLA35 subcompact SUV, the luxury half of the equation falls by the wayside.
The GLA35 wasn't always the top dog of the GLA-class lineup, but with the GLA45 seemingly on vacation from the U.S. market, its slightly less powerful sibling currently occupies the spotlight by its lonesome. For 2024, the GLA picks up a few small updates, including LED headlights and taillights, as well as an updated infotainment interface. The GLA35 also sports a flashy new hood badge, in addition to a newly standard AMG Performance steering wheel with extra buttons and dials. A 48-volt hybrid-assist system makes its way into the powertrain mix, as well, offering a small power boost and extending stop-start usage.
Since the hybrid assist doesn't increase peak values, output from the GLA35's turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four remains the same as before: 302 horsepower and 295 pound-feet. With that power headed to all four wheels, the GLA35 reaches 60 mph in a mildly zippy, launch control–enabled 4.7 seconds and passes the quarter-mile mark in 13.4 seconds at 102 mph. The eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission hustles its way through the gears at full chat. And that's where the DCT is at its best—elsewhere, such as in casual driving where on-off throttle applications are more common, it can be clunky, and calling up the lowest available gear requires a pause and some thought. See our test car's comparatively lazy 5.8-second 5-to-60-mph time. The hybrid assist doesn't seem to do much in that situation, and we'd like to see AMG replace the DCT with a torque-converter automatic, which likely would boost daily drivability without much, if any, detriment to performance.
A nice bit of theater follows you up to speed, as the GLA35's four-pot does its best impression of a pissed-off warthog, grunting and snorting the whole time. And it's not shy about that either; our microphones picked up 85 decibels of noise inside at wide-open throttle. Despite squeezing some solid power from just two liters of displacement, the engine delivered 30 mpg on our 75-mph highway fuel-economy loop, besting the EPA estimate by 2 mpg.
This AMG's brakes are sufficiently strong too. Pedal modulation is easy to get used to, and we recorded a decent 152-foot stop from 70 mph and a 304-foot effort from 100 mph. For comparison, those figures are nearly dead even with a Nissan Z NISMO, which is (only?) 180 pounds lighter than the 3853-pound GLA35 and is an actual sports car.
During our last test of an AMG 35, the 2021 GLB35, we bemoaned the squarish crossover's just-okay 0.87-g skidpad result, which we chalked up to the car's Continental all-season tires. Our GLA35 test car arrived on Continental Sport Contact 6 summer tires, sized 255/40ZR-20, and this time around, we saw a much better 0.93 g on the skidpad. Whether we're testing lateral g-loads or simply chucking this barely-a-crossover around our favorite rural curves, the GLA35 displays solid handling chops, remaining flat through the twisties and transferring weight between its corners with more competence than you might expect from a compact SUV.
However, while larger and more expensive AMG models counterbalance a vigorous ride with modes that offer genuine Mercedes-tier comfort, these less expensive models nix that second half of the formula. The GLA35 comes standard with AMG-tuned adaptive dampers, but Comfort mode isn't exactly comfortable—the ride is rather stiff in every mode, and even with 40-profile tire sidewalls, slight potholes transferred enough motion and noise into the cabin that we thought we'd bent a control arm at one point. We'd advise skipping our test car's $1350 20-inch-wheel upgrade in favor of the standard 19-inch wheels, which provide a little extra sidewall.
Inside, the GLA's budget-based roots are apparent with the extended usage of harder plastics, but there's still a healthy dose of style that for the most part keeps the cabin in line with other current Mercedes models. The standard AMG steering wheel is nice to hold, but its touch-based controls aren't very fun to use. We'd give the boot to our car's $3250 seat upgrade too; lateral bolstering is extremely tight, to the point that even folks whose shirt sizes don't carry more X's than a cartoon jug of moonshine will likely find them unusable. The upgraded tech is a welcome addition, however, and it carries modern trappings like wireless smartphone mirroring and fast-charging USB-C ports. And if you desire more cargo area than this quasi-hatchback can muster, there's always the boxier GLB35, which brings an optional third row of seats and up to 62 cubic feet of storage versus the GLA35's 51-cube max.
As far as the GLA35's price is concerned, it can stay close to the average new-car transaction price, provided you don't go H.A.M. on the options. The $57,600 base figure is not bad for a speedy Merc with an AMG badge on the hood, but our test car's panoply of largely skippable options sent the price tag into anaphylaxis, swelling it to nearly $73,000. No thanks. The GLA35's closest competitor is the BMW X1 M35i, which starts at $50,895 while producing 10 more horsepower and the same amount of torque.
The GLA35 is a bit of an enigma. Mercedes's love for shoehorning AMG performance into every corner of its lineup has produced a small SUV that's fun, albeit one that is also utterly incapable of calming down enough to provide the full Affalterbach experience. But if you're the type of person who drinks coffee from sunrise until sunset, here's a car that's just as strung out as you are.
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