With Covid-19 dominating our daily lives right now, I think that people deserve a treat now and then. When the first Lockdown ended a treat for many women was visit to the hairdressers, while for men it may have been a game of golf or a few pints with old pals.
Last week I got a real treat when I picked up the Mercedes GLB at the company’s Irish headquarters on the Naas Road. The GLB is a clever mix of MPV and SUV and is available as five or seven-seater. I drove a diesel five-seater.
It really is a classy looking motor to look at and so relaxing to drive and travel in. Most new Mercedes cars no longer have the company’s famous ‘three pointed star’ on the bonnet and the GLB is no different.
Did you ever wonder as to the history of Mercedes famous pointed star, which used to feature on the bonnet of their cars? I had to resort to our good friend Wikipedia to find the history of the famous star.
The idea came from Paul and Adolf Daimler, sons of Mercedes founder Gottlieb Daimler. The star symbolises the use of Daimler engines on land, at sea and in the air. The famous star is gone since 1990, but it is retained in the badge on the bonnet and there is a large star embossed into the grille, which looks great.
There is anecdotal evidence that some ‘ruffians’ were breaking/stealing the stars off the bonnets of Mercedes cars and it was really expensive for drivers to replace the stars.
As the name suggest, the GLB is based on the Mercedes B-Class, and it shares much of that car’s underpinnings, interior switchgear and engine line-up. However, the GLB is much longer, which explains why it’s also available with seven seats.
The interior is spacious. On the dash the controls are similar to those in the A-Class, B-Class and CLA. As usual with Mercedes the gear lever is on the right of the steering wheel and of course I forgot on the first day when indicating left and put the car into neutral. The indicators are on the left side of the wheel and you quickly get used to the lay-out after one drive.
With most modern cars you get a ‘beeping’ sound if you changes lanes without indicating. In the GLB the brakes are applied if you go over the yellow line on the road. A great service. Mercedes are really big into SUV’s and every third vehicle produced by the company is an SUV.
There are a lot of SUVs on the Irish market right now, but this GLB from Merc is up there with the best. Prices start at €50,835, but my test model which had a plethora of extras, will cost you €64,273.
My advice to buyers is to always start with the basic version and then see how many extras you can afford.
I drove the five-seater, which meant huge boot space and when you leave down the back seats, you could probably carry a pole vault.
Officially the boot space is 565 litres and 1,800 litres with the back seat folded down. But no spare wheel, just a repair kit.
So if you happen to ‘come into money’ and want to treat yourself, the GLB could be the SUV for you.
