New Mercedes GLA SUV: Frankfurt 2013

The new Mercedes GLA SUV (pictured) has debuted at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

Mercedes may not have been exactly overwhelmingly good at producing a compact car with the old A-Class, but the new A-Class is a very good little car, and it’s rapidly spawning more variants to mop up more sales. We’ve already got the new A-Class and the swoopy-coupe Mercedes CLA and now we get the compact SUV take on the A-Class – the new Mercedes GLA.

Revealed last month ahead of its public debut at Frankfurt, we now get to see the GLA in the flesh, and it’s a convincing effort.

Looking exactly what it is – a butched up A-Class with a raised ride height – the new GLA does a convincing job of being an urban SUV with good lines and good looks.

Slightly longer than the A-Class (but with the same wheelbase) it offers s decent amount of room in the stylish cabin and up to 836 litres of boot space with the back seats down.

Engines on offer are going to be the same petrol and diesel mix as the A-Class, and if you want 4MATIC to make this a properly useful compact SUV you’ll have to opt for at least the GLA 220 CDI.

Mercedes has confirmed that they will be hbuilding a GLA 45 AMG. so it will be interesting to see just how good the dynamics will be on an A-Class with a raised ride height.

But if Mercedes get that right – and we’re sure they will, the GLA 45 AMg is going to be the ultimate urban blatter, even if, by the time you add some interesting options, it’ll cost you the thick end of £50k.

The new Mercedes GLA goes on sale in the UK in November, with first UK deliveries in early 2014.

By Cars UK