The other cars that we had shortlisted were the BMW 6 Series GT, X3 M40i and X5.
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2023 Mercedes GLC 300 Petrol 4MATIC
Initial ownership review
At the time of writing this review, I have completed about one year of ownership and covered approximately 10,000 kms with the car.
Prologue:
Summer, 2023. Life was proceeding fine with my (then) 8-year-old 3GT (BMW ownership review link) and the workhorse do-it-all Jeep Meridian (Jeep ownership review link).
On a regular trip to Pune one weekend in my 3GT I happened to drive around with my pal in his petrol 3GL and coming from two diesel mills for several recent years now, I was just smitten by the smoothness and overall driving experience of the B48. I had just bought the Meridian a year or so ago and I was clear that the GT had a solid 2 – 4 years of usable life easily. But the desire to own a really nice premium petrol car felt far more immediate.
I started generally tracking some used petrol cars on CarWale across a broad spectrum. Some typical searches were for petrol variants of the 6GT, X3s and X4s and frankly even the 3GT. I did come across many of these, including specifically a 2020 petrol 3GT which seemed like a good flip for my diesel mill, but somehow I found the used car asking prices a bit too rich for my comfort. Besides, the wife veto’d it saying that if we are going to buy another car, as much as she loved the 3GT, she’d like a change from it for some freshness – fair enough tbh.
Came across some 6GTs too but they were either too expensive and even though new ones were coming at some good deals, when it came to pulling the trigger the thought of plonking serious money on a car that’s being permanently discontinued in the near future somehow didn’t agree with me.
Came across another nice low run 2020 X4 but again, as per some fellow Mods, the asking price was about 8 – 10 lakh too much. Never even got around to discussing the cost of the 3GT with the dealer for a flip since his asking for the X4 itself was way too high.
Finally, I got around to thinking that perhaps I should approach this the other way. Retain the 3GT and flip the Meridian so I clear the path for a slightly bigger budget with a new German petrol. This way, I get a modern petrol, I rid my garage of the DEF linked BS6 diesel and instead retain the more agreeable BS4 diesel GT in the garage. My outlook on the Meridian when I bought it was overall 4 – 5 years and that’s also the time horizon I could see for the 3 GT at the time. Pound for pound, we figured it’s the 3 GT we’d like to hang on to over the Meridian; selling the Meridian also liberates more immediate cash / EMI headroom and we should simply buy a new luxury car instead.
The wishlist:
- Petrol. E20 compliant at that.
- Proper luxury offering, no value luxury, semi-luxury etc. Within that too, really only Mercedes and BMW. I had not kept Audi, Lexus or JLR in the reckoning on account of my own perceptions and bias.
- Strong engine, no underpowered engines as has become the trend with some models, specially with Mercedes and its 200 petrol trims.
- Rough useability on factors like ground clearance etc. Low slung sedans were a no-no. Didn’t need to be an off-roader either.
- Comfortable seating for 4 and great boot space for road trips and similar.
Options considered:
Shortlist came down to the following options: X3, X5, GLC and the 6GT as an outside contender.
6GT
To be honest, if the 6GT had been a continuing model, this is the car I would have gone for in a heartbeat. I’d have retained the Meridian as a workhorse, flipped the 3GT for the petrol 6GT and swapped the Meridian at the 4 – 5 years mark for a Hycross / EV or similar. End of matter. The 6GT ticks the most boxes for me personally – it’s got a great boot, is extremely comfortable to be chauffeur driven in and the B48 petrol is a delightful engine to pilot. Sure it won’t handle like a 5 series but that’s a compromise I can live with for the overall package that it offers. The only irritant I’d have felt is the spare wheel in the boot (and not inside a dedicated wheel well) but I’d have grudgingly accepted that in a world where many premium models don’t have a spare wheel at all.
I was getting some extraordinarily good deals on it too from the showroom but I just couldn’t bring myself to select a car that was being discontinued altogether in the immediate future.
X3 M40i
BMW Infinity went out of its way to organize a test drive of this car for me. The highlight of this car is of course the B58 engine, which is a class apart from the GLC 300. Being eligible for the BH plate also meant I could take the sting away from its rich CBU pricing with the 20% (in MH) registration charges. But the car at the time was only available in a black interior / white exterior option and our overall experience seated inside the car was extremely underwhelming. While I loved the engine without a doubt, my wife and I both simply couldn’t imagine plonking well upwards of 90L (on road, BH) on a car that looked and felt inside the way the outgoing X3 did.
At the time I had bought my 3GT, I had gotten a good discount partly because I couldn’t choose the interior / exterior color options – I had to settle for the inventory available. I was not willing to spend this much money again and not be able to get an interior / exterior color combination of my choice. We also felt that if we were going to spend as much as 90L+ on a car, we’d rather just stretch a bit more and get an X5 and move a clear segment up. It would offer a properly one-size-up vehicle with better 2nd-row comfort than the X3. So the X3 really fell into no man’s land for us.
X5
Hand on heart, this is THE car I would have picked but let it pass purely because I didn’t want to stretch the budget to the X5, knowing I had an impending superbike purchase also coming up in well within 6 – 12 months. The car is almost a complete package, it’s an acceptable external footprint size, it’s got brilliant driving dynamics and looks modern, without yet falling prey to BMWs recent design misadventures. My only significant peeve with the car is that for the price and segment it operates in, the back seat is strictly mediocre. Better than the one-segment lower GLC / X3 of course, but still mediocre for class under-thigh support; no recline function for added comfort etc.
GLC
That brings us to the GLC. While it’s definitely pricey for what it offers, it offers a sweet combination of space, SUV practicality, luxurious interior, and an ‘adequately fast’ petrol engine, with perhaps the key shortcoming being the lack of XL-sized comfort in the rear seat where a 6GT or X5 would have served better. I think we took about 2 test drives and were pretty much sold. A minor pull factor was also the fact that it would allow us to experience a new luxury brand. We’re not a family that frequently buys luxury cars and in the next decade, post turning 50, I am more likely to temper such expensive purchases. It seemed a good idea to therefore experience the Mercedes for a change, especially since it will share at least a few years with a BMW. If I was buying an X5 of course, I would not have let this aspect prevail. But it played its part in the decision vs a soon-to-be-dated X3 and a “to be discontinued” 6GT for sure.
Table of contents
This post is reserved for a Table of Contents for this initial review as all ongoing key updates, including travelogues and service milestones. I will update this post from time to time as the thread progresses.
The initial review:
The purchase: @ Autohangar Prabhadevi
I met with a very senior sales person Heswyn (absolutely fantastic) who is a riding buddy of a colleague of mine. He put one of his SAs from the Hughes Road branch in touch with me and in charge of the sales process. I decided to trade in the Jeep with Autohangar itself to save myself the hassles of dealing with chasing paper transfer etc with car trading platforms, dealers / dodgy agents etc. It was given over at a little over 19,000 kms to Autohangar Mercedes. Incidentally, Autohangar actually stretched themselves and finally paid me 30.5 lakh for the car, that’s about Rs. 1.5 lakh more than all other offers including their own initial offer. I know from what it was quoted at subsequently that it would have barely fetched a lakh or so over that when they went to sell it, such was the resale value of the Jeep.
Overall the decision from shortlist to test drive to booking the car took just a little over 2 – 3 weeks max with delivery of the car probably within another week from booking.
Coming to the Jeep, while we certainly enjoyed our time with the Jeep including its rough and ready-go-anywhere nature, we were equally hankering for something significantly more luxurious and completely next level when it comes to the overall package and the GLC suited that bill to the tee. This is definitely a decision that’s completely driven by want & heart rather than need & head.
Final Price, extended warranty, accessories
I did not go down the path of pitting one dealer against another and just let Heswyn and his team come up with whatever were the best terms I could negotiate with them on various fronts. I had opted for a BH plate for this purchase. The final on-road BH price along with extended warranty up to 6th year worked out to just under 78 lakh – Rs. 77,99,643/- to be precise.
The pro forma invoice for the car is in the image below. I’ve manually edited the correct negotiated amount for the insurance, which I procured from HDFC Ergo. The recurring BH amount I’ll have to pay every 2 years is ~Rs. 1.5 lakh.
The only add-on accessories that I purchased at the time of delivery (or very shortly after) were the 4 mats and boot tub, which totalled to about Rs. 24,000/- (Rs. 14,967 + Rs. 9,043 respectively).
A parting shot of the Jeep a few minutes before I handed it over to the folks at Autohangar.
It was raining GLCs that day. On the day I collected my car, two other GLCs were delivered the same evening. Another black GLC had been delivered just a few days ago when I visited the showroom to see my allotted car in person.
Que: Can anyone guess which one of the cars below is mine?
Ans: Neither! It’s the one standing behind these two (with the yellow ribbons). Funny story – I had forgotten this too. I had originally posted the above image showcasing one of them as mine. Realised while reviewing the pics that mine was the one behind these two, with the yellow ribbons.
Mercedes certainly knows how to make the day special.
The sense of occasion on delivery is in keeping with that special feeling that the Mercedes interiors bring.
The goodie bag. Again, a tastefully curated basket.
Weekend outdoor activity and weekend reading, both in one frame
Continue reading Axe77’s initial ownership experience for BHPian comments, insights and more information.
