Benz GLA leaked
First images of all-new small Mercedes SUV emerge alongside official teaser videoMercedes-Benz’s all-new small SUV, the GLA, has emerged for the first time in final production trim, via leaked official images that hit the internet around the same time Merc released the first teaser video.
As we’ve reported, the GLA will make its global debut at the Frankfurt motor show next month, before going on sale in Australia in the second quarter of next year.
No, the GLA 250 4MATIC, which will top the GLA range until the flagship AMG version is revealed next year, seen in these official action and studio shots doesn’t appear as aggressive as the sketches released recently, or the concept car that previewed it at the Shanghai show in April.
But as spy shots from June showed, the GLA looks even sportier than the low-slung wedge-shape A-Class hatchback upon which it’s based.
Due on sale here within two years of the launch of the latest M-Class, which will be facelifted in 2014, the GLA will be the first of four new SUVs from Mercedes, including the second-generation GLK mid-sizer and its all-new coupe-like GLC sibling (both due in 2015) and the all-new M-Class-based MLC ‘crossover-coupe’ in 2016.
While the MLC will rival BMW’s X6 and the GLC will compete with the upcoming X4, the GLA will go head to head with the X1 and Audi Q3 as the smallest model in Mercedes’ expanding SUV family.
Based on the same MFA front/all-wheel drive architecture as the A-Class hatch and upcoming CLA sedan, it is expected to be offered here with a similar engine line-up to the smallest Benz passenger model.
Initially, that means two turbo-petrol and one turbo-diesel engine, including the 115kW 1.6-litre GLA 200, the 100kW 1.8-litre GLA 200 CDI and the 155kW 2.0-litre GLA 250 4MATIC.
The latter’s new all-wheel drive system, which can send up to 50 per cent of torque to the rear wheels, will also be fitted to the top-shelf GLA 45 AMG, powered by the same 265kW turbo-petrol four as the upcoming A 45 and CLA 45 AMGs.
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