Gadgetory

here's Mercedes smallest SUV with also one of the smallest diesel engines you'll ever encounter on top of that a big ambitious package of tech let's see what size it presents ass as we drive this 2013 GLK 250 check the tech so the first thing you're gonna notice on this guy is that it doesn't look like any other Mercedes you're gonna wonder who daddy was there's no DNA resemblance to basically anything else they make not quite sure how that happened but you'll either look at it and say that is a really handsome small SUV or it looks a lot like a 2005 forester or both now the first thing when you get in this Mercedes you realize what they haven't done is down scaled the interior it's the same look the same styling and the same high-quality materials you'll find in the bigger SUVs or across their line so that's good let's start with our basic controller Mercedes hasn't changed that in ages you've got the command knob with a back and a Clear button they've always had pretty darn good map quality and that hasn't changed destination entry of course by voice is very simple enter destination enter destination right off the bat you know this is going to annoy me he's wait please select a line number two number two because I have to do every little piece of the address winter town first one talk at a time Street first enter town first we select a line number hate that interstate and city and number I hate that please select a line number tell me oh let's go to media now lots of sources AM and FM with HD radio satellite radio again that's optional by the way disc DVD is optional music register is a 10 gig hard drive not interested but you can get it if you want there's USB which comes based but then there's also media interface which comes optional which is another way to hook up your iPod and the auxilary Jack the good ole female auxilary lives in here as well that's standard now bass audio and this guy is six speakers and some kind of amplification I don't think any of them will ship with that they're mostly going to be upgraded with Harman Kardon Logic 7 which is 11 speakers plus a powered sub and you've got surround sound support because that same package brings in the DVD Drive now let's go to this globe icon on the upper right that's where things get interesting and I put interesting in quotes you can see I'm establishing a data connection basically you've got to get two layers of telematics and pay for those on an ongoing basis as well as then paying for your app service because they require each other that gets a little pricey it is horribly slow and there's a lot of lockout where things don't work when you're driving it's kind of a joke I want to just say I'm going to clip my phone on the windshield and get something that I can actually use by voice safely while moving the things you can use while you're parked include Google local search which is going to look for local Pio is Yelp Facebook a very abbreviated version and my mercedes-benz financial services you can make a payment on your car from here which I find kind of silly self-promotion now let's move on to driver assistance technology standard includes this sort of drowsy alert the car is always measuring inputs on the wheel the pedals and such and can detect from there if it thinks you're falling asleep and then it will blast a little alert on the dash and ring a tone as well it's not looking at your eyelids though unlike some Japanese cars that use that for detection there is passive Lane drift warning and blind spot warning you can also step up to active on both of those along with adaptive cruise control that maintains speed and distance and you have to option into a rear camera that makes me nuts vehicles that cost far less often do now if you think that 250 on the butt means a two and a half liter engine that's wishful thinking this is way smaller 2.1 litre inline-four diesel that's the smallest thing mercedes fields at least in the US market that I know of now key to this little guy working out our turbos two of them it's a true bi turbo a small high-pressure one up near at the top it's actually on the exhaust manifold and a larger lower pressure turbo downstream the exhaust away 200 horsepower specifically that's okay 369 foot-pounds of torque there's your key that helps to move this 4,300 pound vehicle to 60 in just 7 seconds which is quite respectable for its weight and its profile while delivering 24:33 mpg which will check out the reality of when we go on the in a moment by the way all these GLK 250s go out to a seven-speed true cod automatic and all these guys are 4matic all-wheel drive let's go for a run one of the first things I noticed about the GLK 250 is what I don't notice about the GLK 250 you may have noticed that huge gasket around the hood opening we were over in the engine bay that I believe has to be a an example of the effort that they've gone to to try and seal out or at least isolate that diesel clatter now that little diesel is always reminding it in some degree that it is a very small diesel it doesn't have the same urgency of torque that I find in bigger turbo diesel vehicles it has great torque but it doesn't quite get to the area of being giddy it's just sufficient to amp which is absolutely fine also we have this automatic transmission doing its thing and the turbos having to spool up so there's a little bit of a crack throttle response that's missing here that I have found in other turbo diesel cars but it's very torquey once you get things spooled up the handling is really nice I wasn't expecting that there was no AMG package other nonsense on this car it's just a GLK 250 but here on this twisty road the body roll is really minimal it's really planted it's very different than the rav4 we had a couple days ago it was all you know swinging to and fro like a ship now I'll also point out this button down here a and s in a con Eco mode and a sport mode I don't know I haven't felt a real big difference I think if anything it tends to change the transmission behavior more than throttle response real-world mpg you see we're doing close to 30 over a lot of miles since we've had this vehicle I would be surprised if you got 35 average on long freeway trips ok this price is 13 GLK 250 starts off just a hair below 40 grand 39 8 something then there's the Premium Package for about 3400 panoramic roof power liftgate satellite radio Harman Kardon Logic 7 audio 800 bucks that's a definite $2,800 for a driver assistance package that has active blind spot and lane departure tech and adaptive cruise control all of those active we're looking at a car that is pushing 51,000 and done CNET style but not even fully loaded and you're looking at a vehicle that should have really good durability partly because that deep