Mercedes GLA 4matic and tyres question?

[Clumsy]

Hi all, apologies if this is posted in the wrong place but hopefully someone can answer this for me....

I have been looking for a 2 wheel Mercedes GLA for my wife for a while now but the market is swamped with the 4 wheel drive 4matic version. What puts me off of these is the problem you can get with 4 wheel drive cars and the rolling radius winding the diff up if all the tyres are not the same rolling radius. This would be expensive if I had to replace 2 or even 4 tyres every time when only one needed it etc, so is this something that these models could suffer from?

We don’t particularly need a 4x4 as we live in the south but there are many more 4 matics than 2 wheel drives.

Many thanks for any help. 👍

[832ark]

You shouldn’t really be replacing tyres singly anyway unless with a matching one and the other tyre on that axle > 6mm ish.

[RicksAlfas]

I wouldn't worry about it, especially if you see the car you like at the right price. The four wheel drive version will probably wear its tyres more evenly and you can always ask for them to be rotated at a service if you are worried one end is down more than the other.

[Watchman]

Is the GLA even a direct drive rear drive? It's probably a fluid coupling which would compensate for minimal differences in tyre wear between the front and rear.

Plus, you can always rotate them, as said above.

[RazerSauber]

I think 4matic allows 2WD modes and disconnects the unused axle from being driven. Should prevent any wind up AFAIK. I'm not a mechanic but this would be my understanding. You should be fine with either 4WD or 2WD variants.

A quick snoop on Wikipedia would say 4matic can be of various generations on the GLA, 3rd or 4th. I should imagine both are ok on the roads.