GLB - Are they any good? Opinions please

[Le Gavroche]

As a family, we've had loads of BMW diesels. One after another. Numerous 320D's, saloons and Tourings, X1 20D, X3 20D, etc.

They have all been absolutely fantastic. 50+mpg everywhere, good performance, handle well, feel well made, the 8 speed ZF box in them all is excellent, and more importantly they have been utterly reliable to 100-110k miles or more each. Literally nothing more than servicing/MOT/tyres and a set of brakes.

But, my wife currently has an X1 18D M-Sport which is approaching 85k miles and we would like to change it, and we fancy something different. Had too many BMW's... Little bit bored with them now! The X1 has been one of the best daily drivers we have ever had, and just does everything brilliantly, but my only complaint is that it is a bit too noisy inside at speed. Road and tyre noise is just a bit noticeable.

We have been looking at a Diesel GLB as a replacement, but I know absolutely nothing about Mercedes in general. Never owned one and don't know anyone who has one, as strange as that sounds.

They look nice enough, and the interior looks good.

All I've heard is stuff like "They're st. They are just a Renault these days" which I'm going to ignore as I assume the Renault engines and other bits will only be on certain models, and besides, in my experience there is nothing wrong with anything made by Renault.

There appears to only be one diesel model of GLB, the 2.0 diesel, so thats the one We will be interested in. Likely a 2022 or 2023 model.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

[BEARDYB0Y]

Driven (and sold) many many GLBs over the years and overall I'd say they are decent cars. The 180 petrol is a little under powered for motorway work but the 220d (the 2.0d) is a great all round engine. Its been fitted pretty much every Merc in the last 10+ years. (My father used to get 70-80mpg in his 2016 E220d Estate)

They drive pretty well, the space inside is brilliant (even 6'2" me can fit/fold into the 3rd row for short periods) and they promise fantastic value for money. Its not going to be a 911 GT3 on a back road but they are surprisingly nice to drive. Mercs really eat miles like nothing else, they are super easy to drive. It is a boxy car though so noise may be similar to your X1, I'd be interested to know how you would compare them actually.

Have you thought what spec you would go for? A premium or premium+ really gives you everything you could ever want from a family car.

Yes modern Mercs are not what they used to be 10 years ago... but then BMW is suffering the exact same quality issues... IMO every car is not what they used to be. Like you, I've never quite understood the downer on Renault, I was genuinely surprised at how good the tiny 1.3 was when i first tried it in the A Class.

Id always recommend going and having a look at a couple in person, they are fairly common so most dealers will have one in stock.

Any questions please let me know! BB

[ArmaghMan]

Nothing to add re. GLB but whatever you do do t get an X1 drive 18d.
Have one as a company car.
Utter garbage, and I'm stuck with it for 2 more years.

[Sheepshanks]

ArmaghMan said:

Nothing to add re. GLB but whatever you do do t get an X1 drive 18d.
Have one as a company car.
Utter garbage, and I'm stuck with it for 2 more years.

Isn’t that exactly the car the OPs missus has, and they think it’s marvellous?


Anyway, re Mercedes, mine were fine but I’ve moved on now. The common thing that crops up is how useless / expensive the dealers are for servicing etc. But you see that with BMW too. If you’ve had a good BMW dealer it might be quite a shock to move to a bad Mercedes one.

[Le Gavroche]

BEARDYB0Y said:

Driven (and sold) many many GLBs over the years and overall I'd say they are decent cars. The 180 petrol is a little under powered for motorway work but the 220d (the 2.0d) is a great all round engine. Its been fitted pretty much every Merc in the last 10+ years. (My father used to get 70-80mpg in his 2016 E220d Estate)

They drive pretty well, the space inside is brilliant (even 6'2" me can fit/fold into the 3rd row for short periods) and they promise fantastic value for money. Its not going to be a 911 GT3 on a back road but they are surprisingly nice to drive. Mercs really eat miles like nothing else, they are super easy to drive. It is a boxy car though so noise may be similar to your X1, I'd be interested to know how you would compare them actually.

Have you thought what spec you would go for? A premium or premium+ really gives you everything you could ever want from a family car.

Yes modern Mercs are not what they used to be 10 years ago... but then BMW is suffering the exact same quality issues... IMO every car is not what they used to be. Like you, I've never quite understood the downer on Renault, I was genuinely surprised at how good the tiny 1.3 was when i first tried it in the A Class.

Id always recommend going and having a look at a couple in person, they are fairly common so most dealers will have one in stock.

Any questions please let me know! BB

Thanks for that post. Really helpful.

I would be going for the 2.0d. Good to know it's a tried and tested engine. I always go for diesel. I don't care what any manufacturer says, these little 1.3/1.5/1.6 turbo petrol engines do not give good fuel economy in my experience. But thats just me.

I hadn't thought about spec or trim level at all. Most stuff that was a nice extra many years ago is usually all standard fit now? (Climate, DAB/Phone, Electric everything, etc) The only things I would like to have are:

Heated front seats
Cruise/Limit control.
Non-halogen headlights (LED/Xenon/HID etc)

What spec would I get those in? Some of the cars for sale that I liked the look of seemed to be in AMG trim, which I assume has plenty of toys?

Thanks

[Le Gavroche]

ArmaghMan said:

Nothing to add re. GLB but whatever you do do t get an X1 drive 18d.
Have one as a company car.
Utter garbage, and I'm stuck with it for 2 more years.

My Mrs has had a 2018 X1 18D S-Drive M Sport for the last 4 years and honestly, I reckon it's one of the best daily drivers you could find anywhere. It just does everything really well. The ZF gearbox is absolutely superb, the engine is pokey enough for daily driving and motorway, it returns silly MPG everywhere (Easy 50-55+ without trying), it's comfortable, handles just fine even when you are pressing on, and has decent room inside and a surprisingly big boot. LED headlights are great and it's got plenty of tech considering it is 7 years old now.

My only complaint with it, is the road noise. It is noticeably more intrusive than my 320D. But, that may well be partly down to the Michelin Cross Climate tyres (very aggressive and noisy winter tread pattern). A friend of mine has an X1 as well, with standard tyres and he has also commented on the road noise.

I would be really interested to know what you don't like about it, as maybe I'm just easy to please!

(I haven't driven the 2022 onwards U11 model though, which is what you might have?)

[Le Gavroche]

Sheepshanks said:

Isn’t that exactly the car the OPs missus has, and they think it’s marvellous?


Anyway, re Mercedes, mine were fine but I’ve moved on now. The common thing that crops up is how useless / expensive the dealers are for servicing etc. But you see that with BMW too. If you’ve had a good BMW dealer it might be quite a shock to move to a bad Mercedes one.

I avoid main dealers like the plague. I usually buy cars at 2-3 years old, and get them serviced at an independent. We've got a really good BMW specialist that I have used for years, and if I go Merc, there's a long standing Merc specialist in my town as well, who I understand is very good and has all the latest dealer spec diagnostics.

I have absolutely zero interest in paying an extra £300 for an oil change just so I can be greeted by a receptionist and offered a Cappuccino from a £6000 coffee machine.

[Sheepshanks]

The dealer always used to be up for a discussion on pricing then suddenly they weren't so I switched to an indie. To be honest I didn't enjoy the indie experience and he became a one man band (I guess no-one could work with him!). He helped the decision to get rid of the car - it was a work car and business travel just never picked up after covid, and then I retired.

[MickyveloceClassic]

My wife had one from new 2020 to last autumn, covering 40,000 miles.
It was a 220d premium plus 7-seat model.

I never gelled with it, but it was an economical and worthy family car.

The lane-assist is very harsh if you forget to deactivate it, the engine I found was quite harsh in this application, but quick when required.

Ours was main dealer serviced from new, and sold back to them when we wanted to offload it. We do have a good relationship with our dealer (Teesside Sytner), and found them competitive.

[Le Gavroche]

MickyveloceClassic said:

My wife had one from new 2020 to last autumn, covering 40,000 miles.
It was a 220d premium plus 7-seat model.

I never gelled with it, but it was an economical and worthy family car.

The lane-assist is very harsh if you forget to deactivate it, the engine I found was quite harsh in this application, but quick when required.

Ours was main dealer serviced from new, and sold back to them when we wanted to offload it. We do have a good relationship with our dealer (Teesside Sytner), and found them competitive.

Economical and worthy sounds fine to me! That has pretty much been our X1 experience.

I hate lane assist in anything to be honest, I turn it off (permanently if possible) in any vehicle I drive that has it fitted. There is nothing more annoying that a car grabbing the steering wheel on your behalf.

[BEARDYB0Y]

Le Gavroche said:

Thanks for that post. Really helpful.

I would be going for the 2.0d. Good to know it's a tried and tested engine. I always go for diesel. I don't care what any manufacturer says, these little 1.3/1.5/1.6 turbo petrol engines do not give good fuel economy in my experience. But thats just me.

I hadn't thought about spec or trim level at all. Most stuff that was a nice extra many years ago is usually all standard fit now? (Climate, DAB/Phone, Electric everything, etc) The only things I would like to have are:

Heated front seats
Cruise/Limit control.
Non-halogen headlights (LED/Xenon/HID etc)

What spec would I get those in? Some of the cars for sale that I liked the look of seemed to be in AMG trim, which I assume has plenty of toys?

Thanks

No worries, happy to help!

You are not wrong about the petrol fuel economy. Personally I feel the push for smaller engines is actually making things worse due to the lack of torque meaning engines have to rev more and work harder.

Spec wise you dont have many many options, everything is done in packs. You can get 5 seat variants but 90% are 7 seaters where the seats fold completely flat into the boot floor.

You can choose between "Sport" and "AMG Line" trim. 99% will be AMG Line though. That gives you slightly sportier bumpers, interior materials and generally makes it feel a little less base model. All AMG lines will get heared seats, cruise/limit, satnav, DAB

Then there are 3 packs to choose from. "Executive", "Premium" and "Premium Plus".

Id say you would want an Exec as a minimum. That gives a slightly larger centre screen, Apple Carplay/Andriod Auto and LED headlights.

Premium is the one I'd always recomend however, it adds 64 colour ambient lighting, keyless entry, both screens are larger, upgraded HiFi etc (you can tell a premuim by the chrome doorhandles)

Then premium plus is the all singing all dancing model. That adds the double panoramic sunroof, fully electric seats and autodipping LED headlights.

The only extremely rare option is distance cruise control. Its an additional option (although some cars did get it as part of the Prem+ pack).

Almost all of them will have an electric tailgate... except for a few Covid cars where it was removed to save microchips. That really is a case by case thing though. We could never predict what cars would be affected.

The best looking model was the fairly short run "edition" model. It just upped the standard spec a little (Exec has ambient lighting, premium had a sunroof for example), blacked out the chrome trims and gave it multispoke alloys. They also released Patagonia Red around that point.

Sorry, long post but hopefully helpful! BB

[MickyveloceClassic]

The oh-so-clever dipping lights are a pain.

In theory, they allow better visibility at night by providing additional “blocks” of light which you wouldn’t have on a normal dipped-beam, but they’re not as responsive or as reliable as a human, and you do end up blinding some poor sod in certain situations.

And, we suffered a pheasant strike which cost £2.5k of the insurance companies cash for one light, it’s ecu unit and a bit of trim.

Anyhow, all new cars are the same I suspect.

Im just a Luddite; you just don’t need so much frippery and nonsense on a family car (Dynamic mode for example).

They do look funky, especially from the front.

[MustangGT]

MickyveloceClassic said:

The oh-so-clever dipping lights are a pain.

In theory, they allow better visibility at night by providing additional “blocks” of light which you wouldn’t have on a normal dipped-beam, but they’re not as responsive or as reliable as a human, and you do end up blinding some poor sod in certain situations.

I have active LED headlights on my 2015 GLE. Absolutely fantastic in operation, never been flashed by an oncoming driver, much faster to react than me.

[boxedin]

Le Gavroche said:

The ZF gearbox is absolutely superb,

Not in the F48s, they're all Aisin units; Toyota.

[Le Gavroche]

boxedin said:

Le Gavroche said:

The ZF gearbox is absolutely superb,

Not in the F48s, they're all Aisin units; Toyota.

Apologies, you are correct. It's my 320D that has the ZF8. Both perform really well IMO. I don't pay close attention enough to spot any difference between the behaviour/performance of them.

[Le Gavroche]

BEARDYB0Y said:

No worries, happy to help!

You are not wrong about the petrol fuel economy. Personally I feel the push for smaller engines is actually making things worse due to the lack of torque meaning engines have to rev more and work harder.

Spec wise you dont have many many options, everything is done in packs. You can get 5 seat variants but 90% are 7 seaters where the seats fold completely flat into the boot floor.

You can choose between "Sport" and "AMG Line" trim. 99% will be AMG Line though. That gives you slightly sportier bumpers, interior materials and generally makes it feel a little less base model. All AMG lines will get heared seats, cruise/limit, satnav, DAB

Then there are 3 packs to choose from. "Executive", "Premium" and "Premium Plus".

Id say you would want an Exec as a minimum. That gives a slightly larger centre screen, Apple Carplay/Andriod Auto and LED headlights.

Premium is the one I'd always recomend however, it adds 64 colour ambient lighting, keyless entry, both screens are larger, upgraded HiFi etc (you can tell a premuim by the chrome doorhandles)

Then premium plus is the all singing all dancing model. That adds the double panoramic sunroof, fully electric seats and autodipping LED headlights.

The only extremely rare option is distance cruise control. Its an additional option (although some cars did get it as part of the Prem+ pack).

Almost all of them will have an electric tailgate... except for a few Covid cars where it was removed to save microchips. That really is a case by case thing though. We could never predict what cars would be affected.

The best looking model was the fairly short run "edition" model. It just upped the standard spec a little (Exec has ambient lighting, premium had a sunroof for example), blacked out the chrome trims and gave it multispoke alloys. They also released Patagonia Red around that point.

Sorry, long post but hopefully helpful! BB

Again, massively helpful thanks I have it sussed now!

[ArmaghMan]

Le Gavroche said:

ArmaghMan said:

Nothing to add re. GLB but whatever you do do t get an X1 drive 18d.
Have one as a company car.
Utter garbage, and I'm stuck with it for 2 more years.

My Mrs has had a 2018 X1 18D S-Drive M Sport for the last 4 years and honestly, I reckon it's one of the best daily drivers you could find anywhere. It just does everything really well. The ZF gearbox is absolutely superb, the engine is pokey enough for daily driving and motorway, it returns silly MPG everywhere (Easy 50-55+ without trying), it's comfortable, handles just fine even when you are pressing on, and has decent room inside and a surprisingly big boot. LED headlights are great and it's got plenty of tech considering it is 7 years old now.

My only complaint with it, is the road noise. It is noticeably more intrusive than my 320D. But, that may well be partly down to the Michelin Cross Climate tyres (very aggressive and noisy winter tread pattern). A friend of mine has an X1 as well, with standard tyres and he has also commented on the road noise.

I would be really interested to know what you don't like about it, as maybe I'm just easy to please!

(I haven't driven the 2022 onwards U11 model though, which is what you might have?)

Honestly so much I do t like I'd be a month listing everything.
It's the new shape one by the way (2023)

First. Everything is through the touch screen. No buttons for anything. Heat control/ heated seats/ air-conditioning all on screen.
Entire screen already replaced once under warranty.
Chews front tyres.
Seats, I've sat on more comfortable park benches.
Engine. Unbelievably gutless ( but still noisy just not in a good way)
Centre front armrest. Whoever signed that off should be slapped. Doesn't lift! Storage underneath it can't be accessed by passenger.

That's just for starters.