Mercedes-Benz GLB review

The rear-drive 250+ ain't that quick, even unladen. But the point of this SUV is surely that it'll be smoothly driven so as not to upset the people or loads, and in this it's well calibrated.

The accelerator doesn't have too much flick-switch action at the top, so you can just grease forward without anyone's head rocking back. The regeneration has four settings; off, normal, strong (which is very strong) and auto. That last uses signals from the distance to the vehicle in front, or upcoming bends and junctions form the navigation.

Most cars, when in the strong regen setting, have an uncomfortable kick point in the accelerator action between power and braking. This one has a softer transition that’s easier to manage. By the way, in the regular models you select regeneration level by pulling or pushing the drive stalk; in the AMG ones there are paddles.

The rear-driver claims 7.4s to 62mph, but doesn't feel that lively. Maybe it's the refinement. The 4Matic, at 5.5s, makes a significant difference. You'd not actually accelerate like that, but it means you've got power in reserve for heavy loads or towing. In both versions, you hardly hear or feel the rear transmission changing into its second gear as you pass 65mph ish. Hitting eco mode restricts power to 50 per cent unless you kick down.

Like the accelerator the brakes themselves have a travel that's free of bite. We'd like a sharper tip-in, but there's confidence underfoot and it fits the rest of the controls.

What about the suspension?

The steering's like the brakes and accelerator – a softish initial action that soon bleeds into progressive and trustworthy moves. The GLB doesn't roll much and clings on pretty hard in a bend. If it's damp underneath, the 250+ can even edge the rear tyres out if you're impatient with the accelerator out of what we used to call a second-gear bend.

You get a nice supple ride over high-frequency harsh surfaces, even on the big wheels – they bring standard adaptive damping; the 19s don't. But bigger bumps push their way through. You feel and hear them. The stiffish anti-roll bars mean you're rocked about if one side of the car hits a bump the other misses.

Any driver assistance?

Mercedes has always been big on developing this stuff, and sure enough there's all you can imagine here. But Merc has also been historically stingy about putting it on the base cars. Same here. But with a twist: all the cameras (10 of them), ultrasonic sensors (12) and radars (five), plus an ultra-powerful water-cooled computer to process all the data are fitted to every car. It's just that they're only fully activated if you pay for the up-spec model. Or if you buy a second-hand car down-spec car and pay to activate them. Or pay a monthly sub. On the one hand it's flexible, on the other… pretty hard to negotiate.

Anyway, in our experience it's all very well calibrated – except the speed limit indicator which like them all sometimes got it wrong – and works smoothly and unobtrusively until needed. It's pretty easy to set up shortcuts to quash what you don't want.