The GLB’s practicality comes as a welcome surprise. You don’t really expect an SUV of this size to offer genuine, adult-appropriate, three-row passenger space, but the GLB gets creditably close.
Three average-height adults could sit in it, one behind the other, comfortably enough, even if you would inevitably feel more hemmed in sitting in row three.
The second-row seats slide forwards and back by 140mm in order to juggle space effectively. Access to the third row is tight, as ever, but not problematic.
Those familiar with smaller seven-seat SUVs won’t be expecting much boot space to be left once you do put all of the seats up – but here the GLB’s secret weapon comes into play: a remarkably roomy and usefully square-sided 127-litre frunk, big enough for a couple of big holdalls or smallish wheelie bags. This certainly isn’t a car that’s left with no carrying space at all when filled with people.
The front of the cabin is practical, with plenty of storage and broadly comfortable, adjustable seats. There’s a glossy, plasticky look to what’s around and about you, Mercedes preferring to fit shiny metallic trim to the doors and centre console, then panel the whole dashboard with its trio of Superscreen displays.
Technology apart, though, the background tactile quality and sense of integrity of many of the fixtures and mouldings isn’t so impressive and doesn’t do much to lift the GLB into more rarefied territory than its opposition inhabits.
It feels like we’ve been writing this for a long time and as yet to no great avail, but if Mercedes wants to cement a reputation for really distinguishing luxury and quality compared with so many new competitors, it’s high time it refocused its attention away from digital systems and back towards simpler material things.
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