Say hello to the 2016 Mercedes-Benz GLE-class Coupe, the brand's first try at a five-door sport-utility vehicle that doesn't conform to the two-box styling norm.
Inspired by—we guess—the styling and runaway sales success of the BMW X6, Mercedes-Benz decided to enter the game with its own interpretation of the "sport activity coupe" theme. The GLE-class Coupe, which precedes an all-new GLE sport-utility vehicle, builds heavily on the hunchbacked shape of the X6 while introducing a fresh face for the Mercedes-Benz brand.
We've never seen styling this radical on a sport-utility vehicle wearing the Silver Star. The model shown here is the GLE450 AMG 4MATIC, the sportiest of the initial run of GLE Coupes, and it features a massive front fascia with enormous, protruding radiators and shiny, 21-inch wheels. (See below for the much more restrained, non-AMG interpretation of the GLE Coupe that will first arrive in Europe with smaller engines underhood.) More traditional for the brand is the GLE Coupe's interior, which strays little from current Mercedes-Benz design themes, ushered in gently by the recently redone S-Class and C-Class.
A 362-horsepower twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 is the engine of record for the GLE450 AMG 4MATIC, although nomenclature puzzlingly lists it as a "450." A 9-speed automatic transmission, new to the brand, is standard, as is all-wheel drive. Like the X6, the GLE Coupe promises to deliver true coupelike driving dynamics in an unfamiliar package; we'll wait to test that assumption until we get behind the wheel.
BMW may get the credit for inventing the segment, but that doesn't mean there haven't before been competitors in it. Acura, for one, marketed the ZDX—a hawkeyed, direct shot at the X6—for several years before killing it because of slow sales. It's safe to say that we're intrigued by Mercedes-Benz's decision to enter the space.
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