Can A Crossover Be A Good Driver's Car? We Find Out With A Mercedes GLA 250

When the recent UK launch of the new Mercedes GLA-Class kicked off - before the incredible salt mine driving experience - I immediately made a bee line for the 250 4Matic model in AMG Line trim. On paper it's the most intriguing option to us petrolheads: with 211bhp and 258lb/ft of torque it has enough poke to keep up with many current hot hatches, but comes with a confidence inspiring high driving position, plus a good ride height to deal with the UK's broken-up, pot-hole and speed bump infested roads.

But can a car like this really give you hot hatch thrills with all the real-world benefits of having a crossover? With the famous 'Cat and Fiddle,' - a glorious ribbon of tarmac that's a petrolhead favourite in the UK - just around the corner, I was in the perfect place to find out.

On approaching the car, my first impressions were mixed. It’s certainly a handsome-looking thing, carrying over all the good styling points of the A-Class while adding a few rugged-looking details to remind you of this car’s off-road pretensions. It’s definitely more pleasing to the eye than the ungainly BMW X1 and hippo-like Audi Q3 it rivals. On the downside, it sits low for a crossover, particularly in AMG Line trim, which has a 150mm suspension drop. That means when you step in, the driving position isn’t all that high. An odd design decision, surely, given that a high, commanding driving position is half the point of a crossover.

After pottering through a series of expensive-looking Cheshire villages, the Cat and Fiddle was ahead, which would give me the chance to see if the GLA 250 has performance car credentials. With a clear stretch of road, I dropped down three cogs on the seven-speed dual-clutch auto gearbox (using the steering wheel’s paddles), and gave it a good boot-full.

The pace is evident immediately. 0-62mph comes up in 7.1 seconds, but that only tells half the story; that 258lb/ft jab of torque makes in-gear acceleration decently punchy. The seven-speed DCT meanwhile isn’t as well sorted as Audi’s rapid S-Tronic system, but it still shifts at a decent rate. The 2.0-litre four-pot petrol engine makes an unrefined racket at low revs, but as you get closer to the red line, you get a pleasing exhaust note from the twin rear tailpipes.

The GLA continued to impress as I scythed through a tricky set of bends. The steering is a little on the light side, but it’s quick and has reasonable feel. It was at that point that the benefits of hooning a quick crossover began to manifest themselves. Even in the low-for-a-crossover driving position of the GLA, visibility is excellent, making overtaking dawdling drivers effortless and picking the perfect line for every corner an easy task.

Suddenly our recent look at the pefect driving position became evident. Despite the road - often voted as the UK’s most dangerous - being absolutely soaking, I was driving it faster and harder than I ever had done, aided by the extra traction given by the four-wheel drive system.

So, it definitely has the ‘good to drive’ box ticked, but what about everything else? The interior is a pleasant space that feels nicely solid, even if the navigation system looks like someone’s nailed a budget tablet to the dash as an afterthought. Even on the lower, stiffer AMG Line suspension, the ride is comfortable - no doubt helped by the extra travel and relatively high-profile tyres. It can be a little jiggly at times, so opting for the standard SE setup wouldn’t be a bad choice.

You do get Hill Descent Control on 4Matic models, but due to the low ground clearance it probably won’t take much to flummox the GLA if you want to take it off road. That shouldn’t be much of an issue for what 99 per cent of crossover buyers use their cars for, though. Should you part with your cash? Prices for the 250 4Matic start at £29,065 and standard equipment levels are decent, making this a tempting alternative to an Audi Q3 or BMW X1.

More important to us, though, is that the GLA proves that you can have all the practical crossover elements and still have a genuinely good car to drive. Sure, there are the likes of the unhinged GLA45 and speedy Audi RS Q3 to give you quick crossover kicks, but the fact that a considerably less expensive and less powerful crosser can still be classed as a decent driver’s car is a good thing indeed.