2024 Mercedes-Benz GLC43 AMG Road Test and Review

2024 Mercedes-Benz GLC43 AMG Coupe ・ Photo by Brady Holt

The sports sedan was a revolution. While it’s not as sleek-looking as a two-door coupe, it offers the same incredible driving experience along with the practicality of four doors. But these days, even sedans have lost their luster. Folks who want practicality are buying SUVs, favoring a higher seating position and extra cargo room. 

That doesn’t mean you have to give up on performance, though. Consider the 2024 Mercedes-Benz GLC43 AMG. This is an all-new performance model of Mercedes’ popular compact GLC-Class crossover. The AMG treatment brings a 416-horsepower engine, a sport-tuned suspension, and more aggressive styling details, for a starting price of $64,950. For this review, we just spent a week testing the GLC43. Keep reading as we explore this luxury performance SUV’s pros and cons to see if it’s the right speedy yet functional luxury vehicle for you. 

The GLC Family

The GLC43 AMG is the new pinnacle of the GLC lineup – at least for now. Things open with the GLC 300 SUV, a steady-riding, mild-mannered crossover that makes 255 horsepower and costs $47,450 with rear-wheel drive or $49,450 with all-wheel drive. For about $5,000 more than a comparably equipped GLC 300 SUV, Mercedes also sells a GLC 300 Coupe; the “coupe” remains a four-door crossover, but it has a swoopier roofline than the SUV model. 

Then comes the GLC43 AMG, also available either as an SUV or, like our test vehicle, a Coupe. Your extra $15,500 versus an AWD GLC 300 buys you the performance upgrades we mentioned earlier (and that we’ll discuss more shortly), but minimal extra luxury amenities. We expect most folks will add the $1,950 Driver Assistance Package (adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assistance, and parking sensors); the $4,300 Pinnacle Trim (GPS navigation with video augmentation, a Burmester stereo, a surround-view parking camera, and a head-up display; and genuine leather instead of leatherette ($1,620). One could argue that all those amenities should already be included in a $65,000 compact SUV, but Mercedes will happily sell them to you at a lower price if you don’t need the GLC43’s speed. 

Mercedes is preparing to launch two more GLC models for 2025, both plug-in hybrids. The GLC 350e ($59,900) matches the performance of the base GLC 300 while burning less gasoline. And the GLC63 S E AMG is a mouthful of an SUV that makes a mighty 671 hp between its four-cylinder engine and electric motor. Expect it to start at more than $85,000 and rise quickly. 

2024 Mercedes-Benz GLC43 AMG Coupe ・ Photo by Brady Holt

The AMG Difference

Mercedes treats its AMG lineup differently from its “ordinary” models. That starts under the hood, where each engine is assigned to a single worker to hand-assemble – rather than moving along an assembly line. Each engine takes four to five hours to complete. The GLC43 AMG also has its own tuning of the transmission, suspension, brakes, and traction and stability control systems to emphasize and support maximum performance. AMG-exclusive steering-wheel controls let you quickly customize your driving experience on the fly, too, and you get toys like a "drag race" timer. 

Visually, the GLC43 AMG stands apart from the base GLC 300. Not even its owners who choose the optional “AMG Line” will get the GLC43’s bigger grille with vertical chrome slats, reshaped front bumper with bigger air intakes, or quad exhaust outlets. While you can get the GLC 300 with some of the same 20-inch wheel options that are included on the GLC43, only the AMG includes a factory upgrade to 21-inchers like on our test vehicle. 

2024 Mercedes-Benz GLC43 AMG Coupe ・ Photo by Brady Holt

SUV or Coupe

Practically speaking, an SUV coupe makes little sense. It has less cargo space and typically less rear headroom and worse rear visibility than a traditional SUV. Yet it usually costs more – like it does on the GLC. In the GLC’s case, you also lose a rear windshield wiper in exchange for a sleeker silhouette. In exchange, you get a sportier-looking and more exclusive aesthetic. 

With gracefully flowing lines rather than a mix of gentle and hard-edged details, the GLC Coupe is at least cohesive visually. More than most SUV coupes, it really does remind us of a two-door Mercedes. And the gently sloped roof looks natural, not tacked on, with the GLC’s rounded-off face. Still, the SUV is the practical choice, bringing more space for less money. And thanks to those quad exhausts, even the GLC43 SUV makes a statement to anyone behind it. 

2024 Mercedes-Benz GLC43 AMG SUV ・ Photo by Mercedes-Benz

416-Horsepower Four

A hand-built engine wouldn’t mean much if the AMG folks weren’t building a strong one. And that’s what the GLC43 gets. It’s a 2.0-liter four-cylinder with turbocharging and mild-hybrid electric boost, good for 416 hp and 369 lb-ft of torque. It’s paired with a nine-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. Mercedes estimates that the GLC43 AMG needs just 4.7 seconds to reach 60 mph, which is 1.5 seconds quicker than the GLC 300. The AMG engine is throatier, too – not quite a substitute for a classic Mercedes six, but certainly appropriate for a performance machine. (The extra-wild GLC63 will hit 60 mph in just 3.5 seconds.) 

On the road, speed arrives with effortless smoothness, but the GLC43 AMG sometimes stumbled in gentler driving. The transmission, optimized for high speed, can be clunky when you’re puttering around a neighborhood subdivision. And the engine’s stop-start function sometimes awakens the motor unusually slowly, leading to a lag before you can get moving. 

The GLC43 AMG SUV gets EPA-estimated fuel efficiency of 19 mpg in the city, 25 mpg on the highway, and 21 mpg combined, while the Coupe gets about 1 mpg less. That’s not bad for a 416-hp SUV, but the even quicker 382-hp BMW X4 M40i gets 23 mpg combined. Our GLC43 Coupe test vehicle did beat its EPA estimate to average 22 mpg during a week of mixed driving. 

2024 Mercedes-Benz GLC43 AMG Coupe ・ Photo by Brady Holt

High Handling Limits

The GLC43 AMG isn’t just built to go fast in a straight line. Its sport suspension also ensures that this SUV hugs the ground on a racetrack, to say nothing of a twisty public road. And while its ride is firm, it’s not objectionably stiff for someone who’s attached to a performance car. An adaptive suspension system is standard, and it lets you recalibrate the suspension along with the steering, throttle, and transmission in different selectable driving modes. 

While it’s unimpeachably capable, the GLC43 AMG lacks the fluid grace of the very best sporty vehicles. The steering feels point-and-shoot jerky rather than letting effort and responsiveness build up smoothly like in a BMW X4, and it’s more artificial than the raw, communicative Alfa Romeo Stelvio. Similarly, while the brakes have incredible stopping power, the pedal feels like a heavy on/off switch in traffic. 

2024 Mercedes-Benz GLC43 AMG Coupe ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Up-to-Date Interior

Inside, the GLC43 AMG has the graceful yet contemporary interior you’ll find in most recent Mercedes models. A portrait-oriented 11.9-inch touchscreen pops out of the center of the dashboard, while a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster sits behind the steering wheel. Aside from five round vents, an engine start/stop button, and a few small buttons at the base of the touchscreen, that’s the full extent of the dashboard. The dash’s gentle curves feel less cold and clinical to us than some rival luxury vehicles, and the cabin materials are generally excellent. 

We have some nits to pick about the ergonomics. Nearly all functions rely on the touchscreen, which looks pretty but forces you through multiple swipes and menus, or makes you concentrate on tapping a small icon. We also struggled with the steering-wheel controls, whose touch-sensitive buttons require a mix of taps or precise swipes as well. We rarely adjusted the cruise-control speed successfully on the first try. Luxury doesn’t have to be frustrating. In another misstep, you’ll likely bump your hand against the sharp edges inside a center console bin when retrieving your phone from the wireless charger. Some rivals’ cabins show more attention to the user experience, but the interior’s overall ambiance is appropriately posh and contemporary without being too sterile.

2024 Mercedes-Benz GLC43 AMG Coupe ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Usefully Roomy Cabin

As we mentioned, sports sedans are more practical than sports coupes. But an SUV takes things to the next level. Versus a similarly sized Mercedes C-Class sedan, it has a higher seating position for front-seat occupants plus a couple inches of extra room in the back. 

But the bigger advantage is its cargo room. The C-Class sedan has 12.6 cubic feet of trunk space. The GLC SUV has 21.9 cubic feet behind its rear seat, which you can fold down to create 56.3 cubic feet of open space. That’s nothing amazing for an SUV, but it trounces a sedan. Even the GLC Coupe has 19.2 cubic feet of trunk space or 52.9 cubic feet of total cargo room with the rear seat folded. The GLC43’s AMG treatment does nothing to reduce this practicality. 

2024 Mercedes-Benz GLC43 AMG Coupe ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Competitors to Consider

The 2024 Mercedes-Benz GLC43 AMG faces two direct competitors and several other alternatives for folks who want a speedy compact luxury SUV. 

The former are BMW X3 M50 (equivalent to the GLC SUV) and X4 M40i (counterpart to the Coupe), and the Audi SQ5 and SQ5 Sportback. Both the Audis and BMW X3 are about to hit the market with all-new redesigns, though the X4 will have another year as the coupe version of the outgoing X3 before getting discontinued. We haven’t yet driven the new models, but the outgoing SQ5 offers more reserved and understated composure than the more boisterous, rougher-edged GLC43. Meanwhile, the BMWs have edgier styling and more tech-focused interiors and – at least in the outgoing models – more fluidity to their driving manners. The Audi and BMWs are also roomier than the GLC, and the BMWs (though not the Audis) get better gas mileage. And unlike the four-cylinder Mercedes, the BMWs and Audis use six-cylinder engines. 

We’d also consider a couple other fun-to-drive crossovers. The Alfa Romeo Stelvio has a less opulent interior, and it lacks an engine that directly aligns with the GLC43. You choose between a zippy 280-hp four-cylinder or a snarling 505-hp six. The Porsche Macan S and Maserati Grecale Modena are fast, fun, and luxurious, but they’re significantly more expensive than the GLC43. Lastly, the Genesis GV70 3.5T is posh, spacious, and fun to drive at a reasonable price, but for better or for worse, its performance isn’t any more hard-edged than its base model. 

2022 BMW X4 M40i ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Final Thoughts

Whether you buy a sports coupe, a sports sedan, or a performance SUV, style and emotional attachment are critical. With Mercedes’s storied heritage, the GLC43’s smooth styling inside and out (especially in Coupe form), and its on-point performance specs, it’s an easy vehicle to long for. And with its usable passenger and cargo room, it can serve a wide variety of needs beyond mere speed. 

Now, be aware that the GLC43 is more than a GLC 300 with more power – it’s also bumpier and louder. And it costs a lot more than a mere engine upgrade. Plus, unlike most of its competitors, it generates its speed via four cylinders instead of six. 

But overall, while the GLC43 AMG isn’t the only crazy-fast compact luxury SUV, it’s a worthy addition to the GLC lineup. For folks who’ve loved Mercedes AMG sedans in the past, it’s a low-downside way to pick up some additional versatility. 

2024 Mercedes-Benz GLC43 AMG Coupe ・ Photo by Brady Holt