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Consumer Reviews for the Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class
Read recent reviews for the Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class
2013 GLK250 vs X3 diesel decision maker
Mike, 07/04/2017
2013 Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class GLK250 BlueTEC 4MATIC 4dr SUV AWD (2.1L 4cyl Turbodiesel 7A)
Although I relay on feedbacks and reviews, it took a while to decide to write one. However, I wanted to write this review for people interested in diesel cars as I was, and there weren’t too many comments in regards to diesel engines.
I was in search of a diesel car that will have a high MPG and be a little bit bigger than a sedan. I didn’t care about brands in the beginning knowing … that I will sort it out at the end based on price/mpg/quality, etc.
After narrowing down I ended up with 2 models: BMW X3 diesel and MB GLK250 diesel. I lived in Oregon at that time and the price in NW was higher than other areas. As I had time to search and not be in rush, I found a 2013 GLK250 in California @ $28K with 21000 miles on it. PURCHASE it for my wife.
2 months later I found an X3 diesel in Texas @ 36K brand new, but with rear window busted by the hails. The dealer replaced the window for free, but I paid for fixing the wiring as the rain water affected the rear side.
1 year later, both cars have about 10k miles put on them, and I can say that MB is the best as performance.
Acceleration: BMW is on 8 speed transmission and the car is slow until you reach about 30MPH. The ratio on speed changes is small and that will keep you slow. It is irritant to see all kind of other brands vehicles to be faster than your BMW car, from stop to 30-35 MPH. GLK250 instead is on 7 speed transmission but the ratio is distributed different and you have the starting speed what you’ll need.
Comfort: BMW is better as the seats are a bit better built and placed. The infotainment system has more options (like a computer) while MB is pretty simple (for old guys like me).
MPG: I drove the BMW from Oregon to NY with constant speeds above 80 / 85 MPH and the MPG was about 30MPG. The driving comfort was ok as I drove about 12 hours / day. It bothered when I had to go to speeds lower than 30MPH as the transmission changed gears and it seems to not catch up speed at least as fast as other cars. In the “city”: I did UBER/LYFT for about 6 months and I achieved about 28 MPG in a stop and go traffic about 8-12 hours/day (on the days I worked). During the winter (snow and ice) it performed excellent. No slips, plenty of torque on snowy hills. Now on the NY routes I am getting about 35MPG even more if there were no hills. The best was 45MPG on a 75 miles trip at 45-55MPH.
The GLK250: most highway trips were between Portland and Seattle and the MPG was about 33MPG @ an average of 75MPH. In the city (stop and go) I am constantly getting about 30 MPG. But leaving from stop lights is a pleasure.
NOISE: Definitely both cars are quitter than their predecessors and while running you won’t make the difference between the gas and diesel engines. However, GLK is at least 50% quitter than X3.
Now if I would have to start shopping again, I will definitely not buy an X3 anymore, but 2 GLK’s. Unfortunately, MB is not making diesel mid-size SUV’s / cross-overs or at least this is what I know at this point.
Breaks: I drove Toyota and Honda for many years, but BMW’s breaks are worst. You have to push hard on them is not like the other cars where you gentle push the breaks and stops without efforts. If you’ll check the forums you’ll see that breaks and rotors are a common problem for BMW’s. If you open up the CARFAX reports on autotrader, you’ll see that almost every 30k the pads/rotors were replaced. GLK has pretty much the same habit, but maybe at 45K…
Hopefully this will help you take the right decision. Feel free to ask questions if you have [contact info removed].
Updates as 1.5.18... on June of 2017 the GLK had a huge white smoke coming from the pipe. I took the car to the dealer and ended up in replacing the entire exhaust system. 1.5 months later the Oxygen sensor had to be replaced. In January of 2018 the check engine light came on and when I took it in I was told that the manifold needs to be replaced. However, all of those repairs were covered by the warranty which sadden expires on June of this year. I am not going to keep this car as the expenses are out of control... current miles on the car? 31000!
Mercedes is just a name tag, not quality anymore.
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Update as of January 2020
It seems that the car was fixed in regards to the white smoke, however, the new issue is that every time when i did the oil change about 2 days after a warning is popping up on the board saying ... you have left 8 starts - please see dealer for the addblue fluid issues (even though the tank was refiled). Besides that the car was performing as it should and currently I have 45k miles on it.
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