Buy a Mercedes‑Benz GLC 300 if you like being gently reminded that luxury has daily costs. This is a review of the GLC 300 2.0L turbo petrol with the automatic gearbox, and yes, we drove it where most of us live—in stop‑and‑go city purgatory and on the occasionally pleasant Delhi‑Mumbai expressway. If you’re the sort of person who buys German badges for the badge, then wants to know how often you’ll be at a petrol pump, this is for you.
Introduction
The GLC 300 is Mercedes‑Benz’s mid‑sized SUV offering that promises comfort, polish, and enough electronics to make your phone feel insecure. Under the hood sits a 2.0‑litre turbocharged petrol engine married to an automatic transmission—enough pep for overtakes and official engagements, but not a miracle worker for fuel economy. We tested the car on November 18, 2023, using the good old tank‑full‑to‑tank‑full method over prescribed 100km city and ~100km highway runs, and logged the results in a manner your accountant will pretend not to notice.
Key Features
2.0L Turbo Petrol Engine
Power delivery is modern and civilized: turbocharged torque for effortless midrange overtakes and the kind of refinement that turns engine noise into a suggestion rather than a demand. The engine is responsive enough for city traffic and holds its own on the highway, but it’s not a fuel‑sipping saint. Expect brisk acceleration rather than miraculous economy.
Automatic Transmission
Seamless shifts, adaptive behaviour, and the occasional sporty downshift when you prod the throttle. The gearbox helps the GLC feel grown‑up and composed, but it can’t rewrite thermodynamics. Smoothness is high; frugality, not so much.
Tank and Range
The GLC 300 houses a 62‑litre fuel tank—enough to lull you into a false sense of security. With real‑world mileage figures between 11.1kmpl (city) and 13.34kmpl (highway), a 90% usable fill gives you between roughly 619km and 744km on a tank, depending on whether traffic prefers to hum or choke.
Electronic Aids and Comfort
Mercedes’ usual bonanza: climate control that behaves like a diplomat, seating that caresses your spine, and driver aids that read the road and ignore your whims. These creature comforts make long drives enjoyable, which is mildly cruel when you remember how often you’ll be paying at the pump.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Refined powertrain with smooth, confident acceleration.
- High‑quality cabin materials and excellent ride comfort that diminish the memory of potholes and bad drivers.
- Meaningful highway range: up to ~744km on a full tank if you’re a highway romantic.
- Strong composure and tech features that justify the “Mercedes tax” in the experience department.
Cons
- Real‑world city mileage of 11.1kmpl is 25% worse than the claimed 14.73kmpl—numbers that will sting in the monthly ledger.
- Highway mileage of 13.34kmpl still comes in 9% short of the manufacturer’s claim; yes, engineers, we saw your optimistic spreadsheet.
- Per‑kilometre fuel costs are nontrivial: Rs. 8.71/km in city conditions at the tested petrol price of Rs. 96.72/L—this is not a car you buy if you prefer economical marginalia.
- Premium maintenance and insurance costs (not covered in this test) amplify ownership expense.
User Experience
Sitting in the GLC is like being wrapped in sensible velvet. The seats do their ergonomic thing, the HVAC keeps you at a constant optimal human temperature, and the infotainment behaves like it’s slightly embarrassed to be this useful. Driving around Delhi NCR at an average of 24km/h for a 127km city loop felt polished; however, the fuel pump reminded me of reality upon refuelling—11.44 litres required for the test leg with the trip wired to give a city figure of 11.1kmpl.
On highways, the car is in its element. We cruised a Sohna stretch at 100km/h and averaged 72km/h overall for the 107km run. The GLC felt effortless, and the 13.34kmpl number is perfectly respectable for such a machine under the test conditions. The experience is therefore a tale of two moods: indulgent comfort and frequent fuel station pilgrimages.
Practicality in daily life is good. The boot swallows luggage for weekend trips, and the electronics keep bickering drivers at bay. But if your commute is predominantly slow moving urban traffic, be prepared to reconcile the joy of driving a Mercedes with the grief of higher fuel bills.
Comparison
In this segment the GLC goes head‑to‑head—at least emotionally—with the BMW X3 and Audi Q5. The X3 often tips toward sportier dynamics and can show marginally better real‑world efficiency in some configurations, while the Q5 aims for comfort and can offer comparable fuel economy depending on engine choice. None are miracle workers: expect the GLC’s rivals to show similar real‑world deviations from claimed figures. If your priority is the thinnest possible margin between claimed and real mileage, a diesel alternative (if available and acceptable to you) or a petrol‑hybrid rival may be more sensible, but then you trade pure petrol‑engine character for complexity or different costs.
Practical Scenarios
Scenario: Weekend highway escapes. If your life contains more open roads than traffic snarls, the GLC’s highway mileage of 13.34kmpl and a theoretical 744km range on a full tank will feel generous. You’ll spend less time refuelling and more time enjoying the cabin—and that is where the car earns its keep.
Scenario: Daily city commute. If you’re doing 70% city driving, expect an effective mileage around 11.77kmpl and a per‑km fuel cost around Rs. 8.22. That’s a lot of rupees over a year—luxury sticker shock in motion.
Scenario: Mixed use (50/50). Expect roughly 12.22kmpl and Rs. 7.91/km—numbers that are tolerable but will still attract wistful looks at compact crossovers with smaller engines.
Who Should Buy This
Buy a GLC 300 if you want refined housing for your ego—er, commuting needs—and you can shrug eloquently at filling receipts. This car is ideal for the executive who does frequent highway travel, the family that prioritizes comfort and safety, and anyone who values Mercedes’ cabin ambience and tech suite. Do not buy it if you have a tight budget for fuel and maintenance or if you intend to treat it like a cheap daily beater in heavy urban traffic.
Value for Money
On paper, the GLC 300 sells an experience more than an equation. The price isn’t given in this mileage test, but we can say this: the running costs are meaningfully higher than a compact hatchback or many diesel‑optioned rivals. With petrol at Rs. 96.72/L during the test, a city per‑km cost of Rs. 8.71 and highway Rs. 7.25 translate into significant monthly spend if you commute a lot.
Still, value isn’t only fuel math. If your definition of value includes cabin comfort, brand cachet, driving refinement, and a car that doesn’t feel like it’s apologising for being premium, then the GLC 300 delivers. If your definition is strictly rupees per kilometre, there are more frugal choices that will keep your accountant smiling.
To summarize practicality: a 62‑litre tank paired with the observed mileage yields a realistic full‑tank range between ~619km (all‑city fantasy) and ~744km (highway romance). Each 90% fill costed Rs. 5,397 at the tested petrol price—something to bring up at dinner when someone says “worth it?”
The testing method was rigorous and repeatable: identical weekday city loops for consistency, measured refuelling volumes, and a sensible highway cruise at 100km/h. The key takeaway is that Mercedes’ claimed numbers are optimistic; expect about a quarter less in city driving and roughly a tenth less on highways. That’s not a scandal, just the difference between lab cheerfulness and road reality.
My honest recommendation: if you crave the Mercedes experience and do substantial highway driving, the GLC 300 is a strong, sensible indulgence. If you are mostly a city driver who reads the fuel pump as a personal enemy, consider alternatives—either a diesel (where available and appropriate), a hybrid option, or a smaller petrol SUV—to avoid monthly remorse.
Buy the GLC 300 if your priorities are comfort, brand, and refinement and you can afford the running costs; skip it if your priority is squeezing every last kilometre from a litre of petrol.