The second-gen Mercedes-Benz GLC has been crash tested by Euro NCAP with the premium SUV walking away with a five-star rating. The premium SUV scored high in occupant protection for both adult and child occupants as well as for the onboard safety tech though it dropped some points in pedestrian protection.
The SUV earned a safety rating of 92 per cent for adult occupant protection offering good to adequate levels of protection during frontal impact testing. The levels of protection were similar for rear occupants as well. For side impact testing it offered good protection to the driver in the side mobile barrier impact though chest protection dropped down to weak in side pole impact testing. Far side excursion of the front occupant was also well contained while the centre airbag provided good protection from the occupants clashing heads during a side impact. Whiplash protection too was good for both front and rear passengers.
Euro NCAP also rated the body structure of the SUV to be stable post impact
The GLC also scored a 90 per cent score in child occupant protection offering between good to adequate protection for all critical body parts of the 10-year-old and 6-year-old child occupants. The SUV supports ISOFIX and i-Size child seats on the rear outer seats with Euro NCAP saying that the seats could be properly installed and accommodated. It also highlighted the GLC’s automatic co-driver airbag deactivation on the installation of a rear-facing child seat on the co-driver’s seat.
The GLC however dropped points in pedestrian protection. Most parts of the bonnet offered between marginal to good protection to a pedestrian’s head in case of an impact. The A-pillars meanwhile offered weak protection while protection to the pedestrian’s hip was also rated as weak. The bumper provided good protection to pedestrians’ legs. As a result, the SUV scored 23.4 points out of an available 36 for pedestrian protection while the AEB systems showed good results in identifying other road users and mitigating collisions.
The SUV was awarded a score of 74 per cent for vulnerable road user protection as a result.
The onboard safety systems meanwhile scored 84 per cent with the AEB system performing well against vehicles. Other systems such as the lane keep assist also performed well during the test.
The results however are not valid for the entire GLC range. Euro NCAP has said that the plug-in hybrid GLC 300e and GLC 400e will require further testing before a rating for the models is issued.
