Wondering about pricing of the drastic Mercedes GLE Coupé? Find out here.

Mercedes-Benz launched the original CLS as a sleek 4-door car and controversially called it a coupé – is a coupé not supposed to have 2 doors only?  Apparently not, as the company said it is about the sloping roofline.

BMW launched another vehicle which they also called coupé, but this time based on the X5 SUV – BMW called it the Sports Activity Coupé, making BMW X6 the first of its kind:  an SUV-type “coupé”.

Now Mercedes is entering the same vehicle market with their GLE Coupé.  Based on the ML (which is being facelifted and renamed GLE) the GLE Coupé brings a direct competitor to the 2nd generation BMW X6.

3 models will be available locally, also introducing the new BMW-aping lowercase d to denote a diesel engine, instead of the CDI or BlueTec of previous Mercedes diesels.  GLE Coupé also ushers in the first of the 450 AMG range – a new mid-AMG, slotting in between the “normal” Mercedes-Benz cars and the full-on Mercedes-AMG cars.

The Mercedes-Benz GLE350d Coupé starts of the new Mercedes model range, using a 3.0 turbo diesel.  Then comes the Mercedes-Benz GLE450 AMG coupé using the 3.0 turbo petrol V6, based on the E400/ML400 engine, but turned up to 270kW and 520Nm.  Then comes the beast – the Mercedes-AMG GLE63 S Coupé:  South Africa will get only the top S model, using the much-respected AMG V8 of 5.5 litres with turbo, for 430kW and 760Nm.  Crucially, its 4.2-second 0-100km/h time matches the performance of its only direct rival – the BMW X6 M.  Only, where the BMW sadly sounds like a full-bass 4-cylinder, the Mercedes-AMG has a real V8 brutish soundtrack.


Models and pricing, including emissions tax and VAT:

Mercedes-Benz GLE350d Coupé	R 1 006 774
Mercedes-Benz GLE450 AMG Coupé	R 1 110 057
Mercedes-AMG GLE63 S Coupé	R 1 876 111