FAMILY CAR REVIEW: 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLB 250 seven-seat SUV
An affordable luxury seven-seat family SUV with FIVE top tether anchorages!!
By Tace Clifford
Share on
BabyDrive Verdict
The New 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLB 250 is a beautiful looking seven-seat SUV that we were excited to get in and use with our family for the week and the GLB will now always have a little place in our hearts as we took it on our family ‘ToddlerMoon' long weekend getaway too! Let's see how we got on with this BabyDrive…
The GLB is affordably priced (at least for a seven-seat luxury SUV) starting at $60k, which puts this in amongst some serious competitors.
The model we tested had beautiful colour exterior paint which first struck me and I LOVE seeing this move away from grey that lots of the car companies are making! It looked stunning and coped well when it got dusty on dirt roads too.
The luxury of the Mercedes-Benz GLB continues on the inside, where the cream and black leatherette seats are both gorgeous and scary when you're putting kids in the back!! The dash has brushed matte metal finish and minimal buttons. The flowery shaped aircon vents are fun and the seemingly seamless double media screen wraps in front of the driver.
The media system is in-depth and I feel I only skimmed the surface in a week with the car. There were some standout features to the media system for me, the first is the voice-controls whenever you say “Hey Mercedes” which of course our daughter found hilarious and would catch me off guard constantly by saying “Mum, what's this car called again?” and every time I answered Mercedes, it would activate the system! On a practical note, it was actually quite handy a few times throughout the week, when I'd ask it to open or close the sunroof and turn the ambient lighting on or off at night when my daughter had fallen asleep in the back. You can also use it to programme the sat-nav too but it didn't find the location each time I tried it.
You can control the media system using the front of the trackpad and buttons down in the central console too…
…or I found the controls on the steering wheel the easiest and most intuitive to use whilst driving. Swiping the little black square enables you to scroll through things and pressing it selects them.
There are some nice luxury features like the rainbow choice of colours for interior lighting, a favourite with our daughter!
Seat kinetics, for both front seats…
…and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto too.
The camera image is crystal clear and you can select from 360-degree views as well as the bird's eye view too.
Although this is a seven-seat SUV, it's not huge and doesn't feel big to drive and maneuver around town and school car parks. It's actually quite compact and manageable. Its large, deep windows mean visibility is very good, especially out of the rear side windows and the double sunroof make it light inside.
Looking at the family practicality and starting with the seats, the FANTASTIC news is there are ISOFix points in four of the five rear seats! That's two in the outer second-row seats and two in the rear third-row seats.
There are also top tether anchorages in all five rear seatbacks, which is great!
I was able to install five child seats! Three fitted nicely across the second-row seats…
…and two forward-facing child seats went into the third row.
There is however no way of accessing the third-row with five-child seats installed. You have to remove at least one child seat in the second row and possibly two, in order to access the third-row. Lots of parents leave the central seat empty in the second-row of their cars so their kids can climb through to the third-row, which is possible in the GLB with a 40:20:40 split of the second-row seatbacks.
I found there are some considerations when choosing and installing child seats. I found it harder to fit large child seats like the Britax Platinum Pro through the seat and door opening into the third-row seats. You also need to be able to reach in and fasten any harnesses and seatbelts for younger children so you ideally need two forward-facing child seats in the third-row seats and to be able to reach in and access them.
The second-row seat bases slide forward and back on a 60:40 split. (but the 60% side faces the kerb). This allows for distribution of legroom throughout the car. We found with forward-facing child seats in the third-row seats you ideally want to move the second-row seats forward to allow some legroom in the third row.
Then when you put a rear-facing capsule in the second-row it only leaves space for a 160cm driver.
However, with a forward-facing child seat in both the second and third rows, you could get a 180cm driver in front. With the same combination of child seats on the passenger side, you could fit 182cm+ passenger in the front.
In the third row, there is a label stating it fits passengers up to 169cm in height, which is a thoughtful touch.
Space in the boot is limited when using all seven seats and only three shopping bags will fit.
When using only five seats fifteen shopping bags will fit in the boot of the Mercedes-Benz GLB, which is comparable to the VW Tiguan Allspace and Skoda Kodiaq which both also fit fifteen. All f these are slightly larger than the Land Rover Discovery Sport, which holds fourteen shopping bags.
Each of the prams we tested fitted in the boot with a good amount of shopping when only using five seats, only the tandem pram stopped us being able to use the retractable roller blind. All the other style prams meant we could pull the roller blind across.
A large dog would fit in the boot of the Mercedes-Benz GLB and the boot floor is nice and flat for an emergency nappy change too!!
Storage inside the cabin is good too. The central console has practically sized cup holders, phone tray and central console box.
There are two cup holders in the second and third-row seats, door bins and map pockets for the second-row passengers as well. Also in the third-row are phone shelves and charging points and book or iPad straps.
One of my favourite features of the Mercedes GLB is the auto-lock and unlock doors which you can access from any door, you do not have to go to the driver's door first. This makes loading and unloading children and all their stuff much easier.
There is one gripe I have with driving the Mercedes GLB; I found the lane keep assist very sensitive, especially on narrow country roads where you're trying to avoid the verges and when I got close to the central line of the road it would brake quite violently which was quite shocking as the driver and disturbing for everyone on board. I appreciate this is a safety feature to prevent cars crossing the central line and into oncoming traffic but it felt very sensitive and I found we turned it off within the media screen when driving on anything other than motorways.
Other than that, the Mercedes-Benz GLB is a great compact, seven-seater family SUV in terms of drive, media system, luxuries and enjoyment for the price. If there was third-row access with three child seats installed across the second-row then that would great, however having four ISOFix and five top tether anchorages in the rear seats give you the flexibility of where to put your child seats to work for your families unique combination and requirements.
The 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLB seven-seat SUV scored a five-star ANCAP safety rating from 2019 onwards and has seven airbags as standard.
BabyDrive Indepth
BabyDrive Indepth - Storage
How good is the storage in the 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLB? How big is the boot of the 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLB?
The 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLB has two cup holders in the central console that are well sized to hold a reusable and disposable coffee cup.
In front of them is a rubber lined, cordless phone charging well with USB socket and 12V socket.
The central console box is a good size, there are two USB sockets inside and the lid opens in two halves and doubles as your armrest.
There is no glasses case in the ceiling. The front visors both have lit vanity mirrors.
The glovebox is a good size to hold my iPad with the manual, but I could not squeeze my wallet in there too.
There is a little net on the side of the central console in the front passenger's footwell too.
The front door pockets will hold a large refillable water bottle and there is a good amount of space behind it too.
In the second row, there are net map pockets on the back of both front seats that will hold but not conceal an iPad.
In the back of the central console, there is a little storage shelf and drawer with two USB-C charging ports inside.
There are two cup holders that pop out of the front of a fold-down armrest in the central seatback. They will hold either a reusable and a disposable coffee cup however I found them quite fiddly to use and they feel like they could be easily broken by little hands!
The rear door bins will also hold a large refillable water bottle.
The third-row passengers get a generous amount of storage, with two cup holders situated between the seats…
…and on either side is a shelf with USB-C port and an iPad or book elastic strap.
Storage in the boot is good for a compact seven-seat SUV. When using only five seats the boot will hold fifteen shopping bags, which is comparable to the VW Tiguan Allspace and Skoda Kodiaq which both also fit fifteen. These compare well to the Land Rover Discovery Sport, which holds fourteen shopping bags.
The boot space and its functionality are really important. I like to have a big boot space and little side wells or areas I can divide things into. So something I don’t want to move around while I’m driving such as Tulsi’s lunch bag or her wet swimming gear can be sectioned off in a little well where it’s not going to spill or get squashed by the rest of the things in the boot.
Hooks for securing shopping bags to are also favourites of mine, I like being able to secure the bag containing more fragile things like eggs so they don’t move around on the journey.
I measure the boot space in freezer shopping bags, prams and dogs. Not because I think all there is to a mum’s life is food shopping, prams and dogs. (Although it can feel like it sometimes!!) But because these are visually mesurable items we can all associate with. For me, the car company boot measurement of litres is not an amount I can easily visualise and 400L in one car may differ in usability to that in another due to the configuration or shape of the space.
A twin side-by-side pram fits in the boot with four shopping bags.
The tandem pram fits with eight shopping bags but the retractable roller blind will not pull across.
The single pram fits with seven shopping bags around it.
The compact stroller fits with ten shopping bags around it.
The boot floor is nice and flat so you could fit a large dog in the boot and it is perfect for an emergency nappy change too!
When using all seven seats three shopping bags will fit in the boot.
The retractable roller blind can be stored underneath the boot floor when using all seven seats.
The boot opening is nice and wide and I found it easy for lifting prams in and out of. The storage indentations behind the wheel arches on both sides are handy for wedging objects you don't want rolling around the boot and the elastic straps are good for securing soccer balls etc too.
BabyDrive Indepth - Noise
How noisy is the 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLB? How good is the media system in the 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLB?
The 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLBs media system is in-depth and I feel like I only just skimmed the surface in my week with the car. You would, of course, get to know it well if you owned the car. The system menu options are easy to navigate to by scrolling left and right which you can do on the touch screen…
…or on the front section of the pad down in the central console.
My prefered way of navigating the media screen was using the buttons on the left side on the steering wheel. They feel really intuitive and simple and you can avoid fingerprints on the media screen!!
Those buttons on the right side on the steering wheel control the screen in front of the driver and its options and layout.
This screen is quite adaptable to show many things at the same time. I found the left-hand image showing the length of my trip and the number of KMs of fuel I have left was really handy and is really useful with children so you know whether you need to stop with them in the car or not!
I found only if you connect your phone to the USB-C in front of the cupholders…
…will it connect to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
You can control a lot of things through the media screen by saying “Hey Mercedes” and then asking the voice control to do it for you!! This is, of course, a lot of fun with kids in the car and the joke didn't seem to get tired for our daughter!! She'd repeatedly catch me off guard by saying “Mum, what's this car called again” and every time I answered Mercedes, it would activate the system! You can use it to set the sat-nav although we found it wasn't very successful this way and it worked better for instructions like turning on and off interior lights, opening the sunroof and making phone calls.
Cleverly and thankfully we found it was only activated by adult voices, not kids, and I did find myself using it quite naturally when alone in the car.
The sat-nav voice guidance can be quickly muted by pressing the button at the bottom of the screen.
There are some other nice features within the media system like the choice of colours for interior lighting, a favourite with our daughter as she selects from the rainbow!
There's also seat kinetics, a kind of light therapy for both front seats. The ambient lighting is useful for having on at night time while kids are awake and then asking “Hey Mercedes” to turn it down or off once they have fallen asleep.
The reversing camera image is crystal clear in the Mercedes GLB and you can select from 360-degree views as well as the bird's-eye view too.
You can turn the parking sensors sound on and off with a button on the top right of the screen.
Becoming a parent I soon realised there are some noises and sounds I feel are unnecessary and I could happily live without if it meant my baby stayed asleep!!
That often the distraction of my screaming, distressed baby is more dangerous when driving than not having a lane departure warning for example.
If it is the lane departure warning beeping that creates distress with my baby then which is safest?
It’s where I think we need to be able to strike a balance and choose when we can mute the warnings or swap them to a vibration in the steering wheel or flashing light perhaps?
A lot of these noises come with the increase in technology and especially linked to safety features and alerts. For me these all have their place.
Another thing I have realised is I spend my time in a lot more places where small children roam, parks, beaches, play gyms, swimming lessons, daycare centre etc. I have become more aware that when I’m reversing or manouvering in the car parks I have to tripple check for small children running around behind me or being in my blind spot when reversing. For this I LOVE reversing cameras, I just don’t like their beeping sounds!!
I have become so much more aware of safety and potential accidents or hazards since having a child and so I love the peace of mind that I get from the cameras and sensors combined with my own vision from windows and mirrors as I don’t trust cameras alone.
You can turn a lot of the vehicle settings on and off through the media screen too. We found we needed to turn off lane keep assist a lot of the time because it brakes hard and quite violently whenever you drive close to the central line of the road. This is, of course, a safety feature to stop you crossing the central line and colliding with oncoming traffic however I found it very sensitive on narrow country roads especially, and it was quite disturbing as the driver as well as for little passengers.
The auto engine cut out was quite smooth and didn't disturb little passengers, you can turn that on and off with a button situated with the start/stop button.
You can lock the doors and windows from the driver's door control panels.
The indicator volume can not be adjusted but it wasn't too loud and we didn't find it disturbed our daughter while she enjoyed a sleep in the back!!
There is a really good seatbelt removal visual that comes up in the screen in front of the driver clearly displays who is wearing a seatbelt and when a person removes their seatbelt.
The windows in the Mercedes GLB close relatively quietly and are not baby waking, whereas the doors do have quite a heavy close.
With baby asleep you can get in and out without worrying the doors will be too noisy. The same for the windows their mechanism is not too noisy and I didn’t notice them having a loud opening or closing sound.
With baby asleep you want to be able to get in and out without worrying the doors will be too noisy and wake Bub up!
An alarm did not sound when I came to a stop, took off my seatbelt and opened the door with the engine still running.
Since becoming a mum I spend A LOT of time parked up somewhere with a nice view while my daughter is asleep in the back! If it's hot I need to leave the engine running and the aircon on but I do like to get out and drink my cuppa tea in the fresh air while enjoying the fact my limbs are free from said dangling child!!
SO this is a very important test as I have found that sometimes I have been held hostage by a cars BEEEEPING alarms when I have taken off my seatbelt or opened the door while the engine is still running!! (I only stand outside the car, I am not a bad mother!!)
BabyDrive Indepth - Car Seats
How many child seats fit in the 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLB?
The 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLB has FIVE top tether anchorages!! WOOP WOOP!!! They are all situated within plastic guides on the back of the rear seatbacks and are nice and easy to access and connect the top tether straps to.
There are also four ISOFix points in the rear seats of the Mercedes GLB! One in each of the outer second-row seats…
…and in both the third-row seats too!! All are clearly labelled, within plastic guides and easy to connect to.
This is super exciting and offers parents flexibility in positioning their kid's child seats!
I found I can fit FIVE child seats into the Mercedes GLB!! Two fit really nicely into the third row. I did find that I couldn't fit larger child seats into the third-row, they wouldn't fit through the doorway opening and gap with the second-row seats folded forward. So if you have really bulky child seats just test them first.
In the second-row seats, three child seats fit across too. I found I could just squeeze between two child seats but it was definitely a super shoulder squeezer and I'm 162cm.
Everyone's family requirements are different and so you need to think about how you would need to set the car up for yours. The second-row of seats do slide to adjust for distributing legroom across all three rows.
I found with a forward-facing child seat in the third-row, a rear-facing child seat in the second-row (and the second-row seats slid forward to give legroom in the third row), then there was only enough room for me in the driver's seat (I'm 162cm).
But with a forward-facing child seat in the second-row then a 182cm driver could fit in front, or in the passenger side 184cm+ will fit.
Accessing the third-row is not possible with three child seats across the second-row seats, you would need to uninstall at least one second-row child seat. The seatbacks are on a 40:20:40 split so you could have kids limb through the central seat to get through as I know that is the favoured way for a lot of families who need four child seats installed. However, you wouldn't easily be able to access the third-row seats to fasten or check harnesses etc.
Posting bub into their child seat in the second-row of the Mercedes GLB is fine from inside and outside the car and there is room to feed bub in the back with only one child seat installed too.
Australia being a country of weather extremes blazing sun and torrential rain means you may find it easier to put bub into their seat from inside the car. If it’s hot you can get the aircon going, cool the car down and not stand out in the heat with the door open while you fasten them in or shelter from the rain and not get soaked yourself whilst you’re doing it. So it is important to test whether bub can be easily installed from either direction.
BabyDrive Indepth - Drive & Comfort
How comfortable is a 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLB?
The front seats of the 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLB are very comfortable and easily adjustable using the controls on the doors and they are heated in the model I tested.
The headrests are adjustable which is fantastic and meant we can wear a ponytail!!
I had spent hours styling my hair this morning to get it just right too… said no new mum ever!!!
The steering wheel is fully adjustable in/out and up/down.
The cruise controls are situated on the left on the steering wheel and I found them simple to use and it was very accurate on motorwat=ys as well as on undulating roads at slower speeds.
There are five round air-con vents across the front dash. One larger one at either end of the dashboard and three smaller below the media screen. Their flower-like design is characterful and brings a smile to your face!
There are two rear air vents in the back of the central console, which you can reach from the front to control and direct the airflow.
There are no air vents in the third-row for passengers which would be very hot especially during Australian summers.
You can control the airconditioning using the controls on the front dashboard.
I found visibility to be good out of the Mercedes GLB, the windows are really large and deep across all three rows and the sunroof helps to bring a lot of light into the car. Visibility is good for rear passengers to see out too because the rear windows are so large and deep.
The crystal clear 360-degree reversing camera is really helpful too so you can see out all around the car. Being quite compact for a seven-seater SUV, I found the GLB easy to park and maneuver in school and supermarket car parks.
One thing I have noticed since being a mum is I hate it when I reach a destination or get home from being out and Tulsi has either done really well in the car or she is screaming her head off and I have done really well to keep it together for the entire journey (usually the latter!!) and it takes 10 minutes to park the car! It can be really stressful. Usually I dread when we drive big cars and utes as they tend to take longer to park in our tight apartment block carpark, the Mercedes GLB was easy to reverse park!
In the back, the ceiling lights are situated with the handles above the rear doors. I could not reach them while driving but you can ask “Hey Mercedes” to turn them on and off for you!
And you can control them from the front ceiling too.
I often will reach back to turn on the interior light if I am driving at night time, I find my little girl gets less distressed travelling at night that way. It helps if I can reach the interior light from the driver's seat so I can turn it on and off whilst driving. I often find my daughter will need it on as we start our journey in the dark but once she falls asleep I can turn it off.
It is also useful when there are lights situated above the doors where the handles are usually positioned. These are good for when putting baby into their child seats when visibility is poor, so you do not have to reach across them to a light situated in the ceiling centrally etc.
Handles above the rear doors on either side are perfect for hanging a baby toy from too.
It comes with seven airbags as standard. Dual frontal airbags, side chest-protecting airbags for both the first and second-row outboard seating positions, side head-protecting airbags (curtains) for all three rows, and a driver knee airbag.
For adult occupancy testing it scored 35.2/38 or 92%, broken down into 7.23/8 for the full-width crash test, 7.38/8 for the frontal offset test, full marks for side-impact and 6.92/8 for the pole testing.
It was awarded a total score of 43.4/49 or 88% for Child Occupancy testing.
ANCAP said of the Child Occupancy testing:
In the frontal offset test, protection of the neck of the 10 year dummy was WEAK, while the protection offered to all other critical body regions of both the 6 and 10 year dummies was GOOD.
In the side impact test, protection of the head of the 10 year dummy was ADEQUATE while that of other body areas of both the 6 year and 10 year dummies was GOOD.
The Mercedes-Benz GLB is fitted with lower ISOFix anchorages on the outboard seats in both the second and third rows and top tether anchorages for all rear seating positions.
Installation of typical child restraints available in Australia and New Zealand showed most child restraints could be accommodated in most rear seating positions, though in the third row, one of the convertible seats in rearward-facing mode could not be correctly installed and care is needed to tension the ISOFix anchorages in the third row seats.
Adaptive cruise control (ACC) and adaptive headlights are optional extras.
Some of these safety features are also features that drive me crazy as a mum! Like the lane departure and forward collision alert or the parking sensor beeping sound.
I want all the safety technology AND to be able to mute the sound when my daughter’s asleep!
Share on
About Tace Clifford
Tace Clifford founded BabyDrive in 2017 after discovering a huge information gap in mainstream car reviews that left new parents and expanding families in the dark when it came to one of the biggest purchasing decisions of their lives.
I went to the Cricks Honda dealership in Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast where they very kindly let me test the Honda HR-V for BabyDrive! Read More
Thank you review.
Is it possible to place 2 safety seats at the 2nd raw, and a 3rd person sitting with them?
Our 3rd child was born, and she is seating at the passenger seat for now, and my wife will have to sit at the back.. What do you think?
Hi. I’m expecting #3 and based on our ages, we’d need the exact set up on the second row. I’m struggling to find seats that fit, are you able to tell me what seats you’ve used here? Thanks!
Is it Possible to have 2 x child seats in the 3rd row and a single seat in the 2nd row? This would allow the empty seats in the 2nd row to be folded down for access to the third?
If we have 2 rear facing seats in second row( middle and the side seat excluding the driver’s seat side) and one forward facing in the third row. Will this combination give enough space to access the third row by an adult too?
Thanks for the review very helpful. Any chance of getting 3 fwd facing car seats in the 2nd row (including if one of those was a booster)?
I have the same question.
It might, depending on the seats. These are the seats we use with their dimensions, hope that helps you work it out!
https://babydrive.com.au/articles/will-my-child-seats-fit-in-my-car/
Hello,
Thank you review.
Is it possible to place 2 safety seats at the 2nd raw, and a 3rd person sitting with them?
Our 3rd child was born, and she is seating at the passenger seat for now, and my wife will have to sit at the back.. What do you think?
I found I could just squeeze between two child seats but it was definitely a super shoulder squeezer and I’m 162cm.
Hi. I’m expecting #3 and based on our ages, we’d need the exact set up on the second row. I’m struggling to find seats that fit, are you able to tell me what seats you’ve used here? Thanks!
Congratulations! Here are the seats we used at the time and their dimensions
https://babydrive.com.au/articles/will-my-child-seats-fit-in-my-car/
Is it Possible to have 2 x child seats in the 3rd row and a single seat in the 2nd row? This would allow the empty seats in the 2nd row to be folded down for access to the third?
Don’t see why not! Good idea!
If we have 2 rear facing seats in second row( middle and the side seat excluding the driver’s seat side) and one forward facing in the third row. Will this combination give enough space to access the third row by an adult too?