2024 Mercedes-AMG GLE 53 Review and Test Drive
All of the practicality and prestige of Mercedes' midsize volume leader with a dose of high performance.
Jim Resnick
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The 2024 Mercedes-AMG GLE 53 is a compelling variant of the company's traditionally bestselling SUV class. Flanking it on the smaller end are the GLC, GLB, and GLA ranges (in descending sizes) and on the larger end, the GLS. The rare, boxy G-Class is the company's flagship SUV model, and Mercedes produces the expensive model in small numbers.
The GLE traces its lineage to the M-Class, the first Mercedes SUV offered in the United States. Not only was the M-Class a first for Mercedes, but it also made a big splash in the late 1990s as one of the first SUVs from any luxury automaker. Today, the chief competitors of the GLE include the Audi Q7, BMW X5, Genesis GV80, Land Rover Discovery, Lexus RX, Lincoln Aviator, and Volvo XC90.
In addition to a styling refresh and new and next-generation technologies, Mercedes plans this year to add a plug-in hybrid to the 2024 GLE lineup. The company says it will produce 381 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque, but an electric driving range and EPA fuel-economy rating are unavailable as of this review.
The 2024 Mercedes-Benz GLE range includes a standard body style and what the company calls a GLE Coupe. This review is about the standard GLE. In addition to the announced GLE 450e, there's also the GLE 350, GLE 450, GLE 580, AMG GLE 53, and AMG GLE 63 model series. Prices range from just under $60,000 to more than $120,000, including a $1,150 destination charge to ship the SUV from the Alabama factory that builds it to your local dealership.
For this GLE review, I test-drove the AMG GLE 53 in Arizona. It came with special metallic paint, carbon-fiber trim, unique five-spoke wheels, and black chrome trim for the lower front and rear bumpers, mirror caps, and tailpipes. The manufacturer's suggested retail price is $95,150, including the $1,150 destination charge. Mercedes-Benz provided the vehicle for this AMG GLE review.
Jim Resnick
2024 Mercedes-AMG GLE 53 Review: The Design
The AMG GLE 53's design looks relatively conventional and conservative, and that might be a good thing. It's generally attractive, with fine lines and details. The most aggressive section is the front end, with a prominent vertically slatted grille, gaping air inlets at the front sides, and a frown created by the shape of the front.
Inside, the GLE is all high-quality materials. There are no disappointments between the high-grade leather, the aluminum with a stainless texture, suede steering-wheel grips, carbon fiber, plastic, infotainment glass, and rubberized touch pads.
We spend time in our cars, which makes them part of our everyday living space and imposes a hefty premium on how they make us feel. In the AMG GLE 53, I felt relaxed, secure, and supported in all the right places, with the controls for seat adjustment easily reached on the door panel rather than on the side of the seat.
Front-seat comfort and support are top-notch, matching the extra performance capabilities of the AMG-fortified GLE. The side bolsters and seat bottoms snug you in a bit more, though they also require effort to slide over them as you take a seat. The effort is worth it.
Jim Resnick
Alongside the center console are grab handles for both the driver and passenger. Ostensibly, these are intended for scary moments when off-roading. Severe inclines and off-camber pitches on backcountry trails make the handles useful, though only some folks will take any AMG off-road. It's still helpful that Mercedes keeps them in the sporty GLE 53.
Drivers face a long piece of glass covering the instrument panel and the infotainment screen, producing a high-tech but transparent feel of design elegance, helped out by the crisp Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX) system's graphics. The instrumentation is digital and configurable, offering seven themes varying from traditional dial gauges to the downright avant-garde.
You can operate the infotainment choices from a central touchpad or the touchscreen, while steering-wheel controls operate the digital instrumentation panel. I have two comments on the automaker's approach. First, the fonts are too small on the multifunction steering wheel and ventilation controls. This small size wasn't a problem for me, but it would be for someone with near-field vision issues. Second, the controls on the upper spokes of the steering wheel are easily and mistakenly glanced by fingers, potentially changing radio stations (right hand) or central instrument display (left hand).
The rear seat room feels very generous, partly because the seat bottom is placed low and at an incline. The GLE offers standard two-row, five-passenger seating. You can get a third-row seat as an option, boosting passenger capacity to seven, but it's a pricey upgrade and is suitable mainly for children.
Storage space in the glovebox and the center console is average, though the front and rear door pockets offer good volume and width for large drink bottles. Open the GLE's rear liftgate and you'll find a decent, but not league-leading, 33.3 cubic feet of space. You can increase utility by stowing the cargo shade under the rear load floor, where you'll also find a few nooks beside the mini spare for small-item storage. Fold the back seat down and the GLE holds 74.9 cu-ft of cargo.
Jim Resnick
2024 Mercedes-AMG GLE 53 Review: The Technology
Mercedes has used graphics-intensive advanced technology in its infotainment systems for several years, which continues in the 2024 GLE. This MBUX presentation of data, navigation, entertainment, and vehicle adjustments through the main center display is clear at a glance, and there's also redundancy to the controls.
An active touchscreen, combined with physical buttons and a remote touchpad on the lower center console, can change MBUX settings. The latter even has an ergonomic wrist rest. Of course, the front passenger can operate any of these just as easily.
Voice control for the infotainment system works very well, too. You need not touch the "speak" button on the steering wheel, either. Just announce to the car, "Hey, Mercedes," and the system wakes up and asks how it can help. I first encountered this system years ago in the smaller GLB SUV, where it woke up whenever people aboard mentioned Mercedes in conversation, even without a "hey." It became annoying, but the automaker has done serious work since to refine it.
Confusing names or places were no real challenge for the voice-recognition technology. I asked the system to navigate to Montreal, Canada, from Phoenix, Arizona, and it took no longer to calculate a route than it did to the nearest Dunkin' Donuts, even with a French-Canadian accent. If you state, "I'm hot," the system will lower the air-conditioning temperature and increase the fan speed.
Pairing my iPhone with the system proved quick through Bluetooth and even quicker through the USB connection. Once connected, the Mercedes system presents a CarPlay tab at the top left corner so that toggling from the car's native system and your phone is quick and easy. Some recent test cars have required paging or diving through several menus to do the same; Mercedes thought this out much better.
Jim Resnick
The Burmester audio system, optional in other GLE models, is standard on the GLE 53 and sounds outstanding. With 13 speakers, including several mounted in the unibody framework of the vehicle, and 590 watts of power, it gets plenty loud without being harsh. It reproduces classical and jazz as well as it does rock and R&B. It's one of the top systems I've listened to in the past year.
Surprisingly, the AMG GLE 53 Mercedes sent me for testing did not have many advanced driver-assistance systems. However, standard features include forward-collision warning, automatic emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, a safe-exit warning system, and a semi-autonomous parking-assist feature.
Nearly everything else is optional as part of the Driver Assistance Package Plus upgrade, which the test vehicle did not have. Therefore, I could not evaluate the GLE's adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist, lane-centering assist, lane-change assist, active blind-spot assist, or cross-traffic systems. Another helpful feature of this option package is an active emergency-stop-assist system that can detect an unresponsive driver under specific conditions and bring the SUV to a safe stop with the hazard lights flashing.
In my opinion, a $95,000 luxury SUV with sporty intentions should have a full complement of active driver assists as standard equipment. That is especially true for one built by the company that invented the energy-absorbing car body with crumple zones to soften crash impacts. It's now used universally since Mercedes shared the patent with the entire car industry. Top-notch safety tech should not be an option — especially at this price.
Speaking of crumple zones, the GLE-Class fared well in crash tests last year. However, as of this writing, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have not published safety ratings for the 2024 Mercedes GLE 53.
Jim Resnick
2024 Mercedes-AMG GLE 53 Review: The Drive
Being an AMG model, the GLE 53 accelerates quickly with a muted yet sophisticated growl, thanks to its 429-hp turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six-cylinder engine. New engine software and a larger turbo increase torque over 2023 models from 384 to 413 lb-ft. This change also nets a slight improvement in acceleration. According to Mercedes-Benz, 60 mph arrives in just 4.9 seconds versus 5.2 seconds in the 2023 model.
An EQ Boost integrated starter-generator contributes 21 horsepower and 148 lb-ft of torque at low engine speeds when the combustion engine is not making much power. It also helps the turbocharger build boost by delivering pressure electrically to the inlet. As a result, Mercedes minimizes turbo lag as much as possible.
The EQ Boost generator provides current to the 48-volt mild-hybrid electrical system. One significant advantage of this is that producing the same level of electrical power requires about 25% of the current of a conventional system, meaning much of the onboard wiring can be thinner, lighter, less resistant, and therefore more efficient.
That's all somewhat behind the scenes, but one thing this system enables you to notice every day is that the engine stop-start system switching is virtually undetectable, unlike in many other vehicles.
But sheer engine power is not what you feel as a driver. You feel the transmission, and the AMG GLE 53's nine-speed automatic offers seven drive modes selectable at an ascending level of aggressiveness in power delivery and shift quality. These include Comfort, Sport, Sport+, Slippery, Individual, and two Offroad programs, called Trail and Sand.
Shift paddles on the steering wheel allow you to shift manually as well. The transmission makes good decisions using throttle position, load, and engine speed in Sport and Sport Plus modes. In Comfort mode, however, the transmission is slow to downshift when a driver requests sudden, rapid acceleration.
Jim Resnick
The AMG GLE 53 carries decent fuel-economy numbers, given its performance character. The EPA estimate for the AMG model is 20 mpg. But, surprisingly, on my own 73-mile driving loop in and around Phoenix, the GLE 53 returned better than the rated economy. My evaluation route, split into thirds to include urban, suburban, and highway driving, netted 22.5 mpg from the GLE 53. I've never had a vehicle perform so clearly better than its combined rating, so the software update for the 2024 model year may have performed a bit of magic.
Some super-sporty SUVs trade comforting ride quality for handling agility and immediate steering response to achieve test-track numbers. But the GLE 53 strikes the right balance of good ride comfort over bumps, expansion strips, and pothole forgiveness while delivering taut, sharp steering, surefooted handling behavior, and clear tactile communication from all four corners.
Air bladders at each corner replace a conventional suspension's steel springs. Shocks also actively change their valving to match what's happening at the road surface and work with active anti-roll bars at the front and rear. You can dial up stiffer suspension settings independent of the transmission's drive-mode programming using a rotary knob on the left of the steering wheel. It also controls exhaust sound. A similar knob at the right changes the overall driving mode: suspension, transmission, acceleration response, and exhaust character.
The only downside to this tech-intensive natural handling agility is a momentary head-rocking motion over steep driveway curbs or speed bumps taken at an angle. But I think that's a small price to pay for this balance between comfort and handling.
Jim Resnick
Is the 2024 Mercedes-AMG GLE 53 a Good SUV?
The AMG GLE 53 is undoubtedly a very good SUV. It retains all the essential SUV practicality of the less spicy GLE models but with more rewarding driving dynamics. The only significant downsides to the AMG GLE 53 are its relatively steep price and the fact that class-leading active safety features are optional on top of that steep price.
If you don't want the AMG treatment, all of the core practical and luxury-related qualities of the GLE 53 are available for much less in non-AMG models such as the GLE 350, though that version might be boring for those who like to drive. At the other end of the model spectrum, the V8-powered AMG GLE 63 might be overkill even for people who enthusiastically approach every commute, errand, and trip.
Therefore, the AMG GLE 53 could be the best compromise.
