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Beijing Mercedes-Benz GLC Class, one of the most important volume models of the brand, was officially launched in November 2015. In October 2018, it launched a domestic "special supply version" with a longer wheelbase, offering 2.0T high and low power engines with a price range of 39.28-587800 yuan. In view of the premium capacity of the Mercedes-Benz brand and the success of its product strategy, Beijing Mercedes-Benz GLC continued to sell well, with sales of 16067 vehicles in May this year, an increase of 45.3% over the same period last year, ranking first in this market segment. In the first five months, Beijing Mercedes-Benz GLCs continued to lead with sales of 60284 vehicles.

However, at a time when the Beijing Mercedes-Benz GLC continues to run, some media have exposed that there may be a serious "downsizing" of the car. In a four-wheel drive system performance test process, Beijing Mercedes-Benz 2020 GLC class can not complete a simple pulley block test, a number of projects can not be successfully passed, but the old model passed full marks.

This gives people the impression that the ability of all-wheel drive is getting worse and worse. is the cross-country ability of Beijing Mercedes-Benz's new car reduced?

The model tested by the media is Beijing Mercedes-Benz 2020 GLC 260L 4MATIC luxury model, with an official guidance price of 422800 yuan. The car is equipped with 2.0T low-power turbocharged engine, maximum power 145KW (197Ps), peak torque of 320N ·m, matching 9-speed manual self-integrated gearbox, standard Mercedes-Benz 4MATIC all-wheel drive system.

Beijing Mercedes-Benz GLC 4MATIC full-time all-wheel drive system, its central differential is a multi-disc clutch limited slip differential, the daily power distribution is 45% and 55%, while the coaxial wheels rely on electronic limited skid between wheels for power distribution.

In the passing test of the pulley block of the real car's four-wheel drive performance, only the cross shaft of Beijing Mercedes-Benz GLC 2020 can pass the test, and the other four projects fail. Including four cases of adhesion of front axle and rear axle in parallel wheel group, and adhesion of single front wheel and single rear wheel, all the 2020 models of Beijing Mercedes-Benz GLC failed in test and could not get out of the difficulty.

(as evidenced by the video of the media auto house)

What is difficult to understand is that the 2016 Beijing Mercedes-Benz GLC models tested by the media have normal four-wheel drive performance, and all the pulley group test projects have been successfully passed; while the 2019 models can also pass the three items in the pulley group, in addition, the single front and rear wheels have adhesion these two cases can not pass. By contrast, the performance of the Beijing Mercedes-Benz GLC 2020 four-wheel drive model is "very different", and the four-wheel drive ability is significantly reduced.

In this case, as a luxury brand medium-sized SUV with a price of more than 400,000, the passing capacity of its full-time all-wheel drive system may not be as good as the 200000-level ordinary brand four-wheel drive SUV. People can not help but think of the phenomenon of domestic reduction and shrinking performance, after all, Beijing Mercedes-Benz "aluminum for steel", "shock absorber defect fracture" and other events have caused a sensation throughout the auto circle.

Mercedes-Benz finally responded to the heated debate. Mercedes-Benz officials said that after linkage and re-inspection with the German technical department, there was no four-wheel drive hardware reduction in the GLC 2020 model.

In an official explanation to the media, Mercedes-Benz said that the logic of the 2020 GLC has changed in controlling the four-wheel drive software, and it is a unified version of the software around the world, and there is no situation in which the software has been deliberately changed because of domestic lengthening. This version of the software pays more attention to user comfort and makes software adjustments in order to avoid excessive braking force distribution causing users to feel uncomfortable in the car. The pulley block has a very low adhesion, so the power allocated is not enough to form a joint force that can extricate itself from difficulties.

Mercedes-Benz admitted that the all-wheel drive capability of the 2020 GLC model had been weakened, which led to the inability to get out of the difficulty, which can be adjusted later through software updates. Mercedes-Benz said that at present, the new version of the software is still under testing and verification, and it is not very stable. After ensuring that the software is adapted and stable, it will be pushed to domestic dealers. At that time, the majority of Mercedes-Benz users can choose to update the software, so as to improve the four-wheel drive performance of the vehicle.

The four-wheel drive performance of Beijing Mercedes-Benz GLC is getting worse and worse, which is also an objective fact that can be verified in the actual test. Even a simple pulley block test can not pass, which will really disappoint consumers. Whether the follow-up official software upgrade of Mercedes-Benz can improve the capability of all-wheel drive remains to be further verified.

Beijing Mercedes-Benz sold 55287 vehicles in May, up 16.1 percent from a year earlier, including 16067 GLC models, accounting for 29 percent, according to data from the Federation of passengers. Beijing Mercedes-Benz sold 215296 vehicles from January to May, down 9.1% from a year earlier, while GLC model sales were 60284, accounting for 28%. Beijing Mercedes-Benz sales account for more than 1 big 4 models, now also caught in the "reduced door". Many netizens believe that manufacturers are increasingly pursuing profit maximization at the expense of product performance, which is an interest-driven behavior, depending on the follow-up remedial measures.

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