My brother gave me a lift in his GLC 250D the other day. A very nice 4x4, similar in size to the FL2. It was well equipped and was an excellent cruiser on the motorway and other roads.
However
I was alarmed when he reversed into a parking bay as there was a series of loud thumping noises. It sounded to me as if the 'haldex type' of centre clutch was engaging and the tyres were jumping as the transmission wound up.
He has only had the car a couple of weeks and had been back to the dealer. The dealer said that it is a feature of the car when it uses the larger wheels (Supplied as standard on some models), and large amounts of lock are used.

I checked on line and in the Mercedes Forums and it is indeed a common problem with No Fix.

I do wonder if the GLC is programmed to release the centre clutch when steering lock is applied, as the FL2 does.

As it is, the noise is worrying (and embarrassing) to the driver of a £40k car.

Example of internet chatter about it.
https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/miscella...g-problem/ FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 79k+ miles) (MY2015)
Metro in its 11th Year of (Extended) LR Warranty / Full LR Service History
(Expensive, but Trouble/Worry free - hopefully?)

These German cars are overrated.

I even contemplated trading the Velar in for a X3 but the BMW salesmen can’t be bothered to get back to me to arrange a test drive. 21MY Defender 90 S 3.0 D200

My brother in law asked his work colleagues about what car he should buy. Between them they replied that they would only ever recommend that he “bought German”.

Just like everone else, they make some great cars and some rubbish ones too, but I have no idea where their reputation for reliability, longevity and desirability reached near mythical status Indeed, looking at Golfs, Passats, BMW saloons, Audi A4’s amongst others, I don’t know why their reputation isn’t more slanted towards safe and unadventurous, for people who aren’t that bothered about what they drive.

In consumer reliability surveys across many markets, "German" cars tend not to be at the top of reliability tables. They do have some great engineering, particularly Beamers, Mercs and Audis but that does not generally translate into reliability results if all those surveys are persuasive. I don't think there is any question about the best national car makers for reliability - got to be "Japanese". I chose my British built but Japanese Hondas mainly on the basis of such surveys, the evidence in their favour, along with the likes of Mazda and Toyota is difficult to ignore if it is reliability that one is after. In the past decade our four Hondas have been absolutely reliable and as near faultless as one could wish - all still running perfectly over hundreds of thousands of miles except for one which succumbed to a big crash. I also have my Freely 2 which is of course much, much much nicer . I might happily buy German in the future for the nice engineering qualities without however expecting reliability to match the Hondas.

it is indeed a "feature" of the GLC, and no need for concern.

Iain