Published:
22 March 2019The GT 4-Door’s interior is, in fairly large part, what you’ll find in a generously equipped version of the Mercedes-Benz CLS, but for a raised centre console and some detail and trim differences.
The door panels arch elegantly inwards to meet a dashboard dotted with Mercedes’ hallmark turbine air vents, and behind the busy spokes of a new multi-function steering wheel sits a 12.3in digital instrument binnacle ‘dual bonded’ to another, more central display of identical size. AMG might have done more to distance its latest ware from that of other Mercedes and AMG models, but the overall effect is convincing: sumptuously old world in part but simultaneously very cutting edge.
Less convincing is the fascia on the transmission tunnel, which is one of the few interior elements bespoke to the four-door GT. It’s inspired by the GT two-seater’s centre console and features the same embossed gearlever, but it seems a touch ugly and quite space-inefficient. There’s a broader point here: that while material quality is mostly excellent and the nappa leather conspicuously soft, switchgear remains an area in which Mercedes still trails the likes of Porsche and Bentley, whose fitments feel more robust and have a more tangible sense of perceived quality.
This is the new era of Mercedes, with a brace of 12.3in displays that sweep across the dashboard as part of a single unit. These are conspicuously slick displays, with graphics of unrivalled sharpness and a depth of colour rarely seen elsewhere.
