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The GLA will have gone through over 745,000 miles of testing over two years when it is ready to go to market. Plenty of those miles will have been put in in frigid Sweden and scorching Dubai, but the final approval happens in Sitges where the Mercedes executive board sits. Sitges is a Mediterranean coastal town not far from Barcelona. Its near-deserted roads that twist down the coast are great for chassis testing, and the infrequent rainfall means that testing rarely gets delayed.
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The test cars that are used for testing aren't built on the standard A-class's production line. This is because because building a comparatively small number of GLAs would slow down assembly of the in-demand A-class. However, the sharing of the MFA platform between vehicles is a big part of the remarkably short period of time that was needed to develop the GLA -- just two years.
Axel Andorff, project leader for the GLA, says: "We start making a specification book for the car. We say, 'These are the competitors, so what is the positioning of our own car?' Then we decide where we would like to be better than or as good as our competitors."
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Andorff's role is balancing the needs and ideas of the departments involved in development and ensuring the GLA remains on track in terms of deadlines and budget. He goes on to say, "In the end the car has to look as one piece, and not compilation of 1,000 different pieces put together with some glue."
Once the GLA goes through all its testing it has to get final approval from the Mercedes-Benz head office in Sitges. Once the GLA gets approved by head office, the team will move onto the CLA Shooting Brake, the last of 5 vehicles that will be built on the MFA platform.
The test cars that are used for testing aren't built on the standard A-class's production line. This is because because building a comparatively small number of GLAs would slow down assembly of the in-demand A-class. However, the sharing of the MFA platform between vehicles is a big part of the remarkably short period of time that was needed to develop the GLA -- just two years.
Axel Andorff, project leader for the GLA, says: "We start making a specification book for the car. We say, 'These are the competitors, so what is the positioning of our own car?' Then we decide where we would like to be better than or as good as our competitors."
Andorff's role is balancing the needs and ideas of the departments involved in development and ensuring the GLA remains on track in terms of deadlines and budget. He goes on to say, "In the end the car has to look as one piece, and not compilation of 1,000 different pieces put together with some glue."
Once the GLA goes through all its testing it has to get final approval from the Mercedes-Benz head office in Sitges. Once the GLA gets approved by head office, the team will move onto the CLA Shooting Brake, the last of 5 vehicles that will be built on the MFA platform.
