2025 Mercedes-Benz GLE450 Coupe, front | Cars.com photo by Conner Golden

Key Points in This Review

• The 2025 Mercedes-Benz GLE450 Coupe is a segment standout with impressive style and amenities.

• Be careful which wheels and tires you pick; the optional 22-inch rims make for an overly firm ride — even with the Coupe’s available air suspension.

• Good power, useful technology, and plenty of comfort and convenience features are highlights of the GLE450 Coupe.

A week spent in a 2025 Mercedes-Benz GLE450 Coupe was a lesson in paying attention to details. Driving non-Coupe versions of the GLE450 SUV both before and after the Coupe cemented Mercedes’ mid-sizer as an excellent vehicle; it’s a segment standout writ-large, but the Coupe — specifically the GLE Coupe I drove for this review — proved that you need to establish your priorities before you pick one off the lot.

Related: Is the 2025 Mercedes-Benz GLE450 a Good SUV? 4 Pros, 4 Cons

I’m not referring to the dimensional downsides of the goofy “SUV coupe” segment, which in this Mercedes’ case sacrifices a few inches of backseat headroom and 10.8 cubic feet of maximum cargo capacity. Nor am I referring to my test car’s butter-smooth turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six engine or its inspired choice of $6,500 Cote d’Azur Light Blue metallic paint and optional Bahia Brown interior, both of which would be welcome on my personal GLE spec.

2025 Mercedes-Benz GLE450 Coupe, rear angle | Cars.com photo by Conner Golden

Choose Your Wheels Wisely

You’re not planning on hitting the canyons in your new GLE Coupe, are you? Yeah, I thought not, which means you can skip the 22-inch five-spoke AMG sport wheels that my test car wore, complete with wide-ass 285-millimeter front and 325-mm rear summer tires. With its 20- or 21-inch wheels, the GLE rides on a cloud formed from heavy cream, achieved by the tranquilizing combination of (relatively) thick sidewalls and an optional air suspension.

Even with that adaptive and adjustable air suspension, the 22-inch wheels create an overly firm ride with intrusive secondary body motions. Certain stretches of segmented highway surfaces instigated a bouncy resonance that had my (non-enthusiast) passengers commenting on the jostling and noting tire judder during low-speed maneuvers. It’s absolutely forgivable on an AMG product, not so much on a standard Mercedes SUV.

It’s a Familiar GLE Otherwise — and That’s a Very Good Thing

Everything — and I mean everything — else was typical GLE excellence. The 450’s 375 horsepower and 369 pounds-feet of torque make a great case for skipping the AMG GLE53; Mercedes conservatively claims a 0-60 mph time of 5.3 seconds in the 450. Merging on the highway with three folks in tow felt no different from doing so with an empty cabin. A characteristically long list of standard and optional creature comforts, like heated and ventilated massaging front seats, a primo Burmester sound system and a panoramic roof kept said passengers both occupied and chill.