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  The Mercedes-Benz GLB is up against rivals like the Volvo XC40 and Audi Q3. [credit:
  Mercedes-Benz ]

If there were any doubt about the utter dominance of the market by SUVs, consider that prior to 2020, Mercedes—that storied brand built on luxury sedans—offered six different classes of them. Wait—seven, if you count the hatchback GLA they slot in as an SUV (and I do).

Well, brace yourselves. There’s now an eighth. The GLB250 parks a squarish, upright, proper-looking SUV into the paper-thin slot under the C-Class-based GLC and over the definition-challenged GLA. But the GLB grabs its design clay far more from the big GLS and positively rectilinear G-Class than any of the softer, more pliably styled Mercedes SUVs. In fact, that boxier form factor makes the new GLB an even more authoritative-looking family box with wheels than many roaming the streets today, somewhat aimless in their design.

And one step further into family firmament, the GLB offers a third-row seat—nearly unheard of in this size class, and something you must venture way up into the mid-sized GLE class among other Mercedes models to find.