Borneo bonanza: Taking the Mercedes-Benz GLC 200 out on the off-roads of Sabah

KOTA KINABALU — A free-and-easy self-hire driving holiday is one of the best ways to free yourself from the shackles of package-tour bondage.

With this in mind, we sampled life both on and off the road with Mercedes-Benz’s latest Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV), the GLC 200, in stunning Borneo, the third-largest island in the world.

Borneo sits to the east of peninsula Malaysia, and is essentially a forested island covering some 743,000 sq km — and a wonderful example of perfectly preserved rainforests, mountains and coral reefs.

Incidentally, Malaysia and Brunei govern the north, while Indonesia has jurisdiction over the remaining 70-plus per cent of the south.

After collecting the cars from the Mercedes-Benz dealership, Hap Seng Star in Kota Kinabalu, we hit the roads to traverse the country. Sabah’s main roads are pretty well-maintained, and once out of the town centre, the roads open up across a vast landscape flanked by lush forests and sweeping valleys, where tea plantations can also be found.

Although the Mercedes-Benz GLC 200 is a rear-wheel-driven SUV, any concerns we may have had about its semi-off-road ability soon disappeared as the car easily powered its way through ruts and water-filled gullies.

While either a GPS route guidance app for your smartphone or a built-in system in your car — as our Mercedes-Benz models had — certainly provide a good level of route confidence, Sabah’s roads have decent signage, so you can technically plan your route the old-fashioned way as well.

We went by the country’s highest natural structure, the 4,095m-high Mount Kinabalu, with its forested peak disappearing into the dramatic cloud formations that its own micro-climate generates.

If you have a week or so spare to visit Sabah, it would be a shame to miss the opportunity to climb this mountain. You can get two legally required accredited guides, who can show you the best ways up and down the mountain.

Give yourself some travelling time, however — for us, it was about an hour’s drive from our stay-over at the Shangri-La Rasa Ria resort. While it is pretty much a straightforward drive, you might want to keep an eye out for the occasional logging lorry trundling along the way. Just practise some safe driving and you will be all right.

From Mount Kinabalu, it is a short drive to Kota Kinabalu National Park, which was Malaysia’s first designated United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) World Heritage Site. Apart from getting the chance to stretch your legs, you can also explore some of the oldest rainforests on the planet, with some refreshingly shaded trails that vary from leisurely to strenuous depending on your preference. Experienced guides ensure you are in safe hands as they take you through the cool forest canopy trails.

The GLC 200 may be the company’s entry GLC model locally (with a price tag of S$215,888 with COE), but it is high on luxury with a premium interior identical to its GLC 250 4Matic big brother. It also has a punchy 2-litre turbo engine and 184hp on tap that made light work of powering through Sabah’s sweeping mountain roads.

While the GLC 250’s extra 50Nm of torque (350Nm vs the 200’s 300Nm) would make for stronger overtaking power on the mountain pass, for Singapore’s roads, the GLC 200 has more than ample grunt and is similarly smooth in power delivery. It also turns out lively acceleration thanks to its 9-speed automatic gearbox.

Handling on the passive suspension inspires confidence as the SUV holds its line and corners flat and secure, almost like a sports saloon.

We have to say, however, that the biggest surprise of our expedition was not so much what we saw — and Sabah certainly has a lot to offer to everyone in terms of natural diversity and luxe pampering at beachfront retreats like ours, for example — but the dual capability of the GLC 200, which we discovered pretty much by accident when we took a turn off the main road to go and explore a local church.

We suddenly found ourselves wandering off the main road onto a dirt track that wound itself around the side of a mountain. Then it started to pour. Despite the bad conditions of the mud track, the car did not crash or rattle our teeth with the suspension regaining its composure immediately.

While you will never experience these conditions in Singapore, it is good to know just how capable the car is.