Straight off the plane and onto the breathtaking coastal roads of Southern Spain鈥攏ot a bad way to tackle the 2015 Mercedes-Benz GLA250. 208 hp, and a telltale mountain of empty espresso cups did the heavy lifting against jetlag; fantastic views and fine weather did the rest. Mercedes's new pocket ute, we set out to put as many miles under us as possible. Here are the biggest surprises from the drive. Equipped with hill descent control and tilt and roll gauges, the 4MATIC-equipped GLA happily trundled up steep grades and rocky riverbeds. GLA onto the next obstacle. Variety is the spice of life. 7.1-second 0-60 time, the 2.0-liter turbocharged gas engine is a perfectly respectable mill, but we enjoyed the torquey diesel a little more. US market will have to create demand for the diesel powertrain in the aforementioned GLA220 CDI to come stateside. Of course, if it's torque you're looking for, Mercedes will happily take your money for an AMG-tweaked GLA45.

Which is weird, because this is 2014. The sportier GLA45 has a handsome shifter plucked from the SL63 and mounted exactly where it ought to be. Sadly, that column shifter isn't the only anachronism onboard the GLA. It's an annoying trait, one that stands out on an otherwise pleasant vehicle. The GLA is surprisingly smaller than its sibling CLA. 8.4 inches shorter than its stablemate. You want a small station wagon? With that unexpected off-road ability, Mercedes is confidently branding the GLA as an SUV, and that's great. 鈥攈ey, it's a station wagon. Sometimes a nice car deserves to be a nice car and not a crossover or a small SUV. The GLA250 does so many car things well. Mercedes was happy to pass when the passing was good and quiet and refined when loafing through traffic. X-shaped vents to ensure your climate-controlled comfort, and a large monitor that sits proudly atop the center column.

It was a nice buffet with a variety of offerings and we sat on an outdoor patio overlooking a park. I got a pretzel and some museli (carbs don鈥檛 count on vacation), my son had bacon and Nutella. The coffee was really good, too. We grabbed our bags, checked out, and used a voucher to take a taxi to Sindelfingen, about a 30 minute ride. There, we were greeted by a huge Mercedes logo and a fountain in front of the Center for Excellence. We brought our bags to the front counter where they took them and gave us a claim check. We then proceeded to a desk where a woman had me sign some additional documentation and got our European insurance information, as well as tickets for the factory tour at 10:30 a.m. We had time to kill, so we went upstairs to the delivery lounge. They have wifi. They have a barista serving complimentary drinks and snacks. And you have a view of all the fabulous cars getting picked up.

It is here that my son discovered the joys of cappuccino, something that became a theme for him the rest of the trip. Finally, my name was called. We were greeted by a friendly technician wearing a black suit and an accent that reminded me of Peter Sellers in 鈥淒r. Strangelove.鈥?He led us down the stairs and to meet my new car. It was everything I had hoped for! While he went over different features of the car, a valet showed up with our luggage and dutifully loaded it in the back. The technician set the speedometer to kilometers, and got me a loaner GPS unit since I didn鈥檛 opt for navigation on my car (I use Waze, anyway). He also provided me with a yellow vest, triangle and first-aid kit required when driving in Austria, a city driving permit sticker and a big, white oval sticker with a black 鈥淒鈥?on it for Deutschland.

I always thought those were vanity stickers, but it turns out they are required if driving out of your registered country in Europe. So now I have a D sticker. We ended up with the D sticker, a city permit, and toll stickers鈥娾€斺€娾€渧ignettes鈥濃€娾€斺€奻or Switzerland and Austria (purchased at petrol stations). The Swiss one is good through the end of 2015 if we want to drive back there (ha, ha I wish!). Once we finished our introductions, we wandered over to the gift shop to browse. They had a remote-control version of my car, but I opted for a Matchbox-sized version (which turns out to be a similar European model, but not my actual one). I bought a baseball cap and simple keychain, but refrained from going too overboard. From there, we headed to meet up with our factory tour. We donned safety goggles and an earpiece to hear our guide and boarded a bus to the first location.