FIRST DRIVE MERCEDES E 63 AMG:The Mercedes E 63 AMG has split personality issues. MARK NICHOLtakes it for a spin
ON SOME unknown date this year, quite near the end of it, the Mercedes E 63 AMG will come to Ireland. It looks like a fairly normal E-Class, except the ‘63’ part tells us it’s powered by a 6.2-litre V8 – an engine seemingly capable of pushing the earth backwards while making a bellow comparable to God’s hedge trimmer.
That makes the E 63 a supercar masquerading as a middle-rung executive saloon. And it will cost about €135,000. Ouch. For most of us in Ireland then, the E 63 AMG’s arrival is not so relevant. Before setting foot in the car, AMG chairman Volker Mornhinweg told us the E 63 was built as “a tribute to the American market”.
Seeing as Barack Obama’s insistence that America starts building good cars ‘or else’ hasn’t taken effect yet, the term “American market” remains pejorative, taken to mean badly built, poorly engineered and fuel-hungry. It didn’t bode well.
You’re probably already expecting a dramatic volte-face, so I’ll get straight to it: the E 63 AMG is far, far from a proper tribute to the American market. It’s a brilliant car. In fact, the only quality it shares with the American car stereotype is a general sense of profligacy: but what do you expect from a 250km/h car that can go from 0-100km/h in just 4.5 seconds?
The problem is, it is clearly built for American roads and German autobahns: it’s one of the most comfortable long-distance cruisers money can buy. And that’s at odds with a high-performance, entertaining driving machine – which is what an AMG car is expected to be.
So the E 63 ends up striving for that hallowed land called Duality, whose occupants are few and far between because most of the pilgrims aiming to get there end up stuck in a place nearby called Nothing Nor Something.
The Mercedes tries to get there, fast, by way of the AMG Drive Unit, which is essentially a way of controlling the dampers and the seven-speed automatic gearbox three ways between soft and sporty, as well as switching the electronic stability programme between fully on, a little bit on, and off. Any combination can be selected, so, for example, you can keep the dampers nice and soft but set the gearbox to its most aggressive shift pattern if you wish.
The difference between each setting is tangible, but there’s never any question of losing the Merc’s fundamental bias towards comfort. And make no mistake – the E 63 can handle. The steering is light but there’s a real precision to the turn-in and at full tilt the car feels nimbler and generally smaller than its proportions. But truly involving it is not. Turn the traction control off and it’s too refined and reserved to feel as special as its power and price tag dictate.
That said, these qualities are deliberately chosen. The E 63’s charge is comfort first, speed second. The suspension setup, for example, has conventional springs at the front and an air setup at the back that constantly adjusts to keep the car level, which Mercedes claims keeps steering feel intact, while improving comfort tangibly.
That helps make it the most well-rounded of the current crop of hyper saloons, its key peers being the BMW M5 and the Jaguar XFR. Both have the Merc beaten in terms of the nuances of driving involvement, but when it comes to blending executive superiority, taste, discretion, quality and gushing rivers of power, the Mercedes is the new king. It’s even – whisper this – relatively clean: Mercedes claims a 12 per cent fuel consumption improvement over the outgoing AMG E-Class.
Plus, owners can enjoy the warm glow of knowing the heart of their car is hand-crafted. One man, armed with his own handcart and bottle of oil, assembles an E 63 engine in around three hours before stamping his name on the engine cover. Owners can meet this person and put a face to the name.
The E 63 range was developed with AMG’s help from the start, which accounts for both the E-Class’s excellence and the short gap between the base models and the flagship. So the E 63’s greatest enemy may come from within. The standard car is so refined, the cabin so stuffed with kit and the AMG sport styling addenda so close to the E 63’s, a CDI-badged E-Class will provide an experience surprisingly similar for around a third of the price.
Factfile E63 AMG
Engine: 6.2-litre V8 petrol
Power: 517bhp
Torque: 630Nm
0-100km/h: 4.5 seconds
Transmission: seven-speed automatic
CO2 emissions: 295g/km
Price: estimated at €135,000