Mercedes E63 AMG Review
The Mercedes E63 AMG offers a splendid blend of comfort and mind boggling performance.
Performance and luxury is not something which usually goes hand in hand. Unless of course you look at 4-door performance saloons. Today, there are quite a few such alternatives to sports cars, which can take you from naught to 100 km/hr in under 5 seconds on weekends while taking you to office in comfort on the weekdays. This dual personality really gives such performance saloons a lot of practicality at less than sports car money. Yes, they are still ludicrously expensive and cost more than twice as much as the car they are based on. The big three from Germany are leaving no stone unturned to woo the performance-luxury buyer and latest in line is the updated Mercedes E63 AMG. We take a quick spin and pen down our initial impressions of this Stuttgart hooligan.
Sleeper, that is what most performance saloons look like and the E63 AMG is no different. It’s not exactly sober in experience, especially not when you can see those massive disc brakes hiding under those large wheels with carbon fibre inserts at various places. The E63 AMG gets an aggressive body kit which looks the part. The V8 Bi-Turbo badge above the front wheels easily give away what lies within but it’s really the quad tail pipes which scream combat. 10-spoke alloy wheels sit on massive 255 mm tyres at the front and 285 mm tyres at the rear. Why do we need such wide rubber? To put all that monstrous power down.
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The Mercedes E63 AMG is a CBU and quality levels are just terrific with leather and carbon fibre used in plenty inside the cabin. Mercedes has loaded the vehicle with the best of tech and features and the hot E-Class does have quite a few (LCD screens, massage seats, etc). The interiors are finished in all black and the seats are extremely comfortable with more than adequate back support. The steering wheel is a joy to hold and the gear lever is truly unique, with its short and solid design. The rear seat is a good place to be in, although we didn’t really bother to sit and judge rear seat comfort at the high speed track.
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To keep things tamed on the track, Mercedes-Benz employed SLS AMG to lead the E63 AMG around the Buddh International Circuit. Now the SLS is an all out super car with insane thrust from its 6.3-litre V8 engine which belts out 591 BHP of power and 650 Nm of torque. The E63 AMG is not far behind when it comes to developing some ponies, the four-door saloon manages to extract 557 HP and 720 Nm from its 5.5-litre V8 engine which weighs just 204 kgs! Mercedes-Benz claims a 0-100 km/hr time of 4.2 seconds, with the vehicle limited to a top whack of 250 km/hr.
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Turn the ignition on and all those 557 race bred horses wake up with a throaty roar. They are angry and their roar was a bit overshadowed by the SLS AMG’s melody during our first drive. The peak torque range is between 1750 to 5250 RPM which means the E63 AMG is alive right from the word GO. The super saloon pulls with so much steam, it puts a wide grin on your face. Performance is effortless but the exhausts are not as loud as one would expect. Redline comes in at 6400 RPM and every time you stand on the throttle, the tendency to wheelspin is very high.
You can tweak the response from the engine by selecting across 4 drive modes – C, S, S+ and M (gear shifts become quicker in S mode and even quicker in S+ mode). There is an AMG mode too and you can toggle between three suspension settings – Comfort, Sport and Sport+. A launch control mode (Mercedes likes to call it ‘Race Start’) is also present and the 7-speed automatic gearbox lets you control things manually via the steering mounted paddle shifts.
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The E63 AMG has a fantastic chassis and the suspension is tuned just right to offer very sharp handling. However there is so much amount of torque that every time you bury your right foot, the E63 wants to head its own way, with the rear wheels smoking in glory. Sure the E63 is tail happy and the steering wheel offers good feedback and control, in spite of being an electric unit. While cornering hard, as you swing to one direction, the E63 AMG’s seat massages you at that part of your body which is being pulled inside. Driving on butter smooth roads of the race track meant we never could judge how the E63’s ride quality is. Braking performance is splendid though and shedding speed from 250 km/hr was a breeze with the brakes not showing any signs of wear.
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So does the Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG make much sense at a price of Rs. 1.55 crores (on-road, Mumbai). It depends on how you look at it. If you want a four door saloon which can address your daily chores without breaking into a sweat, while at the same time turns boy racer when you want it to, the E63 AMG is an excellent candidate. It’s decently loud, very fast, comfortable with excellent interiors and handles well too. Now only if Mercedes got the S version of the E63 AMG to India, the one which belts out 585 BHP of power and 800 Nm of torque, channelling power to all wheels. But in all honestly, the standard E63 AMG is all what you need to blaze the tarmac.