’19 Mercedes-AMG GT 53: Luxury, fury
locking differential that’s found on the GT 63, but the all-wheel-drive system is still welcome. The sharpness of the powertrain feels like it could overwhelm the tires if there were only two driven wheels; four wheels is the way to go here. Fuel economy is an EPA-estimated 19/24/21 mpg city/highway/combined.
The standard adaptive suspension does a good job mitigating body roll without sacrificing too much feel. Other suspensions like this take away too much of the driving sensation. To be sure, a car that controls its mass is a faster car, but that type of vagueness is unsettling; if I’m not on a track, I prefer to feel the car move a little to let me know what it’s doing — and the AMG GT 53 does just that. Scroll through the car’s suspension modes and you’ll fine a perfect setting for each situation. It transitioned from sharp canyon-carver to luxury cruiser at the touch of a button. Same goes for the steering, which was amply weighted and provided plenty of feedback.
I love interiors with a lot of color, so when I opened the door to the AMG GT 53 I let out an audible gasp — followed up by the fleet rep who dropped off the car saying, “I know, right?” The same thing that’s true about the driving experience (loud and luxurious) applies to the car’s insides.
The seats and interior styling are fantastic, but they don’t come cheap. My test car’s color was called Red Pepper, and wrapping the interior with it costs a cool $3,950. The Nappa-leatherwrapped steering wheel adds $500. Tack on $2,500 for AMG performance seats, $700 to make them multifunctional, and another $450 each to add heating and ventilation, and the price tag for the interior (without including a few other options) jumps up to nearly $10,000.
The dashboard looks deceptively simple, but it hides complicated secrets. Twin 12.3-inch widescreen displays are mounted side by side to give the appearance of one ultra-wide screen: The left one serves as the de facto instrument panel, while the right one controls the vehicle’s many multimedia functions and vehicle settings. The AMG GT 53 uses Mercedes latest system, called MBUX, and it’s a powerful — if rather convoluted — system. This car has a ton of customizable options on it and the menus can get labyrinthian. A new owner could easily take between 30 minutes and an hour getting the car set up the way they’d like, but once it is set up it makes quite a home.
The control scheme doesn’t really help matters. You can control the system via myriad voice commands, using the touchpad between the front seats, touching the screen itself or using a pair of controllers on the steering-wheel spokes that you scroll over with your thumbs.
No beating around the bush, the AMG GT 53 will put a dent in your wallet. Its base price is as close to six figures as you can get: $99,995 including destination charge. My test vehicle tacked on more than $25,000 in options on top of that, landing at a final price of $125,300. As mentioned earlier, almost $10,000 of that comes from just the interior, and the inside isn’t alone in being expensive; just that very cool matte paint job is $3,950.
It’s kind of off-putting that something this expensive doesn’t come with many standard safety features. The Driver Assistance Package, which adds adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist, among other features, costs another $2,250. A 360-degree camera system is a stand-alone $500 option.
I will concede this point though: It’s a car that feels like it earns every dollar of that big price. The AMG GT 53’s easy transition between luxury cruiser and capable sports sedan makes it a vehicle that’s both easy to drive every day and a blast when the road winds. It’s fantastic.