A race car in disguise
Mercedes’ new offering is pure luxury and speed.
This sedan is more of a hard-edged, pure driver’s car than the competition
First thing you have to know about the Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S 4MATIC+ sedan is it bears little structural relationship to the Mercedes-AMG GT Coupé we tested a while back.
Gosh; you don’t think the similarity in the names is a deliberate attempt to fool the customer, do you? Or the inattentive journalist? Naw... Second thing you have to know is this is a brilliant car, which in my view successfully bridges the gap between the all-out performance of its GT Coupé cousin and the E-Class family cars with which it shares some bones.
Third thing: I call this vehicle a sedan for one simple reason — it is a sedan.
What else would you call a car with four doors and four (optionally, five) seats?
Like other German manufacturers, Mercedes thinks that just because it has a sloping roofline and frameless side windows, although it does have a middle roof pillar, they can call this a coupé.
Not in my column. I write in English.
Labels be damned, this is a true AMG product, built at AMG’s facility in Affalterbach, and this body style is not available as a “normal” Mercedes.
My tester was actually a 2019 model, whose base list price was $177,500, and it topped out at $189,500. The 2020 model with a few extra bits of equipment starts at $182,600.
Chances are, your dealer won’t have many (any?) in stock. But you’d probably want to spec yours out anyway — the option list is endless.
The engine is the hottest locally available version of the corporate 4.0-litre twin-turbo V-8, producing 630 horsepower between 5,500 and 6,600 r.p.m., and 664 lb.-ft. of torque between 2,500 and 4,500 r.p.m. The signature of the sole engine assembler is on a plaque on the engine itself.
Interesting to note, this is actually more power than its allegedly more sporting cousin the AMG GT. Tobias Moers, head of AMG, told me at that car’s launch its dual-clutch transmission had a torque limitation the more powerful engine would exceed.
The GT S therefore uses Mercedes’ nine-speed automatic with the multi-plate clutch pack eliminating the sloppy starts that even the best torque-converter automatics can occasionally deliver, mounted up front behind the engine.
Suspension is the “AIRMATIC’’ system, with multi-chamber air springs and AMG’s adaptive dampers.
The “4MATIC+” part of the name means Mercedes’ fulltime four-wheel-drive system, which automatically directs torque to whichever wheel can best use it.
The car is gorgeous, from the aggressive grille, slim LED headlights and subtle power bulges on the hood; through the smooth flanks with a subtle character line running the length of the car; to the slim tail lights and massive quad tailpipes and rear diffuser in the tail.
One harsh false note: the
“vents” above the car’s nameplates on the sides just ahead of the front doors are fake. Shame.
At least the vents behind the rear wheels are real to allow air under the wheel arches to escape.
I was not initially a fan of matte paint finishes. The paint industry spent a century figuring out how to make cars shiny; now for an extra few grand you can make it look like someone painted it with a broom.
I’m starting to come around, because the “Designo Brilliant Blue Magno” looks terrific on this car. Another $2,500 from your piggy bank.
The interior is equally gorgeous, with real tree-wood (open-pore grey ash; $500), saddle-brown/black Nappa leather upholstery ($1,800) and top-quality materials everywhere, with the exception of the cover of the centre console in the rear seat, which is a cheap-looking bit of plastic. An odd oversight.
There are all sorts of features you will be discovering months after you take delivery.
Such as an interior colour lighting scheme that lets you choose the shade to suit your mood or taste.
And, the dash vents glow red or blue depending on whether warm or cool air is flowing through them.
The seats strike an excellent balance between the comfort required of a Grand Touring car and the lateral support needed for a car that handles this well.
The rear seat (two buckets or the optional three-seat bench) is actually habitable, provided occupants aren’t much taller than six feet. Your view of the outside world will be limited, however; the massive frontseat headrests take up most of the forward aspect, and the rear side windows are small triangles through which you must peek.
The dash and minor controls are a mix of the latest in Mercedes’ interior technology, with a couple of touches from the older-parts bin.
The twin screens on the dash provide a wide range of layouts depending on the selected driving mode. They are bright and readable, although it will take some time to know where every tidbit of information is located.
One of the “throwback” bits is the round knob on the centre console allowing selection of various functions. In some newer Mercedes models, this has been replaced with a touch pad hard enough to figure out when you’re standing still; when you are taking advantage of this car’s prodigious performance, it would be impossible, bordering on hazardous.
Some carmakers, with Mazda taking the lead, are starting to agree with me about this “just-touch-this” concept for the simple reason it is wrong.
Maybe when cars are driving themselves, you’ll have time to figure these things out. But then, why buy a car this much fun to drive yourself?
No Mercedes road test would be complete without my usual beef about the shift knob. Despite the German penchant for intelligence and logic, they continue to have Park selected by pushing a button instead of just shoving the shift lever full-forward.
Not only does this contravene 70-odd years of accepted practice for zero additional functionality, but it might be dangerous because it’s hard to get your finger on the button hidden under the shift knob itself. Sorry; it’s just stupid. That said, driving is what this car is all about, and it delivers.
Slam-you-back-into-the-seat levels of acceleration are a mere stab of the loud pedal away. Zero-100 km/h takes a tick over three seconds, at which point the car is barely clearing its throat.
A seamless upshift, and off you go to the red line again.
This auto-box is one of the most clever in the business, seemingly predicting what gear you’re going to need and selecting it for you. If you think you can do a better job (hint: you can’t), you can play with the steering column paddles, or that damnable shift knob.
Throttle response is about as quick as turbocharged engines get, a benefit of those turbos being nestled between the cylinder banks, close to the intake manifolds.
Even when you’re going about 70 or 80 km/h and hammer on the gas on a dry road, you can still get the traction control light to flash.
Fuel crisis? What fuel crisis? Gas is currently 80 cents a litre at my local self-serve...
Handling is outstanding, belying the car’s massive 2,000-kg-plus weight.
The steering is precise and perfectly weighted.
This car has Mercedes’ fourwheel steering — in-phase at higher speeds for more stability, counter-phase at low speeds for more agility. The fact that you absolutely cannot feel it working shows how well worked out it is.
As I mentioned in my review of the AMG GT coupé, Mercedes’ test drivers had the ability to shut this feature off (again, you can’t) and the car handled much better with it activated.
The optional Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires — same as on my Targa Newfoundland Nissan Juke although these are much bigger — provide astonishing levels of grip. From my personal Targa experience with this tire, they don’t abandon you if it starts to rain.
Several drive mode settings are available via a rotary knob on the steering wheel at about the four-o’clock position. Throttle response, transmission shift speed, ride height, suspension firmness, even the exhaust note, are all altered in fairly predictable ways for the “Comfort,” “Sport” and “Sport+” modes.
“Drift” mode lets you play full-on hooligan if you have an unlimited tire budget.
“Race” mode converts it into a rear-drive car. AMG suggests you limit this setting to track use.
Killjoys; it was not so long ago AMG didn’t build any fourwheel-drive cars because they were deemed insufficiently sporty to bear this hallowed nameplate.
You can also program and store your own preferred settings.
Even with the suspension set to Comfort, ride quality is definitely on the firm side. It’s a small price to pay for the grip. So, is the Mercedes AMG GT S 4MATIC+ a luxury car? Is it a very fast GT car? Is it a thinly disguised race car?
I’d say yes, yes and yes. Its closest competitor would be the Porsche Panamera Turbo. One advantage the Porsche offers is the station wagon (Sport Turismo) body style, which is even more capacious than the AMG’s. But the AMG GT S is more hard-edged, more of a pure driver’s car.
This customer is surely going to own more than one car.
If (s)he wants some serious driving fun and can find three friends to share it with, this would be the one to choose.