2008 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG.
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
It’s no news that we at Winding Road and NextAutos are fortunate enough to have an ever-changing fleet of test vehicles for us to drive and review. In our Fleet Review segment, we highlight the overall experiences of our time with these test vehicles, but we’ve given this series a new name—Editors’ Roundtable. Why? While these reviews focus on an all-encompassing overview of our time in these vehicles, they also highlight each of our editors’ individual impressions and independent experiences with each test vehicle.
This time around, we present the bad-to-the-bone Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG sedan, Benz’s answer to the BMW M3. The M3 may be a bit more nimble and is definitely the sleeper car of choice, but at least some of us would choose the AMG every single day of the week if given the chance. It’s just that good.
Chris Paukert
Editor-In-Chief
There are two schools of thought on how to do this whole German sport-sedan thing. One is the precision instrument approach, with exactingly meted-out effort and feedback, resulting in a delicious economy of movement and fluidity of responses. The BMW M3 is archetype of this methodology.
The alternative is a riff on the classic Detroit muscle car formula: a big honkin’ engine in a small package. That’s the response embraced by the folks at Mercedes-Benz, who have shoveled their characterful 6.2-liter 32-valve V-8 into yet another bodystyle (this engine has been loaned out to so many model ranges that it’s only a matter of time before some nutter shoehorns one into the ass-end of an A-Class to create a neo Renault R5). Often, these sort of engine-swapping exercises result in diabolical Jekyll-and-Hyde automobiles, with stonking straight-line shove but little discipline and flair elsewhere. Not so with this AMG.
Let’s get this out of the way right now: the C63 is not as accurate a tool as the M3. It doesn’t need to be. With 451 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque, this car is a hooligan’s hooligan, and it will flat-out murder the M3 on most every road that doesn’t pile on the corners like so much spaghetti. The AMG driver will undoubtedly perspire a heck of a lot more while doing so—and in fact I’d be willing to bet that an better-balanced M3 would be faster on a set road course—but out in the real world, the C63 is the one you want for sheer point-to-point blastitude, and it’s the one I’d pick every day of the week, and twice on Sundays.
I don’t come about this statement lightly—Traditionally, I’m Mr. Lightweight and Precision. I adore the skeletal minimalism of cars from Caterham and Ariel, and I’d honestly try to make a go of driving one most every day if I could only justify the purchase. More to the point, I generally prefer BMWs to Benzes because of their traditionally more involved driving experience. But I have to say, this AMG lights up the un-P.C. streak in me like few automobiles. it positively sets fire to the part of my brain that has amassed a clutch of CDs that would be embarrassing to share with my fourteen-year-old son–the same part of me which habitually orders steaks “as rare as is humanly possible.”
With as good as this Benz’s seven-speed paddleshift auto is, this diehard tripedalist almost doesn’t even mind that there’s no gearshift lever between the so-snug-they’re-almost-too-tight racing chairs. With the transmission in full manual mode, the paddles behind the perfectly sized flat-bottomed wheel are great fun and the shifts are quicker than you or I could execute with a manual, anyway. The rest of the interior is similarly excellent, with good fit-and-finish and a more intuitive nav and stereo interface than the Bimmer’s iDrive.
As a general rule, enthusiasts will want to motor around with the transmission in Sport setting and the ESP in its middling-meddling mode (it’s entirely too eager to interfere in standard mode to allow any fun). It’s also best to save the tire-shredding sideways antics for quiet roads you know well (or the occasional track day), as the AMG can get a bit hairy the edge of its considerable performance envelope. Said another way, the C63’s watchband-profile rubber offers bags of grip for hustling around corners or evaporating straight stretches of road, but the 6.2-liter will break the whole works loose in a spectacular hurry if you’re too cavalier with the loud pedal. Most importantly, the C63 offers the right velocity, the right noises, and the right accommodations to make everyday driving exciting, and it doesn’t require winding the bejesus out of the engine to feel genuinely quick, an M3 trait that for me that’s exciting in doses but inevitably gets tiresome in daily driving.
Given its patently absurd acceleration, delicious gurglings, and its ability to seat four or five people, this is an unassuming blunt-force supercar bargain at $65,000. It’s 7/8ths of the similarly epic CLK63 AMG Black Series at less than half of the price.
The AMG Hammer is back, and the automotive landscape is all the richer for it.
Reilly Brennan
General Manager
In the C63’s driver’s seat (and we literally mean in the driver’s seat—the folded leather crevasse that you sit in perfectly hugs you like a racing bucket, yet allows for blood flow so your thighs don’t cramp up), there’s a little more visual oomph to the AMG’s treatment of the C-class as opposed to how muted the M Division treats the BMW cars. The instrument cluster is revised (the different number font seems to be one of the smallest—yet most noticeable—changes, inspiring the racing driver cum art director in us), the steering wheel is chopped, egonomicized, and angular looking, and of course there are AMG sill plates.
But, actually wheeling the C63 is where the reward—and surprise—occurs. As strange as it sounds, we always look forward to seat time in any Mercedes-Benz, but rarely do we yearn for their driving character. It seems time and time again we exit M-B cars lamenting a free-floating steering feel and lack of connectedness between the cars’ rotational axis and our inner ear. Turn the C63 on, however, and you’re in for a different experience. It’s actually a beast of a vehicle, with genuinely great steering, power delivery, brakes, and the kind of overall character that’s typically found on other high-performing sedans. After all, it was the first AMG built from the ground up to be an AMG, not just a tuner special.
Mash the throttle and enjoy undeterred V-8 throatiness. Go for a fast lane change and notice the quick turn-in and suspension tracking. Get on the brakes before a sharp right hander and notice how the C63 gathers up in a straight line, without the feeling that the rear end is going to take off somewhere over your head. No kidding—it’s both a sports sedan and a Mercedes-Benz. Of course, given that deliciously high-end combination, the price tops $60,000. Such is the expensive reality of this sort of motoring.
With all that driving goodness, there’s something suspicious about AMG’s lack of manual transmissions, isn’t there? Even if they charged more (and, knowing the price list from AMG it might as well be a lot more), it would go some way toward positioning the group of high-performance cars at or above (in some cases) BMW’s M Division. As it stands now, would you buy the AMG as a genuine sports sedan even without a manual shifter? It’s not even a dual-clutch setup, at that. At the same time, we love what they’ve done with rev-matched, blip-throttle shifting so much that it’s now within the realm of possibility that true enthusiasts could look at this car as a serious alternative to the BMW M3.
Steven J. Ewing
Production Assistant
What an absolute rocket. Just hearing the engine rev at startup is enough to send shivers down your spine and make you grip the steering wheel a bit tighter. During my time in the C63, I took the advice of our editor-in-chief and turned the ESP to Sport mode and switched the seven-speed transmission into full manual mode, giving me uninterrupted use of the two paddles mounted to the steering wheel. This car has an absolutely stunning amount of power and it’s delivered with a solid rush throughout the entire range of each gear. In manual mode, the paddles fire off very quick shifts and hitting the “Down” paddle while coming to a stop and letting the gears wind down from high revs is a lovely symphony, indeed.
The overall appearance of the C63 equally matches the performance. I might shop a BMW M3 Sedan for an everyday-driver with a more sedate, sleeper appearance, but there’s no denying the beauty of this C63. Mercedes really did a nice job with the design of the C-class when it was launched last year and these same design elements work well on the steroid-enhanced C63. The interior is typical Benz fare and the extra-grippy, form-fitting sport seats up front were quite comfortable and were incredibly supportive during tight turns.
On the whole, the C63 might be the most fun-to-drive car I’ve experienced all year. Yes, I’d like a manual transmission, but the seven-speed paddle shift setup works just as well. I’d have a really, really hard time choosing between this and an M3 if a decision ever had to be made because both cars are purely wonderful. Still, the C63 is an elegant beast, and it will continue to run through my mind for a long, long time.
Seyth Miersma
News Writer
I found precious little not to like about the most economical of the AMG offerings (if “economical” can ever be said about a $65,000 car), with almost everything good about Mercedes-Benz luxury and power wrapped up into one bad, bad package.
The 6.2-liter V-8 that was lovingly built by well-skilled AMG hands is a marvel, being about as throaty as one could ask for when under hard acceleration, but reasonably subdued everywhere else. The seven-speed automatic tranny works well with this powerful engine, holding onto gears until you give the go-ahead with the smallest flick of the elegant aluminum paddle shifter. I do wish that the box could be programmed to let me downshift through the gears sequentially all the time, instead of jumping say from fifth to third when a shift is called for at what the computer must see as the wrong speed. Electronic aids turned on or off, there was no problem having a bit of tail-out fun in this Benz.
The C63 lacked nothing in the way of creature comforts in the cabin but still managed to feel and look really low-key. The leather-wrapped buckets were perhaps too sternly bolstered for larger bodies, though they didn’t seem to pinch like similarly aggressive seats sometimes can.
2008 MERCEDES-BENZ C63 AMG
Engine: V-8, 6.2 liters, 32v
Output: 451 hp/443 lb-ft
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
0-62 MPH: 4.3 seconds
Top Speed: 155 mph (electronically limited)
Weight: 3815 lb
Fuel Economy, city/hwy: 12/19 mpg
Price as tested: $65,440
source:nextautos.com
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