I’m not fancy. I’m simply grateful that I receives a commission to put in writing about and drive automobiles all day, and truthfully it doesn’t take a lot to make me completely happy. I personal a 2017 Mini Cooper S, and when individuals ask me what my dream automobile is I don’t actually have a solution as a result of my Mini does all the things I would like. I purchase new garments perhaps annually, I dwell in a studio condo, and my favourite meals is a tie between mozzarella sticks and pupusas. Having stated that, when the fabulous people at Mercedes supplied to mortgage me a practically quarter-million-dollar 2024 Mercedes-AMG GT63 S E Efficiency 4-Door Coupe to drive out to the Las Vegas Grand Prix, I leaped on the alternative.
Full Disclosure: Mercedes loaned me a AMG GT63 S E Efficiency 4-Door Coupe to drive out to Vegas, put me up in a flowery resort, fed me a lot of scrumptious meals, and facilitated a really once-in-a-lifetime expertise on the Las Vegas Grand Prix for me. And I acquired to scare the crap out of my mother over Thanksgiving with launch management, which was an additional little deal with.
Proper off the bat, it was fairly darn cool to know that the automobile I used to be driving was really quicker than the nonhybrid GT63 that’s used because the System 1 security automobile. Regardless of having probably the longest and most convoluted identify of any automobile on sale right now, the plug-in-hybrid Mercedes-AMG GT63 S E Efficiency 4-Door Coupe is an alarmingly fast car when the celebrities align correctly. Twist the steering wheel–mounted drive mode dial over to Race mode, faucet the middle console–mounted traction management button to set it to Sport Traction, stomp on the brake pedal, flooring the accelerator and say a fast prayer, as a result of the Race Begin launch management is violent. Launch the brake, and set free a guttural scream that your ancestors might hear because the GT63 intestine punches you into the massaging seat and also you rocket away from a cease — virtually any stoplight challenger dumb sufficient to suppose they’re quicker.
Okay, in order that occurs like half the time. The opposite half of the time once you’re attempting to scare the crap out of your mother or your pals, you do all that and the gauge cluster says, “Race Begin not attainable,” and then you definitely appear like an fool. With out Race Begin energetic, the GT63 continues to be very speedy, simply nowhere close to as violent. You see, the GT63 S E Efficiency has the identical twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 engine because the common GT63, however positive factors a rear-mounted electrical motor with 201 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque and a 6.1-kWh battery pack. As with different efficiency hybrid programs, this extremely complicated powertrain must be within the correct mode on the correct time to shine its brightest, and even then typically it simply doesn’t do what you need it to do.
Race Begin unlocks the automobile’s full potential, unleashing all 831 horsepower and 1032 pound-feet of torque for a claimed 0-to-60-mph time of a blistering and really plausible 2.8 seconds. What different giant German efficiency sedan just lately acquired hybridized? Oh yeah, the BMW M5. It was additionally universally criticized for being porky, however the GT63 S E Efficiency is hardly any totally different, weighing in at over 5,320 kilos, just below 70 kilos lower than the M5. That stated, the AMG is 0.6 seconds faster to 60 than the BMW, nevertheless it nonetheless feels hefty when the street will get twisty.
Except for the herculean energy, the GT63 S E Efficiency is a complicated automobile to me. My press automobile price $225,570 (together with a $1,150 vacation spot cost), which is greater than the beginning worth of a Bentley Flying Spur, a automobile that carries much more panache. The AMG GT 4-Door has been round since 2019, and its inside does look dated in comparison with the three-pointed star’s latest choices, although I personally recognize the array of bodily buttons for local weather and drive modes. When my non-car-people pals acquired into the AMG GT, they requested if it was a couple of years previous for the reason that inside didn’t look nearly as good because the CLE press automobile I had some time again. So, relying in your persuasion, this generation-old inside can both be a great factor or a foul factor. The entrance seat cup holders objectively suck, although. Smaller cups don’t match as a result of the cupholder cubby is simply too deep and it pops the highest off of a grande espresso cup, and in case you put one thing greater in there it completely and infuriatingly eliminates the usability of the local weather management buttons.
The platform’s age additionally exhibits a bit when utilizing the GT63 for day by day driving duties. The trip isn’t essentially unhealthy, nevertheless it doesn’t really feel refined. Traversing the damaged concrete roads round Hollywood ends in structural jiggles and a few unusual noises that sound like an overinflated basketball being hucked at a brick wall, a pointy sort of ping noise that’s disconcerting. I additionally skilled some shocking phantom behaviors from the $1,950 Driver Help package deal. When at low speeds, the system engages a visitors jam help mode that’s supposed to assist out, nevertheless it intermittently detected non-existent automobiles in entrance of me when the lead automobile would transfer ahead. I’ve years of expertise with this explicit system and it has by no means behaved this fashion up to now for me, so I’m guessing it was a sensor calibration challenge, however annoying nonetheless.
Except for these points, being within the hybrid GT 4-Door is a reasonably particular expertise. The $1,100 Acoustic Consolation package deal consists of elevated cabin insulation and acoustic glass for the windshield and aspect home windows, which makes it a reasonably good place to sit down whereas the world goes on round you. The inside appears to be like and feels prime quality, and although I’ve by no means seen a red-rimmed steering wheel earlier than, it’s definitely distinctive to say the least. My check automobile had the $3,350 Government Rear Seat package deal, which drops seating capability to 4 and features a “fastened middle enterprise console” with heated and cooled cup holders. Should you’re placing an government behind a GT 4-Door, they’d higher be small as a result of that sloping roofline restricts head room and the rear quarters are a bit cramped as a complete. An enormous rear hatch opens to disclose a compromised but nonetheless usable trunk that has a big elevated rectangle the place the E Efficiency {hardware} lives.
Like within the AMG C63 S E Efficiency, that E Efficiency {hardware} isn’t designed to win inexperienced automobile of the 12 months. The 6.1 kWh battery solely has 4.8 kWh of usable capability, which from my expertise allowed for an EV-only vary of about 4 miles. The regenerative braking system solely features intermittently, and each single time you alter drive modes it’s important to re-set your regen ranges in case you desire something above minimal regen. A professional of such a small battery is that the brakes can really seize sufficient vitality so as to add important cost to the battery, however typically the automobile wouldn’t permit regen to activate, and I couldn’t discover any logical purpose why.
The brakes and transmission would often workforce as much as create scary and unpredictable stopping behaviors in low-speed visitors, too. Generally I’d attempt to come to a easy cease at a visitors gentle, the transmission would all of the sudden jerk and I must apply far more brake stress than regular to forestall a crash. The hybrid system is generally clear in regular use, nevertheless it has unpredictable moments the place it feels poorly built-in and undoubtedly not suited to a automobile costing practically a quarter-million {dollars}. It additionally solely equates to tiny gasoline financial savings, with EPA scores of 25 MPGe with the hybrid system practical and 18 mpg in strictly ICE operation. In my expertise, I noticed round 20 mpg in combined driving situations. For reference, the non-hybrid GT63 S is EPA rated at 15 mpg metropolis and 21 mpg freeway.
So, then, is it a great automobile? Except for the velocity not objectively, however subjectively it’s silly highly effective, silly extreme, and really turns lots of heads regardless of my press automobile being a boring shade of flat grey. If you’d like the final word comfy standing image that’s nonetheless fast, spend the identical cash on the Bentley Flying Spur. If you’d like an obscenely highly effective and distinctive automobile that may often be used to seat 4 and has at the least a bit of electrical vary, it’s best to give the GT63 S E Efficiency a glance. It’s faster than the common GT63 S 4-Door, however who actually must drive a sedan faster than the usual AMG GT63 S? No person that’s who, however that’s additionally why it’s cool, and why you may actually need it.
