The 2021 Mercedes AMG E63 S is the tattooed muscle guy with an attitude and flaring nostrils. It is the fastest, roughest and meanest E-Class of the bunch.
With 603 horsepower and 627 pound feet of torque going to all four wheels it erupts from 0-60 in some 3.3 seconds. It’s a loud blast of drama, aided by its strong-arm 9-speed automatic transmission and a myriad of electronic traction programs.
It’s AMG Air Body Control suspension all through launch, cruise, race and relaxing orbit continuously with its three chamber springs. This design allows it control over both air-spring stiffness and damper adjustments.
In spite of its base drive mode being called “Comfort”, the baseline is race-car stiff. It goes up from there as you dial up Sport, Sport+ and Race. The latter leaves you almost defenseless with most nannies shut down and adrift in rear-wheel drive power bias.
It sounds good. It looks good too. Our test capsule came in a satin finish designo optional paint. Big 20-inch shoes framed out some very expensive carbon ceramic brakes with yellow calipers. Two appearance packages of glass black plastic and carbon fiber were the cufflinks and belt.
Like its dressy exterior, the inside the cabin of our tester is lined with expensive accoutrements like carbon fiber trim, sport seats with sueded Nappa leather and a dash and door panels lined with soft trim stitched with yellow thread.
The seats grab you tight and are very comfortable up front, the artistic design makes you feel like you’re in like flint. The Burmester sound system finishes the job buy singing you beautiful music. All of this is augmented by the soft glow of colorful LED accent lighting throughout.
At $135,700 you should expect all of this. This is a car that feels every bit of its price, though the near $30,000 of options seem a bit on the over priced side – the $9,000 ceramic brakes and $5,800 of carbon fiber trim especially.
In the end however, most buyers in this show room aren’t too worried about the details. The Mercedes AMG E63S is expensive because of the muscle, the attitude and the confidence in which it pulls it all off. That, is almost priceless.
