Mercedes-Benz AMG C63 S Saloon Review & Prices

The Mercedes-AMG C63 S is a bit like meeting a friend you haven’t seen for years and discovering they’ve had plastic surgery. They’re familiar, but somehow different.

That’s how it is with the C63 S E-Performance. It has things a proper AMG should have, like bonkers power, a muscular body kit, carbon fibre trim and huge alloy wheels. But one of the key ingredients is missing. Instead of a bellowing V8, the new E-Performance has a four-cylinder engine and hybrid power.

To some this is sacrilege, to some it’s inevitable, to others, both. But the motoring world has changed and the new AMG C63 is changing with it.

That makes it stand out against its key alternatives, which haven't switched to electrification just yet, namely the BMW M3 and Audi RS4.

What should reassure AMG fans to some extent is that this is a seriously quick car. With a maximum combined output of 680hp and four-wheel drive, warp-factor speed is guaranteed. Mercedes claims a 0-60mph time of 3.4 seconds, but during a test drive we saw 3.0 seconds.

Watch: New v old Mercedes-AMG C63 drag race

Power comes from a 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine up front and an electric motor at the rear. The latter can drive the front and rear wheels through a two-speed gearbox, although you’d be breaking the speed limit in the UK before the second speed kicks in. It’s more for ’bahn-storming the German motorway network than lapping the M25.

To cope with all that power, the brakes are upgraded compared with those in a regular C-Class. Buyers can opt for striking red calipers, or ceramic brakes with gold calipers.

The suspension is also uprated compared with more humble C-Class models to a sportier set-up with adaptive dampers. There are three settings; Comfort, Sport, and Sport Plus. We’ll reserve final judgement until we’ve driven the car in the UK, but Comfort is generally the best setting for most driving situations. Sport makes bumps more noticeable but improves the way the car goes around corners so you can really enjoy an empty B-road, while Sport Plus will be the first choice of track-day fanatics.

And the C63 feels right at home on a track. It’s enormously quick down the straights and around the corners. Four-wheel steering is standard, which makes for quick and lively turn-in to tight corners but keeps things stable on open sweepers.

The brakes are immensely powerful, shedding speed quickly when needed, and the stability control system is so sophisticated you barely notice that it’s working at all.

If anything, the new AMG C63 is even more capable as a fast road car than a track weapon, and despite losing the glorious V8 engine it’s quicker point-to-point than the old model. Put your foot on the throttle and the electric motor kicks in first, filling any gap in the power delivery while the gearbox knocks down a gear and the petrol engine punches the Mercedes towards the horizon.

So, do AMG fans have anything to worry about? Well, the new car isn’t perfect. No amount or artificial noise-enhancing trickery can make a turbocharged four-cylinder engine sound like a V8. And being a hybrid, the car is very heavy – it’s lardier than some big SUVs. While AMG’s chassis engineers have done a brilliant job of disguising this bulk, the new C63 isn’t as nimble as a lighter sports saloon.

The weighty hybrid system also compromises boot space, with a hump in the boot floor. Saloon buyers may be happy to live with this, but it’s a real shame that it steals luggage space in the estate model.

So, this technical tour-de-force is a genuinely exciting car. But does it have the character of the old C63 V8? No, it doesn’t.

Even so, this is still a true AMG. A different kind of AMG perhaps, but an AMG nonetheless – if that sounds like your thing, find out how much you could save by checking out the latest Mercedes-AMG C63 S deals through Carwow. You can also browse used AMG C63 models and other used Mercedes. Carwow can help if you want to sell your car online, too.