Thanks for posting this. For what it’s worth, I called Rockville Centre, the dealer that has the car listed above. Apparently, it’s not spoken for and it’s supposed to arrive sometime in the first full week of February. The dealer thinks the MSRP will be $95-100K but MB hasn’t told them anything. Unsurprisingly, they seem pretty interested in trying to sell it.

 

I see only 4 in transit nationwide on Autotrader, this is one of them. That it's not spoken for as 1 of only 4 is telling for how sales of these have been going elsewhere. I suspect the others are not spoken for, either and they won't show up at dealerships until prices have been announced and they are officially released for sale. Could be weeks. These particular ones may also need some updates first to try to sort out the issues. Good luck with the first year models of these. I probably wouldn't even touch them next year.

 

I wonder if it actually arrives to dealer next week. That seems rather soon. But good to know.

Will be interested to see how it plays out with sales and the MSRP once released.

 

https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/n...63-still-fast/

Looks like release for sale this week in Australia.

 

OT: Younger Brother was trained to sell cars at MB of Rockville Center. He told me a story while we were visiting our Cousin from the back seat of my AMG E63s Wagon last month in Nassau County that once upon a time a Successful Long Island exclusive Studebaker Dealer decided to give floor space to a new to US German Brand when other established Dealerships would not. Now they only sell Mercedes-Benz.

 

I think lots of people are going to be watching this car.

 

I agree and the plateau actually comes from the previous gen, C218, W212 and W221. From there they had very little to improve on, and very little tech to add, even so the W213 and W222 are bloody masterpieces. We lived in an era, where we had Sedans with V8 BiTurbo engines as powerful as supercars (in 2012) and just as fast. The CLS 63 AMG in 2012 would beat on a Gallardo, 458 from its time pretty easily. From there on, very little was added in terms of mechanics and evolution of these cars.

The new cars could just have been a facelift on them, or add all the goodies to the new platform. But instead, AMG went with this insane E-Performance idea. They made the cars so damn heavy and complicated plagued with tons of issues.

 

Spot on. BMW and Porsche understood the tide, and went with it, offering both enthusiast options (S55 engine, S63 engine) and electric options. Mercedes did not give the customer any option.

 

Never having owned a 218/212 (almost did though!) and a 221, but test driven all of them, I'd like to think that the 4.0TT with the 9 speed and updated ECU programming were much better cars than the 5.5TT and the 7 speeds. Add in the increased tech, luxury, and beauty, and I still think the 213/222 were the best Mercedes' ever made. Only real complaint was that the 213 (at least pre-facelift) suspension was so incredibly hard, that it's the only reason why I didn't buy one.

The E-performance idea is definitely controversial, but with emissions regulations, I don't see where there were many other options. Nonetheless, yes, what they've created still appears to be in it's infancy at best. I'm not a fan, but at least they're pushing on the envelope.

On the separate post about BMW and Porsche - those buyers are a different breed. No matter how ugly the BMW, no matter how terrible the exhaust sounds, no matter how underpowered, no matter how bland the interior, and no matter how unreliable, there were still be tons of people who flock to buy the latest BMW performance vehicle. It's part of the successful branding they created in having the "ultimate driving machine". Mercedes doesn't have that kind of cult following; there is some on the AMG side, but not much, and definitely not to the BMW/M level. Similarly with Porsche, where their following has given Porsche the ability to sell very expensive cars (and yet if you read up on the 911, they change hands fairly often because the older guys who buy them end up seeing how uncomfortable they are). I actually find Porsche to be a different success story, just with how the 911 has come back, how the Cayenne saved the company, how they made smaller cars that were going to be laughed at (Cayman and Macan) into extreme successes, and how they came out with an exciting electric car like the Taycan. I give Porsche a lot of positive credit with their success.

 

No, their quoted times are standard. Any "in production" car says estimates 4-6 weeks, any "Product not Shipped" car says 3-4 weeks, any "on water" car says 1-2 weeks, any "VPC" car says 4-5 days, any "Intransit 2 MBRVC" says 1-2 days, it's just the banners they put on. Doesn't mean anything. They had S Classes say "VPC 5-7 days" for 6 months.

 

I think you did not undestand me. I had the pleasure of owning the C218, W212 and W213. The W213 is better in every way shape or form, but I still think the edge and insanity of these power house sedans started with the C218 and W212, and in fact, those cars were the ones that pushed the game that far. I had the pleasure of owning a brand new E 63 AMG in 2014/2015 (don't remember the year specifically) and holy ****, it was a whole new ball game, it was ludicrously fast for that time. Yeah the transmission was alright (not great but not bad), but at that time, this thing would make mince meat out of most supercars of the time. I had a mate who had a 458 at the time, and he got to drive and ride with me in the E 63, and he was like "Holy **** this is insane".

The E63 W213 (to me the best car I owned thus far) and M5 F90 are insanely fast and good (probably the most complete all round packages under a M760Li and a S63/S65 AMG) but those cars at the time they arrived were not a novelty, we already had become used to the insane speed of the supersedans before them (the CLS, E 63 with the 5.5 and the M5/M6 with 4.4TT and RS6/RS7 with 4.0TT). Yeah surely the transmission improvement (MCT 7 vs MCT 9) and addition of AWD in the W213 and F90 (although we already the 4 Matic before), and the addition of stuff such as CarPlay, new self autonomous tech (although MB already had Distronic Plus which was pretty good), made for vast improvement over the out going cars, it wasn't a revolution like the jump from W211 6.2 or E60 V10 to those twin turbo monsters.

On the subject of BMW and Porsche, I disagree, at least in Brazil, the people who own Mercedes, they buy mostly Mercedes. Mercedes has a huge brand loyalty, far greater than BMW and Audi, mostly due to its heritage and history. The trouble is that the Brand has forgotten what it stands for. MB used to stand for a quality premium that it no longers commands.

BMW M is still getting tons of criticism but they have delivered on what they promised and they keep delivering on what the customer wants. We don't see BMW M going full radical killing their M cars with their prestigious engines (inline 6, V8s) to offer only hybrids and electric cars. BMW has had the brains to keep both electric, hybrid and gasoline powered options on their range. MB hasn't done that. They went full retard, limiting you to the choice they want. I think MB understand that it needs to pioneer, but they have gone for an option that is far too complicated and customers have rejected it. Instead of backing down, they said "f... it". I also understand the logic of the hybrid options, but if you see what is around on the market, and the current Euro Emissions rules, MB is the only one that went to such complications and has limited their product range thus far.

Porsche is a whole different thing. I have little experience with the brand, I really enjoy it, although I feel that is another brand that is losing its identity. The new crop of Electric only cars from Porsche seems to go completely against what they stand for.

 

Not sure if they did something to the exhuast here, but sounds different form initial reviews. Maybe lack of OPF filter.

 

Hey all those who had said that AMG has lost its ways, looky at new M5: same configuration with a gas and electric engines combined and 1000 lb heavier than the last.
Must've lost its way too. Surely couldn't be a government fault !

 

This one is an interesting take on it. Seems like they may have ironed out some of the initial powertrain issues and it's starting to work together better. Although he seemed to be mostly driving it in Sport+/Race where the engine is always engaged instead of the hybrid mode where it comes and goes. I haven't watched his C43 review, but apparently he's not a fan and thinks this should have been the new C43. His most interesting comment to me was that it feels like a fast Audi and not an AMG. I haven't thought of it this way, but I think that's part of why it doesn't appeal to me. It even has to be driven like a fast Audi to avoid terminal understeer. That's a big reason for why I left Audi. I came from the 2013 Audi RS5 with the high revving V8 and was disappointed with the current V6 RS5, because it very much lacked everything I loved about the previous generation and didn't bring anything exciting to the table. Interesting point at the end as well that it's the wrong car for its time. That probably explains why nobody seems to buy it.

 

The car is trash, drove it twice now with the second time being just 2 weeks ago for 5 days straight. French cars have better quality than this trash can on wheels.

 

I like this reviewer and I like the thought that this should have been the C43, that would have been the game changer MB needed. The new C63 is not an evolution but a radical departure from a legendary AMG model.

 

What?

Are you comparing a car which is rumored to keep its famed engine with an additional electric engine, to a car which downsized from a V8 to a gutless 4 cyl ?

The weight issue is ridiculous, but then again it's rumours. Nonetheless, if you look at the bimmerpost forum, the owners of the F90 aren't too happy with this new G90.

 

I liked this review. It seems some issues have been ironed out with the production models. Nonetheless he did not seem to happy with the car.

The boot is a joke too.

 

Where/how did you drive it?

 

To those who are open to new realities (known MA / AMG bashers should skip)

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...formance-test/

https://www.caranddriver.com/feature...ath-explained/

 

Mercedes had to pay them to say something good about this trash. Drive it yourself first.

 

These reviews were interesting. Good reads. Doesn't change my opinion of the car, but I will get to have a crack in one pretty soon.

 

The Car and Driver review is FAR FROM a good review. They struggled to say anything nice about the car and clearly stated they preferred the previous V8 model. So bashers, read on.

This car is a disaster.

 

Got to see it for the first time. Price here in Brazil is ridiculous btw (R$ 999.998) - which is US$ 200k.

Looks banging in person.

 

That is a crazy price. Out of curiosity, what is the M3/M4 priced at in Brazil?