When I was driving primarily on electric mode, I really liked how the E53 drove. It is quiet, composed, and refined but with sports car handling and instant electric torque. I was thinking that the E53 would be great as an all-electric vehicle.

Recently I did some drives in sport mode. It was a great driver in sport mode. I was thinking the E53 makes a great combustion engine car with an electric motor booster. Someone could easily use sport mode as their primary driving mode. It's nice to put it in sport mode when there is some open road and put it back into electric mode when in local traffic. The car shifts smoothly in all modes, but the audible down shift rev matching in sport mode adds to the fun.

The last three days, I did some drives in comfort mode. I forgot to charge the car the night before the first day of driving, so I got some combustion engine hybrid driving in. The car is surprisingly efficient on gas with 0% everyday usable state of charge on the battery. The next two days, after charging the battery, the E53 did the local driving in electric mode unless I got on the accelerator. Then it would add the combustion engine. I didn't feel the haptic resistance point of the accelerator pedal when driving on the electric motor in comfort mode. I'm not 100% sure that the haptic resistance isn't there in comfort mode in every situation, but it does seem like the haptic resistance isn't needed in comfort mode where the car is going to turn on the combustion power if it might be needed soon. A steady roll on to the accelerator with around 20% additional travel started up the combustion engine. I was driving on local roads, so I couldn't get close to full throttle. This car has enough power to get moving quickly, especially when it is combining the electric motor and combustion engine. It is certainly possible to use comfort mode as the primary driving mode.

In most cars, I have a preferred driving mode, usually economy or comfort for commutes and errands, with the option to call up power quickly when needed and to switch to a sportier mode when out for a drive. In the E53, electric, comfort and sport modes are comfortable for daily driving and have power on tap for spirited driving or emergency maneuvers. All three modes are so good, that I can't say that one is the clear winner. It's certainly nice to be able to drive in electric mode in traffic and switch to sport mode on open roads. Comfort mode is all-around good. However, in comfort mode, changing regeneration level via the paddle shifters is not available. The car is always in "auto" regeneration mode. You could call this "variable" regeneration mode. The car does a decent job of selecting the regeneration level when going down hills and driving on the highway. However, when approaching a corner, or entering a lower speed limit zone, it sometimes uses heavy regeneration where I would use normal or none. After driving the car more, I am getting used to not fully releasing the accelerator in comfort mode to avoid unexpected maximum braking from the electric generator, but on an AMG, which is the sport side of Mercedes, being able to select the regeneration level in comfort mode and to know how the car will respond to taking the foot off the accelerator would be an improvement in an otherwise excellent comfort dynamic select program.

 

That is an interesting use of individual mode.

Excluding the E53 which I don't manually shift, I normally use the paddles to override the gear temporarily but otherwise let the car drive in automatic mode. I might manually downshift before a turn and then put the car back into automatic mode after the turn. I'll try using your method of going into manual shift mode on open roads and on the highway.

I've found that in a Mercedes with 8 or 9 gear ratios there a lot of shifting. The 1 to 2 shift comes up really quick and is particularly challenging when turning 90 degrees onto a road from a stop at a stop light. That shift can happen in the middle of the turn. It's hard for me to execute because my hands are at 9 O'clock and 3 O'clock and the paddles are at 12 and 6. I'd rather have the paddles on the column staying at 9 and 3.

If you are using manual mode while already driving on open roads and on the highway, the 1 to 2 shift while turning issue goes away.

 

I've mostly owned cars with manual transmissions in over 25 years. You are correct that the 1st gear is very short and there are a lot of gears. It's 4 gears more than a 5-speed manual or 3 gears more than a 6-speed, but I don't find that much of an issue as I frequently skip gears. I often downshift 2 gears at once, for example dropping from 9th straight to 7th and then 5th. That can be done by double-clicking the downshift paddle. Or pressing and holding the downshift paddle drops to the lowest gear possible for maximum acceleration at the current speed. I don't use that often as it takes about 1 second, but it's a trick in the sleeve that's good to know. The MCT certainly handles all of this better than the TCT in the 53.

As for 1st gear, I rarely go all the way down to 1st. I hold it in 2nd when coming to a stop or creeping around at low speeds. It only drops to 1st if I come to a full stop for long enough, and then I often short shift back up into 2nd as I pull off. It's not just that the 1st gear is short, with RWD in my case I just spin my rear tires if I try to gun it in 1st, so short shifting is what allows me to control the torque.

Also, 7, 8 and 9 are overdrive gears. They are really only there for cruising and fuel efficiency, so when I'm driving spirted I simply stay out of them. 6th gear is direct drive (1:1). For example on my canyon drives I'm mostly in 3rd and 4th gear, occasionally down to 2nd and then maybe go up to 5th and 6th if there's a long straight. 7, 8 and 9 are only for cruising on the highway.

You really have to look at these transmissions with the right set of eyes. It's a short gearing 6-speed with 3 overdrive gears. The overdrive gears give it the fuel economy, so you get to enjoy fun short gears in the lower gears. Short gears are more fun, because the car accelerates faster and you get to enjoy the transmission and engine top end more. The few manual transmission cars that you can still buy, most of them have tall gears in order to get the fuel economy. Tall gears are nice on the track where you are looking for speed, but for road driving it means you don't really get to enjoy it, because 2nd gear already exceeds the speed limit. Having 9 gears gives you the best of both worlds. Short lower gears for fun driving and tall top gears for cruising and fuel economy.

 

I drove the E53 in comfort mode again today. I was watching the transition from electric drive to the start of the combustion engine where it automatically switches into comfort mode. In comfort mode, there is no haptic resistance a max electric power as there is in electric mode. As soon as the electric power meter hits 100%, the combustion engine turns on. It is a good design choice to have haptic feedback when in electric mode but going directly to the combustion engine in comfort mode.

As the combustion engine turns on, it is nearly imperceptible except for the sounds of the engine. It seems like there would be a noticeable power surge like a turbo kicking in. I wonder if at the point the combustion engine turns on, power from the electric motor is reduced by the same amount.of power the combustion engine is producing. The effect is that at the transition point, the power remains the same as before the transition point, but more power is available by pressing the accelerator pedal more.

The hybrid drive train in the E53 is well done.

 

A lot of fantastic responses since I opened up this thread. Overall, I'm very pleased with the vehicle. The gear shifting between electric and hybrid and combustion is really, really smooth. I mostly find myself driving in Sport Plus mode. The sound of the vehicle is so nice. My wife usually drives it on electric mode. By the end of the day, we have completely depleted the battery and then added some more miles on top. For someone who's coming from purely electric vehicles, I appreciate how convenient this car is where I can easily do a quick fill up if I need to, but use electric mode as needed for my majority of my commute. What I did not expect from the car was how much attention it will attract. Maybe it's the sound from the gas mode, but this seems to be a head turner, though not as much as a G-Wagon. The middle seat is essentially useless. The G-Wagon is significantly more usable, but I guess that makes sense.
My only gripe with the vehicle is how Mercedes has moved everything to touch buttons. They're very annoying. From things like adjusting the volume to turning on the cameras as needed, I really miss the hard buttons that Mercedes has on my 2025 GLS and my 2025 G-Wagon. I wish they would have kept that the same rather than going the route that they did. On the other hand, I very much appreciate how fast the overall UI is compared to the MBOS that I have on my 2025 vehicles. oh, and the digital key - that works fantastically.

 

Congratulations on the new E53!

Yep. Your comments sum up the 2026 E53. I'm glad that you are very pleased with it overall.

I find changing the volume by using the +/- touch buttons below the center screen works much better than trying the volume control on the steering wheel (which I refer to as the volume randomizer.)

 

Makes total sense. Thanks for the post.

When driving in manual mode from a start, I did start shifting into second before the turn, but I didn't do it enough to make it a habit. I'd forget to shift while starting and hit the rev limiter mid-turn. If I made a habit of doing a short shift into second, I could drive in manual mode from a start. Your points about the higher gear ratios are quite good.

I have only intentionally downshifted the E53 once. That was during the test drive. The downshift took longer than I expected. I didn't consider that much of a problem because the car has so much power. Other AMG Speedshift TCT's have gotten fast enough at shifting that I like them. I was expecting the E53 to be similar and maybe it is depending upon the dynamic select settings. The Speedshift TCT doesn't have the instant shift and immediate rev matching of a Porsche Macan dual clutch automatic (perhaps my favorite transmission), but it is fast enough. In comparison, the 2012 era regular Mercedes automatic was so slow at shifting, that I just didn't want to manually shift it. As the E53 gets some more miles on the engine, I may try some more manual shifts. It might downshift differently in S or S+ mode versus C mode, and there probably would be a slight delay if the car was in C mode running on electric and the driver called for a downshift since the engine would need to start.

 

I tried the E53 for a little bit in S+, sport plus mode. In S+ mode it does drive a gear lower to get more in the power band and have more engine noise. The sound is set to "powerful."

 

Thanks for thr update. Enjoy!

 

Yes, the TCT has perceptible delays during up and downshifts in all modes. I haven't driven the E53, but I drove the CLE53 in the optional Race mode. It's not bad as you say, but also not good. As much as I don't like a torque converter in a performance car, BMW and Audi manage to make the ZF8 shift pretty much instantly in their M and RS/S cars, but perhaps AMG is deliberately reserving that for the MCT, which has those instant crisp shifts and thanks to having a clutch instead of a torque converter it's more responsive and feels more connected than either the TCT or the ZF8.