Been thinking about a hybrid e53. Mainly wondering about the comfort, as I’ve heard from online car reviewers the road noise is quite bad. I’m not quite a car person, don’t get me wrong I still enjoy a great exhaust and going fast, but I wouldn’t give up the creature comforts. I have a bunch of car person friends that like to track once a year, so I basically want a comfy daily that can also have some fun at the track occasionally. The PHEV is attractive because my commute is short (7mi) and gas is expensive.

I definitely plan on getting the acoustic glass, but how much difference does 20 vs 21 inch wheels make? How’s the suspension comfort? Any known reliability issues?

is the e53 good enough or is a 2 car solution better? as a single guy seems hard to justify 2 cars in the garage

Edit: Also curious if anyone recorded any decibel readings, for reference i recently test drove a new model y and it was ~67 dB at 70mph.

 

I love my E53 but can attest that it is louder and much harder riding than other cars. Recently have driven: X5 hybrid (prior car), Kia Tellruide (wife’s car) and E350 (dealer loaner). All are quieter and softer riding. All are also less fun, slower and less special.

 

You really have to drive one on the roads where you live…on 21s the ride sucks on bad roads, and the tire noise is not insignificant..but only because it so isolated otherwise, especially in EV mode. That said, quickly became used to it…in my experience the PS4S is a noisy tire in general…and on decent roads the ride/handling compromise is great.

But I would never take it on a track. Far too big and heavy to be enjoyable, IMO. PHEV and track car are two extremes; if you want both, it’s two different cars.

 

For starters, the E53 has a coil spring performance suspension, not an air suspension. Not that the air suspension in AMGs that have it is particularly comfortable, it does have the advantage that the spring rate is adjustable, too. With the coil spring suspensions, only the damping is adjustable between the modes, so a coil spring suspension is generally still more firm in the Comfort setting. Some newer AMGs such as the SL and GT coupe have active rollbars in addition to the active damping, so they can be surprisingly comfortable as they relax the roll bars for just strait driving in Comfort mode, which allows for much more independent movement of the wheels over bumps. The general issue with heavy performance cars like the E53 is that the suspension ends up quite firm in order to manage all that weight and not have the body roll around everywhere.

I agree with the above that this isn't a track car. I've driven other E Performance models on the track such as the GT63S E Performance and even the new C63S E Performance. They do handle, but the weight is ever present. I drove the regular GT63S and the E Performance back to back and the weight penalty was painfully obvious. Even though the latter had more power, I ended up having to drive it slower, to avoid flying out of the corners. The weight just wanted to drag it out of every corner. Didn't like it at all.

A PHEV can in theory be interesting. Having a smooth electric car for the commute and an ICE for performance and longer distance. For me though, part of the experience of driving a V8 AMG is that it still feels special even at 30 mph. The other thing since you are single, what do you need a midsize family sedan for? Get a CLE 53. You won’t be able to drive electric, but it might actually be more comfortable, because it isn’t as heavy and I quite enjoyed it on the track as well. It has the new PS S 5 tire, which is awesome.

 

I will say the PHEV portion of the E53 is really good. Even at highway speeds the mileage doesn't tick off as fast as it does on my NX450h. Range billed as 50 miles with each full charge, imagine I'm getting at least 45-48 miles in reality. I haven't seen how far I can go with 0 miles to go so it may squeeze out another mile or so.

I am at 900-some miles and still have half a tank of gas from delivery. Only driving 7 miles for a commute, you could easily keep up with just level 1 charging.

I think it's a good one car solution unless you want a sports car. If you have the funds I could understand leasing an EV for daily commute and having something trackable or at least fun to drive as well for the weekends.