Well I took the plunge. Got tired of my 2016 E63 a lot faster than I thought I would. First, I bought a black car against my better judgment and it turns out that color just makes me depressed. Second, I've come to prefer more ground clearance for mountain road fun and to combat the proliferation of dips and speed bumps and the increasingly horrific Bay Area roads. Third, I realize I like the option to have a new car on a semi-regular basis and the E63 is too high a price point for me to do that given AMG depreciation. At $40k less, a new 2019 GLC63 SUV looked to be a perfect fit. Brilliant Blue and Cardinal Red were my colors... I slightly preferred the blue but they are much rarer.

(Side note: What is up with Pacific MB dealers and leasing? Dealers I spoke with fell into two categories -- one set of dealers would give me quotes in a very fair range given the limitations of MB's base money factor, but the other set would consistently quote $300 a month higher. Some of them claimed "their bank" had different criteria, but I thought all MB leases went through MBFS. If not then those dealers are basically just doubling the money factor for their own profit, and I'm shocked that anyone with two brain cells is falling for their bull****.)

Eventually settled on a red GLC63 from M-B of Bakersfield, and decided to make a road trip to pick it up. Props to Surinder Mangat, Internet sales manager there... extremely fair and responsive. If you're in Cali drop him a line.




Car performed flawlessly on the drive home, most of the time in the pouring rain. (Another side note: The Natural Ash trim looks and feels like cheap plastic... on the first day we honestly thought that was what it was, and couldn't imagine why MB would put those odd random-looking textures on it. Would have much preferred glossy wood or carbon fiber.)

After tint/detail:








Since this is a lease I'm going very light on the mods. Nothing that can't be easily undone. Mods of note:

• Eurocharged tune (link): They sell an ODBII handheld for this now, with which you can switch back and forth between tunes -- no more mailing in your ECU. Their handheld arrive in a few days, and after emailing the OEM file Jerry sent me the tuned version within a day. It's spectacular! They claim 476/517 to 570/605, and it's worth noting all GLC63 flavors tune to the same maximums, S and non-S -- one of several good reasons not to waste money on the S Coupe. Car is just stupid fast in Sport/Sport+. Sport+ is too jumpy for me in regular driving, so I tend to stick to Sport.
  
• CETE exhaust flap controller (link): For 400-odd Euros, this little device will keep the flaps on your AMG performance exhaust open 100% of the time when the button is illuminated. You can still creep along quietly if need be by turning off the button. Wasn't too hard to install; I enlarged the center grommet in the trunk floor to run the wires to the two muffler valves, and then tapped two wires into two wires of the same color for the CAN-BUS connection. It does not INCREASE maximum exhaust volume, but the amount of time you HEAR maximum volume is greatly increased. Even just jumping along at low RPMs in traffic can be deliciously noisy. One caveat: You still mostly only get the downshift crackles/pops in Sport+ mode, and I think this is because there is a separate valved H-pipe that is only open in Sport+. This module does not control the H-pipe valve, only the two valves in the muffler. Likely at some point I'll investigate a way to force that valve to be always open.
  
• Hardwired Escort 360c (link): I was always a Valentine ONE guy until now. Honestly V1 has fallen way behind the times. This isn't really the place for a radar detector comparison but do not doubt that the 360c is worth the very hefty price. I hardwired to an empty socket in the driver-side fuse box.
• CravenSpeed The Platypus License Plate Mount (link): Installs into the tow hook (see above car pictures). Very high-quality.
• WizGear CD changer cell phone mount (
  link
  link
  ): A CD-mount is pretty much the only option for a cell phone mount anywhere on the dash.
  

Conclusion: This car is an absolute blast to drive. I'm still in my break-in period so 0-60 is out of the question but with the tune it should be in the low 3s, which is within shouting distance of my E63 -- heck, they both weigh the same! My E63 had bells and whistles this doesn't have, such as massage seats and active bolsters, but for $40k less MB can keep them. I like the GLC63 so much it's likely I'll go way over my 12k miles per year just on random road trips. Thank god the awful cold and rainy California spring weather is over. Memorial day weekend was a depressing casualty but it's ON starting Saturday!

 

Stereo,

Thanks for sharing your GLC experience so far and agree with most of your observations and accessory choices. I would add that ProClip has a pretty good cell phone holder/mount for our cars with the additional feature of built in charging cord if desired, link - https://www.proclipusa.com/product/8...p-angled-mount

Nice color as well ~

 

Congrats, and the CF interior is really good doesn’t disappoint. All around close to a year of ownership my wife loves the car. Tons of power, and drives well in the rain as stated. Enjoy .....

 

I saw that page but it explicitly states "NOT for AMG 43 models or models with a leather trim on the console." Have you tried this on a 63?

 

Yeah, the color is definitely something unique. I'd say it's 70% red and 30% burnt orange, and I love orange. One of the tragedies of the modern auto industry is the proliferation of boring colors -- do we really need 500 variations of grey? I was actually reasonably close to buying a Hellcat or Mustang simply because I could get a crazy color on it.... I wonder if Mercedes offers "individual" colors like BMW does. Might have to look into that in three years... would love a Plum Crazy AMG.

 

Hey, the car looks amazing...what percentage tint did you go with?? I’m planning to get mine done soon. I usually go 35% all around but the car is too flashy and i don’t want to get pulled over all the time. I’m in California as well. I’ve already gotten my 1st tix for no front plates. Luckily I work at the sheriffs Dept and got tix signed off.

 

35 on the front windows, but 50 everywhere else considering the back/sunroof already comes tinted from the factory. I'm not a fan of super-dark tints. I don't think cops care much about front window tints around here as long as they aren't egregious. Front plates though I won't take chances... also I like my personalized plates and have no trouble showing them off. ("LB FT" which I'm going to move over from my E63 as soon as I can).

Still got to sell my E63... waiting for my $6500 extended warranty refund to go through before I do anything though. Dealer has two more weeks to make good on that per the contract. (If you read the fine print the dealer actually gets penalized money if they don't refund within 30 days.) Also spending a lot of money returning it to stock... Renntech body kit was one of my stupidest decisions, the carbon-fiber quality is garbage... the front splitter's clearcoat is failing all over the place.

 

Geez I went crazy dark on mine. Still haven’t been pulled over. I went double ceramic 20 on front, single layer on rear windows, 20 on sunroof and 50 on the windshield lol.

Also so you may want to do what I did for cellphone mount. I snaked the wire through the dash and below steering column and brought it up through the air vent. Ignore the panda. My wife thought it was funny and it stayed there for good. Discreet and good positioning. Photos attached!

 

I gotta ask, why are people needing phones in modern cars? In my testing here in SD there’s only been a couple times google was better than the cars nav. I have HUD which rocks for nav but nav can be shown on drivers console. I just don’t understand needing phone for a modern car. Car w/o nav sure.

 

More convenient to type into my phone in 10 seconds than scrolling to type on the cars infotainment system in a couple minutes. When I had a Bmw I could send the address to the vehicle and use nav that way but unfortunately not with Mercedes

 

I’m sure you use Apple CarPlay, and can use wazes friom phone will send to screen

 

With companion and Mercades me app you can send a destination to car. Also my daily pattern of life from my phone is sent to my car. So in the morning it knows I go to work so when I get in the car the nav screen pops up asking if I want to go to that destination. Then when I go home the same and then gym and so on. I don’t have apple car play.

 

‘Apple Car Play should be standard

 

As Bam said, you absolutely can send addresses to your 63 via the Mercedes Me app. One of the few things on the app that works well.

Congrats on the 63, stereo. I’m still up in the air about dumping my 43 for the 63. Love the red, as well, but not sure I’m ballsy enough to order that or the blue color. . I’ll def do something diff than black like my 43...leaning selenite, if I go 63.

 

Yeah but for the 18s the upgraded system wasn’t comparable with apple car play. You’d have to stay with standard system.

 

More exhaust observations: In park, when just revving the engine, you get lots of cracks&pops only in Sport+ mode, most prominently at 3000+ RPM. In Sport or Comfort, you don't, even with the exhaust button on. Since I have the CETE exhaust flap controller, I know my flaps are 100% open with that button on, so that rules out that factor as being an influence. And since I'm in Park, obviously transmission shift points are not an influence. This leads me to conclude what I suspected... it's that sneaky third flap that's at fault here, the one that opens or closes the H-pipe closest to midbody on a GLC63 Performance Exhaust. Luckily a company called AWE sells"Electronic Valve Simulators" that apparently can fool the computer into thinking you have a flap there when you don't.:

https://www.urotuning.com/products/a...ors-1310-11018

t's only $50 so I've ordered one. Since I think the flaps default to open with the car off, I will unfortunately have to disconnect the plug with the car on and in Sport+, then turn off the car, then install the simulator. This means a "soft code" will get stored that may put the car into limp mode but hopefully this is cleared when I next start the car with the simulator attached. Yeah, some people might say just drive in Sport+ always, but I really prefer Sport for stop-and-go traffic but don't want to give up the Rice Krispy tones.

 

Got it. Must be a build time issue ......my wife’s car is a 2018 delivered 7/18 has Apple CarPlay

 

KingMokeyJr,
The drop on your ride looks nice. Did you use links or a lowering module?

I'm looking at these for my GLC '43:
http://adjustableairride.com/

 

I was told that you either get the nav/command unit or you get apply CarPlay. It’s one or the other, you can’t have both.

 

With the smaller screen you can have it. With the larger screen you can’t.

 

Wow got it that sucks. CarPlay I have in my Range Rover and Porsche GT3RS go figure. We never use the car NAV’s always CarPlay.

 

That is correct. You either get COMAND or Smartphone Integration (Apple CarPlay/Android Auto), can’t have both. That changes with the 2020 GLC update and new MBUX system.

 

Got my AWE simulator in. To my surprise, no change in the "cracks&burbles" with the H-pipe valve disabled -- Sport still lacks the cracks, while Sport+ has them in spades when revving. Some C63 threads on the subject speculate that the H-pipe valve serves to reduce drone at higher speeds, but I don't notice a difference. I think the "cracks&burbles" is controlled by the ECU; maybe Eurocharged can make Sport mode crack as well, I've emailed them. For now I've left the valved H-pipe disconnected (hopefully closed) and simulated.

Next step: I'm going to an exhaust shop tomorrow to have them replace the non-valved H-pipe and the X-pipe with straights. This will cost $500 and is easily reversible for $200. Based on my exhaust experience with my E63s I think this will make a huge difference in volume with flaps open. You can also see from the pictures of the Capristo GLC63 exhaust:

https://capristoexhaust.com/product/...-ces-3-remote/

That they also delete those two crossovers. And the sound in their video is just nutty! If I can get close to that for $500 instead of $5800...

 

Great if you can reverse your mod . I am eager to see pictures if you can post them and please let us know your first impression about the sound / droning or not I hope !

 

If you guys want the the most sound and performance I would go the route I took.

1. Buy SSR Downpipes.
2. Custom fabricate Vibrant 7830 High Flow Cats onto downpipes.
3. Install.

Out the door with install it is $2500. Paired with the performance exhaust is great. Sounds decent with the valves closed for around town but when you open it up it sounds like a sceaming banshee.

Also the cats added in really make the sound of the car more refined. Takes away that raspy with the decatted downpipes you hear online in videos. Most importantly the gasoline fumes smell is tamed.

Ill try and get some videos for you guys.

Cheers.