jnejah

I'm not sure about the shape of this car but I liked the 9G-Tronic. The one I drove had Active Curve with the 22in wheels. Sounded good, drove well. Don't need 63S version in Coupe or regular GLE. Maybe this would be a good alternative since I rarely need all the luggage space in our current ML. I think I can live with it. Anybody else drive one? Impressions?

abhatti55

I drove one yesterday. GLE450 coupe. Very impressed. Sounded great on sport plus. Exhaust really barks on shifts. Driving in manual mode the highest gear was 7. Not sure this has the 9-speed. Hopefully the lease numbers are aggressive for the winter sales event.

SilverdriverNY

I drove it also earlier this week. Very impressed. The engine sounds great and it handles to much better than my ML.. I drove the one with 21 inch wheel and sport seat. Trunk is a little longer, of course you loose some of the space of the ML.But who cares when it drives like it's on rails!
The back seat felt like they had more room also ( baby car seats are tight in my ML when set rear facing).
Will pull the trigger soon but my dealer refuses to drop the price so will shop around. Any of you got some prices?

fabbrisd1

The GLE450 Coupe is downright killer/awesome... and the "what's the discount" comment actually made me chuckle deep.. 3yr lease makes a lot of sense timing wise with new/new/new GLE for MY2019..

RJC

Drove a 450 launch on Sat...
Agreed great gearbox
Exhaust at idle and loping around not appealing, but at higher RPM quite good. You guys realize the exhaust note is mostly computer generated coming through the speaker's right?
I found the quality of the front seats kinda subpar, the vehicle only had 10 miles on it and the leather was bunched up in the corners and the rear seats are not perforated like the fronts...stupid choice for cost cutting (looks very cheap for napa leather option), never had a car with front seats that were perforated and the rears not. The set ventilation has not improved either (MB why can't you get this right???)
The power from the engine was very impressive esp for a 4800lb vehicle.
The looks are aggressive in both front and rear, but the jelly bean side profile is ok at best.
Only 20% of part from Germany (found that too low for my tastes)

jnejah

RJC - Did not notice the perforated seat issue. I drove one with MB-tex. Didn't really mind the computer generated throttle noise although it seemed slightly over the top on downshift rev matching. I've seen on your other posts about your ventilated seat peeve. I agree that vented seats on MB are not my favorite but I'd rather have it than nothing at all.

When I price out the GLE450 Coupe the way I want it, the difference to GLE63S Coupe is about 30k. Never had this AMG Sport option to consider previously so I feel a bit uncertain on what car I would enjoy more. We had a ML63 in the past that I enjoyed but I always thought we underutilized it (never did figure out a way to put on a tow hitch and go fast while towing). I swore that I would not need another AMG SUV when we traded it in! We have a 350 Bluetec that we do a little bit of towing with that does what it needs to do and the bike rack stays on it pretty much all other times. It looks like you can order the AMG Coupe with a tow hitch now so it would be really cool.

Debate debate. Another nice problem to have trying to figure what which would be great for me...

Anybody already own or driven a AMG Coupe (the real one)?

sneakyspy

I can assure you this is 100% false.

jnejah

Sneakyspy - welcome to the forum.

Can you elaborate on your definitive statement? At least one curious mind wants to know. Do you know specifics about an existing exhaust flap on the GLE450 coupe? Does it activate depending on engine speed or the drive mode the car is in? Does MB never feed engine noise through the speakers? Is the great throttle noise in our SL63 real?

It wouldn't affect my purchasing decision either way but I guess it's something that I would like to know. I better go listen to the car again from the outside while someone blips the throttle around for me. Lol.

sneakyspy

What I can say is, the GLE Coupe is fitted with a dynamic exhaust system. In Sport+ mode, mechanical changes occur allowing the exhaust to give a more distinctively deep bark and popping downshifts.


As MB does not mount external speakers to any vehicle, affirmation can be heard in the following youtube link:

jnejah

Cool video. Sounds awesome!
What's the difference in exhaust system between the 450 and the 63S? Are they intended to sound the same?

RJC

According to Car and driver who actually tested the vehicle, it's 100% true...click on the link "first drive review" after accessing the page.

http://www.caranddriver.com/mercedes-benz/gle-coupe

RJC

That's obviously not the 450 exhaust note that I described let alone from in the cabin, but the 63 which I'm sure sounds nothing like the 450's. As I've mentioned the exhaust note of the 450 just driving normally/loping around town in comfort mode is not that great (as I've also mentioned, it's much better under heavy throttle inputs), even the sales rep commented on this. No where did I say anything about "external speakers", never heard of such a thing... it's the ones inside the cabin (part of the sound system) which greatly alter/affect what the occupants hear while driving and in some cases completely overtaking what's heard outside the vehicle which are unfortunately becoming common place in many vehicles today.

RJC

I have not driven the 63 version but think the 63 is a bit of overkill for an SUV, although I love the car based 63's . The 450 IMO has plenty of power for what the vehicle is. With respect to the ventilated seats I agree they're better than nothing but they can be so much better and easily done so if MB increased the output and reverses the direction. We are also in the mkt for a large lux sedan and discovered today that the new 7er will have ventilated seats where the air moves up through the perforations vs getting pulled down, so maybe the Germans are finally catching on...I remember when they scoffed at cup holders for years. We are blessed to have these kinds of choices to make indeed .

jnejah

fabbrisd or anyone else - have you driven the probably more killer/awesome GLE63 Coupe yet?

Anybody driven GLE coupe with 21's vs 22's (active curve version)? If you have, what did you think? Active curve on the "must have" list?