chiromikey

I'm not much into streetlight racing, too dangerous so I'm not worried about shaving tenths on the street...but I will do a freeway pull with a Hellcat if no one is within distance. I'm smart enough to know that many times it's whoever gets the hit on the street that wins. I respect those that are looking forward to this W213. I just want my daily sedan to be comfortable for my commute and come Friday night, slap on some tires and be able to spank 99% of the cars at the local drag strip. I grew up on American muscle and that's what I'm looking for out of my AMG sedans, the modern evolution of a muscle car.

absent

You can have both, great handling and compliant ride that would not shake your crowns out of your mouth, it takes some effort though and AMG is too lazy obviously.
Alpina B6 as a sedan example is great, drive Mclaren 650S and you will be amazed how comfortable that car is.
E63S is a family sedan that can carry 4 people and luggage but is a terrific performer too, an ultimate daily driver, car to use it and abuse it every day but should have more compliant ride then today.
If I want ultimate, no compromise handling with ultra stiff ride, I would get a car designed for it, a real sports car that this E Class will never be(regardless how many horses it has under the hood).

Btw, stiff chassis and stiff ride are two separate things and don't have to go together.

2012 merc amg

I just wanted to chime in here. I recently traded in a 2012 E63AMG Wagon for a 2015 S550 Sedan. Night and day difference in Ride, although I knew it would be Plus the S550 has the 18 inch wheels which are gonna give a better ride than the 19's or 20's which is what even most of the S550's have. I'm up in New England a lot in the summers and the roads are so bumpy here that the AMG was kinda a tough car to drive on a daily basis, very uncomfortable. I wish Benz had addressed the ride issues more on the 2018's amg's because I have one of those one of those on order. It may be that I'll end up with different rims on the new AMG and go with 18 inch rims even though they won't look as good, I do know that will help the ride quality.

bobblehead

W213 e63 have big brakes. 18 may not clear. I think you may have to go 19

2012 merc amg

I wondered about that, I know you can 18's on a 2016 and below E63 AMG, but you may be be right about the 213.

Amg63-

might not be the best car for you as with the 19s and the aapparent very hard suspension it might ride worse than the 2012 e63.

bobblehead

w213:
front rotor - 390mm
rear rotor - 360mm

w212:
front rotor - 360mm
rear rotor - 330mm

Jan AMG

I agree, how come Alpina B5/B6 is more comfortable on 20" than E63 AMG on 19"?

kponti

I have always maintained that the shock settings on the W212 has very sharp rebound and makes for a choppy ride in the first few millimeters of travel. It actually smooths out as it's compressed more.
My w211 with a coilover setup and very very stiff springs (went with custom much higher spring rates) felt smoother than the W212 stock.

This kind of choppy (which MB calls sporty) feel is not limited to the E63. In fact I felt the same choppiness in the ML, W212 E350 and to some extent the C300 etc etc. But I did not feel that in the W213 E300 at all.
So while the ride may be stiffer (which if it translate to better handling, I'm all for), if the W212 choppiness is gone, I'm all for it!
​​​​
I will add a caveat, I preferred the F10 M5s over the AMG but the M5 felt much heavier and pudgy yet had much less interior space than the W212 E63. Space and agility won in my decision.

chiromikey

BMW guys must be as bewildered as we are. Their M5 has turbos now, something they swore would never happen, and has a softer less sporty ride. Wtf is this world coming to??!!

Btw, my buddy has a W212 E350 and it's ride doesn't feel choppy at all. Not too much different to the W213 E350 imo.

Jan AMG

How about a suspension upgrade? Brabus or Vaeth perhaps? Anyone has a practical experience with tuned suspension that offers a better comfort?

kponti

E350 is got a very soft ride. But the initial smack into a sharp bump on the street is harder than it should be for the general ride quality. Compared to say the E300 at the same sharp bump.
That's what I mean by choppy. Try the ML, it's the worst at this in all the cars I gave as examples.

PeterUbers

I wish my 63 in comfort mode was as comfortable as my dads 2016 e350 sport

about the only setting the 63 does well is S+ suspension setting ...

ChatWithaNinja

I actually got to ride in a 2018 e63s today.
I own a c63 and the performance is incredible. So when I say that the e63s blew me away, you know I mean it!
The active side bolstering startled me, but it really grips you in your seat. It was an incredible ride to say the least. I declined driving it because I did not want to be responsible for that much demo car.
I'm not a reviewer or anything, so I can't wax poetic about it much more - just trust that it was a hell of a ride and that launch! dammmmmnnnnnn.

If I had the means right now I'd get one, no question. As it is, I'm looking forward to the used market in about 5 years.

E634Me

Where were you? Was this a car that made it through the US customs, or was it extra-US?

ChatWithaNinja

Redacting... Im waiting for a go ahead from the shop owner and MB...

PeterUbers

right these are not legal yet in the us ... 2018 e63S

E634Me

I know there were some pre-cert cars sent to the US in advance of the production fleet which were imported for dealer training purposes.

From what others had said, these cars were going to be crushed following that - not sure if the crushing was to take place here in the US or back in Germany.

Anyway, wondering if this may have been one of those cars.

There is also the case of the 2018 C63 in Canada that accidentally made it through and was delivered to a customer. Had to be pulled back and held in customs again until the cert process has run its course. See:

ChatWithaNinja

Really? hmmm, I guess they had some kind of demo license or something? I don't know how that works, sorry. I do know that the cars were delivered by truck, not driven there, so maybe that is because of their not legal yet status? they also had NO tags on them at all. usable on track only? Sorry, I just don't know enough to comment intelligently on that.

I got the go ahead from the shop owner though, so here goes...

I'm in Atlanta Georgia. They were at the shop i am using for a headbolt replacement on my 2009 c63. there was silver e63s wagon and a "matte" grey e63s sedan. I'm an enthusiast so when I first went there the owner and I hit it off pretty well talking about all the cars he has there. He has schooled me on a lot of the amg models. He owns the only amg hammer wagon in existence (which I have not ridden in yet) and from what I understand petrolicious wanted to do either an article on the hammer wagon or on him and somehow a 2018 e63s sedan and a e63s wagon ended up there. honestly im not sure how it all came to be. All I know is that the owner called me and told me to come take a look so I did. They had some time so they took me for a quick spin. Maybe it was a consolation prize due to my headbolt replacement getting bumped out an extra week for the e63s... totally worth it! haha.

I'm still new to the MB enthusiast world so I don't even know the changes from the 2017 to the 2018.

ChatWithaNinja

Here is a pic I took of both of them and a pair of the wagon that the owner took and sent to me.
It's at Blue Ridge Mercedes in Lilburn if anyone is local. Owned and operated by Jonathan Hodgman.

signes

Cool! Thanks for posting, that interior looks nuts! (Pun intended)

ChatWithaNinja

The interior was definitely crazy. I wasn't too keen on the interactive display and no analog guages, but I do love the idea of modifying your display to show whatever you want to. Very cool, but I would miss an analog tach.
The auto bolstering seats freaked me out, but I got used to them pretty quickly with the way the guy was driving. I didn't even know the car had them until they started squeezing my ribs on a hard right turn!
needless to say, everyone who is getting one of these is going to have a hell of a car!

chiromikey

The C63 doesn't have this feature? It's been around for 15 years...

pb12

Thank you for posting these three photos. They are really helpful, showing several things I haven't seen in an actual photo yet;

1) A wagon thats not white!
2) RTP wheel
3) RTM or RTQ wheel (can't quite tell which)
4) 554 Nut Brown interior

maybe others have seen those items in actual photos, but they are a first for me.. Thanks!

Two questions -

just how stiff was the ride?
How are the seats?

M

chiromikey

I got to spend a few days in an E class with the new seats. They're by far the best seats MB has offered in an E. The support, adjustability, and dynamic features are much improved, the heaters are night and day difference and heat up much warmer and within seconds instead of minutes , and the massage programs (there are several!) now actually feel like a good massage chair instead of a kid behind you in the movie theater.