Got to take a spin today in an S213 - 15-20 minute drive with some decent squirts up to speed and corners. Currently drive an S212 and like it, but love the new styling and interior so thinking of getting one. Mixed feelings after my test drive, was expecting to be more impressed - maybe says more about the capabilities of the 212. Since it was a new car, I wasn't exactly pushing it to the max but still spirited driving.

First some likes: Styling an 11 for me. This one is Selenite magno with night styling and five spokes and looked stunning. Interior huge step up, not just the tech but feel, fit and finish of the materials is top notch.

The like/dislikes: Quiet inside (without the acoustic insulating package). Feels like less road noise, which is good, but much less engine noise too. Also for the wagon owners, this car has almost none of the resonance/boominess you can find in wagons. Steering feel is good, but nothing dramatically better or worse - would really need to push it to find the differences. Ride is smoother for sure, I think it is much improved to the 212. The flip side is that the edges have been considerably smoothed and maybe that takes away some of the character.

The not so good: Sounds much quieter all around - startup lacks the pop, less deep/rich sound than the outgoing car, I could go on and on. And yes, car had sport exhaust and I had it on. Windows down or up, much more quiet than my stock 212. Engine peakier, which isn't bad by itself but didn't feel like it has the depth of the old engine. Granted I wasn't winding it out or redlining it. Still fast no question, but the current car feels like endless amounts of torque.

I went in very excited assuming I would order right away, and now not so sure. No question it is an incredible car, but feels like it lost some personality and isn't enough of an improvement to justify jumping right now. So very long wind up to ask those of you with your cars who came out of the 212, am I off base here?

I'd disagree with on the performance of the 213. You probably just had the car in comfort mode from what your saying, especially whereas the car was new and probably not broken in, but you put these 213's in Sport plus mode or Race mode and the car becomes an aggressive animal and feels totally different than the 212's. Very lively and bone jarring performance and very Race car like. I don't believe the car will even go into Race mode for the first 1000 miles due to break in. After you try a 213 in Race mode you can rewrite your review, lol. I did some driving tonight in Race mode and manual shifting with the paddle shifters and I felt like a Nascar driver.

Thanks for the reply. I used all including sport +, the latter felt had a less sensitive throttle than my car. I actually like that. But dipping into it and pushing just didn’t feel wow. Not bad just felt less of a rush, was quieter and peakier power delivery all felt more muted.

Delete.

Well, the W212 is a tough car to top IMO. I did not tune (nor did you I think)... and you have a sweet car IMO... great color and CCB. I have the Selenite Magno wagon with CCB on order and hope that it lives up to what others have said.

Don’t mean to come off negative on the car because it is impressive. As you say I’m coming from a good base so perhaps my expectations were out of whack. The one I drove was Selenite magno and it’s stunning! Nice choose.

Nice looking car. I think you will find if you drive the 213 more that performance is far superior to the 212 model.

What about transmission on normal throttle inputs? Not redlining, just granny driving and a little aggressive push to merge etc etc, how much improvement is this car over that W212/S212 with the trans reacting? How is the lag (once again not during WOT application)?

Much better to me compared to my former car, '13 E63. The 213 wants to move and one doesn't have to press the accelerator down as much to get the car to respond. That's my opinion with only 911 miles on my wagon.

Is this experience also in Comfort mode? (trans not suspension)

As I am under 1000 miles still, I have only driven the car in comfort mode so far to date.

I finally received my car last night....went from w212 (2014) to w213, so sedan, not wagon. I am so very impressed by the 213, and I was absolutely in love with the 212 and still am. However, the 213 is superior in just about every way. The transmission is absolutely glorious when compared to the 212. Both are ridiculously fast of course; however, the new one is fast in a much smoother way. The chassis and trans changes are noticeable in a big way. Using the paddle shifters, the car gives an 'immediate' response, which is a huge change over the 212. Even in my old one, I drove mostly in manual, so this thing feels like it just rips on upshifts and downshifts.

Regarding your thoughts on performance, I wasn't super impressed on my 30 minute test drive, but I knew the smoothness and feel was something I wanted. I've been ripping on this thing all day today, and am really wowed. I went from probably 660awhp to 560awhp and don't really notice it except on the highway at high speeds.

Regarding the sound, I did not opt for the performance exhaust, as I'm going to keep this one quiet and not gas-smelling. If I put the car in S+ (open valves), I'm more than happy with the noises this thing makes. Agree with you, though...def doesn't sound like a 5.5l v8. If you drive it hard, which I do 90% of the time, it does make noise and whatnot.

edit: pulled out of mb parking lot, and into a TGI friday's parking lot and lowered the car....loving the look now

Curious to hear what you think after you get more seat time.

Can't lose with either....both are ridic machines.

Update (day 2):. A 4 Dr car should not handle this well; nor should it be this quick. It's unnatural. That is all.

since you had both w212 and w213, how is the trans lag from launch on the new w213 vs w212 ?

I don't detect a lag at all. Engages immediately and accurately. I'm really impressed with the improvements made in the trans.... whatever software or hardware changes were made, were spot-on. Nine gears is a little excessive, as I don't think I move past sixth most of the time....but I've yet to road trip this thing.

I drive in race mode in manual always. Good times

One thing I noticed when driving other 9G MB vehicles is the rough downshifts when coming to a stop.

Any rough downshifts when coming to a stop in the new 213 AMG 9G transmission?

If by rough you mean firm, then yes, I would agree. But I like the way it feels...I drove all day yesterday in race mode and loved it. The day prior I drove in sport +, so don't have any experience in comfort or sport modes.

Did a 2000 km road trip a few weeks ago in Germany. The first 1500 km were in comfort mode as recommended by the manual during break-in. In comfort mode on the autobahn the tranny spends most of its time in 9th just loafing along when not on the throttle and rolling along at 100 to 140 kph. The coast mode and 8 to 4 cylinder transitions are really smooth. The interesting thing is that the coast mode and cylinder deactivation features seem to be disabled when cruise control is enabled.

In sport+ mode the tranny drops a gear or two and keeps the RPMs in a higher range. Can't remember if it would eventually drop down to 9th on its own or not. Typically I would manually up shift back to 9th once I completed a pass and back into normal cruise mode.

Very cool. Can't wait to see how this thing road trips. followed your experience...looks like you and the crew had a great time!

Trans lag does not feel bad. Main thing that bothers me is when you get on it in comfort mode and then let off on it it holds the gear and revs like all hell. I’d rather just have it go into cioast mode from there or just upshift.

It was fantastic. My wife posted about a million pics to her FB account of all the places we saw, and even a couple of the car

My #1 top rated feature as a touring car was the automagic speed limit following on cruise control. The speed limits there change like every six feet and go from 100 kph to 30 kph to whatever and half the time we never saw the sign. On a lot of the roads, even the 2-lane highways I left the cruise control on. Saved me a bunch of tickets I'm sure.

But coming back from visiting the castle in Meersburg at night, we were following a truck and and didn't have the cruise control enabled because we were really just creeping along - then flash, we got lit up. Just got the ticket in the mail. 36 km/h in a 30 km/h zone - 15 Euros for 3.7 mi/h over the limit.

Wow, they are picky there, 6Km over the limit and a ticket, crazy. Ive look high and low and can't figure out a way for my car to match the speed limit listed on the gauge and have the distronic cruise control match that speed. It just seems to stay on whatever I set the speed at. I tried activating the cruise control stalk every which way and no luck, maybe this speed matching thing is a european thing or something because my car does not seem to do that and I have Package 3. Any ideas what to try? I've been through all the settings menus and can't find anything about this. I tried to look it up in the owners manual and found nothing.

I would just pull the stalk back towards me to resume most of the time and that would do it. But sometimes if I had adjusted the speed up manually, I would have to pull it twice or pull and hold and eventually it would switch to the current speed limit and then change as the limit went up or down.

it might also have been part of the drive pilot because I had that on a lot too.

I’ll give that a try pulling and holding the stalk. Thanks.

Damn... I'll be in trouble! My sister and her husband live in Zurich (we'll visit with the new car) and he tells me he gets tickets in Switzerland for 2km over. So no wiggle room and I agree that the speed limit alert seems like a great feature.