The backseat in the RS6 our child seat fit with no issues, with the E63S it is now behind the passenger seat bc you have to move the seat up quite a bit for it to fit. Perhaps its a big one, I dont know, no issues in the RS6 but like I said the benz has a bigger trunk, so I believe thats where the space went. As for 3 adults in the back, its doable I suppose, uncomfortable but doable. Again this is an E class, not a GLS or something built for that. I wouldn't purchase an E class with the idea of 3 backseat passengers on the regular.

 

Good to know, i thought the Benz had a bigger back seat. Not ideal with 2 car seats back there!
My Panamera fits them with no issues at all, lots of room. Kind of surprised, the design of the benz leads me to assume it's larger....

 

The RS6 and E63 length and wheelbases are nearly identical (within a half inch). Audi places the rear seats further back hence extra rear seat legroom and less rear storage (exacerbated by the more steeply sloping hatch.)

More pics of the new blue wagon, total stunner.

 

I don't know about the rear seat position, but Audi places the engine all the way forward. Most of it is hanging in front of the front axle. Great for interior space, but major point of criticism as it gives them the understeering and nose heavy nature. MB/AMG mounts the engine farther back for a better balance, but it does take away interior space. Audis typically have shorter noses/hoods because of it. BMW is on the side of MB and also places the engine farther back for their famous 50/50 weight distribution.

 

I'll get them for you maybe tom,maybe sunday. I dropped off the car yesterday for a full PPF. Doing Xpel Stealth. I really don't have many on my phone just looked. Is that sticker pretty much fully loaded? I remember when I actually spec'd one of these last summer it was like $132k. Im not really a fan of carbon ceramic brakes on road cars. So I def didn't spec those but this one was really loaded. I was told someone ordered it then moved away for work hence my luck.

 

Question, So I was just playing with the build tool on MB website to see what options it didn't have and I see this one. What exactly is this? So the car doesn't have airbags back where the kid sits unless you spec it? Is that most cars? Or maybe Im not understanding this one correctly?

 

Great tread! Thank you for posting this @dnm4

I´m one of the ones that regrets not testing the E63 before ordering it. I´m not sure if I would have choosed it if I tried it out before.

But, It wasn´t possible to test-drive any 2021 E63s, and I had the same problem as you guys that there was no allocations for the RS6 first half of 2021. (I´m in sweden)

When people ask me if I enjoy our new car I usally answer something like – Well, it´s more of a rally car then I expected, not so much of a grand tourismo (gt), and if they are petrolheads I add, the sound from the engine and speed are insane. The pulls are out of this world.

We had a skoda superb (Volkswagen brand) car before and the Mercedes suspension is as stiff in comfort setting that the skoda was in sport-setting. After drivning ca 1500 miles (2431km) with the new car and I think the suspension isn´t a big issue anymore. But I will probably never use anything else then comfort. We have two small kids in the backseat and they sleep well (2 and 4 years). I can´t compare to prevous E63 years. But I can say that I don´t understand at all how Mercedes was thinking. Why do I need a stiff suspension driving around 25 mph in town over speedbumps?

The biggest issue for me I the roadnoise which is terrible. I ordered the car with acoustic windows and they do nothing at all. We drive a lot to our summerhouse, 1,5h away, with a lot of time on the highway and this is where the car is the biggest disappointment. I thought somehow that if you by a Mercedes excessive roadnice is not a problem, but it is. I can be the roads that we have in Sweden, they quite rough with lots of stones embedded.

In fact the roadnoice is so intrusive that I´m a little embaressed to show the car to people (other than my wife an kids). I was planning to keep the car for maybe 5 years, but I guess it will be shorter time now. We will still be good friends, but not best friends forever My wife enjoys the massage seats, I do aswell. I does help me cope with the roadnoise.

I´m still on the 19” winters, so I guess from here it will be worse with the 20” summers, haha

 

You have a very nice spec!The carbon ceramic are great, there no unusal feeling when breaking, even in cold weather. But I admit that I´ve got them as a recommendation from this forum mostly for the looks and the feeling of at least one time owning a car with ccb:s

 

Carbon Ceramics are great, they reduce weight amongst other benefits like longer life which is great for tracking a car. For a road car that you're gonna daily drive and maybe put 100k on in 5 years its just a silly added expense. I am a little intrigued by mercedes offering carbon ceramics now which I assume are large than the ones on my SLR. The SLR gets a bad rap when you read all internet comments about costs to service. I don't really know manny Khosbin says $5k/yr give or take in his vids, I guess I will find out but a few auctions I've seen on bringatrailer mention Carbon brakes at $16k/rotor without pads. Obviously very few SLR have seen their brakes need a change but there's no way MB can charge $9k for a full set of Carbon Brakes on an E63S wagon and charge $16k/rotor today for an SLR. Maybe they did the past but there's no way they can today. Interesting question for my service advisor. Likely most of us won't have to change the brakes on these new 2021 cars but what about the next owners? Say in 7 years when the car is $50k. Do you think that owner wants the expense of replacing them? Im not sure but if I was to guess I would assume carbon ceramics would actually hurt resale value later vs steel brakes just bc a more budget conscious owner wouldn't want to deal with them?

 

Haha see I want that rally car feeling, the E is rougher than most but still its quite smooth. I want a 4 door car that feels like a porsche GT3RS. The first person who builds that wins me forever. Like I said I tried the Bentley spur and they had a killer lease deal like $0 down $3200/mo + tax on a brand new 2021 Flying Spur $250k MSRP. They're not selling well at all, the dealer had a couple 2020 Bentley's sitting around too and this was a brand new version of the spur so not good when they're sitting unsold demand just isn't there. Car had a ton of power, but its so quiet inside you feel like you aren't even driving. The power was great, but I want a rally car so to speak lol. There's really not that many 4 door vehicles out there that offer what the E63/RS6 offer.

 

Great post, thanks so much for your insights.
I've made up my mind to order a Cayenne GTS. Lots of room, superb suspension and handling, incredible exhaust sounds and it can be customized to exactly what you want.
Still have the E63S Wagon on my list, maybe next time!

 

I have a 2018 E63S wagon with 3 car seats in the back. All my kids are now forward facing which helps a lot. I found that it really matters which car seats you buy more than anything. Currently we have 2 Clek Foonf in the outboard seats and 1 Diono Radian RXT in the middle seat. Both designs have a max exterior width of 17" which really helps with getting them squeezed in. Also following advice on forums we install with seatbelts rather than using LATCH connectors as that helps maximize the space.

If you are still rear facing the big challenge is the distance from the front of the rear seat to the back of the front seat, particularly with young babies where the seat needs to be reclined as much as possible. I'm not sure I would be able to fit any of the seats in a rear facing position behind my seat in the position I have my seat for driving (not gansta' lean, just long legs). The S class had I had prior to this was great for rear facing, but even then there wasn't a great deal of room behind the driver's seat. And of course all the advice you read tells you to stay rear facing as long as possible.

For what it's worth I think the Diono Radian is a great seat (though it does look and feel a bit cheaper than some of the other higher end seats we have owned) which has really good low profile while also being narrow and comfortable for the kids.

Awesome car btw OP. I was seriously considering a '21 based solely on the matte blue paint option. I think it looks fantastic.

 

You are definitely the kind of customer that Audi caters to. They cater to folks who want a softer powerful car, but it seems that market is smaller as both BMW M and AMG individually sell more cars than Audi sells RS models. AMGs are essentially sports cars in a business suit. They still offer some of the sports car rawness, while adding practicality and enough rest comfort to do daily duties and long distance driving. It doesn't mean they shouldn't work on rough edges. I think they strike a great balance with how they are revising the suspension in their FLs. They've definitely gotten the message, but even with the refined suspensions, what I particularly love about AMG is that they feel sportier in Comfort mode than Audi RS feel in Dynamic mode, while still being plenty comfortable. AMGs IMO are truer GT cars in the original Italian sense of being sports cars that offer just enough comfort to cross a continent. Audi IMO has swung the pendulum too far over to the normal/commuter car side, but there is a car for everybody.

Just to speak to an AMG's GT credentials a bit. I picked my C63S coupe up in Germany in 2019 and travelled around Europe for 2 months. I visited Copenhagen and kinda regret not making a detour to Malmö. I've never been to Sweden, so I don't know how the roads are over there, but I did notice that in Denmark they are kinda crappy and are producing a lot of road noise. Not sure if that was representative for Scandinavia as a whole. I drove 6500 miles in 2 months. I even have the AMG Performance Seats in mine. I drove all the way from Switzerland to Copenhagen in one day. Almost 12 hours of driving, blasting through Germany as fast as I good. It was epic and I wasn't beat up when I arrived in Copenhagen. I did stop in Frankfurt for about 3 hours, but the rest I drove through only stopping for fuel, food and restroom breaks and I had to take a 45 minute ferry ride to cross over to Denmark from Germany. One of the best GT cars I've ever owned. Because of the torque it makes down low combined with having 9 gears even driving at 250+ kph on the German Autobahn is rather peaceful. I did a similar trip with my 2013 Audi RS5 back in 2013. That car because of its naturally aspirated high-revving engine was screaming at 7000 rpm at those speeds. Great during the honeymoon period, but would get old quick after a while. As far as roads go, here in California our roads are paved with what's called rubberized asphalt. That's asphalt with shredded old tires mixed in. One of the benefits of it is that it produces significantly less road noise.

 

i don’t know how big my rear facing seat is, but my kid is almost at that front facing age now anyway. It seems there’s a wide disparity among how much room is enough in the back seat. Granted your three car seats are smaller, but two seems very doable with space left over? I mean for me personally, the only reason I’d buy a wagon instead of an suv is for practicality matched with performance, but if the wagon doesn’t provide that, I don’t see the appeal. Maybe it’s best if I go look at one in person to get a sense. I definitely felt that RS6 could seat three people or a couple of car seats with space left over.

 

So the owner of the shop doing my car just texted me all these, its all done in the Xpel Stealth. Looks great, picking it up tomorrow.

 

Dnm, look forward to seeing more. Also very curious if you notice a different look once the strath wrap is added

WRT to CCBs, the replacement costs tend to be exaggerated on the internet. They are expensive around $25k if you had to do disks and pads at all four corners (unlikely). Pads are the key and are not expensive. Keep them at 40-50% thickness or higher and it will help protect the rotors from premature wear.

 

Ya lol I saw a couple comments on BAT on a few SLR auctions of a set of rotors alone is $120k and another guy said he did it for $68k I was like WTF are you kdding me? I've read the the brakes from a ZR1 vette fit the SLR, regardless there is no way in hell any brakes are that price maybe for a bugatti or koenigsegg or something insane, but the SLR although a hypercar is still a car from 2009 and the tech wasn't that advanced. Mine has 2400 miles I feel bad driving it lol so doubtful I will be the one changing brakes, but still the internet is full of BS on most of this kinda stuff.

 

Your knowledge of Scandinavian roads is impressive, that trip makes you qualified to do the comparison (if anyone is come close to Stockholm, send me a msg). On the subject, there is something special with the asphalt they use in Sweden, especially on the highways. Instead of the rubber they put in the asphalt in California, they add larger stones to ours. The stones makes the asphalt exceptionally hard (and noisy). Most of the cars in Sweden uses tires with (iron?) studs in wintertime, we also have a lots of traffic with lorries. In order to make the highways more durable they do that. We do have small amounts of the asphalt you mention, not where I live, but when you pass such stretch of road, it´s a different experience.

It´s not that I regret getting the car, I´m still happy that I´ve got the car, it´s just that I´m disappointed with a couple of aspect that was important for me.

It was on my list and I needed an estate for the family. If I would have gotten an RS6 (which was not possible at the time when I ordered), I would still wondered what I´ve missed out. The fact is that the RS6 doesn´t have the performance or the sound. Reviewers also confirms the shortcomings of the RS6 compared to the E63 (other the looks, which I agree is better). The RS6 will draw more attention everywhere you go, for me, the E63 don´t.

My wife drives the car and don´t notice the power (even when overtaking!??), somehow managed 21,5 mpg on our last trip. That was one of my goals, that she can drive it as an ordinary car.

An alternative would have been the new facelifted panamera sport turismo which is a GT-car, but pricewise, in Sweden, you need to add at least 50% towards the price for the MB (going with the turbo or turbo S), so it´s not a direct competitor. Where I am a Bentley is definitely of the charts

2nd hand value will be interesting. At the moment, in Sweden, most people buy hybrids, and EVs. That trend will continue and increase in magnitude. I think the secondhand value will be “bad” . I guess the ccb´s won’t be the deal breaker, rather the thirst for gasoline, haha.

Two small kids in the back, 2 and 4. The 2 years sits backwards behind me. It´s tight and I´m 5ft10 (178cm). The backseat is smaller than our previous car (skoda superb), even though the cars is 3.93inch (10cm) longer, An adult can´t sitt in the middle with our current setup. I guess it is the engine that got all the extra space...

 

Honestly the space in the E63S is mediocre, but so is the RS6. The reality is, mercedes should make an S class estate. S63 wagon would be something. They already have big SUV's like the GLS. Cadillac makes extended escalades. How cool would a larger wagon be? I get not for everybody at $200k or so, but what an idea. Also considering from what I assume, E63S wagon buyers are likely more than well off enough to opt for $50k additional pricetag for a larger wagon if necessary. Again this is all a moot point, the space in E wagon is plenty if you don't have babies. Little kids fit fine, the issue is more when you need to place a large baby car seat that is it. Frankly the driving experience for me is more than enough to trade off a little space. Do I wish it was bigger? Sure, but its not, so unless I want to drive an S class or a Bentley Spur or a Ghost. I don't really have any options outside the RS6 or the E63S wagon. Im not a fan of SUV's, definitely not a fan of van's lol, so what other 4 seaters can you buy with performance and trunk space? The list is pretty small esp if you enjoy exhaust sounds. Rolls Royce,Tesla,Bentley all have no exhaust sound. I have the new AMG S class on order, but there still isn't even a date on those, my dad ordered the S580 and I believe that is coming in june. I was told the AMG would be maybe 6-12 months later. They still are giving me conflicting info on whether there will be an S63 or it will be an S73. Regardless from the videos I've seen of the S580 I'm not really a fan of the exterior, hopefully the AMG will have a drastically different look, but that may be the perfect car for those of us who want room for a family and trunk space.

 

I also wanted to avoid getting a SUV, I checked the GLC but the boot was to small (...for a full size stroller)

We look forward hearing your thoughts when you trading in you E63 to a S73 later on

I believe that we get E/S73s in next gen, the 600+200 bhp that they been hinting about.

I think my next will be an EV, Porsche or MB (EQE?)

 

I did watch a youtube video of the EQS this week I believe from Mr Benz 63 and it seemed like the EQS had some sort of system to make fake exhaust noises? If so I may possibly one day venture to an EV but for now they're all so quiet, not really for me. I won't lie just looking at the EQS with the wrap on, I think it may look even worse than the new S class if thats possible. Im not sure what exactly has happened to these designs especially when you factor in how much money is being spent on design teams now. Have you seen the renderings of the new SL? The spy shots make me cry thinking of the days of the R129 or R230 imo the last nice SL. It's a shame what mercedes has been doing to these legendary models like the S and SL. The interiors are amazing sure, but exterior wise, its a shame

 

The EQS, Taycan, e-tron/GT etc. all have sport sound generators. They are not fake exhaust sound but are supposed to enhance the electric drive experience. The EQS has several ones and others have commented that one of them happens to sound similar to a very low revving V8, but MB denied that that's what they were going for. These sounds get composed specifically for EVs. Most of them are like Sci-Fi spaceship sounds, but are supposed to give the driver aural feedback when accelerating and even when slowing down. Supposedly MB was considering actually doing fake engine sounds for the EQS, but that idea was shot down early on. I'm so-so on these EV spaceship sounds. If they are reminiscent of an electric motor just somewhat enhanced then I think it's ok. The Taycan sound isn't too bad. The EQS sounds are ok. Ultimately they are all artifically generated.

 

My God that blue is BEAUTIFUL. Well done - excellent selection. (since you seem to change cars fairly frequently, I am calling dibs on this car in a couple years...)

I haven't driven the RS6 Avant, but generally the Audi's are too austere for me, and lacking soul. The ridiculousness of the AMG makes me laugh like an idiot every time I drive my wagon - whether it's the WOT sounds, the race modes or whatever - it's a FUN car. I just don't get that kind of giddiness in an Audi.

 

I don't see a reply to this so I'll chime in: the rear seat airbags are an option. I just looked at my window sticker and on my 2019 was only a $420 option. I always check the box, even on third-row for our SUVs. I'm amazed, and frankly very disappointed that it has to be an option... I mean it's a must-have in a family car and should be an automatic feature. Who complains about spending a small amount of money for their kids' safety??

 

The issue with the rear seat airbags as with all airbags is that they are designed for the size of an adult sitting properly upright in the seat. These can actually be dangerous for kids, because they explode at head level for kids. Kids must be in proper car seats to protect them from these air bags. They are meant to protect adults and are in fact problematic with kids. That's also why they are not required by law and hence offered as options by all car manufacturers, so the customer can decide if they want to get them depending on whether they are transporting adults or kids mostly in the back.