all-new Mercedes-AMG E53 driving REVIEW
This is the all-new Mercedes AMG E53 Hybrid. Uh-oh. Does that mean it's a turbo four inside? We'll get into the details and much more because you're watching Autogefuhl and I'm AJ. But before we get into the technical specs, let's talk a little bit about the design. Up front, you have the AMG grille with the vertical slats. This has the optional Night pack too. Yes,
there's a Night pack one as well. There's a whole bunch of options for this car. But what that means is you have dark chrome along the outside. But as standard, the grille is illuminated. Even the bottom has these dark black accents. As we go
towards the side, you have the big power zone on the top, but also the track has been increased by 11 millimeters on each side. So the front track is wider and it gives the car a much more aggressive stance, but also helps in lateral stability when you're going around corners. The wheels start at 19 inches with the light alloy. You can get 20 or 21 inches. This being the 21-inch comes with the center cap as well. More badging, turbo hybrid. Four-cylinder turbo. If you think it
is, put it down in the comments below. But we'll get to that. Nice side skirts. This also has the carbon pack. So you get a carbon fiber cap for the outside rear-view mirror. As we go further down the side, again, this is five meters long. It's a really long car. But to help with the agility, you
get rear axle steering as standard. Very typical Mercedes curved and rounded shapes. Not too many sharp edges. I don't know, this is probably not my most favorite part of the car. At the back,
you get a nice carbon fiber spoiler. Again, only with the carbon pack. With the other standard versions and the night pack, this is still body color only. Dark chrome across the middle, accentuated by these really horizontal Mercedes embossed tail lamps. Looks pretty cool. What do you guys think? AMG badging here and critically, the red E53 logo up here. Let's take a look at the rear diffuser. Uh-oh, are these fake exhaust tips?
Well, I'll give it a warning this time because these are just designer tips. There are tips below or behind it. So it's not the worst offense. Overall, I think it's a pretty good-looking car. The front headlamps have the Digital Light LED technology, and I really like the waves at the bottom. The indicators don't cascade, but still looks pretty fresh. As cool as these tail lamps are, I'm a little bit disappointed with the turn indicators. They could have made one of
these stars blink or have it more cascading. This seems a bit old-schooled for a 110,000-year-old car. All right, let me put you out of your misery. No, it's not an e-performance hybrid. It's a more traditional plug-in hybrid. What I mean by that is you get a 21/22-kilowatt hour net battery, which gives you up to 100 kilometers of pure electric driving range. That's their claimed figure. We'll
see how much we can get. My guess is a little bit lower than that, but you can drive up to speeds of 140 kilometers per hour. You get the standard AC charging, but you can pay extra and get the optional DC fast charging with 60 kilowatts. Now, what's under the hood? Is it a Turbo 4 or? Well, as you may have probably guessed, it's a turbo inline six cylinder. This is the latest generation of the AMG Inline 6 and this combined system makes 585 horsepower. That's quite a lot. In fact, if you get the Dynamic Plus pack with the race start, you get this full capacity of 612 horsepower for the start. You also can see that
there are additional stiffening measures. Here we have the strut bars. You also have more stiffening throughout the chassis. You also get steel spring with adaptive dampers. But again, a new system
here. Now, the drivetrain is a 4MATIC Plus which has a rare bias but can send power up to the front wheels as well. So overall, with the rear axle steering, with this electric hybrid system, you get kind of the best of both worlds, right? Well, we'll put it to the test because this is a pretty heavy vehicle. 2.3 tons. Yikes. The transmission
is the AMG Speedshift TCT 9G, which is the torque converter technology, not the Multi-Plate. But this handles 750 newton meters of combined system torque output because the electric motor is on this TCT itself. So with the speed shift and the race start with the Dynamic Plus, you get a 0 to 100 kilometer per hour sprint of 3.8 seconds. It's pretty quick. Of course,
with the estate version, it's a little bit slower than that. Now, let's take a look at the interior, shall we? Really cool flush door handles. You just swipe your hands across and then it jots out. Can't see it that well right now, but in the dark, you will notice that these are illuminated really cool. Mercedes AMG is also really proud that they have the dark chrome accent here on the door handle as well. Let's check the door
closing sound. This is pretty good. You know, sometimes with these flush door handles, you tend to have the risk of them feeling a bit flimsy. But this I would say seems pretty solid. Door closing, I wouldn't expect any less. It's really good. No chimneys and shakes. So pretty
heavy sounding doors as well. Now the interior, there's a whole bunch of different options in terms of color and material. Let's go into that piece by piece. On the door itself, you have some soft materials on the panels, quite monochromatic in this particular version. But you can also have different contrasting colors for this section, which I personally would prefer. Depending on the
material of the seat, and unfortunately, only if you have animal-skinned Napa leather do you get ventilation, not on the Artico seats. But typical Mercedes seat controls here, really nice Burmester sound system and typical fare here in terms of the window controls. Now, if you take a peek inside and it's quite dark in this particular version, you get as standard the sport seats, which are a little bit more comfortable and come with the Artico leatherette and microfiber inside. But this
is the optional performance seats which have the AMG logo and all of this kind of integrated head restraint. They are a little bit more firm. And in this particular case, this is leather. You can also get this with microfiber as well. Getting inside. Definitely feels very low like I'm in a
sports car, which I guess I am. You know, it's not the AMG GT 4-door, but this, I would say, is quite comparable. You get the AMG steering wheel with the AMG paddle shifters. In fact, you can also get optionally this part here in microfiber and these two parts here in carbon fiber. So
the option list is insane. But of course, you can see here you have the giant Hyperscreen with one, two, three screens. Do you really need it? I'll tell you more about that. So why don't we take a closer look inside? Oh boy, this has so much tech. I'm going to try to cover as much as I can and give you the highlights. First of all,
more on the steering wheel. Great grip, but also being the AMG, you have the dial selector for the drive mode and another selector here to quickly toggle perhaps like the sound profile and the suspension. The information cluster here is also 3D and has a plethora of different views that you can choose from. And also a really cool head-up display, even with the AMG Track Pack special.
If we move our attention towards the right-hand side, now we have the large central infotainment. Now you can get the Hyperscreen with the third screen as an option. Without it, you would actually get a nice Ashwood finish here which has even a backlit AMG logo. And I personally prefer
that. I'm not quite sure. I need a screen here, a screen here, a screen here, and a head up display. When do I even look outside? Of course, this is for the passenger, but my wife, for example, likes to look outside or she's on her phone. I
can't really see a reason for this. Would you pick one? Would you pay the extra for this? Put it down in the comments below. But the main infotainment with this latest MBUX is actually quite fantastic. Big icons, really easy to see, really responsive. Again, a bunch of different settings that you can have. And also, I love the ambient lighting. You
can really choose all kinds of different color schemes. You can choose monochrome or multicolor. When you are changing the temperature, it changes the color as well. When your indicators are on, it changes as well. So a lot of nice creature comforts. Lighting all around the center here as well. The carbon fiber center, I think this
elevates the sportiness of the interior. But in standard mode, you get the Ashwood trim here as well. Inductive phone charger, which is a little bit hard to reach, but once you put your phone in, I guess you don't need to take it out quite often.
USB-C ports over there. Then you have bottle holders here. This is a little bit more adaptive. If you don't want a second cup holder, you can remove that. Although they're not very large,
closes itself like that. Down here you have some buttons. Of course, the hazard lights, which are always, you need a separate button for that. But
you also have a quick access to the 3D camera, which is really useful to park this big car. And then finally, look at this cool little feature. If I'm in the climate menu, I can actually change the vents. See? I can't operate the ventilation at the moment. Well, but you can look at it. So here look at this. If I click on upper body, it automatically moves. And I can
imagine in the future with updates, they can have like an oscillation feature. Again, so much of information, so much of, so much of technology. Do you really need all of it? I don't know. Even a camera right here in the front to do video calls when you're parked. Oh boy. Now I'm not so happy that I have to click twice to get into the temperature menu, but look at this. When
I'm sliding, the number just pops up a little bit. That's so cool. I like this attention to detail. Of course, you have phone mirroring with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Here you can see that the Apple CarPlay that we're testing right now doesn't really fill up the entire screen. There's quite a lot of space here on the left and right.
We have a armrest with some more storage right here in the middle and some more charging points. And of course, door pockets on the side and a pretty decent glovebox. Really nice wide doors. Nice material here as well, so definitely not skimping out. Even the door pockets are also felt
lined in the back like they are in the front. Let's hop inside. It's not terribly low. So of course, it's a sedan so you have to expect that. But wow, not bad at all. I'm 5'8" or about 1.7
meters. This is set to my driving position. And as you can see, I have plenty of knee room. In fact, if you get the standard sport seats and not these performance seats, the back of the seat is more scooped out. So if you're a taller adult, if you're Thomas sitting behind Thomas, for example, I think that's actually a little bit more roomy. But with the seat even pretty low as I have right now, I have space to slide my feet under it. I
have plenty of creature comforts. Air conditioning vents in the B pillar. Vents over here as well with my own climate zone. And I have a nice
padding. ISOFIX points here. Dare I say, the rear seat padding is actually more comfortable than the front seats in this particular performance seat. I think the standard sport seats are also a little bit more comfortable. It has more padding. But here is actually a little bit softer than the front. But what about the center seat? Because of
course there's a giant transmission tunnel really high, really wide. You're going to have to battle it out for foot room with your co-passengers. But the bench itself is not too bad. Of course, the rear, the backrest is pretty stiff because of the center armrest with the phone and then subsequent cup holders. But overall,
pretty spacious. Although, you know, I've noticed even with my car which has seats like this, three people sitting side by side, even though the center seat is, you know, one of the issues, because of this big bulging cushion, the people on the side are also really pressed up against this. And this is gonna eat into your back and it creates a lot of back pain pretty quickly. So three people, you might want to test it for yourself on a test drive if you can take your family with you or grab some friends and see if the people you tend to carry in the back seat can fit comfortably back here. It is a panoramic roof,
but it's actually two different pieces. There's one right here for the rear passengers and there's another one in the front. This is actually great because I have a really direct view up top. So if we're driving in the mountains, which we will be, in a few moments, you can really have a nice view.
Again, for my height, I have decent headroom, so I can't complain. I definitely would recommend this optional extra. Yes, you have to pay for this, but it really makes a difference. Not only is the panoramic roof two panes of glass, but you can actually open the front pane as well.
Oh yeah. Nice. You have a powered rear tailgate and inside you get 370 liters with the estate. It's 490 with the seats up. For reference, here is my cabin trolley bag. So not too tall actually. So let's take out the auto-fuel ruler of truth, shall we? And let's measure the height that you get here. So this is about 41 centimeters or about 16 inches. So not very tall. And you cannot
really expand any volume below this because of all the hybrid system. And another thing that's a little bit disappointing is it's so dark in here at night. If you're trying to grab your groceries or other stuff out, there are no lights in here. And even if it's an option, come on. When you're paying this much money, you shouldn't have to specifically pick for a light. But at least you get electronically dropping and folding rear seats. And because of
this hump, if you look all the way down here, it's not exactly flat. There's a little bit of a dip as it goes lower down. Nevertheless, now you have a lot more trunk volume to carry longer items, albeit flat items and not tall items. Let's just get a quick reference for how far down that goes. Let's say you're about to put
able to put something till there. Yeah, it's about 195 centimeters or about 76 inches. So lengthwise, not terrible. But I personally would pick the estate. Not only do I think it looks better,
but it's definitely more practical as well. Let's take a quick look at the estate version as well. First of all, this is the graphite gray color and it doesn't have the night pack. So you have the
grille in chrome as well as the lower part of the bumper. And I think it really looks nice. Really nice contrast between the black and the chrome. Another difference here is the fact that these wheels, even though they are 21 inches, are not blacked out. And I personally like this combination. And lastly, another interesting point
is, of course, this has rear axle steering like the sedan. However, the standard Mercedes E-Class, you don't get rear axle steering. You only get this here in the AMG version. And obviously this is the estate with the longer back and the bigger trunk. So let's see exactly how that looks on the inside. So with the seats folded down, you actually get a little bit more than 1,600 liters of volume, which is plenty if you ask me. This
might be concerning to you. Well, the truth is you can't really use beyond this point anyway because this is where the latch mechanism exists. But you need all of this for the hybrid system. But overall, definitely the more practical of the two. So what is the E53 AMG hybrid like to drive? Well, we're getting out onto the Autobahn. It's the
start of the European Championship, so there's a lot of traffic around here in Munich. So why don't you and I drive down to the Alps? Sounds good. Out on the Autobahn Ramp, here we go. So the system starts up automatically in EV mode. So it's very silent. It's only when you kick down like that, that the petrol engine roars to life and then starts, you know, taking over the propulsion.
But then quickly, the minute you don't need it, the system goes back into pure EV mode as well. So that's why you can change if you want here, or just leave it in complete auto. Now in the EV mode as well, you have, when you're in the EV mode, the paddle shifters give you the ability to choose the recuperation. So right now, I'm in D minus. So if I were to release the throttle pedal, there's a lot more aggressive deceleration, which is where the recuperation effect is taking place and I'm charging the battery backup. But I can leave
it in the standard D mode and it's a bit more intelligent. It sees the situation that I'm in if I'm on the Autobahn or if I'm in the city with the radar sensors, it sees if I'm in a traffic jam and I need more recuperation. Mercedes tech is really top notch. I can just, you know, it's lovely to
see this amount of detail going into just the software programming. Another thing, for example, yes, capacitive buttons, but I honestly don't mind simply because there's so many different, you know, it's like four different stocks, realistically, and each of the little capacitive sections has a different indentation, for example. So, for example, when I'm in the speed limiter mode, which is what I often use when I'm in the city driving, the traffic sign recognition system will give me a suggestion that, okay, this is now changing from 50 to 70, and there's a one button here that I can just use to jump up, no matter if it's 10 kilometers per hour, or 50, or 100, it instantly drops up and down to the specific speed limit. And in fact, even in the speed limiter, it already applies the brake if you start going downhill, for example.
I haven't seen many other systems do that from other manufacturers. So, definitely, tech-wise, really great. Even with the cruise control, it knows like when you're in a traffic jam, in Germany, you have to provide a space in the middle for the emergency vehicles to go through. So the car will automatically pull itself towards the edge of the lane at speeds, I think, around 20 kilometers per hour or 15. And then once you start speeding, once the traffic clears, it'll speed up on its own, of course, but then it will come back and center itself in the middle of the lane. So you can see that here right now, it says emergency corridor, so it's telling me to move to the side.
So, really great. You also have, of course, the augmented reality navigation with the MBUX, where with the front camera, it projects the turn arrows in the augmented view here, which is really cool. So you can just look at, oh, which is it the first exit of the roundabout or the second? There's like multiple intersections or multiple roads in the complex junction. You can just look at the camera feed for the augmented reality arrows. Even the small little things like the traffic light view, because I can tell you and we'll get into the details of this later, I'm sitting pretty low and visibility is not bad. But if I'm parked in a traffic jam right under the traffic light, I'm going to have to keep, you know, peering forward to see that. But here as well, this front camera
will give me a live feed of the traffic lights so that I don't have to do that. So, really smart, really useful features like this. Standard things like cross-traffic alert, blind spot monitoring, driver drowsiness detection, all of that is there. But it's this extra little detail which I really appreciate Mercedes for. These seats, you know, we've been driving for a little bit now, not too long, but I can already start to feel that they're a little bit on the firmer side. I think I would probably just stick with the standard sport seats, but I'll give you an update later on. But they do hold you in place really well. So
the side bolstering is really nice. So overall, the contour is not bad. Even the headrest is at the right angle. If you do plan to track this car, although I can't imagine you would, then you know wearing a helmet would stick your head forward and this is a fixed head restraint, so you're kind of stuck with that. Although I must add, with these
21-inch wheels, it is a little bit loud. I think the 19-inch wheels will be a little bit quieter just because there's more rubber to absorb those vibrations. Here, these wheels look really cool. They don't really affect the comfort terribly, but I think the inside road noise, the tire noise, is a bit higher. Wind noise is not a problem.
Now this is the kind of road that I was looking for. Look at this waterfalls, narrow bridges. Oh boy, speaking of narrow, I think that's one of the things that sticks out about this car is it is a little bit wide. But that's just the segment, even the Panamera or the M5. Same story there. But
it's so grippy. It just sticks to the road. That four-wheel drive, this adaptive suspension is constantly making sure that those wide sticky tires are in contact with the road at all times. Steering doesn't feel as natural, though. That's probably my biggest issue. It feels a little bit artificial. And that,
along with the brake pedal feel, sure, it's trying to do a lot of that regenerative braking, but it's not so consistent with the brake feel when it switches into the friction brakes. Doesn't mean it's not confidence inspiring, but I feel like I have to step on it. And every time I stamp on it, it reacts a little bit differently. On narrow roads like this, that rear axle steering does help shrink the wheelbase, and it does make the car feel a little bit tail happy because, you know, the rear axle steering is making the rear rotate around me without actually having to burn any rubber. So it's definitely quite a lot
of fun to drive. Then what is it really? Is it a small alpine sports car? No. This is an Autobahn missile, especially if you get it in the estate here in Germany. I know not all markets have that option, but then straight line, high speed, 250 kilometers an hour, Berlin to Munich in a handful of hours. You know, that's what this car excels
at. But sure, if you want to take it on some narrow, twisty mountain alpine roads like this, it can handle it, but it might make you feel a bit scared from time to time. Because it comes down to the fact that this car, no matter which way you look at it, costs at least with some options, 120 to 130,000 euros. Yikes. It's a lot of money. And those 21-inch rims, I'm constantly afraid I'm going to curb them or scratch them. So, you know, I think it's something that you can enjoy just knowing that you have this much power on tap. The plug-in hybrid system is great because you're recuperating energy. You're utilizing the
electric motor. You can drive in pure EV mode to commute to work. You get definitely some tax concessions. It's a great car to lease that way, but ultimately it's a bit expensive for a plaything. So, yeah, I think it's really fun,
but I think it's not as natural to drive in terms of the steering and the brake feel. It's a little bit wide to be a mountain sports car, and definitely it's a bit expensive. But what do you think? Put it down in the comments below. And also, let's talk about its competitors. Let's talk about the Panama, the M5, the S5. Put it
down in the comments what you prefer and why. And while you're at it, why don't you watch one of these other videos and compare it with these cars?
2024-06-26 13:27
