NEW Mercedes-AMG C63 S vs BMW M3 vs Audi RS4 | Why hybrid’s spoiled the AMG C63
foreign look through the Mercedes AMG back catalog and you'll find all sorts of awesome cars things like the AMG Hammer the CLK DTM but it was really in 2008 with a C63 it took a giant leap forward and that's because that was the first AMG that was designed and engineered specially to be an AMG from the off so before then really it was a bunch of guys in a filter back getting a Mercedes stuff in a big V8 engine usually under the Bonnet and then sending it off on its way so the C63 really stepped up you know in terms of handling handled really well but it still felt like an old-school AMG and that it was you know it could be a bit of a hooligan if you wanted to and it also had that V8 engine which was just Epic and when they introduced the estate it brought something genuinely new to the market that neither the BMW M3 or Audi RS4 could quite match I thought the first one you know was absolutely brilliant the second one was Best in Class versus the M3 and the Audi and now there's a new one we're here in Germany to test it against those long-standing Rivals so the BMW M3 touring which is now available as an estate of course and also the Audi RS4 competition which is only available as an estate they're all pretty expensive these days though 85 000 pounds or so each for the BMW an Audi more like 90 000 for the Mercedes the thing is though while those Rivals stick with a pretty formulaic recipe the Mercedes doesn't and there's a clue in the name it's called the Mercedes AMG c63s which is so far so familiar and to that they add a new suffix called e performance and that's a big hint that this car isn't just a little bit different it is completely different instead of the old 4 liter V8 engine Mercedes a slash cylinder count and displacement in half so we've got a four-cylinder 2-liter engine with an electrically assisted turbo a bit like the ones they use in Formula One that makes 476 brake horsepower on its own and that doesn't just make it more powerful than the RS4 it makes it the most powerful force within the production engine in the world it's still hand assembled a falter back like the old days and it's mounted longitudinally not transversely like a hot hatch there's also a 6.1 kilowatt hour battery and an electric motor that drives the rear axle through a two-speed gearbox and that adds 201 brake horsepower electric power can also Drive the front axle when the fully variable all-wheel drive senses slip and there's also rear wheel steering nine speeds eight driving modes four recuperation modes and of course these days a drift mode it is massively complex but on paper it's also pretty compelling there are outputs of 670 brake horsepower and 752 pound footer torque that represent easy triple digit gains over the old C63 and huge gains over the two Rivals assembled today though that Peak does drop by 94 brake horsepower after a 10 second boost the new plug-in hybrid C63 also promises massively improved MPG and CO2 figures of 40 MPG and 156 grams per kilometer as well as around 8 Miles and pure electric mode but really this is a performance plug-in hybrid with a battery designed for fast power delivery and draw there are two big problems with that there's no V8 noise and also weight because this car weighs 2 115 kilos as an estate and partly that's because there's a big battery in the boot 89 kilos of battery which also makes the boot a lot smaller unfortunately so 2115 kilos the M3 weighs 1865 the Audi 1729 kilo sorry this is literally hundreds of kilos heavier than the opposition talking about that noise let's see what this cart sounds like when we turn it on should we so just break engine start stop that's it that's all you get as soon as you start it up there's no there's no engine there's no noise it's a 6.1 kilowatt hour battery you get eight miles about 13 kilometers um on zero emissions mode so you have to turn it from Comfort to sport to wake the new four-cylinder engine so it has a little bit of a purposeful sort of rotiness to it but I think you have to remember just how amazing that old V8 sounded and first impressions it is a little bit of a disappointment but let's go out on the road and see how this feels I think one thing to say with this car straight away is there are an awful lot of Drive modes to get through and it is pretty confusing using these very very cheap feeling controls down here to scroll through them all and decide what you want that you can do an individual mode on here but I find myself setting that and then actually changed my mind I think well I want to drive more slowly now I want to drive faster and because it's just one mode I then find myself messing around with this little wheel on the left and it's not very intuitive I just end up getting in a little bit of a mess and not feeling like I'm I'm connecting with this car properly unfortunately so we've got the the suspension we've got the AMG Dynamics I need to put it in manual as well on the gear shifts I much prefer just having a lever to knock over there but this is on a column suspension stiffness I have this AMG Dynamics thing that I really need to put in master or Pro I think and yeah it's just that level of of mess before you start really and so yeah I'm not keen on this on this interface the seating position I think it's pretty good it's quite low down it's not very very low down there's a lot of lateral support or a decent amount of lateral support I'd say in these seats they they could go lower could be more comfortable they're not particularly comfortable seats and I wouldn't relish a long journey in these seats much as they look cool and they do offer that support around your sides the other thing you notice very quickly in this car is the brake pedal it is very very poorly defined uh in about that much at the top travel and with a performance car you want a very clean bike just like you did with a steering or or throttle response anything like that you want to feel like it's a Precision Driving tool and this just has a load of mush presumably because of the regen they're trying to do with the uh with the hybrid system but just doesn't instill any sort of sensor connection or confidence with this car steering as well I have to say I am not massively fond of this steering so it's not got masses of a feel to it but I think it's really the response that that bothers me it's clearly some sort of variable rate that's working with the rear wheel steering and find it again it's that sense of interaction and keying into this car I just find it just not sure quite what it's up to and it's a sort of slightly unfortunate springiness to it it is precise but I'm just not really connecting with this car as I get into it it's sort of thwarting me a little bit now I'm in sport mode at the moment the engine is very very subdued in the background I can't actually wind down again got complete electric mode turn off or I can dial up Sport Plus let's try Sport Plus now in terms of the ride on this car as well I mean Sport Plus now and it's suddenly started to get quite Jiggy um which you'd expect anyway so if I take it down to comfort I think you know we're in Germany here we're going over a few kind of speed bumpy little speed bump things it feels I would say acceptable here there are a few kind of a few sort of little bits of sort of secondary patter coming through and my suspicion is that while it feels all right here I don't think this car is going to ride very well in the UK we'll have to wait to find that out but here in Germany it's okay in Comfort but yeah let's see in the UK so if I slow down to third gear here crazy display here as well 2 000 RPM 2000 RPM floor it's an instant throttle response it's moving straight away now I don't know if you could see that in me moving around so you've got the gear change but then there was like a flat spot after that gear change so it had this kind of real Fury and energy to it that really picked it up to start off with after that gear change that came in relatively promptly there wasn't just a complete hole in the power delivery and Mercedes does say after 10 seconds you lose that kick it feels I've had that a few times now and it feels like more than 100 brake horsepower but it feels a really really significant chunk of that 670 brake horsepower again it's just gone flat I don't know if there's something wrong with this particular car or is this how they all are but it is a very curious you know loads of power it's fine then and then it'll cut out so there's something about the integration of this powertrain and I know it is fiendishly tricky stuff so I don't envy the engineers who had to do this but there's something that's not right here and then you know when I use the talk and haul it out of that corner there he's a very rapid stable and competent car so feel the rear wheel steering working through there handling the grip you know there is not a complete lost cause but I think the powertrain leaves a hell of a lot to be designed going downhill relatively quickly now that brake pedal is just pure mush but the steering very pointy it's a bit numb a bit springy but it is quick and he's very agile through here I feel very confident to toss it around and take liberties with it so it is a decent chassis honey it doesn't feel I would never ever guess that this car weighed well over two tons no way does you know this cars 10 millimeters longer in terms of wheelbase and it doesn't feel like a longer heavier car it is of course if you put it around the track versus the old one it would presumably absolutely destroy it the problem is just that that connection with the car that enjoyment it's it's just a bit of a synthetic sterile car and fact that it's not as well integrated or it's you know it's it really doesn't feel finished if this is how they all feel this doesn't feel it isn't finished and that engine though you know when it's when it's really roaring like that it's clearly artificially augmented it does kind of you know get your adrenaline going but it is not an authentic engine though it's digitally enhanced to uh to create the emotion it is frustrating this car I think you know it's a bold move for them to go and do something like this done it and they've produced it but I think it is a bridge too far if all this hybrid stuff is a bit much you could try the BMW M3 touring it's changed dramatically as well for its sixth generation because we've never had an estate before never an all-wheel drive version and never an 8-speed automatic gearbox but this is a much more familiar recipe than the Mercedes notably because of the three liter twin turbo straight six and because it can still go fully rear-wheel drive if you fancy there isn't even mild hybrid assistance and it makes 503 brake horsepower and 479 pound foot of torque that's quite a weight of the AMG 670 brake horsepower but take power to weight into account and it's 270 brake horsepower per ton Place 317 for the Mercedes and that's presuming the Mercedes has the full hybrid boost available fuel economy is way down at an official 28 MPG but the M3 has got a much bigger boot than the Mercedes with 500 liters rising to 1510 liters when you fold down the seats the Mercedes has only 324 liters because of all those hybrid bits and seeing as these cars are Estates where carrying stuff is a big part of the point that's a huge deal on the road in the end and well straight away I feel really comfortable in this car the seating position is very very low down definitely lower than the Mercedes so right on the floor these seats are the optional carbon back seats of course and you know they're a bit of a pain to get into and they do hold you very very well they are quite firm as well they're not as firm as the Mercedes so I feel happier to spend a longer trip in this car and also the lateral support you get is very very welcome now like the Mercedes there are all sorts of driving modes to set up here but I do find them a lot easier to configure and you can do the M1 and M2 buttons as well so basically I have an M1 button for all my kind of hooligan type of stuff or sort of you know ratio driving and M2 would be for kind of daily driving sort of mooching around but you know it's just so welcome to get in a car with a proper engine this straight six is you know when they first did this engine and made it a twin turbo um you know when the engine the last the last generation M3 went turbo it wasn't the best I didn't like the way it kind of behaved in that but they've absolutely nailed it with this one really good throttle response it builds much more progressively and you really really fast as well sounds good it's still got that slightly kind of diesel Edge that the other one had but you know much more in the old end feeling as well in terms of the way it builds and it's exhaust now it's just a little more engaging steering I find much more kind of faithful and precise than the Mercedes it's not massively fearsome but it is very very consistent and like with the brakes the brakes got a nice clean feel nice clean response from the steering as well so very quickly start to feel like I'm kind of connecting with this car and interacting with it and they've still got a decent amount of grip in two-wheel drive mode but once you get past that you'll happily light them up and actually it's very very stable and and predictable just hold out of that corner you know four-wheel drive is very welcome I think it's it's a really kind of neat trick but I think this car can cope a lot better than people think just in the rear wheel drive setting foreign I just love the way it goes up to the really encourages to rev it out now it used to be a bit of a talk plateau and you used to short shift in the old one but this really encourages you to wind this car out and make the most of all that Headroom he's got very very confidence inspiring handling as well the way it just flicked through all the corners I could just jump in this car and drive it in all weathers and drive it quickly and feel really sort of safe but also really really engaged in in the in a process of driving this car which in a way you know Mercedes was technically impressive in some ways frustrating in others and also just a bit too sterile for me gear shift as well we haven't got a dual coach gearbox here it's a regular torque converter but they are plenty Punchy enough I would say they're they're nice and quick and I love those little Thunder claps you get when you change gear as well I think the other thing about this car as well is is the way it rides I think out here in Germany where we're comparing it with the Mercedes and the Audi I think it definitely rides better than the Mercedes more settled it is an inherently firm car but it is also a comfortable car I'll let you get a sense of this car's flexibility so if I it down to just over a thousand RPM third gear pulling already but not so about two five two six it starts to really kind of pick up his heels and goes so there is just that bit at the bottom of this rev range where just needs to kind of clear his throat a bit get those turbos late like there is and then he goes so you have to drive around that a bit but it's still pulling it's still flexible and the throttle response is really really sharp and really impressive on this for a turbo engine it's very very crisp and it's very very crisp full stop I think I was so pleased when this car came out because you know I'd sort of fallen out with the previous M3 I just didn't click with this engine when it first came out I think with this car they've just integrated it so much better it's it's everything kind of hangs together really nicely and and really interestingly you know when you're comparing it against the Mercedes that's one thing that car doesn't have it just lacks that last not even the last bit of integration I think it's still quite a long way to go this car has a really kind of strong sort of homogeneous feeling I don't mean that in a in a negative way I mean it just the way it hangs together is very very satisfying even though it's way down on power versus the AMG it doesn't really feel I mean I think when the AMG goes full absolutely Bonkers you feel it but it doesn't always do that for very long this is is much more consistent and you know it's just always there a bit I think more than anything you know it's it's just so nice to have a car that has evolved and has retained so much of what m is about with a three liter engine the straight six it's just part of the identity and I think you know they've hung on to it AMG have let their identity go and and that's what's really cost them in this test I think undoubtedly it has all of which brings us to the Audi RS4 it might be at the end of its life cycle but Audi has given it a little boost to get it across the Finish Line in the form of a 75 unit special edition name the competition the powertrain is largely the same meaning a 2.9 liter twin turbo V6 with an 8-speed Auto and 444 brake horsepower and 443 pound foot of torque that is a way off the opposition that the shifts have been recalibrated for a little extra punch and you get the RS Sports exhaust Plus for a fruitier sort of noise compared with the rather restrained standard model there's also a reduction in sound Insulation at the front bulkhead adding a bit more noise and saving 8 kilos you get fixed rather than variable rate steering spanner adjustable coilover suspension a retuned rear differential and 20 inch Ollie Wheels wrapped in stickier P0 corset tires all of which is designed to make this a sharper more engaging kind of RS4 to drive and with 495 liters of boot space rising to 1495 with the seats folded the Audi has just a little less boot space than the M3 I'll admit that when we first started stacking up this test I'd mentally placed the Audi RS4 at the bottom of our our list the end of our Podium because you know it's the oldest car and it's got no more extra power it's a way off with 400 444 brake horsepower but I'll tell you what this is a really really good car now it gets the basics right with a really nice low set seating position just like the old one did this one's got them the microfiber kind of Alcantara centers which adds some tactility you also get this on the steering and that's the thing that really kind of stands out when you first start driving this car this new fixed ratio has a very very natural feel and it Keys you into this car straight away now the other thing as well as the steering with its fixed ratio are the P0 Corsa tires I think they add extra tactility as well and some Precision so as as you turn it bites it's very very natural it's not aggressive but it's just got a very very pleasing turn-in and a very natural organic sort of feel to it so we haven't got any extra power as I said but we have got this Audi RS Sports exhaust system and you know the regular car is pretty subdued but this one you know it's not shouty but it just gives it a fuller voice it's a much richer sound and you know versus the the Mercedes especially it's a really nice kind of Ridge more involving exhaust note we've also got a recalibrated shift strategy for the eight-speed Auto gearbox and you really feel actually there is a punchiness to that so it's another thing that's just tying in making this car feel more connected and immediate this car's got the carbon ceramic brake upgrade as well so it's got a really nice pedal especially versus the the Mercedes very very prompt very very confidence inspiring now you do have a few settings that you can choose from on a rather fiddly interface down here but you can also group them two different modes on the rs1 and rs2 settings there but one thing you can't change is the suspension this time and that's because this is on adjustable coilover suspension you actually have to get the spanners out to adjust that now you can make a right old mess of that if you uh you know go at it yourself but presumably this one's come with the default factory settings 10 millimeters lower for the roads and the way it's riding now you know far from being kind of edgy and kind of gnarly it's got a real sort of flow through it on these German roads and it feels compliant and I can imagine it actually working really well in the UK as well and you couldn't say that about the previous RS4 it just had a bit of an edge to it that I wanted knocked off really I think it's easy to lose context these days isn't it with power outputs and and something like this Audi with 444 brake horsepower they haven't even increased it versus versus the standard car which has been out a while but also you know put it into context let's just drop this down into third gear now and I've got just down to about 2 000 RPMs let's floor it now kicks in just after that point I was really strongly all the way up to six thousand so really encouraging me to wind it out this is a really quick car still absolutely flying really comply and suspension really engaging exhaust note so even though on paper it's down a lot and it is the slowest car here this is still a very very fast car and it's more than enough for the road this car's also got a really really capable chassis so even though you've got relatively modest amount of power it can really use it and you know you've got the P0 courses more tactile more grippy and you can someone took this car around and enjoy it it's not going to throw any crazy shapes like the M3 but it's it just hooks into a corner powers out and there is real enjoyment of just going point to point quickly in this kind of really sure-footed confidence inspiring sort of way there's no question I'd take this car over the Mercedes and I think there's a real case for it versus the M3 as well as a comfortable daily that can still go point-to-point and entertain and he's more subtle I think it makes a lot of sense this car I really like the sound of this engine as well it's got this sort of mournful V6 sound as you're you're on part throttle and then when you when you push harder it's sort of a fruitier noise you've got the sort of Thunder claps but it's not overplayed it's just enough really I think what's interesting you know versus the Mercedes the Mercedes for me is just the wrong concept for that car they should never have put a two liter hybrid and it with this car with the RS4 I think it was a 90 car before it was good but it wasn't wasn't quite perfect and with this with a competition pack it's lots of small things but they all work together to just give it that extra bit of fairy dust it all hangs together and makes it a much more satisfying car to drive and with an appeal that really quite sort of sneaks up on you as well this engine's got a really flexible mid-range as well that adds to that sort of daily driving usability there is a little bit of shunt in it if you load it up on Boost and back off but otherwise it's a very very strong engine now I've had to constantly sum up these cars I'd say we've got a winner a disappointment and a surprise and the Mercedes is a disappointment and the loser in this test you know when some cars come out they just need a good polish to unlock their greatness but in this case I just think this hybrid petrol electric concept is just the wrong thing for this car it's like you know it shouldn't be four cylinders it should be four liters like some sort of catastrophic typo from the engineering department or Metallica swapping guitars for synthesizers I just want that V8 back to be fair when it all hooks up it's the fastest car here it's really Furious performance but the integration is the problem the way the sort of lumps and bumps and inconsistencies and there's just too much stuff to configure here there's also a load of them compromises when you get to packaging so there's a big hump in the boot that eats into boot space of the estate that you bought to put Luggage in and you know it's just not good enough this car for me I'd say the winner is the BMW M3 I just love the way it blends everything it's a really rounded car so it's great to drive quickly but it does the daily stuff as well it's great and terrible weather it's got the biggest Boot and actually you should mention it got the best MPG on this test 19.9 MPG and some pretty hard use the Mercedes got 19.1 we didn't use electric mode so it would have been higher but we did hundreds of miles it's only eight miles so 19.9 Audi by the way 18.8 but yeah the stretch of this car's abilities the
way it's safe and secure it's exciting then you can turn everything off and it's just a complete hooligan this would definitely be my choice so the surprise of this test is the Audi RS4 it's the oldest car on test it's only got 444 brake horsepower but it's absolutely brilliant you know I talked before about polishing a car to bring out its best and that's exactly what's happened here with the competition it's only a few Choice upgrades but they really are Choice upgrades it makes it more tactile sharper and just more enjoyable to drive so first place for me with the BMW M3 touring but definitely highly commended second place for the RS4 thank you foreign
2023-06-12 18:24
