Mercedes-Benz AMG GT vs Audi S5

What's the difference?

This is no Lotus, but damn if it ain't a hell of a good time, and proof positive that electrification can enhance the V8 experience, rather than ruin it.

The S4 and S5 range continues to represent a great formula for performance you can live with every day. They're arguably the sweetest balance Audi produces, actually. All come fantastically equipped, with cabins that feel truly special, and we’re lucky they can be had in a choice of five bodystyles.  

It's a mean, but somehow still sleek, looking beast, this big AMG, but it's also immediately recognisable as a thing of intent.

Up front, there's the huge vertical-slat grille that looks like it drove straight out of a Stephen King novel, a massively domed bonnet, and these vacuum-like side intakes that look like they could suck in stray animals.

Then, at the back, there are twin dual-pipe exits (for four in total), and an automatic wing that pops out of the rear bodywork. And all of that's capped off with these massive 21-inch forged alloy wheels hiding golden ceramic-composite brakes.

Mean, yes, but not quite as aggressive as you might expect the most powerful AMG to date to come across, perhaps.

Inside, it's more subdued again, with the AMG presenting a pretty passenger-friendly space, with all the Benz tech you'd imagine, including the massive screens, and — thanks to its air suspension and drive modes — the ability to tailor the ride to your liking, meaning a comfortable and premium experience, despite the power under your right foot.

The S4 sedan and Avant have scored the bulk of design updates, with all new and recontoured side panels including the sedan’s C-pillar matching what was applied to the A4 earlier this year. 

This is paired with new front and rear facias and lighting for a subtle but extensive rework of the fifth-generation S4’s conservative look. 

The S5 Sportback, Coupe and Cabriolet get S5-specific new lighting and facias, but no sheetmetal changes. As before, the Coupe and Cabriolet ride on a 60mm shorter wheelbase than the Sportback, sedan and Avant.

The S5s also get Matrix LED headlights as standard which do a neat animated sequence when you unlock the car. 

Other visual hallmarks include new S4-specific 19-inch wheels, with S5 stepping up to its own unique 20-inch wheel. The six-piston front brake calipers are appropriately painted red, and there’s S-specific adaptive dampers under there too. All variants aside from the Cabriolet get a lip spoiler on the rear.

On the inside, there’s a new centre console and bigger 10.1-inch multimedia screen, while the Audi Virtual Cockpit driver instrument display now offers a hockey stick-style rev counter in additional to traditional dial layouts.

It's not overly practical, given its size, with AMG locking in a four-seat configuration with a fixed rear pew that limits boot space. You can get folding seats, but only as part of an option package.

What you're left with is a vehicle that stretches 5054mm in length, 1953mm in width and 1447mm in height, but that serves up rear seating for only two – albeit very comfortably – and, because of the electric battery and motor being housed at the rear, boot space of just 335 litres.

There is triple-zone climate control, and the rear seating is lounge-like and luxurious, while the up-front space is ample for two full-size riders, too.

There's no spare, with AMG's 'Tirefit' puncture repair system on board.

The biggest practicality change among the five S4 and S5 variants is their upgrade to the latest version of Audi’s MMI multimedia system, which steps up to a 10.1-inch touchscreen and drops the scroll wheel from the centre console.

It also boasts ten times the computing power of the version it replaces and uses this and an on-board sim card to access Google Earth maps for navigation and Audi Connect Plus that offers driver information such as fuel prices and parking information as well as point of interest search and weather information, plus the ability to make emergency calls and seek roadside assistance.

There’s also a wireless phone charger, but using Apple CarPlay will still require a cord as per Android Auto.

I only drove the S4 Avant and S5 Sportback at their media launch, which are clearly the most practical of the five, but from our experience with the previous versions, each looks after its occupants well in terms of space and storage. Back seat accommodation is clearly not a priority in the Coupe and Cabriolet, but there’s three other variants if that’s what you’re looking for. 

The Cabriolet can open its automatic folding soft top within 15 seconds, at speeds of up to 50 km/h.

As I mentioned above, the S4 and S5 line-up are in many ways the same, but also different, and these differences result in a price span of $20,500 between the S4 sedan and the S5 Cabriolet. 

The former is now $400 cheaper with a list price of $99,500, with the also-$400 cheaper S4 Avant not far beyond at $102,000.

The S5 Sportback and Coupe are now $600 more expensive at an equal list price of $106,500, while the swish folding soft top of the S5 Cabriolet pushes it up to $120,000 (+$1060).

Equipment levels are consistent across all five variants aside from the S5s getting Matrix LED headlights as standard and one inch larger 20-inch wheels. 

Key details include Nappa leather trim with front sport seats with seat heaters and massage function, a Bang & Olufsen sound system which spreads 755W across a total of 19 speakers, brushed aluminium inlays, head-up display, coloured ambient lighting, tinted windows and metallic paint.

Over the past 12 months, the S5 Sportback has proven to be the most popular of the five variants by far, accounting for 53 per cent of sales, with the S4 Avant next in line at 20 per cent, the S4 sedan making up 10 per cent, and the S5 Coupe and Cabriolet combining to make up the remaining 17 per cent.

It's not just what's under the bonnet, but what's at the rear axle, too.

But let's start at the front, shall we? Here, a familiar twin-turbo V8 engine lurks, producing a potent 470kW and 900Nm, which is fed through a nine-speed automatic, complete with paddle shifters and several drive modes, including the traction-limiting 'Race'.

But that is then joined at the rear by an electric motor with its own two-speed transmission, and which produces 70kW and 320Nm – or up to 150kW for 10-second blasts under heavy acceleration.

Combine both, and you're tapping into around 620kW and in excess of 1000Nm, enabling a sprint to 100km/h in just 2.9 seconds, and a flying top speed of 316km/h.

Audi has taken an ‘if it ain’t broke’ approach with the mechanicals, with all S4 and S5 models unchanged with this update. So the centrepiece continues to be the single-turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 that produces 260kW and 500Nm, with the latter available from a broad 1370-4500rpm.

The rest of the drivetrain is also unchanged, with the venerable but excellent ZF eight-speed torque converter auto paired with the Quattro all-wheel drive system that can send up to 85 per cent of drive to the rear wheels. 

Fuel efficiency is surprisingly impressive for a vehicle this big and powerful, with Mercedes claiming 7.7L/100km and 175g/km of CO2 on the combined cycle.

Helping that is a the 6.1kW battery, which delivers just 12km in all-electric driving range, but helps reduce overall fuel use.

This AMG is AC power only, meaning you can't recharge using fast chargers, but the brand says its secret trick is its ability to recharge itself using captured kinetic energy incredibly quickly – largely negating the need to plug in unless you want to unlock that EV range – with Merc suggesting that, on a race track for example, the battery will discharge and charge itself continuously as you're lapping.

Official combined fuel figures range from 8.6L1/00km for the S4 sedan to 8.8L/100km for the Avant, Coupe and Sportback, while the heavier Cabriolet steps up to 9.1L/100km. 

All are pretty good considering their performance potential and the size of these cars, plus the fact that they only require 95 RON Premium Unleaded fuel.

All have a 58-litre fuel tank, which should enable a range of at least 637km between fills based on the Cabriolet’s figure.

There's a lot of big numbers surrounding the Mercedes-AMG GT63S E Performance, but let me throw another one at you – 245km/h.

That was the high score I saw pop up on its digital speedo as the big and electrified Mercedes flew down the main straight at Sydney Motorsport Park (formerly Eastern Creek), before my courage ran out and my foot found the brake.

That kind of velocity is mind-bending in a vehicle this big, and so is the way that power is delivered, with the AMG's big brain deciding how and when to maximise power from the engine and electric motor to deliver a constant surge of torque that shoves you back, and the GT63S E Performance into the future.

But big acceleration is hardly surprising with that much power. What is a little more impressive is how easy this four-door supercar is to wrestle around a racetrack.

Sure, the feeling-out process is a little more involved, as you figure out how and when you'll feel the weight shifting, and as your brain struggles to compute how what's happening is even possible, but after a couple of laps the AMG settles into an easy, flowing rhythm that, while never feeling light on its feet, also doesn't feels like you're piloting a bus.

At least part of that is down to the wizardry on board, like the 'AMG Air Suspension', the rear-axle steering and the limited-slip diff, all of which combine to make the GT63S feel tighter and sharper than it would otherwise.

But it's also partly down to the prodigious power on offer – perfect corner entry and exits are less relevant when you have a cruise missile strapped to your right foot that doesn't just quickly make up for any driver errors, but shrinks the space between corners to the blink of an eye.

Yes, it's heavy, and there isn't much that's pure about the go-fast experience, but it left an ear-to-ear grin on my face, and isn't that priority one for any new AMG?

How does it drive on the road? That I don't know, as this was a track-only drive day. But we will get one on a proper test soon and let you know.

The S4 and S5 range were already an excellent balance between everyday comfort and a genuine sporting edge, and nothing has changed with this update.

I spent time behind the wheel of the S4 Avant and S5 Sportback at their media launch, and both managed to deliver the proper Audi luxury experience over some pretty rough rural roads, while always feeling a bit more sporting than a regular A4 or A5. That’s with the Drive Select left in the default mode, but you can shift that sporting personality up a few notches (while scaling back the comfort), by selecting Dynamic mode. 

My preferred means of adjusting their personality is by simply tugging the transmission selector back to activate S mode, which livens up the engine and transmission without stiffening up the suspension. 

Across the five S4 and S5 bodystyles, there is some variance in performance potential, with the S4 sedan and S5 Coupe topping the performance chart with 0-100km/h boasts of 4.7s, with the S5 Sportback trailing them by 0.1s, the S4 Avant by a further 0.1s and the Cabriolet managing a still-fast 5.1s claim.

Another area I consider the S4 and S5s to get just right is their exhaust note. It is adaptive, but there’s nothing synthetic about it, and the generally muted and distinctly V6 burble is always there to remind you that you’re aboard a proper performance model, but not in such a way that it will annoy you, or your neighbours. Polite performance, if you will.

All S4 and S5 variants boast an impressive array of safety features, but there’s some interesting points when it comes to ANCAP ratings. Only four cylinder A4 models (therefore not S4) were given a maximum five star rating when tested according to less stringent 2015 standards, but all A5 variants (therefore S5) aside from the Cabriolet carry a five star rating based on the tests applied to the A4. So officially, the S4 is not rated, but the S5 Coupe and Sportback are, but based on the A4 rating that doesn’t apply to the S4. As with most convertibles, the Cabriolet is simply not rated. 

The airbag count totals eight in the sedan, Avant and Sportback, with dual front airbags, plus side and curtain airbags covering front and rear.

The Coupe drops the rear side airbags, while the Cabriolet also drops curtain airbags, meaning there’s no airbags for rear seat occupants. The roof is made of folding fabric, there has to be some safety compromise.

Other safety features include front AEB that works up to 85km/h, adaptive cruise control with traffic jam assist, active lane guidance and collision avoidance assist that can automatically swerve, a 360 degree camera system, rear cross-traffic alerts, exit warning that can prevent you opening a door into an oncoming car or cyclist, and pre sense rear that can detect an impending collision from behind and prepare the seatbelts and windows for maximum protection.

The GT63S E Performance is covered by Mercedes' five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, and you can pre-pay your service costs to keep the prices down.

Service pricing for the electrified model is yet to be confirmed.

Audi continues to offer a three year, unlimited kilometre warranty, which is in line with BMW but lags behind the five years offered by Mercedes-Benz these days. This also contrasts with the five year norm among mainstream brands, which is punctuated by the seven year warranties of Kia and SsangYong.  

Service intervals are a convenient 12 months/15,000km though, and the same five year ‘Audi Genuine Care Service Plan’ offers capped price servicing for the same $2950 total over five years applies to all S4 and S5 variants. This is only marginally more than the plans offered for regular petrol A4 and A5 variants, so you’re not being stung for the thoroughbred versions.