Mercedes-Benz C-Class vs Mercedes-AMG E63

What's the difference?

The Mercedes-Benz C-Class C200 is such a stylish sedan and I would totally have one. The driving performance, luxurious features and practical size made it a winning combo for my family. The price point is definitely up there but you do get a high-end build for the cash. I've seen bigger boots in other sedans and not being able to fit a third child seat will limit some families, but this still easily earns an 8.5/10 from me.

My son really loved this one. The ambient lighting was the highlight for him and he thought it looked like a "space car" inside. He gave it a 9/10.

The E 63 S fills its niche in AMG's Australian line-up perfectly. More mature than the brand's four-cylinder hatches and SUVs, but not as overbearing as some of its bigger sedan, GT and SUV stablemates. And its ability to seamlessly switch between serene comfort and dynamic performance has nailed the objective for this 2021 update.

The C200 is a sleek and elegant steed.

Initially, you may think this is just a standard Merc showcase. There's the nice big badge on the pronounced nose. Beautiful sleek lines in the body... but it's the attention to detail that make this feel special.

There's a repeated badge motif in the grille and a cute cursive Mercedes logo tucked into the corner of the windscreen. The puddle lights on the doors project the badge at night time and you can often spot a badge etched into the LED lights.

However, it's the interior that's the highlight for me and I feel like it's a big step up from previous models I've been in.

Our model has the grey 'Artico' synthetic leather trim (says grey but it's really white) and a lovely mix of piano black and shiny chrome inserts that are set against soft touchpoints throughout.

The quality of the build oozes through every stitch and join. Don't even get me started on the cool customisable ambient lighting system inside, which makes this feel like you're on the set of Tron and really elevates the interior.

It's quite fun to build one of these in Mercedes' online configurator. You can customise your trims to make it feel like your own and their blue paintwork options are great (I do love a blue car).

The E 63 S has been massaged for 2021 starting with flatter headlights, AMG's now signature 'Panamericana' grille, and a high gloss black flap across the top of the curved 'Jet Wing' section defining the lower part of the nose.

At the same time, the vents on either end of it are larger and feature twin transverse louvers to guide cooling air to wherever it's needed.

It's all about what AMG calls 'optimised aerobalance' but the form is just as appealing as the function. The characteristic 'Power Domes' in the bonnet dial up the muscle, as do the fat wheel arches (+27mm each side), and 20-inch rims with distinctive aero inserts.

This car's optional exterior carbon package consists of a front splitter, side sills, a flash near the fender badges, the exterior mirror covers, the boot lid lip spoiler, as well as the lower apron around the redesigned diffuser and quad tailpipes.

New, intricately styled LED tail-lights are also flatter, but there's even more going on inside.

A new AMG sports steering wheel features three rounded twin-spokes with new switches on the bottom to control the car's dynamic set-up.

It also picks up a new take on the small touch-sensitive controllers used to adjust the instrumentation and manage other functions like phone calls, audio and the cruise control.

Not sure I'm in love with them at this stage. In fact, the words fiddly, imprecise, and frustrating come to mind.

Nappa leather covering the superb AMG sports seats, upper dash, and door beltlines remains standard, but the show-stopper is the 'Widescreen Cockpit' - twin 12.25-inch digital screens for the MBUX multimedia interface on the left and instruments on the right.

The instrument cluster can be set to 'Modern Classic', 'Sport' and 'Supersport' displays, with specific AMG read-outs such as engine data, gear speed indicator, warm-up status, car set-up, as well as a G-meter and 'RaceTimer.'

To borrow an official automotive design term, it looks schmick. Overall, with touches like open-pore black ash wood trim, and brushed metal highlights, the interior looks efficient but classy, with an obvious attention to detail in the layout and its execution.

I'm not going to lie – there are sedans out there that have an almost limo-like space inside but the C200 isn't one of them.

It's not small by any means and all occupants enjoy the comforts of decent legroom and headroom but it's not cavernous considering the specs (1437mm high/1820mm wide/4751mm long).

The optional panoramic sunroof does cut into the headroom for back seat passengers, which is something to consider if your family is very tall.

The storage is maybe a tad leaner-than-average for a car of this size. The glove box and middle console aren't massive but will suffice.

The cupholders up front can be removed if you need extra storage space for larger items and back seat passengers enjoy retractable cupholders in the armrest.

The way the front doors curve out creates a larger than normal storage bin and drink bottle holder – which help make up the difference. There is a dedicated phone pocket, to tuck it out of the way.

The boot space is 455 litres (VDA), which isn't as large as some others on the market but it was plenty big enough for my family's needs.

There's a handy under-floor storage pocket for smaller items, like the puncture repair kit, because you don't get a spare tyre in this.

When it comes to ease of use, my six-year-old loved not needing my help to get into his seat and he still enjoyed a decent view out of the wide back window.

The amenities in each row are good but not class-defining. Still, creature comforts have be well-thought through.

Front occupants enjoy heated seats and fantastic lumbar and under thigh support. Dual-zone climate control sorts out the temp, and the cool circular air vents that make loud audible 'clicks' when manoeuvred give the interior a jet cockpit vibe.

While I've never had an issue opening or closing a sedan boot, the powered lid was a nice feature to have this week.

The tech throughout is great and intuitive to use. The massive 11.9-inch touchscreen multimedia system is cool and is easy to use once you become acclimatised to Mercedes system.

The customisable digital instrument panel makes the driving experiences feel individualised.

The interior is a chilled out space with gentle scrolling touchpads taking the place of most 'push' buttons and dials.

Think of each surface as being a bit like a touchscreen tablet in how you operate it. I was a little worried the touchpads would be laggy but they're very responsive.

There's only one USB port in the whole car, which limits charging for other passengers but I did enjoy the easy connectivity of the wireless Apple CarPlay.

The electric heated front seats are a nice touch but I was amused by the 'kinetic' function on both. It's what you might call a 'massage' function on another car but here they don't really work. It's best to think of them as a way to do some (very) gentle stretching on a long trip.

The 360-degree camera view is super clear and crisp but the dynamic guidelines (which tilt the camera angle) are a bit too dynamic for my liking and I relied mostly on the bird's eye view to park.

As I've mentioned, the ambient lighting system creates a stellar atmosphere inside. I've often wondered why other car manufacturers haven't jumped on that bandwagon because it's a relatively cheap way of creating wow factor. And it generates massive wow factor in here.

At just under 5.0m end-to-end the E-Class sits in the upper range of the mid-size luxury spectrum. And almost 3.0m of that is accounted for by the distance between the axles, so there's plenty of space inside.

The driver and front passenger are provided with heaps of room to breathe, and there's a surprising amount of space for those in the back as well.

Sitting behind the driver's seat set for my 183cm (6'0”) position I had more than adequate head and legroom. But access to and from the back is a struggle for full-size adults.

The rear doors open out a long way, but the limiting factor is the size of the aperture, necessitating excessive contortion of the head and limbs to fold in and out of the car.

Connectivity runs to two (power-only) USB-C sockets in the front centre storage bin, as well as another USB-C (for power and multimedia) and 12-volt power outlet in the centre console.

Speaking of the front centre storage bin, it's a decent size and has a padded split lid so it can double as an armrest. There are two cupholders in the front console, a generous glove box, as well as long door compartments with recesses for large bottles provided.

There's a pair of USB-Cs along with another 12-volt socket in the back, sitting under the climate control panel with adjustable vents in the rear of the front centre console. Nice.

The fold down centre armrest incorporates a lidded (and lined) storage box as well as two pop-out cupholders. Again, there are bins in the doors with room for smaller bottles.

The boot offers 540 litres (VDA) of volume, and is able to swallow our three-piece hard suitcase set (124L, 95L, 36L) with room to spare, or the substantial CarsGuide pram, or the largest suitcase and pram combined! There are tie-down hooks to help secure loads, too.

Don't bother looking for a spare of any description, a repair/inflator kit is your only option. And the E 63 S is a no-tow zone.

So, first of all, let's get the price out of the way. At $253,900, before on-road costs, this car's competitive set is a bruising, all-German trio comprising the Audi RS 7 Sportback ($224,000), BMW M5 Competition ($244,900), and Porsche Panamera GTS ($309,500).

And no surprise, it's loaded with all the luxury features you'd expect in this part of the market. Here are the highlights.

On top of the standard performance tech and safety equipment fitted to the E 63 S (covered later in this review), you'll also find: Nappa leather trim (seats, upper dash, upper door cards, and steering wheel), MBUX multimedia (with touchscreen, touchpad, and 'Hey Mercedes' voice control), 20-inch alloys, three-zone climate-control, interior ambient lighting, auto LED headlights (with 'Active High Beam Assist Plus'), eight “energising comfort programs” (with 'Energising Coach'), an 'Active Multicontour' front seat package, the 'Air Balance' package (including ionisation), and keyless entry and start.

Also included are the the 'Widescreen' digital cockpit (twin 12.25-inch digital screens), 13-speaker Burmester audio with digital radio, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a panoramic sunroof, adaptive cruise control, a head-up display, augmented reality satellite navigation, 'Parktronic' self-parking, electric front seats, seat cooling and heating front (heated rear), heated front centre armrest, a power-adjustable steering column, auto rain-sensing wipers, a wireless device charger, illuminated door sills, as well Amazon Alexa, etc, etc, etc.

And our test car also featured a couple of tasty options. An exterior carbon package ($7500), and AMG's professional grade ceramic composite brakes ($15,900), for an as-tested price of $277,300.

The C200 has a 1.5-litre, four-cylinder, turbo-petrol engine with an integrated starter-generator. 

What's that, you ask? So, glad you did. It's basically an electric battery that also acts as your starter... or alternator.

It smooths out vibrations from the engine and generates some power from braking. Making this a very mild hybrid. Note the 'mild'.

Is it powerful? Surprisingly, yeah. It has a maximum output of 165kW and 300Nm of torque. Combine that with the starter-generator and we have a powerful little engine that can push the C200 from 0-100km in 7.3 seconds, while still feeling like there's power in reserve.

The nine-speed auto transmission is damn smooth and there's no clunky gear changing at any speed. It's got great pick-up, too, for when you need to overtake or zip across traffic.

The E 63 S is powered by the M178 version of the all-alloy 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine used across numerous AMG models from the C-Class up.

Thanks in no small part to direct injection and a pair of twin-scroll turbos (located in the engine's 'hot vee' to optimise throttle response), this all-alloy unit produces 450kW (that's 612hp) from 5750-6500rpm, and 850Nm from 2500-4500rpm.

And as per standard AMG practice for its Vee engines, this car's powerplant was built from scratch by a single engineer in Affalterbach. Thank you Robin Jäger.

AMG calls the nine-speed transmission used in the E 63 S an MCT, which stands for Multi-Clutch Technology. But it's not a dual-clutch, rather a normal auto transmission using a wet clutch as opposed to a conventional torque converter, to connect it to the engine on take-off.

Drive goes to all four wheels via Merc's '4Matic+' AWD system, built around an electromechanically controlled clutch connecting the permanently driven rear axle (with locking diff) variably to the front axle.

The official combined cycle fuel figure is 6.9L/100km. Real world testing saw my figure at 7.2L, which was awesome for the heavy driving I did this week on a combo of urban and open-roads.

The light regen braking probably helps this coast comfortably into being a very efficient sedan for its size.

Minimum fuel requirement is 95 RON premium unleaded and you'll need 66 litres of it to fill the tank.

Driving range using the official consumption figure is around 950km, and 915km using our real-world number.

Claimed fuel economy for the combined (ADR 81/02 - urban, extra-urban) cycle is 12.3L/100km, the E 63 S emitting 280g/km of CO2 in the process.

That's a pretty hefty number, but in line with this car's proportions and performance potential.

And Merc-AMG has gone to great lengths to minimise fuel use. As well as the standard 'Eco' stop-start function, in the 'Comfort' drive program cylinder deactivation becomes active, the system able to drop four cylinders anywhere between 1000 to 3250rpm.

There's no physical hint of half the cylinders leaving the party. The only clue is a blue icon on the dash indicating a temporary shift to V4 operation.

Despite all that effort, however, we saw a dash-indicated 17.9L/100km over a mix of urban trundling, highway cruising, and some spirited dynamic assessment.

Recommended fuel is 98 RON premium unleaded (although it'll run on 95 at a pinch), and you'll need 80 litres of it to fill the tank. That capacity translates to a range of 650km according to the factory claim, and 447km using our real world result.

The steering feels solid and concise. The tyres seem like they're glued to the road, making winding roads downright fun to tackle. Oh, and the sharp 11 metre turning circle is wonderful.

The handling makes this your best friend in a car park. The lower ground clearance did elicit some unladylike grunts when I parked on a hill, but otherwise the wide door apertures makes it easy to get in and out of.

The only thing I would note is the low-profile ground clearance. Just be aware of your speed and angle when you handle car park ramps or road bumps in this. They are not your friends.

AMG's major goal with this upgrade of the E 63 S was to maintain its dynamic response and ferocious performance, but dial in the extra comfort customers had said they wanted.

So, the 4Matic+ AWD system has been fine-tuned for more smoothness as has the Comfort option in the dynamic set-up. But we'll investigate that shortly.

First, that 4.0-litre turbo V8 in the nose is claimed to slingshot this roughly 2.0-tonne sedan from 0-100km/h in just 3.4 seconds, and it feels every bit that fast.

With 850Nm available from 2500-4500rpm and nine gear ratios to help keep you operating in that Goldilocks band, mid-range thrust is monumental. And thanks to the bi-modal sports exhaust it sounds beautifully brutal.

The nine-speed auto's wet clutch, as opposed to a conventional torque converter, is designed to save weight and optimise response. And while some will tell you an auto with one input shaft is never going to be as fast as a dual-clutch with two, shifts are rapid and direct. The wheel-mounted shift paddles are larger and set lower, as well.

The AMG 'Ride Control+' suspension with multi-chamber air suspension and adaptive damping is amazingly good. The underlying set-up is by multi-links front and rear, and despite riding on big 20-inch rims wrapped with low-profile, high-performance Pirelli P Zero rubber (265/35 fr - 295/30 rr) the Comfort setting is incredibly... comfortable.

Slip into 'Sport' or 'Sport+' and the car immediately feels tauter but far less compliant and forgiving. An impression reinforced by the engine, transmission, and steering shifting to a more buttoned-down mode at the same time.

The standard dynamic engine mounts play a big part here. Able to make a soft connection for maximum comfort, but switch to a rigid link when required.

But no matter which mode you're in, the car is well damped and feels beautifully balanced in quick cornering. And the E 63 S's electro-mechanically-assisted variable-rate steering is progressive, feelsome, and accurate.

The 4Matic+ AWD system is built around an electromechanically controlled clutch connecting the permanently driven rear axle (with locking diff) variably to the front axle.

Torque distribution happens imperceptibly, the big V8 putting its power down emphatically, with various electronic systems tieing up the loose ends as you aim up for the next corner.

 There's even a 100 per cent RWD Drift mode available in the Race setting, but without a race circuit at our disposal this time around that'll have to wait for another time.

The optional ceramic brakes feature huge rotors and six-piston front calipers, and stopping power is immense. And the good news is they operate quickly but progressively at normal pottering around town speeds. No warming up required to get them in an optimal temperature zone (as can be the case with other ceramic set-ups).

The three-pointed star's white-coated boffins have gone to town on the E 63 S, and the car is as good as it currently gets in terms of active and passive safety technology.

You could argue this car's dynamic ability is its strongest contributor to crash-avoidance. But a broad suite of features, specifically designed to keep you out of trouble includes, forward and reverse AEB (with pedestrian, cyclist, and cross-traffic detection), traffic sign recognition, 'Attention Assist', 'Active Blind Spot Assist', 'Active Distance Assist', 'Active High Beam Assist Plus', 'Active Lane Change Assist', 'Active Lane Keeping Assist', and 'Evasive Steering Assist.' That's a lot of assists.

There's also a tyre pressure monitoring and pressure loss warning system, as well as a brake priming function (monitors release speed on the accelerator pedal, moving pads factionally closer to the discs when required), and brake drying (when the windscreen wipers are active the system periodically applies just enough brake pressure to wipe water off the brake rotors to optimise wet weather efficiency).

But if an impact is unavoidable the 'Pre-Safe Plus' system is able to recognise an imminent rear-end collision and fire up the rear hazard lights (at high frequency) to warn following traffic. It will also firmly apply the brakes once the vehicle is stationary to minimise the risk of whiplash injuries if the car's then hit from behind.

If the potential crash is coming from the side, 'Pre-Safe Impulse' inflates air chambers in the side bolsters of the front seat backrest (within a fraction of a second) moving the occupant to the side towards the centre of the car, away from the impact area. Amazing.

As well as that, there's an active bonnet to minimise pedestrian injuries, an auto emergency call function, 'Crash Response Emergency Lighting', even a first aid kit and hi-vis vests for all occupants.

For the record, the current E-Class received a maximum five-star ANCAP assessment in 2016.

The C200 comes with a five-year/unlimited km warranty, which is standard for the market.

There are multiple servicing options and on the five-year plan, the services average $1090 annually, which is quite expensive.

Servicing intervals are pretty good at every 12 months or a longer than usual 25,000km, whichever comes first.

All AMG models sold in Australia are covered by Mercedes-Benz's five year/unlimited km warranty, with 24-hour roadside and accident assistance included for the duration.

Recommended service interval is 12 months or 20,000km, with pricing for a three-year (pre-paid) plan set at $4300, a $950 saving overall relative to its three year, pay-as-you-go 'Service Solutions' capped price program.

And if you're happy to fork over a little more up-front, there's a four-year service deal at $6300, and five years coming in at $7050.