Road test review: Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S coupe

Wednesday, 13 January 2021

Both the BMW X5 M Competition and Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S are ridiculously powerful SUVs that are shatteringly fast. But do we actually need that in an SUV?

MERCEDES-AMG GLE 63 S COUPE
Base price: $236,000
Powertrain and economy: 4.0-litre turbo-petrol V8, 450kW/500Nm, 9-speed automatic, AWD, combined economy 12.6L/100km, CO2 289g/km (source: RightCar).

AMG’s Panamericana grille and double-fluted bonnet is an overtly aggressive look. And we love it.

Vital statistics: 4961mm long, 2157mm wide, 1716mm high, 2935mm wheelbase, luggage capacity 655 litres, 21-inch alloy wheels.
We like: Superb engine that sounds majestic, comfortable seats and surprisingly comfortable ride, muscle car attitude.

As usual, the GLE features a beautifully built interior with plenty of leather and carbon fibre.

We don't like: Having to look at it, the creeping realisation you are destroying the planet by driving it…

Big, brutally powerful and fast SUVs are very much a thing and the Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S is very much one of them. Do we need them? Almost certainly not… actually, haven’t we been here before? Well, yeah, but here’s the thing – SUV “coupes” are also a thing and the GLE is also one of those, bringing an extra layer of pointlessness to the large, powerful sporty SUV question.

Sorry. We should have warned you we were going to show a pic of the rear...

So does this thing actually need to exist?

Possibly an even more appropriate question here than for the BMW X5 M, given the SUVs with coupe-style rooflines are universally acknowledged as being pointless.

AMG’s 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 has the mellifluous bellow of a much larger capacity engine.

‘But I only left the back half in the sun...’

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So, no, not at all. But the AMG does bring something else to the equation that makes it rather charming (okay, not to look at) – that is its big, brawny muscle car attitude.

Where the BMW X5 M is all superfast aggression and razor sharp handling, the AMG nails the superfast aggression thing with equal aplomb, but AMG wisely (in my opinion) sacrifices ultimate track-focussed handling for a looser attitude.

This is something the company possibly learned from decades of trying to make the mighty and thoroughly inappropriate G 63 go around a corner – it’s never going to do it as well as a sports car, or even a sports sedan, so just give it more of a muscle car attitude.

And I don’t mean “big, wallowy and terrifying” by that either, its more of a “yeah, I can go around a corner quickly, but wouldn’t you rather have a bit more fun with it” attitude. And it is rather endearing.

Mercedes-AMG’s 4.0-litre twin-turbo petrol V8 is a brilliantly characterful thing, with a big, barrel-chested bellow that even has hints of old-school big block American V8 to its mellifluous howl under full throttle, which only serves to deepen the validity of my muscle car theory.

It probably won’t come through a corner quite as quickly as the X5 M, but the sheer attitude it displays going in, through and coming out of a corner is massively more entertaining.

So is it all about being an anti-socially noisy hoon then?

A wealthy one, but pretty much, yeah.

But then it too is a $200k-plus luxury SUV, so also packs the prerequisite luxury SUV things like advanced driver assists and a big, beefy audio system along with plenty of huge, hi-res displays throughout. Super comfy sports seats are a highlight, while the interior is very much the expected Mercedes-Benz blend of shiny retro bling that it does so well.

The GLE’s more compliant nature also means it does a better job of being a luxury SUV than the X5 M, but the big question then becomes; would you really spend more for the coupe over the equivalent GLE 63 S SUV that offers no tangible difference in the experience yet doesn’t look like it started to melt on the way home?

Any other cars I should consider?

The BMW X6 M Competition and Audi RSQ8 are the obvious ‘coupe’ competition, while the X5 M and Range Rover Sport SVR are more conventionally-styled options.

And, again, if you really like weird, humpy styling and really don’t care about going around corners quickly in your fast SUV, then a Tesla Model X Performance is cheaper and quicker in a straight line.