2019 Mercedes-AMG C63: An $80,000 Rental to Remember

Choosing a rental car typically goes a little like this: Nissan Altima, Toyota Corolla, Chevrolet Spark, Chevrolet Equinox or Nissan Pathfinder. Choose from white or gray.

Not typical: A 469-hp sedan that seats five, with room for luggage, two turbochargers and an exhaust note that turns heads.

However, that’s exactly what I ended up choosing (from Hertz’s “Dream Car” line-up at the Orlando International Airport) for a 10-day vacation in Central Florida recently. As we were booking our late fall getaway, my partner, Chad, weighed in on the rental car selection simply by saying, “Just get whatever you want.”

So I went to work. Sure, the economy cars and mid-range SUVs would get us from point A to point B, and do it just fine. There were even Range Rovers, Land Rovers and Cadillac Escalades to choose from. Porsche Macans and Cayennes were intriguing, but not necessarily special.

My heart skipped a beat when I saw that there was a Mercedes-AMG with a hand-built V8 available. Click. Reserve. Take my money. Goodbye.

For 2019, the AMG team at Mercedes gave the C63 a facelift featuring new lighting in the front and rear, a panamericana grill and new sculpting in the rear. The car is as handsome to look at as it is villainous to drive. The aforementioned V8 makes 469-hp with 479-lb ft of torque, which is mated with a new-this-year 9-speed automatic transmission. Our model featured the 10.25-inch COMAND infotainment screen, wood-grain trimmings (it’s also available in fighter-jet looking aluminum trim), beautifully grippy 14-way power adjustable front seats with faux Alcantara inserts and a panoramic sunroof that spanned nearly the entire roofline.

OK, now that the base-line details are out of the way, what was it like to spend 10 days with this $80,000 sleeper? Blissful, yet frustrating.

Driving impressions

Gearing and transmission: Not having driven the previous generation AMG C63 I cannot attest to whether the 9-speed automatic is an upgrade or a downgrade. What I’m hoping, for the sake of the people who spend any amount of their own cash on these vehicles, is that it was an upgrade, even if it wasn’t a good one. Upshifts are lightening quick. Stepping on the accelerator even under normal driving conditions sends the car through third, fourth, fifthsixthseventheighthninth gears in rapid succession. Where things get sketchy is in low gear deceleration. The first few days with the car, any 30 mph-to-stop experience was followed with a, “is this car OK? Is there something wrong?” It’s as if the car doesn’t know which gear to choose, and you end up chugging to a halt. Low speeds aren’t this vehicle’s forte, and that’s 100 percent OK. Because higher speeds are where it shines. Turbo lag up until about 2500 rpms was very real. Feedback from the exhaust made you think you were accelerating, and doing so quickly, but you were mostly just waiting for real power to kick in.

Handling: As you’d expect from a tuned Mercedes Benz product. It’s this-seat’s-really-grippy sharp in corners and beautifully weighted. The steering wheel feels like a surgeon’s scalpel when taking a quick turn through a crowded intersection or carving in and out of I-4 rush hour. Paired with turbos that smack you in the back of the head when they’re spooled and ready, it all feels like it’s working in perfect harmony. Very little vagueness on center meant that this nearly 4,000 lb went right where you pointed it and made it feel easy.

Comfort: The seats feel luxurious and are so customizable you wonder if all of the motors that make them go up-down-sideways are actually used on a regular basis. They’ll also jab you in the side when they’re doing their job and holding you in place when you get a bit reckless. Driver positioning offers a perfectly perched view over the short hood line and throughout the vehicle. Where things begin to unravel a bit is with ride comfort. Our model rode on Pilot Super Sports, which were wonderfully grippy but gave zero shits when driving over unloved Florida roads. They felt so hard and stiff that you wondered when a flat was coming, and prayed it never happened. Luckily for us, it never did.

Infotainment and navigation: Woof. Mercedes and AMG’s strong suit is a delightful driving experience with enough customization in their COMAND system that you can open exhaust valves to really let the V8 purr, alter performance options in Comfort, Sport and Sport + modes, and change every screen to show the driver anything and everything to suit their preferences, even how much horsepower and torque you’re using at that very moment. The problem? It’s all too much. It’s fussy. It’s tough to become accustomed to. There were at least 4, likely more, ways to change the radio station, none of which involved touching the 10.25-inch screen in front of you. Navigation needed the most work. “Typing” in a address wasn’t intuitive nor easy, and the car offered so many different variations of simple places to go to, like Orlando International Airport, that you choose one from the list and hope for the best. For us, heading back to the airport following the COMAND system landed us on a back road trying to cut through Orange County Water Management gated properties. Apparently when it announced that the route included “restricted access roads” it didn’t just mean terminal roads at the airport. After 10 days with the infotainment system, the only feature we became accustomed to without having to pull over and click through a half-dozen screens was turning the volume of the satellite radio up and down.

Performance: AMG claims a 0-60 time of 4 seconds with a top speed of 155. This was a rental car, and as much as temptation tried to cloud my judgement, I didn’t treat it as such. Mostly because I didn’t want to explain to my insurance company why we needed to replace components of a hand-built engine in an $80,000 sedan while on vacation. Therefore, I cannot attest to a 155 mph top speed, but I can absolutely convey to you what it’s like to stand on the gas and be thrown back into your seat by two turbos whistling under the hood. It will take your breath away if you’re not holding on and completely aware of what you’re doing. The C63 handles the power well and never felt out of control or like we’d die an early death when letting it stretch its legs. Many V8s have that power band of “smooth, docile, but fast” that quickly transforms into “holy f*ck, forgive me father for I have sinned.” The C63 balanced power with traction, sharp steering feel with minimal body roll. It was like the most perfect roller coaster in a city full of them.

Final Thoughts

Driving an AMG is like being an undercover cop. As we cruised through hotel parking lots, with the symphonious exhaust clicked open, heads would turn. Sleek in black, purring but not growling, looking expensive but sounding like there’s something more exciting happening, it gets a second look from just about every vacation-goer who notices it. A knowledgeable teen one day called out “DAMN, it’s an AMG!” You feel special driving these machines because you know that on the outside it’s a relatively run-of-the-mill Mercedes Benz. As the Instagram cheerleaders would tell you, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. A hand-built V8 is a rare commodity in the sub-$100,000 price point. One that’s mated to two turbos, razor sharp steering and can still fit a week’s worth of Christmas purchases and three friends comfortably, that’s a beautiful vacation memory.