Mercedes-AMG S63 Cabriolet 2017

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Mercedes-AMG S63 Cabriolet

It’s easy to forget that the S63 ragtop offers 577 horsepower and the ability to leap to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds. It ably performs feats of strength, but this big AMG, from its quiet performance to the caressing fingers of its massaging seats, lulls you into an effortlessly comfortable and nearly perfectly bored state. Maybe that’s why Mercedes included Attention Assist here.

We found our attention fading because the S63 doesn’t seem to want or need our involvement. It’s a hugely complex and sophisticated machine full of electronics and driver aids that are always on alert and ready to take over. Meticulous engineering has taken this car to the precipice of autonomy. It seems to be saying: “I heard what Dr. McIntyre told you about your PSA score. I wouldn’t worry. Just sit back and enjoy a massage. Classic or hot stone?”

Participate in driving and you’ll quickly become annoyed with the seven-speed automatic. In place of a torque converter, this planetary gearbox has a multiplate startup clutch bathed in fluid. The clutch is slow to engage when accelerating from a stop, and the car jerks and bucks in stop-and-go traffic. Unlike other AMGs with this transmission, there’s no launch control, so we have to wonder why they bothered. Not that you really need launch control with this much power.

Steering is light and creamy, but we’d like it to be a bit more tactile. Bend it into a corner and the S63 remains flat and poised all the way up to its 0.89-g limit. When forcefully engaged, there’s a great chassis here and the AMG hustles when pushed, but the agility is buried down in the basement under 4929 pounds of steel, glass, and leather.

Two big flat-panel displays dominate an instrument panel that executive editor Aaron Robinson called the “dashboard by Best Buy.” Benz’s electronic gauges beautifully mimic analog dials, and selecting the AMG display adds oil- and transmission-temperature dials, but the entire panel is set too high and the small-diameter steering wheel partially obscures the dials unless you raise the wheel to an awkward height. If you’re going to substitute instruments for an iPad, at least make it so that the display can be moved or configured in a number of ways. Benz doesn’t, so it might as well have stuck with more-sporting analog gauges.

There’s a lot to love about the rest of the interior. Bengal-red-and-black leather costs an extra $3250 and wraps nearly every bit of the cabin. Carbon-fiber and black-lacquer-wood trim, a $3700 option, fills in the remaining gaps. At 70 mph, only 63 decibels find their way through the thickly padded top, which makes the S63 the perfect place to hear every one of the 1540-watt Burmester audio system’s 24 speakers. It’s possible that this car’s older clientele will only listen to AM radio over this spectacular $6400 system. Not to worry; Rush, either the man or the band, comes through loud and clear.

A faint quiver through the structure is the only hint of its missing roof, or that this car is in some small way technically fallible.

At greater fault is the car’s personality: Its demeanor keeps you at arm’s length, Mercedes having refined this convertible to the point of joylessness. It’s a sad thing to say about a company that once filled this niche in the late ’60s and early ’70s with the W111 280SE—the steel, chrome, and leather equivalent of Grace Kelly. Source by caranddriver.com

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Tag : Car, Comparing, Mercedes, Review, Sedans