What to Make of the Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe: We Test the 53 and 63 S Models

This is not a sport sedan. It’s a straight-up super sports car that happens to have four doors and a big hatchback cargo area. Words to that effect appeared in nearly every staffer’s notebook after driving the 2019 Mercedes-AMG GT 53 and 63 S. But despite so many of us coming to this realization, the mere presence of a rear seat and back doors inevitably develops an expectation of refinement that these GTs struggle mightily to deliver.

Bossman Ed Loh took issue with the choice of GT as a name. “Everything about this vehicle is hard,” he said. “Hard charging, hard ride, hard, hard, hard. Its ride—even in Comfort mode—is very stiff. It feels like a taut drum when you drive it hard, and that’s a good thing. But it’s also hard to get comfortable in this vehicle.” He singled out the “stadium seats” as being egregiously firm and particularly antithetical to grand touring.

Conversely, executive editor Mark Rechtin was all in for the GT: “This is the ultimate four-door sports car. It does everything a Porsche 911 or Corvette can do while bringing along three friends and all your weekend luggage.”

International bureau chief Angus MacKenzie had a ready solution for those troubled by the AMG’s “sports car levels of noise from the hyper-aggressive tires and impact harshness through the ultra-stiff suspension on anything but ultra-smooth roads: Buy an E 63 S.”

There was nearly unanimous praise for the AMG’s stellar dynamic handling, which everyone agreed belied its 4,600-pound mass. Associate online editor Stefan Ogbac likened these cars to “football players who know ballet.” MacKenzie appreciated their eagerness to “dive for corners like a hungry apex predator and, the 63 particularly, explode down straights with animal ferocity.” Engineering expert and guest judge Chris Theodore declared the 63 S the best-driving AMG product he’d experienced—”puts every BMW to shame”—though he recommended reducing the jounce damping rate a bit.

Staff opinions diverged on the merits of the interior and exterior designs. The spare lines of the matte gray exterior stood in marked contrast with the brightly chrome-trimmed Red Pepper interior.

Road test editor Chris Walton quipped, “Stealth on the outside, party on the inside.” Rechtin’s GT love included the interior: “Every detail makes you feel like a rich person. This interior with the deep-brown wood and chrome is just brilliant; it looks so next-generation of any type of car that isn’t a Tesla.”

MacKenzie, however, likened the interior to a “21st century Wurlitzer,” and design expert and guest judge Ian Callum was even less kind: “The interior has no visual structure—a collection of random shapes and glitter. It’s a Vegas car. I loved driving it—while looking out the window and not at the interior.” Ouch.

The GT earned legit engineering excellence points for pioneering technology like smart headlamps, which Walton observed “light up street signs independently, then light up the corner arrows one at a time, in sequence, bling, bling, bling! So cool.”

The cruise control changed its set speed to match changing speed limits, and many of the interior switches incorporated little video screens to indicate settings. But points were lost by the fussy touchpad-controlled infotainment system and glitchy CarPlay interface, not to mention the intermittent failure of the air conditioning on the 53 and a check engine lamp on the 63 S.

In the end, it’s not hard to find fault with the four-door GT in most of MotorTrend‘s six key COTY criteria—especially value and efficiency (likely the two that matter least to the target audience). Or maybe because it has created a new class of but one, the AMG warrants winning the award.

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