James, my neighbour, has a C 63 Estate, bought used from Mercedes-Benz Brooklands, home of Mercedes-Benz World, where, for about £90, you can hoof an AMG around a handling circuit.
In fact, James’s 11-plate C 63, was, for the first six months of its life, one of the centre’s ‘experience’ cars, more used to opposite lock than straight ahead.
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He loves it, since not only does it have the optional Performance Pack Plus that raised power from 451bhp to 480bhp, but it also, he reckons, has a bit more up its sleeve – around 20bhp. He may be right, since Mercedes-Benz Brooklands knows about tuned C 63s (it was the sole supplier of the limited-run C 63 DR520 of 2010 that put out 513bhp). Whatever its mighty 6.2-litre naturally aspirated V8 makes, James has found it to be completely reliable.
His C 63 has now done 42,000 miles. As you’d expect, given that it has super-firm suspension and 19in wheels, its interior creaks a little. He has to keep an eye on the oil and when he drives it hard, fuel consumption is in single figures. The point of telling you all this is that here’s a C 63 AMG Estate, a former stunt car no less, still doing the business while hauling a family of four plus the dog.
If you go nosing around C 63s, you’ll hear horror stories of corroded rear cylinder head bolts and noisy cams, both terminal if allowed to develop. Fortunately, both problems are rare.
Estate and saloon versions were launched in 2008, with standard equipment including Mercedes’ 7G-tronic automatic gearbox and 18in alloys. The optional Performance Pack brought a limited-slip diff but no hike in power. That came with the aforementioned Performance Pack Plus of 2009, although, bizarrely, the limited-slip diff was dropped to become an option across the range.
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Monkeys, Japanese vivisection and warranties aside. Only people you would want to give a wide birth would buy an old amg or any old performance car like this.
I have only ever seen these being driven like an idiot, with poor bodywork, non brand tyres and poor choice of music blaring out. I haven’t seen any for a while though, as now if the satnav for some reason suggest going any where near bradford I just ignore it.
How much!
£4414 for 12 months warranty. Lexus ISF is only £995 for 24 months. Says it all really.
@ stevepen
....Yes, but you are not allowed to buy one as the Japanese kill whales and tortured our prisoners of war.
Just saying!
sweet but bites
Cool German musclecar....but with those potential hard maintenance costs, not to mention fuel costs, I’d rather go for 997 Turbo manual.