View Photos of the 2019 Mercedes-AMG C63

2019 Mercedes-AMG C63

AMG Dynamics is new this year. It's a piece of software tied to the driving modes that uses steering, speed, and yaw sensors to predict what the car is likely to do and then helps the driver by working the stability control and brake-based torque vectoring.

Mercedes says AMG Dynamics makes the C63 more stable in Slippery and Comfort modes, friskier in Sport, friskier still in Sport+, and extra agile with a slight tendency toward oversteer in Race.

We came to think of AMG Dynamics as a sort of multistage version of Mazda's G-Vectoring Control, and the car does indeed feel slightly nimbler, steadier, and more eager to turn in.

You should know that the AMG Dynamics modes are called Basic, Advanced, Pro, and Master and that Mercedes promises "even experienced drivers receive optimum assistance without being patronized by the system." We didn't feel patronized, which means that it was probably working.

Also cool: the new Track Pace option for the main screen that displays racetrack maps and records lap and sector times. It also can use the head-up display to show helpful items such as upcoming corners, braking points, and cornering-speed references.

Inside, the new displays feature the carmaker's typical clean, uncluttered, and high-res graphic execution, and they bring a state-of-the-art feel that's welcome rather than overwhelming.

You need the screens to take full advantage of the plethora of chassis modes, settings, and features anyway.

A new rain-and-snow-optimized Slippery driving mode joins Comfort, Sport, Sport+, Individual, and Race (S model only) on the roster of ways to alter the accelerator response, steering weight, adaptive damper firmness, transmission shift behavior, exhaust sound, and stability-control settings all at once.

You can now activate these with a knob on the lower-right portion of the steering wheel, while a new pair of programmable toggles on the lower left can be used to fiddle with stuff like the individual exhaust, adaptive dampers, stability control, and transmission settings.

The center-console controls for these modes remain, but the new switches were added, Mercedes says, to enable easier selection of options on the fly during aggressive driving.

For all its might and muscle and added agility, and provided you have smooth roads, the C63 is still a good long-distance hauler.

It's incredibly stable all the way up to triple-digit autobahn speeds, the optional Performance seats—which now offer ventilation—are supportive and comfortable, and the cockpit is luxurious enough that you can forget you're in such a potent and complicated machine.

Retuned adaptive dampers offer a wider range of adjustment across the driving modes. That said, while Comfort mode did feel a wee bit suppler, ride quality still falls on the granitic side.

You're going to want to vote for that road-repair millage—or get a punch card from your back specialist—before handing a check over to the dealer. That check will be a bit more than last year's, with the sedan at $67,095, coupe starting at $68,495, and the cabriolet coming in at $74,495.

Add $8000 or so for the more powerful S versions, which have not only the exclusive Race mode and AMG Traction Control but also many of the base model's options as standard.

The engine is one of the few major components that didn't get an overhaul. Good.

The C63 packs a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 in 469-hp (base) and 503-hp (S model) strengths, and it's a potent, sweet-spinning thing that hits like a sledgehammer.