Mercedes-AMG E 43 2016 Review

Mercedes-AMG E 43 AMG
International Launch Review
Hamburg, Germany

The Benz-built V6 turbo model is simultaneously a brave new world for AMG and a step too far for Benz’s go-fast brand. It will doubtless be a sales success, combining a strong powertrain, enormous cornering ability and compelling in-cabin technology and design with a surprisingly comfortable ride. The only doubts that remain, really, are whether or not the AMG faithful will accept it or sneer down their noses at it. But, then again, it’s not actually for them...

This car, you eventually realise after much thought, discussion and debate, is not actually a new model. It’s a repurposed model.

It’s new mainly in the sense that it’s the first AMG-badged model in the W216 E-Class family, but for all the talk of a debut entry-level AMG version of the E-Class that we’ve never seen before, it’s probably best viewed as the type of car E-Class stalwarts have always, actually, had.

While the hot shop has been busy bigging up the E 43 as a genuine sub-E 63, its engine breaks with tradition by being built on a Mercedes-Benz production line rather than out amongst the tranquillity of the apple trees at AMG’s Affalterbach HQ.

It’s not as visually aggressive as the forthcoming E 63 V8 will be, either, though the cabin’s a step up in class from the already-polished E-Class.

The E 43 data reveals a car with 295kW and 520Nm and a 0-100km/h sprint time of 4.6sec (plus 0.1sec for the quite tasty estate). The thing is, you find almost identical data if you overlap those numbers with the E 500 V8 version of the E-Class’s predecessor. It had 300kW and 600Nm and managed to rip out to 100km/h in 5.2sec. Both cars share a limited 250km/h top speed.

The only philosophical differences between the two are that the E 500 wore only a Benz badge and staid Benz bodywork, rather than AMG ones, and delivered its comparable performance out of a low-stressed V8, rather than the all-new V6. And it had a Benz-style ride quality, rather than an AMG one.

So AMG has compromised its one man-one engine brand position for the higher volumes the E 43 (indeed, all the ‘43’ branded models) will give it, with Benz handing over the top end of its own E-Class family to AMG so it can concentrate on the higher volume four and six-cylinder engines.

I guess what we’re saying is: don’t drink the Koolaid. It’s not a new model. It’s clearly the successor to the E 500, plus some warmer-looking bits, though Benz probably won’t thank us for revealing that to you.

It sits far enough upstream of the 245kW E 400 (and takes almost a second off its 5.6sec 0-100km/h sprint) to justify a stand-alone position and still leaves plenty of space above it for AMG to shove its completely in-house biturbo V8 into the E 63 in due course.

So that’s that clarified. And it’s actually a pretty good thing and though it’s not quite as convincing for its target audience as the lesser E-Classes, it’s probably a better car than an Audi S6.

The negatives are few, and centre almost entirely on its price, its flat V6 exhaust note and the occasional random harsh change or step from the modified nine-speed automatic transmission.

The engine, traditionally the centrepiece of any AMG, modern or historic, has been seen before, particularly in the C- and SLC-Class, and it’s also about to turn up in the GLC-Class Coupe.

For E 43 work, it’s been given a bigger pair of turbochargers, capable of 1.1 bar of boost pressure, and new software coding to make them work, but that’s about it, though it’s enough to make the E 43 a tenth quicker to 100km/h than the C-Class version. It retains the slick Nanoslide bore lining material, can inject its fuel at up to 200 bar and can inject several times per bang.

At 1765kg dry, the E 43 is the heaviest Benz to get this heart transplant so far, though it still determines it needs all-wheel drive to manage the power distribution. While it’s a variable system, AMG decided the default torque split would send 69 per cent of the drive to the rear-end, to retain the traditional feel AMGs are known for (except, obviously, the MFA-based triplets).

It also gets tweaks to the air suspension system to give it more mid-corner bite, a tighter steering ratio and new clutches and software to force the nine-speed automatic transmission to change gear faster in the Sport and Sport+ modes.

And it all works well together, mostly.

The engine isn’t sweet, like the old E 500 V8, but it’s strong and it’s flexible. The torque arrives early, at 2500rpm, and stays there in a flat plateau until 5000rpm, while the power doesn’t peak until 6100rpm.

Oddly, you have to drive around the engine a bit to get the best out of it. If you have the E 43 in its manual shifting mode, you find yourself short-shifting it well before the power peak to avoid some jerky shifting from the transmission, as well as dodging the worst of the artificially generated sounds AMG uses to beef-up the V6’s roar.

It’s no real hardship, though, because despite the power number, the engine feels like it’s given its best by then already, and is tremendously flexible in the mid range. It’s terrifically urgent at low revs and leaps off the line with the assurance that only comes from all-wheel drive. It bites and it goes, hard, with more than enough shove for most people to freely accept it as a member of the sports sedan fraternity.

What it does is never really in question. How it does it and how you feel about how it does it are. Aurally, it never sings, though it’s always smooth. It’s more blurt than baritone, but it’s fast enough to push concerns about its singing ability off the front page.

Most of the time, too, the transmission is a lovely, silken companion; whisping through its work unnoticed and ensuring there is plenty of urge, all the time.

The combination of air suspension, a new steering rack and all-wheel drive give the E 43 a fabulous ability to cover ground quickly and enjoyably, completely without fuss.

While the E-Class body is big, the steering is now accurate enough to place it precisely on the apex without being concerned, even on smaller roads, and the rest of the package follows the nose through faithfully.

It’s at its best in Sport (or the harder Sport+ mode), which you get to by toggling a switch on the console (oddly, in the opposite direction to the standard E-Class’s similar function), which gives the wheel more weight and feels more natural when you’re pushing on.

The grip it has access to is enormous, and the all-wheel drive system sends the driver almost limitless levels of confidence that the car will always be there to fix things should anything go wrong.

It’s not just low-speed cornering, either, and the E 43 can flit through very high-speed bends with an insouciant nonchalance, making light of 250km/h autobahn corners just as it does rolling countryside. Getting the chassis light over swoops and hollows doesn’t reveal a flaw, either, and it remains composed regardless of what gets thrown at it, with little body roll and consistent assurance.

The interior tech and design of the E-Class has been well covered here before, but there really has been a massive, almost two-generational step forward by Benz, though it’s not without its quirks. For example, if you plug in an iPhone and turn on the Apple CarPlay feature, it will drop out its own satellite navigation function, meaning you can’t use your own music in concert with the car’s own nav functions. They know how ridiculous that sounds, too, and will patch in a fix for it next year.

But the layout is terrific, the visuals from the two enormous digital dash screens are crisp and the seats are comfortable and supportive. The piloted driving and driver support functions are top shelf, too, with the car able to change lanes autonomously (after the driver manually indicates) at 180km/h, which is just spooky.

There are rivals for this thing from both Audi and Jaguar (but, curiously, not really BMW) but perhaps its hardest time will come from within. That’s because the E 43 Estate loses a tenth of a second to the sedan to 100km/h, but retains its 250km/h top speed while adding 100 litres to the luggage capacity.

There are 640 litres with the rear seats up (compared to 540 in the sedan). You can add another 30 litres to that by moving the rear seats to a slightly more upright position, or push it out to 1820 litres by dropping them flat.

It’s slightly noisier across broken ground than the sedan, but it’s almost every bit as good everywhere else, and way better when you need versatility.

2016 Mercedes-AMG E 43 pricing and specifications:
Price: TBA
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 295kW/520Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Fuel: 8.2L/100km (NEDC Combined)
CO2: 187g/km (NEDC Combined)
Safety rating: TBA