Mercedes-Benz USA’s AMG division now markets 34 different models. Added to the list of the outlandish vehicles, the likes of which made AMG famous in the first place, are a bevy of new, entry AMG models; AMG 43s that were initially badged as “AMG Sports” but now receive the badge treatment due the genuine article.
With the surge in the number of available AMG variants, there has been a surge in sales of Mercedes-AMG vehicles. U.S. volume rose 33 percent, year-over-year, in calendar year 2016 according to Automotive News Europe, and Mercedes-AMG product sales have risen 32 percent so far this year.
That rapid expansion won’t be sustained. Mercedes-Benz USA’s sales vice president, Adam Chamberlain, says growth “will dumb down a little bit through the year.”
But by how much? By the end of 2017, Mercedes-Benz will have expanded its U.S. AMG division from 34 different models to at least 42.
The list of AMG models in Mercedes-Benz’s portfolio now includes six two-door models:
- AMG C43 Coupe
- AMG C63 Coupe
- AMG C63 S Coupe
- AMG S63 Coupe
- AMG S65 Coupe
- AMG GT
And that’s before you get to the convertible lineup:
- AMG S65
- AMG S63
- AMG C63
- AMG C63 S
- AMG C43
- AMG SL65
- AMG SL63
- AMG SLC43
There are nine AMG sedans:
- AMG CLA45
- AMG CLS63 S
- AMG C43
- AMG C63
- AMG C63 S
- AMG E43
- AMG E63 S
- AMG S63
- AMG S65
There are also 11 SUVs and crossovers:
- AMG GLA45
- AMG GLC43
- AMG GLC43 Coupe
- AMG GLE43
- AMG GLE63
- AMG GLE63 S
- AMG GLE43 Coupe
- AMG GLE63 S Coupe
- AMG GLS63
- AMG G63
- AMG G65
Adding models has only been part of the process. Though Mercedes-Benz has fallen short of its goal of placing 100 AMG performance centers across America by the end of last year (there are only 26), providing showroom space for AMG has been vital in its quest to set AMG apart. Mercedes-Benz doesn’t just want AMG cars and SUVs to be viewed as variants of the core model, but rather it wants them to be viewed as a division unto itself. Hence the Mercedes-AMG nomenclature.
U.S. AMG sales more than doubled in just the last two years and nearly tripled over the course of the last three years. After accounting for only 3 percent of Mercedes-Benz (non-van) sales in 2014, AMG models produced 5 percent of Mercedes-Benz sales in 2015 and 7 percent in 2016.
Through the first two months of 2017, 10 percent of the vehicles sold by Mercedes-Benz in the United States have been AMG models.
Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.
Mercedes-AMG’s new motto: Just add water!
It’s just a matter of time until AMG becomes another meaningless name plastered on option packages. Maybach will follow soon thereafter.
Calling it now: in 2025 AMG will mean red stitches, black headliner and carbon fiber accents, available for $19 a month on every Merc, for instance a 2025 CLA350 1.0 twin-turbo 12-speed DCT “sports coupe”.
True. Previously, you could get a C350 or E350. Now these models no longer exist, what used to be or been called an E350 or E400 with an AMG trim package is now an E43 (there was briefly actually a GLE400, for example, which is now the GLE43).
BMW is going that way too. What is now the 340i with the M sport package is going to become the M340i (they already did that with the 2 series).
But I have to give BMW credit, their nomenclature for the M sport models is still distinct from the “true” M cars. Mercedes, by calling everything an “AMG” is deliberately blurring the line.
Don’t forget the AMG “Michael Schumacher” software upgrade for your autonomous 1.0BiTurbo
1: “Mike Shoemaker? Who the hell is that dude? He, like, from the 1940s or something?”
2: “He raced cars.”
1: “He, like, drove them himself? Damn, that’s stupid.”
Much as I might yearn for the old days of Q ship AMGs and hardcore M BMWs, the world has moved on.
My aunt who owns a 2017 Mercedes can’t tell me how many cylinders the engine has ,and id wager that’s the case for 90% of modern AMG and M owners as well.
There you have it, folks, parked next to a tree: the new 2017 AMG Eagle Wagon!
Jaden just graduated from business school with 85k in student debt, OK, 3K went to pay for those two epic Spring Break trips to Cancun.
Now getting paid take home about $1,100 every two weeks, she knew she could swing a Premium Luxury Sports Crossover. She sat down and under the influence of a second glass of Arbor Mist; she budgeted her figures and worked out the justification of the car of her dreams.
You see, Jaden could not stop thinking about that pop up ad on her Facebook page two weeks ago, a 250 CLK AMG with a 24 month ultra low mileage lease.
The apartment with her two barista / aspiring artist roommates (lease in her name), her student loan payment and her self promise to limit the 3x per week bar hopping habit, she will have the money.
With the trade-in of her Mom’s old 2007 Sonata and the rest of the down payment on the Visa, this is going to work. She can’t wait to pull into the parking lot at Innetech with her Mercedes star shining brightly. ….and this folks is the business plan for the modern premium brand.
Now if only Cadillac could get these young aspirational buyers into their showroom, oh wait, lets move to Manhattan.
One of my neighbors recently replaced her X3 with an AMG GLC43. She told me that she loved it and that she is thinking about getting rid of her other car – an SL550 convertible – because she’s so happy with it.
Mercedes doesn’t care what you think about their strategy because you aren’t their customer. Mercedes doesn’t care what you think about their customers, either. Mercedes is in the business of selling their product to people who want it and can afford it and it seems business is booming.
Maybe you should ask yourself why that’s giving you so much heartburn?
Where do you see heartburn? It looks like Tim Cain is providing data and news.
Circa 1979:
Cadillac doesn’t care what you think about their strategy because you aren’t their customer. Cadillac doesn’t care what you think about their customers, either. Cadillac is in the business of selling their product to people who want it and can afford it and it seems business is booming.
Mercedes makes excellent vehicles. Cadillac is division of GM. The same approach yields different results because the product is fundamentally different.
“One of my neighbors recently replaced her X3 with an AMG GLC43. She told me that she loved it and that she is thinking about getting rid of her other car – an SL550 convertible – because she’s so happy with it.”
………let me guess, your neighbor found this really weird trick on Google where they pay her $5k every week to work 1/2 hour per day from her bedroom?
She founded an IT services company and continues to run it as CEO.
Corolla S.
I have one of those AMG Sports from last year, the C450 AMG, which is now the AMG C43. It’s a fast car and I love the brand. But even a homer like me thinks it’s dumb to call any vehicle without at least a V8 an AMG.
If only they had the cajones to AMGize the Sprinter, Metris, and UNIMOG…
This is just like the idiots in college who discovered highlighters and ended up highlighting EVERY sentence in the textbook.
AMG all the things. All they did was take an exclusive brand and make it more accessible to people who at a time, couldn’t afford it. From a business standpoint, it makes perfect sense.
The same people complaining about brand dilution are the same people that yelled from the rooftops when Porsche built the Cayenne. Enthusiasts who don’t put their money where their mouth is when it’s time to buy new and all they want to do is complain.
These high margin AMG Benzes are paying for the development of all their high end cars. Get used to it. Otherwise, you won’t have any AMG GT’s to gawk over in magazines.
As long as the 63’s make that wonderful angry war god bellow at full throttle, it’s all good by me.