#AMG

The 2022 Mercedes-Benz AMG GLC 63 S SUV is the only V8, biturbo-powered, compact SUV. According to Mercedes, it’ll do 0–60 mph in 3.6 seconds, which makes for a quick dash to the mini-mart.

Today marks the final installment in our Mitsubishi Debonair saga, which began a couple of days ago. We talked origins and its eventual demise, and today we’ll cover the little AMG part in the middle.

Last time on Rare Rides we introduced Mitsubishi’s Debonair, which began its tenure as Mitsubishi’s flagship luxury sedan in 1963 and remained the same for a very long time. Upon the model’s second generation in 1986, the Debonair made the switch to front-drive and adopted more modern looks in an attempt to appeal beyond very conservative large sedan buyers in Japan.

But the changes still weren’t enough, as we’ll see today.

Today’s Rare Ride is the second attempt Mitsubishi made to build its own full-size executive car for the Japanese Domestic Market. Debonair never moved outside its home market, and always played third fiddle to competition from the likes of Toyota Crown and Nissan Gloria (then a Prince model). Today’s example goes slightly further and adds AMG flavor to the front-drive mix.

There’s a lot of information to cover here, and today we talk about the model’s beginnings.

For most folks, a $96K price tag is just too much. It is indeed a steep price to pay for any automobile. But spend enough time behind the wheel of the sublime Mercedes-Benz AMG E53 coupe, and that amount of cash outlay suddenly seems like a bargain.

A car this good typically fetches well over six figures.

Since trucks, truck-shaped cars, and generally truck-influenced vehicles dominate American roads in the present day, it’s about time I started paying attention to high-end luxurious German truck-like machines in the vehicle graveyards I frequent. Such machines have been easy to find in such places for quite some time now, due to the notoriously quick depreciation of large-dollar German cars that don’t get the meticulous maintenance they deserve, but prior to today, we’d just seen a single BMW X5 in this series. Let’s go right to an AMG for our first Mercedes-Benz SUV: this 2001 W163 ML55 AMG.

The Mercedes-Benz E-Class is receiving a series of updates for 2021 — including some new engine options, styling adjustments, and the obligatory infotainment updates. There’s even a new lifted version called the E450 4Matic All-Terrain that’s clearly targeting fancy alternatives to the Subaru Outback (e.g. the Audi A6 Allroad).

Unfortunately, these enhancements have raised the price of the E-Class slightly. The base model E350 now starts at $55,300 (including destination), which seems a lot to ask for a 2.0-liter turbo making 255 horsepower and 273 lb-ft of torque. That’d be a juicier package inside one of Mercedes’ smaller products and opting in to an all-wheel-drive 4Matic brings the price $57,800 before you’ve even had a whiff of the 3.0-liter inline-six. But you do get Daimler’s updated MBUX software across the range and a longer list of interior material choices and styles. Though our readers seemed to really hate the interior found in the new S-Class and we’re doubting you’ll be any fonder of the wavy lines found inside the refreshed E-Class family, even if they’re not drastically different from what was available beforehand.

That feels like an apt description of the print mags found in your average (used) Mercedes-AMG driver’s home, but feel free to disagree and tell us to go back to 2003.

Anyway, as it seeks to tap customers’ wallets in new and exciting ways, Mercedes-Benz has added to its existing Mercedes-Benz Collection vehicle subscription service, offering exclusively AMG-badged vehicles for the first time. Access will not be cheap, nor will it be widespread.

The fun police, also known as European regulators, are causing sleepless nights for that continent’s automobile manufacturers, all thanks to their imposition of ultra-stringent Euro 6 emissions standards.

You’ve already read about Mazda cutting back on 2.0-liter MX-5 sales in the UK to lessen the brand’s fleetwide emissions output. Now, Mercedes-Benz’s performance arm might have to cull a great number of AMG-badged vehicles to keep itself in good standing.

Everyone has had that one neighbor with an impressively loud car that shook you out of bed every time they booted it up. Even if you absolutely loved their ride, you might not have appreciated it frightening you at sunrise. Fortunately, automakers have begun implementing features like Ford’s “ Good Neighbor Mode,” to make this less of a problem on their more-raucous products. The Germans have had a similar idea, but they’re implementing it backwards.

Rather than having a way to select/schedule the times you want your loud vehicle to run quiet, Mercedes-AMG has all of its models automatically kicking over with the exhaust flaps closed. If you want their signature burble you have to select it using a loudness button typically located on the central console after startup — or activate the new “Emotion Start” feature.

The next-generation Mercedes-AMG C63 will be quite a bit different than the model that’s currently on sale. We’ve already heard stirrings that rear-wheel drive will be swapped for standard all-wheel drive with the sub-brand’s now-familiar drift mode. But additional rumors now suggest the Autobahn bruiser is poised to abandon its 4.0-liter biturbo V8.

While nothing has been confirmed by the manufacturer, Autocar claims details sourced from AMG’s Affalterbach engineering HQ indicate the C63 will embrace a 2.0-liter inline-four using a 48V mild-hybrid system.

Daimler’s performance arm, Mercedes-AMG, has entered a period of transition. In addition to placing a strengthened emphasis on all-wheel drive, the company will also begin manufacturing vehicles in China.

While the assembly locale isn’t equally important for all cars, AMG is famous for its one-man-one-engine philosophy. Part of the appeal, we assumed, was getting a rear-drive monster with a hand-built engine that some auto nerd from Affalterbach was proud enough of to lend their signature. That could change after the Mercedes-AMG A 45 moves to Beijing later this year.

Mercedes-AMG, the German luxury marque’s performance sub-brand, might eliminate all rear-drive vehicles from its lineup, AMG CEO Tobias Moers suggested during a recent interview.

The company’s boss claims buyers, who already favored putting their AMG’s additional power to all four wheels, are increasingly leaving rear-drive driving behind. The customer, of course, is always right, and in 2019 non-conformists are less likely than ever to get what they want.

Mercedes-AMG is updating the GLC 63 model line for 2020, not that it really needed to. The performance variants of this compact crossover already trounce their mainstream counterparts in terms of looks — even the oddly squat GLC “Coupe.”

However, as the manufacturer was not content to simply rest on its laurels, it decided to provide a brief but well-rounded list of upgrades.

What happens when a tuning company takes an already luxurious coupe and adds more of everything? The answer is this Mercedes-Benz SEC AMG from 1986.