2013 Mercedes E63 AMG & E63 AMG S Facelift arrives

Ahead of a debut at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show, Mercedes has revealed the new E63 AMG saloon and Estate and the E63 AMG S.

Just as we saw the other day, the 2013 E63 AMG – both saloon and estate – get a bold new treatment, particularly at the front, to differentiate further the AMG from the more prosaic E Class models.

The more butch front end gets the new single headlight treatment of the regular E Class, but there’s a central splitter and great big air ducts forming an AMG ‘A’ shape to improve air flow under the car. The sills get a new look and at the back there’s a new diffuser and quad trapezoidal tailpipes.

Under the bonnet, the 5.5 litre twin-turbo gets a bit of a tweak to deliver a more fulsome 549bhp and 531lb/ft of torque with the new E63 AMG S model getting 577bhp and 590lb/ft of torque, despite which economy remains the same at 28.8 mpg for the standard E63 AMG and 27.4mpg for the AMG E63 S.

That means the standard E 63 AMG can get to 62mpg in 4.2 seconds and the E63 AMG S in a scant 3.6 seconds. But therein lies a bit of confusion.

Unlike the rest of the world that drives LHD cars, it seems Mercedes aren’t offering the new 4MATIC 4WD option for RHD cars, so the UK is getting just the standard RWD E63 AMG and the E63 AMG S with RWD, whereas the rest of the world get the option of 4MATIC on the standard car and 4MATIC comes as standard on the S model.

Because the 4MATIC version of the E63 can get its power down much better, the standard car with the 4MATIC option can get to 62mph in just 3.7 seconds – half a second quicker than the RWD car – which would suggest that the UK’s E63 AMG S will take a more leisurely 4.1 seconds to hit 62mph, instead of the very impressive 3.6 seconds of the 4MATIC version. Oh, well.

The 2013 Mercedes E63 AMG will debut at Detroit next week and go on sale in the summer. Prices are expected to stay much the same as the current E63 at £75k for the saloon (and an extra few thousand for the S model).

By Cars UK