GLC 63S AMG Facelift (2020) - Short review (in progress)
The new GLC 63S AMG is finally in my garage.
My daughter discovered a little blind passenger, I had to "hunt" him for five minutes, so he would leave the engine compartment (no, the mouse or rat wasn't inside the car, thank god). Our car has now a nickname: Mickey.
Drove to the dealer today to make sure that little fellow didn't do any damage in the engine compartment but it seems he might have hopped on when we stopped in a tunnel for a couple of minutes.
First impressions:
1. Definitely feels a little bit less sporty than the E63 S, especially in curves but the difference is surprisingly small and the steering feels a tiny bit more direct and connected to my surprise.
2. Sounds better than the E63 S at idle and at lower revs (keep in mind that I had two software updates for my E63 S, muting the sound twice from it's original state when I picked up the car ), it has that typical deep V8 growl, very similar to my wife's C63 S Convertible Facelift but can't say much about mid range and higher revs since I have to run in the car for 1500 km (actually 3000 km).
3. Car is pretty quiet inside, you can barely hear the tires (I already have winter tires, unfortunately not the Michelin Alpin 6 I saw at the dealership but the not so bad either Alpin 5 SUV) but despite the noise insulated side windows (front only), the deep engine growl is always present, which is nice.
4. MBUX (Mercedes' new infotainment system) is state of the art, the best system I ever used in a car. Touch responsiveness is amazingly fast, similar to an iPad (almost), system is very fast too and the "Hey Mercedes" function where you can use regular language to ask for special functions works very well. "Hey Mercedes, I'm hot" and the system lowers the temperature in the car". "Hey Mercedes, turn of the heated seats" and the system turns on the heated seats. It is a very good system with a very good recognition rate, no learning or special expressions/words necessary, very similar to Siri, Cortana, etc.. Basically every MBUX option is available in my GLC with the exception of the DAB (HD Radio) and Office. The DAB option costs almost 300 EUR and it is ridiculous that Mercedes is asking money for it. Why? The hardware is already there, you just need to "unlock" it through the Mercedes Me portal and pay for it. Also, next year, DAB becomes a standard in the EU, so all new cars need to have it.
I also updated the Navigation charts to the latest version, the dealership did all the necessary system/infotainment/nav charts updates but apparently there were completely new charts available. Over 17GB of data, updated with a pretty unusual method because the car doesn't have an USB 2.0/3.0 port or SD Card slot anymore, only two USB C slots.
MBUX is, like I said, absolutely great but there are two (minor) issues with it: There is no wireless CarPlay and to use some of the integrated internet services (internet radio for example), you need a Vodafone InCarInternet Account (the basic features work with the integrated SIM card over 4G though). Not really an issue but to register for InCarInternet at Vodafone, you need to identify yourself (I already have an account from my old car but it didn't help) and the only way to do that is through a video conference. Stupid system. Would it be so difficult to initiate the account and register it to the car's owner, without identification? I get it, anti-terror laws but hey, why make this stuff so complicated?!
The AR (Augmented Reality) feature for the navigation system is genius, it works very well and really helps. Even shows house numbers, crazy. Very fast too, the GPS works very well on this car.
The optional Burmester HiFi system sounds OK but surprisingly a little bit less good than the same system (there is a second and better Burmester available for the E class) in my E63. It lacks a bit of "dynamic" in the lower volume range.
5. Build quality: Build quality is overall great but as I found out, this car was produced for a rental car company and they chose to order every possible infotainment and drive assist option but were very "cheap" on leather stuff. Meaning: The fake leather with fake alcantara looks a little bit out of place in this price class, even if the quality seems to be top notch. Maybe it is just me, switching from a Nappa leather equipped E63 to this one.
6. Brakes feel better than expected, I had some fears coming from the ceramic brakes on the E63. Can't say much about fading or whatever but so far, I am happy with how the feel and work.
So is it fun to drive, especially coming from an E63? The answer is easy: Yes, it is but it feels different. Sporty but different and the E63 chassis was definitely stiffer (and more uncomfortable) in the sportier chassis modes, no doubt about it. There also seems to be a bit more side-roll in the GLC but I haven't driven it in the sportier driving modes yet, just in the sportier chassis modes, so I'm not sure this is the same setup.
Right now, I can see only one downside of the GLC 63 S AMG: It seems to eat around 2 l / 100 km more fuel. Maybe the car is new but I remember how much the E63 S consumed during it's run-in period and it was definitely less than the GLC 63 S. The fuel tank is also smaller on the GLC 63 S, so I guess I will have around 100-200 km less total range. Not really an issue, range is (according to the GLC system) around 500 km (during run-in period I guess ).
Oh, I love the size of the GLC63 S, it feels smaller than the E63, especially in the city. Due to the higher seating position, it offers an excellent visibility as well. Leg room in the rear is a little bit shorter than in the E63 but my kids didn't really complaint. They were only missing the USB charging ports in the rear but you can order them as an option for the GLC (my car doesn't have them).
More to come over the next couple of months.
UPDATE 1: Mercedes offers through the MBUX system one year of TIDAL music streaming service for free. It is possible to stream directly from the MBUX, no need for a smartphone. Unfortunately, TIDAL is free but you need to pay for the data streaming per se, MBUX cannot use the data plan of your smartphone for example. There is a 4G SIM card built-in into MBUX but only a few Mercedes services (like weather or live traffic navigation, etc.) are free of cost, for everything else, including TIDAL, you need a data plan. Vodafone asks for 20 EUR for 10 GB per month, which isn't that bad but to register, you need to do that personally (at a specific Vodafone location) or through an ID verification video chat. I get it, anti-terror laws and all but couldn't they have made this a bit easier?!
The car is officially registered to a specific owner, so why cannot the SIM card be registered to the same owner during or shortly after the car registration process? Makes no sense. Vodafone shouldn't be surprised if they barely sell this service in Germany, it is just too annoying to register (I already registered two years ago, so no problem but for new users, this is really not easy peasy). I'm not sure if 10 GB data are enough to use MBUX as a WiFi hotspot as well, I think 20 GB of data for 30 EUR per month would make more sense overall.
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RC (Germany) - Rennteam Editor Lamborghini Huracan Performante (2019), Mercedes E63 S AMG Edition 1 (2018), Mercedes C63 S AMG Cab (2019), Range Rover Evoque Si4 Black Edition (2019)