Mercedes-AMG E63 S Estate 4Matic+ 2017 review

The Mercedes-AMG E63 S Estate might well be the car to dethrone the Audi RS6 as the quintessential modern-day super-wagon.

The Audi’s appeal lies in its handsome styling, massive grip, faultless stability and enormous straight-line performance. If the AMG can add some level of agility and on-the-limit precision to that set of attributes, it’ll swiftly unseat the Ingolstadt charger and assume the role of king of the super-estates.

The booted Merc uses the same drivetrain and underpinnings as the E63 S Saloon, which is probably, all things considered, the fastest and most dynamically competent four-door there has ever been. The engine is basically the same 4-litre twin-turbo ‘hot-vee’ V8 that powers great swathes of the AMG line-up these days - although not the dry-sump unit that’s found in the AMG GT sports car - offered here in 604bhp and 627lb ft guise. Mercedes quotes a frankly absurd 0-62mph time of 3.5sec.

The E63 is four-wheel drive now, of course, but it’ll still bonfire its rear boots in three-and-a-half seconds flat if you activate Drift mode, which simply decouples the front axle and disables the driver aids. The gearbox is a nine-speed automatic, rather than a twin-clutch, but the gearshifts are every bit as quick as you need them to be, given that this is a fast estate and not a dedicated sports car. The advantage of the E63’s transmission over a twin-clutch item is that it’s smoother in auto mode and much lighter too. 

With the rear seats folded flat, the E63 S Estate presents a ballroom-like 1820 litres of storage space, but it doesn't come for free; all of that extra metal and glass add more than 100kg to the kerb weight. You have to punt the car especially hard down a narrow, winding road to identify the extra flab, but in the way the Estate takes a split second longer to haul itself from full roll in one direction to full roll the other, you can sense a degree of laziness that you don’t get in the Saloon.

But even so, high-performance estates haven't ever been as agile or as downright fast along a twisting road as this before. There’s enough sheer grip, body control, steering precision and traction that you really can cover ground at sports car baiting speeds in the E63 S Estate, but crucially it also has a level of poise and even adjustability that the RS6 doesn’t offer.