Mercedes GLE 63 AMG SUV

Mercedes GLE 63 AMG SUV

As the spiritual successor to the original M-Class SUV, the 2021 Mercedes-Benz GLE-class is a rolling technology showpiece that offers a spacious, family-friendly cabin and legit off-road credentials to boot. Three different powertrains are offered, starting with a turbocharged four-cylinder in the GLE350 and graduating to a turbocharged inline-six in the GLE450 and a twin-turbo V-8 in the top-dog GLE580. Myriad extras are available on the GLE-class—including an adjustable air suspension that features a bouncing mode to help the SUV free itself from deep sand or mud—but these options can add up in a hurry. And while most buyers won't venture too far off the beaten path, it's a luxury in and of itself to know that you can if you want to. For the everyday driver, the GLE-class's cabin is spacious, luxurious, and comfortable, while the exterior styling transmits a signal of wealth and status that buyers expect of any car sporting the three-pointed star on its grille.

Mercedes practically invented the factory-built high-performance luxury SUV in 1999 when it stuffed a 5.4-liter V-8 into its ML-class ute and christened the ML55 AMG. That vehicle's stats and figures—342 horsepower, 376 pound-feet of torque, 60 mph in the mid-sixes—seem quaint two decades later. But at the time, the company was able to call it the fastest ute in the world. With more than half of Mercedes-AMG's sales today being utility vehicles, it makes sense for the performance sub-brand to keep pushing its SUV bar ever higher. The redesigned 2021 GLE63 S is among the latest to faithfully adhere to that mega-horsepower tradition.

HIGHS: Stonking acceleration from the twin-turbo V-8, smoothest stop-start system around, impressive ride and handling balance.

Swallowing up to 18.9 psi of boost, the GLE63 S's twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 produces 603 horsepower at 6500 rpm, 627 pound-feet at 2500 rpm, and the deep, snarling roar that we expect from a hand-assembled AMG V-8. That's 26 more horses and 66 more pound-feet than the previous version's twin-turbo 5.5-liter V-8. The GLE63's 4.0-liter is also the first AMG V-8 to get Benz's 48-volt EQ Boost hybrid system that mounts a motor-generator between the engine and the standard nine-speed automatic transmission.

Along with powering the V-8's accessories, including the electric air-conditioning compressor and electric water pump, the motor-generator can briefly kick in up to 21 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque to reduce the engine's lag and, in theory, improve its fuel economy. That extra power is administered with silky refinement just off idle, during gear changes, and in a handful of other situations when the V-8 might pause while its turbos spool up. The additional electrons also make for one of the quickest and seamless engine stop-start systems we've experienced. But, let's be clear: It does not increase the engine's output. Although the system's torque does occasionally overlap with the V-8's, the motor's boost never exceeds the engine's max output.

The somewhat lazy calibration of the nine-speed transmission in the GLE63 S can be frustrating on challenging roads. Even in its most aggressive Race drive mode, the gearbox tends to upshift entering corners and is often caught napping in too high a ratio. Activating the nine-speed's manual mode remedies this by allowing you to hold gears to the engine's 7100-rpm rev limiter, but downshifts are still lazier than we'd like.

Pace and Space

Despite its bulk, the 5568-pound GLE63 S thunders out of corners with authority, thanks to a standard limited-slip rear differential and a rear-biased all-wheel-drive system that never sends more than half the engine's torque to the front wheels. At the test track, our test car needed just 3.4 seconds to reach 60 mph and it blitzed the quarter-mile in 11.9 seconds at 117 mph, making it one of the quickest mid-sized high-performance SUVs we've evaluated. Compared to the last GLE63 S we tested, which weighed 253 pounds less, the new model is 0.3-second quicker to 60 and 0.2-second and 2 mph quicker through the quarter. The new AMG's acceleration figures also just edge out those of the latest 541-hp Porsche Cayenne Turbo, although the 670-hp Cayenne Turbo S E-Hybrid beats it by a couple of tenths to 60 mph and stomps it down the quarter-mile by nearly a half-second and 4 mph. We've yet to test the updated 2020 BMW X5 M, which can pack up to 617 horsepower in Competition trim, but we expect it to make similar performance gains as the AMG and hew closely to the GLE63 S's times. We smell a comparison test brewing.

LOWS: Lazy transmission tuning, properly expensive, less outright grip than key rivals.

Dynamic engine mounts, a first for an AMG SUV, stiffen automatically based on driving conditions. Their main benefit is in sharpening the GLE63 S's responses and heightening the feedback from the chassis. Similarly, this AMG's suspension firms up noticeably in its Sport, Sport+, or Race settings. The adaptive dampers tighten 25 percent in Sport and another 40 percent in Sport+ and Race. 

AMG has also fitted its 48-volt Active Ride Control anti-roll system, which helps keep body roll tightly in check in the more aggressive settings. Even on our test car's optional $3250 22-inch wheels (21s are standard), the GLE63 S deftly soaks up midcorner bumps and undulations without feeling brittle. Ride quality is almost too plush in the Comfort setting, though. Overall, AMG's suspension setup can drop the GLE63 S 0.4 inch above 75 mph to reduce drag or raise it 2.2 inches in the Trail and Sand modes to increase ground clearance.

What AMG's chassis setup doesn't do is produce the impressively high levels of grip that we've recorded for other hot SUVs in this segment. Bend the GLE63 S hard into a corner and an overriding sense of safe (albeit significant) understeer rears its head. Despite its massive Yokohama Advan Sport V107 summer tires—285/40R-22s in front and 325/35R-22s in back—our example orbited the skidpad with only 0.91 g of stick. That figure is 0.04 g less than what the previous GLE63 S posted, and it's well off the marks set by the two new Cayenne Turbos we've tested, both of which returned more than 1.00 g of lateral grip. Although our test car's 161-foot stop from 70 mph is a slight improvement versus its predecessor's, the norm for this segment is now around 150 feet.

Hitting the Mark

The 2021 GLE63 S carries a sizeable base price of $114,945. It should be easy to spot with its AMG flair, including vertical louvers in its grille, an aggressive front bumper with large black air intakes, flared wheel arches, and two large rectangular exhaust pipes poking out through its rear diffuser. If you want a racier, if funky, look and less cargo space, a GLE63 S coupe version will be offered by the end of the year.

Inside either model, you'll find a fat, three-spoke sports steering wheel with aluminum paddle shifters, as well as standard heated, ventilated, and thickly bolstered AMG front sports seats covered in nappa leather. A blind-spot assistant also is included, but Mercedes still charges you $1950 for the Driver Assistance Plus package (active lane-change and lane-keeping assist, stop-and-go adaptive cruise control, active steering and emergency stop assist, and more). Our example came to an as-tested $134,235 with a bevy of additional extras that ranged from the Energizing Comfort Plus package ($1650) to a carbon-fiber engine cover ($1500) to four-zone automatic climate control ($860).

Two decades after AMG released its first high-performance luxury SUV, many enthusiasts (including us at times) still struggle to see the appeal of monster-engined tanks such as the GLE63 S. Yet, the trough of willing buyers for such vehicles continues to grow as quickly as their overall performance improves with each new generation. As evidence, please see the numerous copycats that have entered the fold, from Aston Martin to BMW to Lamborghini. While the new GLE63 S is not quite the focused driver's machine that some of its more athletic (and grippier) peers are, it does bring the overabundance of power and refinement that Mercedes-AMG's customers have come to expect from one of the progenitors of the segment.