Here we are again with another Mercedes non-coupe “coupe.” You won’t find the 2022 AMG GT 53 under the sedans and wagons listing on Mercedes website, but rather under the coupe section — two-thirds of which is made up by four-doored sedans. At least none of them are crossovers.
And at least in this case, the GT isn’t just an E-Class with a slipperier roofline. Instead, it may be thought of as Mercedes’ take on the Porsche Panamera, a large family conveyance with the ability to keep up with the proper sports cars at a track day. In the case of the Panamera, Porsche’s engineers created something that was a bit like a four-doored 928, except much uglier (it’s better looking now, but the first effort had some awful angles). AMG’s take is also a four-doored liftback, but targeting the AMG GT.
But hang on, you say, this is the AMG GT. Confusingly, Mercedes saw fit to call their series of two-door sport coupes the Mercedes-AMG GT, and also give this four-door version the same name. I believe an owner is expected to produce a laptop and deliver a short PowerPoint presentation whenever someone asks them, “What do you drive?”
But if a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, a big AMG will always shred tarmac no matter what’s scrawled across the tailgate. Here, the GT 53 designation indicates that this car is not fitted with one of AMG’s handbuilt V8s, but rather a straight-six and a mild hybrid offering.
Why would a shopper not go for the max-attack eight-cylinder version? Well, because you can’t. V8s are conspicuously absent from much of Mercedes-AMGs 2022 range, thanks to issues with the supply chain. They’ll return for the 2023 run, with the most ludicrously powerful option in the four-door GT being the GT 63S E-Performance; that’s a very long model name, but as the car has a whopping 830 hp from a twin-turbo V8 supplemented by a plug-in hybrid drivetrain, it’ll be out of sight before you can even read its badge.
Besides being the only option this year, the GT 53 is much less expensive than the V8s. Such does not mean that it is actually inexpensive, as this exclusive Manufaktur trim is $154,600 after options. Even the base model is fully a third more costly than an E53 sedan.
What you’re paying for here is both exclusivity and performance. The E53 is very nice, but it is just a performance-optimized version of the E-Class — an executive-class experience, but hardly an uncommon one. The GT 53 is far rarer, less practical with its four bucket seats, and has an interior layout that matches AMG’s sports car. Again, it’s a Panamera with a three-pointed star badge up front.
Behind that badge is an enormously complex 3.0L inline-six engine, hybridized, supercharged, and turbocharged. The mild hybrid uses a 48V system and a 0.9 kWh battery attached to a motor that handles alternator and starter duties, but can also provide low-end torque. Slightly higher in the rev range, an electrically-driven supercharger begins feeding boost into the engine to make up for any lag from the turbocharger. Providing peak horsepower is a twin-scroll single turbocharger; power rating is 429 hp at 6,100 rpm and 384 lb-ft of torque from 1,800 rpm.
The driver need not concern themselves with how the GT53’s engine is working, only that it works. This is a wonderfully smooth and flexible powertrain, pairing the inherent balance of an inline-six with both electric and forced-induction torque. The nine-speed automatic is a conventional auto rather than the dual-clutch gearbox in the cross-Stuttgart rival Panamera, but it shifts very rapidly when called upon.
Perhaps because of the company’s history with shoe-horning improbably large engines under the hood of ordinary Mercedes, most AMG products have a German hot-rod flavour to them. They’re generally loud, lairy, and prone to lunging forward when the driver prods the accelerator.
Like its two-door cousin, the GT offers a more focused drive. It’s big and heavy, but both size and mass shrink into the background thanks to the sharp steering and incredible amount of grip. The GT 53 really does drive more like a proper sports car than an E-Class, feeling tauter, stiffer, and more eager to dive into a corner.
As for power, yes there might soon be a variant of this car on sale with nearly twice the horsepower, but where will you possibly use it? The GT 53 will run up to highway speeds in a little over four seconds, and its Michelin Pilot Sports make for laterally crushing cornering. Not only is it as fast as you could possibly want from a road car, but the inline-six is a much more interesting engine than the V8, and arguably truer to Mercedes heritage given past icons like the also-I6-powered 300SL Gullwing.
No, the problems with this car have nothing to do with its performance potential. Where things begin to become a bit unraveled is in the GT 53’s behaviour as a road car. For a big Mercedes sedan, this level of road noise is not really acceptable. It might actually be worse than in the actual GT coupe.
And while the current E-Class has benefitted from a thorough upgrade to the infotainment in both functionality and ease-of-use, the GT’s interface is a bit of a mess. It might look like driver-centric cockpit in here, but distractions are everywhere.
The other issue with a dual-purpose car like the GT 53 is that any owner interested in regular track days will have a second car for that purpose. This sedan is more track-capable than an E-Class, but it’s less livable day-to-day. You have to be willing to put up with a less-relaxing driving experience in order to own something that’s sharper-edged to drive and less common, but ultimately still compromised versus a proper sports car.
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Instead of buying a sedan pretending to be a sports coupe, buyers would probably be better off buying a sedan and a sports coupe. At this price point, they’re likely to have the garage space.
Sales of Mercedes-AMG’s four-door GT reflect this reality. They have never been high, and with the V8 option on pause, have remained relatively low. It’s a niche product for the company.
However, it fills that niche admirably. It’s not the best at delivering Mercedes-like road comfort, but it is engaging to drive, and the drivetrain is fascinating. It’s not likely that any owner will see another one of these every day. The confusing infotainment is probably the sort of thing that several weeks worth of learning curve will allow you to grasp.
In the absence of the Panamera, it seems unlikely that Mercedes would have built this car. Likely, the company would have stuck to actual sedans and actual coupes. But success for a modern luxury automaker looks like offering whatever the customer demands. A big, fast, four-door sports “coupe,” is what you’re after? Of course, right this way.
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