2021 Mercedes-AMG GLE53 Coupe review: Astonishingly nimble

The 2021 Mercedes-AMG GLE53 Coupe is surprisingly pleasurable, but I will need to get the styling out of the way initially. No make a difference what your thoughts are on crossover-coupes — here at Roadshow we like to get in touch with them “coupeovers” — we can all concur that the new GLE53 Coupe is significantly better on the lookout than the former-generation GLE43 Coupe. This is partly many thanks to the simple fact that the old GLE was never ever built with the coupe variant in head at initially, but this new generation was. The new Coupe’s roofline is sleeker, the proportions are nicer and the rear end as a total just looks a ton better.

Mercedes only offers the new GLE Coupe in AMG types, with the GLE53 acquiring the requisite Panamericana grille with an aggressive front bumper, system-color wheel arches, quad exhaust suggestions and a little lip spoiler. My GLE53 take a look at auto is concluded in the $1,515 Designo Diamond White color, which looks wonderful but isn’t really quite distinctive enough to warrant the selling price tag.

The Coupe’s powertrain is the same as the regular GLE53 SUV and hence the same as AMG’s other fifty three-badged designs. It truly is bought a 3.-liter inline-six with a turbocharger, an electric supercharger and an EQ-Increase 48-volt delicate-hybrid system that offers an more 21 hp and 184 lb-ft. Overall output is 429 hp and 384 lb-ft, and the engine is mated to a 9-pace automatic transmission and all-wheel generate. As with each individual other software of this engine, the I6 in the GLE53 is easy and responsive. (Mercedes rates a 5.two-next -to-60-mph time, and that feels conservative.) This GLE53 has the $1,250 Performance Exhaust system, which is the appropriate volume of loud and makes some fantastic pops and bangs.

The 2021 Mercedes-AMG GLE53 Coupe looks a total ton better than before

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Significant wheels make and break it

While the GLE53 will come with 21-inch wheels as typical, this a single has a $two,750 established of staggered-width 22s, sized 285/40ZR22 up front and a whopping 325/35ZR22 at the rear. Wrapped in Yokohama Advan Activity summer season tires, these big wheels give the GLE53 an aggressive stance and are the two the greatest and worst aspect of the auto. Allow me make clear.

As you could surmise from the wheel size the GLE53’s journey can be pretty choppy, primarily on terrible Michigan roadways, but in Comfort and ease method the air suspension does a pretty superior job soaking up even the worst bumps and potholes. Even worse than the journey, although, is the tramlining that occurs on the highway, primarily if it can be a rough surface area. I have to do far more steering correction than normal when I’m just driving in a straight line, although it isn’t really as frustrating with the adaptive cruise management and steering help activated.

But on the flip facet, it can be frankly mad how superior this SUV is on a twisty highway. You can find so significantly grip from the wide wheels and sticky rubber, and the GLE53 always feels surefooted with the variable all-wheel-generate system capable to break up torque involving the axles. You can find around-instant electrical power available when you are coming out of corners, and the 9-pace transmission fires off speedy shifts. You can have so significantly pace by means of turns — a ton far more than you’d assume.

To support quit its 5,300-additionally-pound heft, this GLE53 is outfitted with the $two,500 AMG Higher Performance Braking Program. The GLE53 has 15.eight-inch front rotors with two-piston calipers and 13.6-inch rear rotors with solitary-piston calipers as typical devices, but this optional set up adds six-piston front calipers and improves the rear disc size by an inch. The brakes are pretty jerky at minimal speeds all-around city and the wheels accumulate a ton of dust, but the increased halting electrical power although driving speedy is greatly appreciated.

Every thing you could ask for, and far more

I’m ordinarily vehemently in opposition to interiors with easy, all-black color techniques, primarily on a type-ahead auto like the GLE Coupe, but this take a look at auto at least has the $four,800 Special Nappa leather option with contrasting stitching and $a hundred and sixty Gray Oak wood trim with a wonderful matte complete. It looks superior, and every little thing within the GLE is of superior good quality. The seats are comfortable, primarily with the massaging operate which is aspect of the $two,one hundred Energizing Comfort and ease Furthermore Package deal. The Coupe’s sloping roof usually means you get significantly less cargo house than the typical GLE SUV, but not by that significantly, and rear headroom and legroom is still fantastic. MBUX stays a single of my beloved infotainment programs, and the GLE53 gets some fantastic AMG-precise displays and configurations.

This GLE53 is outfitted with a ton of optional attributes and offers — there are virtually 22 more-price goods on the window sticker — some of which are important, some of which are frivolous and silly, but all of which I love. The $1,950 Driver Guidance Package deal Furthermore provides practical energetic-safety attributes like the aforementioned adaptive cruise, although the certainly important $500 Parking Guidance Package deal adds the 360-diploma digital camera system, which involves a wonderful above-the-wheel look at. 

The most preposterous goods on the choices checklist are probably the $350 Magic Vision Manage (extravagant windshield wipers) and the $200 MBUX Inside Assistant (motion-activated interior lights). But my beloved option is the $a hundred and eighty heated and cooled cupholder bundle. That could audio pointless, but like heated armrests — which coincidentally are aspect of a individual $1,050 bundle on this GLE53 — as soon as you have applied them, you may never ever want to generate a auto with out them.

A Toyota Camry’s value of choices

It gets more challenging to rave about how superior this GLE53 is as soon as you get to the as-tested selling price. While the GLE53 Coupe begins at $seventy seven,550 together with vacation spot — currently $four,one hundred fifty far more than a typical GLE53 — this a single tops out at $104,564. Admittedly it has almost each individual achievable option, but which is still a ton of scratch for a midsize SUV with a six-cylinder engine. Then once more, if you want a V8, the 603-hp GLE63 Coupe begins at an even-far more-high-priced $117,050 before choices, so…

The GLE53 Coupe’s closest competition are the BMW X6 M50i and the Porsche Cayenne S Coupe. While the X6 M50i has a twin-turbo V8 engine with almost one hundred far more horsepower than the GLE53, it costs 10 grand far more than the Mercedes to start off and doesn’t generate as perfectly or appear almost as superior. The Cayenne S, on the other hand, is a little sharper to generate and a little better-on the lookout than the GLE53, but the Porsche’s foundation selling price is above $90,000 and it doesn’t come shut to becoming as perfectly outfitted as the AMG.

The GLE53 is my choose of the existing coupeover litter. It truly is the most perfectly-rounded auto in its course, and when optioned effectively, the selling price isn’t really far too astronomical. Guaranteed, men and women could not comprehend your manner-ahead crossover-coupe alternative, but at least you may have the past chuckle from guiding the wheel.