Mercedes E55 AMG Honest Review - What I Love and Hate about this Super Sedan (W211)

[Music] [Music] [Music] so this here is my 2003 Mercedes e 55 AMG and this car in my opinion might be the best modern representation of an AMG it's fast its comfortable it sounds amazing and it's well built it basically ticks all the boxes of a modern day super sedan while having old-school characteristics that enthusiasts love now one of the reasons why the sedan is so special is because of all the accolades they received when it came out in 2003 it was the fourth fastest production car in the world and the fastest sedan its m113 Kei engine also received the award for best performance engine in 2003 and thanks to depreciation you can get the sedan that gives you similar performance to today's super sedans while only paying a fraction of the cost now I've owned this 'if if t5 for a few months and while it's fantastic in many ways it does have its faults now no car is perfect so today I'm gonna explain a few things I love about it and a few things that I don't like as much and hopefully I can give you a better idea of what it's like to drive this car so let's get started so let's start with performance up front of the e55 is the legendary m11 3k power plant which is a 5.4 liter supercharged v8 and it needs no introduction good for a 517 foot-pounds of torque and 469 horsepower it will launch the e55 from 0 to 60 in the mid to low 4 second range and can do the standing quarter mile around 12 and a half seconds out of the box however what's more impressive is its tuning potential by adding fairly simple hardware like upgrading the cooling system or changing out the supercharger pulley you can get this car well north of 600 horsepower with stock internals the engine is definitely one of those cars strong suits as it can handle big numbers reliably moving on to the interior you're greeted with a cabin that doesn't fall short of feeling premium everything is well laid out and the cabin itself is quite spacious the highlights are definitely the black nappa leather AMG sports seats and the materials in general are of high quality one piece that I personally adore is the AMG gauge cluster it looks very pretty with its white and silver colors and is clear and easy to use and the v8 compressor badge on the tachometer is also a nice touch another feature that I should mention is the center cup holders it's definitely a quirk that Mercedes of this era have as its so over engineered and very German in that sense the interior overall is fantastic especially considering the cars age but it isn't perfect the main thing I don't like as much is the steering wheel honestly it's probably the least AMG like part about the car as it looks kind of bloated and not very sports like moving on to the exterior the w211 e-class is aged quite well and it still looks like a modern car now this one does have some aftermarket features like the bigger 19-inch nisha Targa wheels and carbon fiber accessories and while some may not like these features I personally think it gives the e55 a sharper touch I can't really find too many downsides when it comes to the exterior and I think Mercedes has truly done a great job making this car look modern while still retaining some classic Mercedes design cues anyways let's see how she drives [Music] so driving this car is an absolute treat in many ways and one thing that it really does well and in general what AMG's just do a good job of is they allow their drivers to really enjoy the car regardless of what driving situation they're in and the e55 is obviously no exception to that and just to give you guys a few examples when you're driving in the city it's really comfortable the cabin does an excellent job of filtering out Road road noise that's going on outside and also the interior as well as super refined especially when you sit in these super comfortable block nappa leather seats that are heated and cooled and can also give you a massage and when you're driving on the highway the air suspension does a phenomenal job of basically ironing out all the imperfections on the road when you're in comfort mode and also the m113 K engine will practically give you all the torque you need below 2500 rpm so as you can see it's a good all-around car when you're just needing to go from place a to place peak however once you bring the car out on a back road that's kind of where you begin to see its performance deficiencies all right so driving the car the first thing you notice is the endless amount of torque it makes 517 foot-pounds of torque and all the power you really need is below 2,000 rpm however when you come to a stop you drop it to first and you mash the accelerator pedal [Music] you can get up to the legal speeds very quickly anyways hold calm down a bit like I said all the torque you really need is below 2,000 rpm and if you choose to really wind out this motor you will notice that it has no intention of stopping and it will pull through the entire rev range and honestly flooring it is such an addiction because when you do it there's this wonderful noise I mean you get this deep v8 muscular induction noise a couple of that supercharger whine it is something truly special that honestly very few modern cars can give you today and the closest resemblance I would say is the 6.2 liter v8 supercharged engine found in the Hellcat than the other Dodge Chrysler products in fact maybe I can give you a sound comparison right now [Music] [Music] [Applause] all right so let's move on to performance driving and I'll start with the positives so the first good thing is that it's really fast and that's kind of about it if I'm honest and all they totally sincere handling is not this car strong because you have to remember that it's a 4,000 pound luxury sedan that's riding on air suspension and if you do decide to take it through the twisties you're just gonna notice some body roll and there's not really much you can do about it now it's not that bad but like I said if you're planning on using this car as a track car out of the box in its stock setup you might be a little disappointed now the steering is ok like right now I'm taking it through the corner and you know you can you definitely get feedback it is hydraulically assistant you can feel the Rope which makes it you know a bit engaging but you know in the end it's just not really meant for it and you also have to remember that back in 2003 handling wasn't really AMG's priority it's more about giving you a really powerful luxurious sedan and it wasn't you know until now that they recently made handle it more of a priority and even though handling might not be this cart strong suit that's honestly not a bad thing because there's just something about this car that makes it so special when you're driving on highways or long curbs it that's its power delivery and it's comfort to be honest it the positives they oh they do outweigh the negatives in that sense what this car really is is it's an Autobahn cruiser and if you really need to enjoy it if you really want to enjoy this car you need to take it to like a restricted Road or a drag strip to really find out its limit and like I said part of this its engine has no intention of stopping it will pull through the entire beverage and if you really want to feel the power you can't drive on restricted roads because chances are you're gonna get in a dangerous situation alright so let's talk about the brakes and I'll start off with the positives so the good side to them is that they're huge and they look beautiful you get a pistons up front then you get six in the rear and they in general they do a good job of stock in the car and they have to be big because you know this car is very fast potentially reach up to 200 miles per hour the downside to them is that there dalek brakes and mercedes calls this the SVC braking system and what this means is that basically the drivers brake pedal sends an electronic signal to the master brake cylinder and then based on driving inputs like how fast the fire is going and much traction it has it will then choose to apply a determined I guess you could say hydraulic brake pressure to all four wheels and the downside to this is that it's just not the most communicative and it's a little bit dull in terms of the feedback you get and also sometimes you kind of have a hard time modulating now as even though they're not very communicative Mercedes does claim that it can basically apply much greater braking pressure compared to conventional brake systems because it's in a sense independent from the drivers brake pedal and so let's talk about the transmission in this car so a Mercedes gives you the Mercedes built 5 G automatic transmission which is essentially just a 5-speed automatic that has really long peers and the transmission itself is really smooth and it's very durable one thing that's great about this transmission is that it was actually shared with the v12 models of this era and it can handle up to 750 foot-pounds of torque so if you're planning on drag racing this car that's definitely a positive however the transmission does outdate the car just a little bit and you're going to notice that was how fast the gear changes are but overall it's not a huge issue now another downside to the transmission is these buttons on the steering wheel which help you change gears they're just not the best in terms of the tactile feedback they give you compared to let's say modern Howell shifters but overall they work and they get the job done they're just not the most engaging now if you do want to fix this there actually are a few of aftermarket vendors that offer flat bottom Alcantara steering wheels with proper metal paddle shifters now germs are driving configurability even though the car is a little bit older you do get a few options for instance you get three modes of driving you get a comfort mode and a manual mode and a sport mode now comfort mode will start the car off in second gear manual mode will allow you to change gears yourself in sport mode will start the car off in first gear and hold the gears a little longer as far as the air suspension goes you also get three modes of air suspension stiffness and two levels of height adjustment I personally leave the car in comfort mode with the lowest firmness setting for the air suspension however if you choose to put the car in the most stiffest moment of air suspension you're gonna notice that it does handle better but at the same time it gets really really rough and I mean to the point where it almost feels like it's exaggerating every single little bump on the road to make it feel a little bit more engaging anyways that's my honest opinion of how this e55 drives now while these w211 ii may have their downsides it is definitely by no means a bad car and the positives definitely outweigh the negatives there's also something with this car that makes it special in terms of its character it really feels like a proper old-school AMG but doesn't feel that outdated and it's character is something I want to draw upon a bit further you see the heart of every AMG is always the engine and the m113 K is an absolute gem the way it sounds and feels just can't be replicated as manufacturers have moved to smaller displacement engines with forced induction now AMG's have still focused on making their engines the highlight of the car with their sound and power that is up until recently when they announced that the upcoming 2021 c63 AMG is going to be using a four-cylinder turbocharged engine with an electric motor this is truly stunning considering the current c63 that it will replace is fitted with a turbocharged v8 but most importantly it marks a shift in the company's perspective what was once AMG's main craft of producing these stunning engines has been compromised due to emissions and economics and a whole bunch of other reasons AMG will have to instead focus more on the dynamics of cars which don't get me wrong it's great but the character of the v8 and v12 engines is something that no other manufacturer can match and it will truly be missed so if you like engines like the m113 K or the m156 6.2 liter v8 or the newer 5.5 by turbo and 4.0 by turbo then get one while you can because these engines are starting to become a thing of the past well guys I hope you enjoyed this review of my e55 if you want to see more a 55 videos along with other AMG content feel free to like subscribe and share also let me know in the comments below of what you think the future holds for AMG and whether or not the e55 will be a future so as always thanks again for watching and we'll see you in the next one

Channel: West Van Garage

Views: 177,836

Rating: 4.8990641 out of 5

Keywords: Mercedes, Benz, E55, AMG, exhaust, straight, pipe, acceleration, review, burnout, topgear, vs, c63, e55, w211, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, legitstreetcars, race, BMW, m5, m3, car, cheapest, hoovies garage, renntech, air suspension, delete, tune, V8, supercharged, turbo, reliability, muscle car, luxury, Doug Demuro, Audi, Love, hate, honest, super, sedan

Id: FwDTc-TIV8M

Length: 17min 30sec (1050 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 11 2019