Zander Drives Cars

Few things in life are certainties. The earth is round, Saturday Night Live will always get political, and Mercedes-AMG will always produce some bonkers cars. For roughly thirty years, the tuning house has been perfecting cars that balance luxury and ludicrous amounts of power. Their best-selling AMG GT Hatchback is no exception. I use the term “hatchback” loosely when talking about this car. Yes, there is a “hatched-back,” but calling it that would be like calling New Haven airport a “gateway to the world.” Yes, they might have a flight to Europe but nobody is flying to Tokyo from Connecticut. Tangent aside, the AMG GT has proven that you can take supercar ideology and throw it into a more consumer-friendly body.

Last year, Mercedes announced that they would be doing a “stop sale” of all V8 models in the US due to chip shortages. This would affect every model except for the S-class and G-class due to their extreme popularity in the US market. But for cars like the E63, GLS63, and the AMG GT 63 s, they would be axed for the 2022 model year. Fortunately, the less powerful but still riot-inducing AMG GT 53 is still on sale, and it might be all the car you need.

In my humble opinion, the AMG GT is one of the best-looking Mercedes on the road today. The sleek two-box design and flowing lines look identical to the concept car that inspired it. In all black, this car is menacing. There is an active aero spoiler different from the one in the 63 models. I prefer this one because while the 63 has the “more epic” wing, this one goes away if I don’t want it up. Lots of AMG badging on this car, per usual. You can find the scripture on the grille, front fender, all four wheels, trunk, and a million other places inside which we’ll get to later.

Okay, it is later. There is a lot of AMG badging in this interior. I tried to count but lost track at around 8 different places excluding the AMG tree emblem found on places like the gear shifter. The interior of the GT53 is an exquisite place to be. It is a sea of perfectly stitched leather and premium metals. Every surface I touched felt better than the last in this car. While not my favorite, the brown leather looks better in the flesh than in pictures and is as comfortable as any other Mercedes I have sat in. Strangely, the AMG GT models feature a completely different gear shifter setup than the regular column shifter that most Mercs have. The rear seats have the optional captain seats with this divider running through the middle housing a second center console and a screen with many different functions on it. Rear legroom is more premium economy than business class, but the upside of having our own seat dilutes how much space your legs get.

For those who yearn for physical buttons in your car, I have good news: This car has them. Below the screen, a whole line of clicky buttons gives you all your climate controls. Above those climate controls is the brilliant MBUX. Mercedes has had, for a while now, one of the best systems on the market. It is easy to navigate, easy to use, and doesn’t have an infinite submenu list like those pesky Bavarians do. Aside from the center screen, the driver also gets his own. It’s the same screen available on all models with the past generation MBUX. You can see your speed, media, track pace info (yes, this 53 has track pace), and nav from the touch of a steering wheel button. Speaking of features: this car has them. Heated and ventilated (not cooled, there is a difference) front seats, heated rear seats, heated telescoping steering wheel, radar-adapted cruise control, an optional Burmester sound system, full 360 cameras to make parking un-impossible, multiple USB ports, and wireless charger along with the obvious Bluetooth/CarPlay technology. For safety, everything on the market is on this car. If it exists, this has it. I’m sorry I threw a lot at you just there, this car comes with more than I can even try to put into a manageably-sized article.

The AMG GT 53 comes with a 439hp 3.0 liter I6 with a small electric battery driving some of the engine components. While the battery doesn’t necessarily make you accelerate quicker than without it, because it runs some of the engine components, the engine can focus more on your hard left foot. In a straight line, this car will go from 0-60 in 4.5 seconds and on to a top speed of 175mph without a limiter. Let’s go back to that engine. It is the same one found in the GLS, S-Class, GLE, and other mainstream Merc models, as well as the defunct but still awesome CLS 53. While not the thumping great V8 that most people expect a car like this to have, the I6 is still plenty powerful. It also, for an I6, has an amazing roar and backfires like trying to do a weekend’s worth of homework in the morning before classes.

This car drives hard. Of course, it does, it is an AMG. Thankfully, the seats are comfortable enough that the hard ride doesn’t mess you up too much. The active-aero spoiler helps you turn in quicker while providing some form of downforce that is too mathematical for me to understand. This is a very tech-heavy car if you couldn’t tell. Also worth noting is that there is a small EQ regenerative breaking diagram that tells you how much of the battery you’re saving by regeneration breaking, which is cool. While that battery does help with engine management, it doesn’t really help you with MPG. The GT 53 gets 19 city, 25 highway. That isn’t atrocious but cars like the Audi S7 get way better highway mileage. So, what is the price you pay for this sea of leather and raw power? $102,000. It is more expensive than its rivals, but I can tell you without having to drive them, that this will be the more comfortable car to live with.

So, while we wait in anticipation of the return of Mercedes’ V8 for 2023, we can confide in its little sister I6 engine, and the house she lives in: The AMG GT 53. Maybe there is a replacement for displacement.

A massive thank you to Oliver Lippman from Mercedes-Benz Owings Mills for letting me drive this monster. MB Owings Mills has the largest selection of new and used Mercs in the Baltimore area and has consistently been overtly nice to me whenever I stop in to bother them. Click here to view their inventory.