Nowadays, Mercedes puts an AMG badge on all but one of its cars, the B-Class. To make more money, the performance brand has been diluted to include cheaper and less powerful cars that don't come with a hand-built engine. The purists don't get a word in the matter!
What Kelly Blue Book has done is not a review, but a comedy sketch. A nagging mother in the back of your car, telling you what to do is not only a great reason not to buy a 5-seat family car, it's also hilarious.
Jokes aside, Mercedes introduced these types of diluted AMG models a while ago. At first, they were called 450 which was them admitting that they have more power than the 400 models they were based on plus the magic AMG touch. However, they've now switched to 63-20=43.
We still don't know how we feel about them, but something like the GLC 43 does make a lot of sense. It's more practical than a C-Class, and with a brand new platform underneath, it's not much slower than the SLC 43.
The little roadster replaced the V-powered, much faster SLK 55, which wasn't selling all that well. But the 43 name kind of reminds us of the SLK 32 AMG, which back in 2000 had about the same level of power and performance. You see, while a Golf R or V8-powered Ferrari has gotten much faster in that time, Mercedes haven't tried to reinvent the open-top 2-seater.
They didn't try and make an Alfa Romeo 4C, a Mazda MX-5 ND or McLaren 570S. They were too busy earning profits and boosting sales, which is why the GLC 43, a family 4x4, is now almost as good as a traditional sportscar. It's also more reasonably priced.
Why? Because Mercedes can charge whatever it wants for a low-volume roadster, but it has so many competitors in the performance SUV market.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News