Photo: CarPix
Fast wagons are a rare breed since they are essentially a paradox on wheels: they offer sports car-like performance and enough room to comfortably accommodate a mid-sized family on a road trip.
The status quo right now is that once you get married, have kids, and settle down, you need to buy one of three: a minivan, a big and subdued station wagon or an SUV. The latter seems to have won the contest lately, but there are still those who can resist the temptation of a 4-by-4 and opt for one of the first two.
But because despite what you might have heard, life isn't over even after your third child is born, you can still have fun. That's when the red convertible or sports car comes in - the car you buy when you reach your forties and everyone thinks you've hit a mid-life crisis.
Some manufacturers are stubborn enough to combine these two into one single product, and that's the performance wagon. Audi did it very well with the RS6, but Mercedes-AMG has proven to be a worthy adversary and is now offering several such options.
You have the E63, the E63 All-Terrain, and the C63 which, like its bigger sibling, comes in two flavors: plain and S. The former produces 476 hp from the well-known 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 engine while the latter gets 510 hp from the same unit. With the facelift just around the corner, these power outputs are not expected to change, though Mercedes-AMG might choose to once again match those of the new GT S, which means the C63 S version would get 522 hp.
The exterior design, on the other hand, will definitely suffer some discreet restyling with the usual targets falling victim once again: the front bumper, the radiator grille (to be replaced with the Panamericana model first brought back to life by the AMG GT coupe), the headlights, the rear bumper, and finally, the taillights.
Expect mild changes that won't affect the overall aspect of the car, but will provide that little something to separate the refreshed model from the current one. The lighting units both front and rear should use LED technology, though this test car right here has the headlights covered and the new taillights missing altogether. The headlights also appear slightly slimmer, something that could be made possible by the new front bumper since the other panels seem to remain the same.
Moving on to the interior, expect the same light touch to be applied here as well. We should see a larger central display with higher resolution and better graphics, a new touchpad for an improved control, and a fully-digital instrument cluster, though that one definitely won't be standard.
The new C-Class should bow to the public early next year, probably in Geneva, which means the AMG version should follow at one of the later shows with Paris (in October) being a very likely candidate. That means there's still plenty of time for Mercedes-AMG to test the car, and for us to gather more info on it.
But because despite what you might have heard, life isn't over even after your third child is born, you can still have fun. That's when the red convertible or sports car comes in - the car you buy when you reach your forties and everyone thinks you've hit a mid-life crisis.
Some manufacturers are stubborn enough to combine these two into one single product, and that's the performance wagon. Audi did it very well with the RS6, but Mercedes-AMG has proven to be a worthy adversary and is now offering several such options.
You have the E63, the E63 All-Terrain, and the C63 which, like its bigger sibling, comes in two flavors: plain and S. The former produces 476 hp from the well-known 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 engine while the latter gets 510 hp from the same unit. With the facelift just around the corner, these power outputs are not expected to change, though Mercedes-AMG might choose to once again match those of the new GT S, which means the C63 S version would get 522 hp.
The exterior design, on the other hand, will definitely suffer some discreet restyling with the usual targets falling victim once again: the front bumper, the radiator grille (to be replaced with the Panamericana model first brought back to life by the AMG GT coupe), the headlights, the rear bumper, and finally, the taillights.
Expect mild changes that won't affect the overall aspect of the car, but will provide that little something to separate the refreshed model from the current one. The lighting units both front and rear should use LED technology, though this test car right here has the headlights covered and the new taillights missing altogether. The headlights also appear slightly slimmer, something that could be made possible by the new front bumper since the other panels seem to remain the same.
Moving on to the interior, expect the same light touch to be applied here as well. We should see a larger central display with higher resolution and better graphics, a new touchpad for an improved control, and a fully-digital instrument cluster, though that one definitely won't be standard.
The new C-Class should bow to the public early next year, probably in Geneva, which means the AMG version should follow at one of the later shows with Paris (in October) being a very likely candidate. That means there's still plenty of time for Mercedes-AMG to test the car, and for us to gather more info on it.
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