Why One of the Most Expensive Mercedes Cars Gets Poor Ratings

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Why One of the Most Expensive Mercedes Cars Gets Poor Ratings

© Wikimedia Commons (The Car Spy)

Mercedes’ hulking sport utility vehicle (SUV), the G63 AMG, looks like a massive box on wheels. With the set of upgrades Mercedes offers, its price tops $150,000. One of the major car research companies does not think much of the G63 AMG. Edmunds gives it a D rating, a rare but extremely poor grade.

Depending on options, the G63 AMG weighs between 5,700 and 6,800 pounds. By contrast the Jeep Grand Cherokee weighs about 3,800 pounds. Despite its weight, the G63 AMG is fast due to a 563 HP engine, which takes it from 0 to 60 in 5.3 seconds. That is sports car territory.

What doesn’t Edumunds like about the SUV?

In is evaluation of performance:

The G 63’s 5.5-liter twin-turbo V8 makes a ton of power, unfortunately, it’s very hard to actually drive this thing. Steering is comically bad, handling is worse and, thanks to summer tires and silly exhaust placement, it’s a liability off road.

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And the inside of the SUV:

The G 63’s interior has a new display screen, a user-friendly COMAND tech interface and a host of other features, but that still doesn’t fix the fact that there’s no space. Even average-sized drivers don’t fit well, it’s hard to climb into, there’s no lateral space and the back seats are worse.

One of the most obvious problems with the G63 AMG is its price versus its value. As the SUV and crossover market has exploded, the category is full of high-end vehicles, particularly from Germany. Porsche’s expensive Cayenne does well in reviews. So do the Audi Q7 and BMW’s X5 M.

The G63 AMG is an anachronism. Mercedes sells few of them. And, for Mercedes sake, that is good.

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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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