2018 Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class Coupe

CARLOS LAGO: That is the Mercedes-Benz GLC 63 S AMG coupe. Now, that's a mouthful. And what does it mean? Well, is a compact luxury SUV that Mercedes-Benz's in-house performance division, AMG, has given some sporty intentions. You may think that's cute. After all, how can you take the performance intentions of a compact luxury SUV seriously, especially one that weighs 4,500 pounds? Within the realm of the AMGs, it's hard to place this one. It's not the biggest, the smallest, the most powerful, least powerful, the most expensive, or the least expensive. So who cares? Well, what if I were to tell you that this thing is faster in a straight line than most vehicles you'd come across on the road today? In fact, to 60 miles an hour, this is faster than the AMG GTR flagship that we tested only a few months ago. How does it do that? Before we get to it, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and visit edmunds.com for all your car shopping needs. [MUSIC PLAYING] CARLOS LAGO: If you couldn't tell from the "coupe" part of the name, Mercedes has a tough time acknowledging reality. And that also extends to the engine, because even those is called a 63, the engine actually displaces four liters. Now, it's the same twin turbo, four liter V8. You can actually see the turbos in the V the V8 engine right there. It's the same twin turbo V8 you'll find in other AMG models across the lineup. And now, those turbos help boost output to 503 horsepower and 516 pound feet of torque. That's solid. But let's be honest. It's not amazing. After all, today's sports cars, you have Dodge Chargers running around with over 700 horsepower. And it isn't just power alone that makes a vehicle fast. You need quick shifts. You need lots of traction. To that end, it's the stuff going on behind this engine that helps get you that. Now, you have a 9-speed automatic transmission that's going to give you those quick shifts. And you have an all-wheel drive system that's going to give you the traction through these massive wheels and tires. And that traction is what's going to help this thing get off the line really quickly. And that's what's going to get you that really quick 0 to 60. Now, managing all that hardware is a launch control process and procedure that's going to help you repeat that performance and access it easily. We've already tested this car. But I want to show you exactly what happens during an acceleration run. We know it's really fast if you just slap the gas down. But let's put it in launch control. We're going to do that by hitting this dynamic rocker, and put it in race. I'm going to mash the brake with my left foot, then mash the gas with my right. Launch control should happen at that point, and we'll go for a ride. Release brake to start. We're [INAUDIBLE] 4 RPM. Oh, ho! [ENGINE ROARS] CARLOS LAGO: [LAUGHS] That is really fast. And it pulls hard. Wow! When it comes to acceleration runs, all-wheel drive is a beautiful thing. This thing gets out of the hole really quick, 3,500 RPM or so. As soon as you release that brake, this thing just and goes. The shift from first into second gear hits like a-- it hits you hard. I have driven faster cars. But the fact that I'm doing that in this compact luxury SUV is shocking. Let's do it again. On the second run, I'm going to put it out of manual mode. Because I felt like it was actually hitting a limit of some kind as it got to red line. But let's do it again. [ENGINE ROARS] CARLOS LAGO: [LAUGHS] It's still kind of making that noise. But it's shifting a couple hundred RPM before redline. But oh, man, this thing pulls really hard at 118, 120. It's still going hard. And what's incredible is that this is a compact luxury SUV, but does 0 to 60 in 3 and 1/2 seconds, or 3.3 seconds, if you use a roll out like you would on a drag strip. And it does a quarter mile in 11.7 seconds. I mean, that's ridiculous. And it kind of makes me wonder, like, the point of acceleration results anymore when you have a luxury SUV that can do that? It rides comfortably. It's still a Mercedes-Benz. But it just is a Mercedes-Benz that can out accelerate most things that you find on the road. It's nuts. [ENGINE ROARS] CARLOS LAGO: It feels like you're getting rear-ended. Oh! That shift into fifth gear, the acceleration resumes at a pace that you would not think it would hit you at in fifth gear. That's-- that's incredible. What I love is that this is also a compact luxury SUV with a race mode. And it's not something that's going to make the ride terrible because it's something that you would only use if you're going to show off launch control to your buddies. But it's a GLC with race mode. What are cars anymore? [MUSIC PLAYING] CARLOS LAGO: Acceleration figures mean little without context. So what I have here on this clipboard is a curated list of vehicles from Edmund's testing database that this car is faster than. Now, we started out to 60 miles an hour. It beats the Chevrolet Corvette Zr1, the Jaguar F-type SVR, the Tesla Model S P85D, Tesla Model X, Mercedes-Benz AMG GTR, the last Dodge Viper we tested, the most recent Audi TT RS. Now, a lot of these cars are faster to the quarter mile. And they should be. They reap better aerodynamic benefits at that point. They can go faster. They can accelerate harder. But this is still a compact luxury SUV. And not only that, this is the fastest SUV we've tested in a straight line. At the quarter mile, at best, Hellcats tie it. Any Hellcat we've ever tested, at best, has tied this thing. Now, this is still, again, a luxury SUV. It has two rows of seats. It has usable cargo volume. It has decent headroom. And it's a Mercedes-Benz, so it feels pretty luxurious too. That all makes the $105,000 as-tested price seem worth it. And that's why we care. If you like what you saw, be sure to subscribe to this YouTube channel and visit edmunds.com for all your car shopping needs. [MUSIC PLAYING]