2021 Mercedes-AMG GLE53 Coupe review: Astonishingly nimble

The 2021 Mercedes-AMG GLE53 Coupe is surprisingly exciting, but I will need to get the styling out of the way first. No issue what your inner thoughts are on crossover-coupes — below at Roadshow we like to contact them “coupeovers” — we can all agree that the new GLE53 Coupe is much greater hunting than the prior-generation GLE43 Coupe. This is partly many thanks to the truth that the old GLE was hardly ever designed with the coupe variant in brain at first, but this new generation was. The new Coupe’s roofline is sleeker, the proportions are nicer and the rear conclude as a whole just seems a large amount greater.

Mercedes only features the new GLE Coupe in AMG forms, with the GLE53 having the requisite Panamericana grille with an aggressive entrance bumper, physique-shade wheel arches, quad exhaust ideas and a little lip spoiler. My GLE53 test car is concluded in the $one,515 Designo Diamond White shade, which seems great but just isn’t fairly distinctive plenty of to warrant the price tag.

The Coupe’s powertrain is the similar as the standard GLE53 SUV and as a result the similar as AMG’s other 53-badged types. It really is bought a 3.-liter inline-6 with a turbocharger, an electric powered supercharger and an EQ-Raise forty eight-volt moderate-hybrid system that presents an further 21 hp and 184 lb-ft. Total output is 429 hp and 384 lb-ft, and the motor is mated to a nine-pace computerized transmission and all-wheel push. As with just about every other application of this motor, the I6 in the GLE53 is sleek and responsive. (Mercedes prices a 5.2-2nd -to-sixty-mph time, and that feels conservative.) This GLE53 has the $one,250 Performance Exhaust system, which is the ideal amount of money of loud and tends to make some terrific pops and bangs.

The 2021 Mercedes-AMG GLE53 Coupe seems a whole large amount greater than in advance of

See all photos

Huge wheels make and break it

Whilst the GLE53 arrives with 21-inch wheels as common, this one particular has a $2,750 set of staggered-width 22s, sized 285/40ZR22 up entrance and a whopping 325/35ZR22 at the rear. Wrapped in Yokohama Advan Activity summer tires, these big wheels give the GLE53 an aggressive stance and are the two the ideal and worst portion of the car. Permit me describe.

As you may well surmise from the wheel sizing the GLE53’s journey can be very choppy, particularly on negative Michigan roads, but in Consolation method the air suspension does a very good task soaking up even the worst bumps and potholes. Even worse than the journey, however, is the tramlining that takes place on the highway, particularly if it really is a tough surface. I have to do far more steering correction than regular when I’m just driving in a straight line, however it just isn’t as irritating with the adaptive cruise management and steering aid activated.

But on the flip aspect, it really is frankly nuts how good this SUV is on a twisty street. There is so much grip from the large wheels and sticky rubber, and the GLE53 normally feels surefooted with the variable all-wheel-push system capable to split torque between the axles. There is close to-fast electrical power accessible when you happen to be coming out of corners, and the nine-pace transmission fires off swift shifts. You can have so much pace by means of turns — a large amount far more than you’d be expecting.

To enable halt its 5,three hundred-additionally-pound heft, this GLE53 is geared up with the $2,five hundred AMG Higher Performance Braking Procedure. The GLE53 has fifteen.eight-inch entrance rotors with two-piston calipers and thirteen.6-inch rear rotors with single-piston calipers as common equipment, but this optional set up provides 6-piston entrance calipers and increases the rear disc sizing by an inch. The brakes are very jerky at minimal speeds all around city and the wheels accumulate a ton of dust, but the amplified stopping electrical power whilst driving rapid is significantly appreciated.

Everything you could request for, and far more

I’m commonly vehemently in opposition to interiors with uncomplicated, all-black shade strategies, particularly on a design-forward car like the GLE Coupe, but this test car at minimum has the $4,800 Exceptional Nappa leather-based option with contrasting stitching and $one hundred sixty Gray Oak wooden trim with a great matte end. It seems good, and everything inside the GLE is of high good quality. The seats are comfy, particularly with the massaging operate that’s portion of the $2,one hundred Energizing Consolation Moreover Bundle. The Coupe’s sloping roof implies you get less cargo space than the common GLE SUV, but not by that much, and rear headroom and legroom is still terrific. MBUX remains one particular of my most loved infotainment systems, and the GLE53 gets some terrific AMG-unique displays and settings.

This GLE53 is geared up with a ton of optional characteristics and deals — there are actually 22 further-price things on the window sticker — some of which are needed, some of which are frivolous and silly, but all of which I delight in. The $one,950 Driver Help Bundle Moreover brings practical energetic-safety characteristics like the aforementioned adaptive cruise, whilst the certainly needed $five hundred Parking Help Bundle provides the 360-diploma digital camera system, which consists of a great more than-the-wheel view. 

The most ridiculous things on the choices list are almost certainly the $350 Magic Vision Control (extravagant windshield wipers) and the $two hundred MBUX Inside Assistant (movement-activated inside lights). But my most loved option is the $180 heated and cooled cupholder deal. That may well audio pointless, but like heated armrests — which coincidentally are portion of a separate $one,050 deal on this GLE53 — at the time you’ve got used them, you can hardly ever want to push a car with out them.

A Toyota Camry’s worthy of of choices

It gets tougher to rave about how good this GLE53 is at the time you get to the as-analyzed price. Whilst the GLE53 Coupe starts off at $77,550 including spot — previously $4,one hundred fifty far more than a normal GLE53 — this one particular tops out at $104,564. Admittedly it has just about just about every doable option, but that’s still a large amount of scratch for a midsize SUV with a 6-cylinder motor. Then yet again, if you want a V8, the 603-hp GLE63 Coupe starts off at an even-far more-high-priced $117,050 in advance of choices, so…

The GLE53 Coupe’s closest opponents are the BMW X6 M50i and the Porsche Cayenne S Coupe. Whilst the X6 M50i has a twin-turbo V8 motor with just about one hundred far more horsepower than the GLE53, it fees 10 grand far more than the Mercedes to start out and will not push as perfectly or search nearly as good. The Cayenne S, on the other hand, is a little sharper to push and a little greater-hunting than the GLE53, but the Porsche’s foundation price is more than $ninety,000 and it will not come shut to getting as perfectly geared up as the AMG.

The GLE53 is my decide of the present-day coupeover litter. It really is the most perfectly-rounded car in its course, and when optioned accurately, the price just isn’t much too astronomical. Positive, individuals may well not recognize your manner-forward crossover-coupe alternative, but at minimum you can have the very last laugh from at the rear of the wheel.