Just_me

thats why I would never buy a AMG over a M or RS (not that I can afford them anyway )

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Centurion

It all about personal preference. Some people don't want to comprimise too much on comfort and other prefer harder suspension.

Just_me

of course it is, I just told you about my choices

Imhotep Evil

If I'm not mistaking, that's because of the torque, just like in BMW's case with the 3 litre sequential turbo diesel.

PC Valkyrie

I agree with you for the most part. The new C-AMG car likely will not be as driver focused and hardcore than the upcoming M3.

But I do want to point out one thing: the small AMG cars (like the C55/SLK55) are NOT very comfortable, compared to the non-AMG models. Prior to owning the C55, I actually had a C240 Classic (probably one of the slowest petrol C-class models). The C240 was extremely quiet and very comfortable, especially for such a small car. The ride was EXCELLENT, with relatively slow steering, which made high speed cruising a breeze, very much what you would expect from a Mercedes Benz saloon. Then, I test drove the C55 when I was thinking of upgrading. My first impressions were: 1) This engine and exhaust is so damn loud! 2) The ride is so bumpy and harsh. 3) The car doesn't feel as "stable" on the highway because the steering was so sensitive.

Of course, this was relative to my old C240. Then I drove my friend's M3. That made the C55 feel refined, comfortable and more stable on the highway. So it's all relative.

The price for better handling is a harsher ride, unless you have an adaptive or adjustable suspension. Compared to the C32 it replaced, the C55 was significantly much better in every performance/handling category. But the C32 offerred a much better ride.

With the upcoming C-AMG car, I was hoping that they would try to take the M3 head on in terms of driving dynamics. It's not a matter of whether they can, but whether they WANT to. The C-AMG car will always be compared to the M3 or S4/RS4 type of vehicles. And for a car of this small size, car mags will want to emphasize performance, as opposed to "overall" appeal as a daily driver (like the E63/M5/S6 arena), where cars like the M5 may not be considered ideal. Therefore, unless the C-AMG car becomes as driver focussed as the M3, it will never win the typical car mag comparisions which emphasize performance over daily driving.

Another thing is promotion by the parent company. Everyone knows about the M3 and its performance. There has never been much buzz about C-AMG cars. Heck, most people in the internet world consider the S4 to be a better performer than the C55, when in reality the C55 outperforms the S4 in almost every category. When people think about AMG cars, they think about cars like the E55/E63, CLS55/63, S55/63/65, SL55/65. Even the SLK55 gets much more press than the C55 ever did. MB AMG's strength is in the higher end cars, while BMW rules with the M3 in the entry level.

PC Valkyrie

And one other thing, since I'm talking about this. The lack of a manual transmission or seqeuntial gearbox is another image thing that plagues all AMG models. Many auto enthusiasts simply write off AMG cars as cruisers just because they see an automatic transmission to be the only transmission choice (even though AMG tuned automatic transmissions can manually shift way faster than most people can with a stick shift).

AMG claims that their target customers prefer a smooth but fast shifting automatic transmission. But of course they do!!! That's why they are AMG customers!! The key is to try to entice OTHER auto enthusiasts who don't consider AMG cars because of the transmission choice. But it seems AMG has no desire to do that, which is really too bad.

And I think this lack of a manual or sequential gearbox hurts the small AMG models the most (like the C-AMG/CLK-AMG/SLK-AMG cars).

Just_me

I read in an interview AMG is planning on a DSG for future AMG. Looking forward to that

PC Valkyrie

Really??? Where did you read that? That would be MAJOR news.

Imhotep Evil

To my knowledge, fancy gearboxes don't like torque porker engines. There is a special order Ricardo twin-clutch, but it's highly/too expensive. AMG switched to NA engines but it's still loyal to its torque-ish philosophy.
Ofcourse will have to see if the upcomimg twins and/or sequentials can stand more torque vs. price.

Just_me

it was posted here. Better ask Merc1 or Artist they should know better.
It was an interview or something

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