Handily, if you’re keen on keeping the petrol engine switched off, the dial pack features a subtle graphic that’ll show how close you are to engaging the petrol engine, and if you want to lock it away for good, there is a pure electric mode. However, our test route quickly had us on some fast-moving German autobahn, which is where the E 53’s true colours were revealed.
When awoken, the straight-six engine displays some serious levels of performance. No, it’s not a raucous or aggressive engine in the same sense as the old V8, nor AMG’s highly strung four-cylinder in the new C 63 S, but rather it comes across as cool, calm and collected. Dig into its available performance and you can build some serious speed as the electric motor gives the petrol engine some added bulk to its torque curve in the mid range. On sections of derestricted autobahn, the E 53 keeps pulling up and over 120mph with ease and calmness, revealing a chassis that, unsurprisingly, feels totally at ease at some faintly crazy speeds.
Yet as you pull off the motorway and find smaller and twistier roads, the suspension’s other talents come to the fore. The system itself is unusual for an AMG E-Class in that it features a coil spring setup in lieu of the air suspension system that’s been a common element over the last few generations of AMG E-Class models. Rather than being a potential compromise, the ride quality and body control are generally well sorted, with lots of suspension travel and an ability to handle smaller bumps and intrusions, even on our test car’s 21-inch wheels.
But in typical Mercedes fashion the steering ratio is quite fast and, combined with the rear-wheel steering, gives the car an almost over-accentuated sense of agility. The steering weight itself is also fairly light, and unusually isn’t variable between the different driver modes. There’s little to no feel, and while it is accurate, it would be nice to have a little more weight just off-centre, especially when hitting those high speeds on motorways.
