I'm Living With A Mercedes-AMG C43 For Nine Months: What Do You Want To Know?
Our long-term test fleet just got a little more varied. Alongside ‘our’ Honda Civic Type R, Cupra Ateca and Skoda Superb crew car, we now have an AMG estate to get to grips with.
One step down from the base Mercedes-AMG C63, the C43 is a car I’ve always found appealing. With 384bhp on offer and a 0-62mph time of 4.8 seconds, it’s plenty fast enough, and unlike its rear-wheel drive big brother, the AWD wagon will be able to put its power down however wet it is. It’s an AMG for all seasons, this.
This particular C43 is rather generously specced, with the £51,200 on-the-road price ballooning to £62,065 after some liberal clicking on the online configurator. The biggest single option is the £4995 ‘Premium Plus’ pack, which adds - among other things - the brilliant Burmester sound system, a nice infotainment system, multibeam LED lights, and a panoramic sunroof.
We also added the £1000 AMG performance exhaust (a no-brainer) and 19-inch black multispoke wheels (possibly a mistake). The whole shebang is finished in Designo diamond white metallic.
We’ll be going through the spec in more detail after we’ve found out which choices were good ones, and which ones were bad. We’re certainly happy with the way the car looks, even if black on white isn’t exactly subtle.
Some of you will no doubt be keen to point out that the additions put this C43 perilously close to the starting price of a C63 wagon, and although you’d need to add a few options to the latter to match the spec of the former, you would have a point. So, we will at some point be doing a 43 vs 63 showdown, to see if it’s worth your while making the jump to the V8.
We’ll also be pitting it against its rivals from elsewhere, testing out the fuel economy, finding out how practical it is, and trying to work out if this ‘semi-skimmed’ AMG deserves those three letters affixed to the boot.
Is there anything else you’d like to know, or anything you’d like to see? Make your way to the comments.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
C43 vs 340i Touring vs S4 Avant
Its a Mercedes wagon. All I wanna know is ride quality, and how practical it is (ie offroad, fuel mileage, room for stuff, etc) As long as it does well with both of those the fun is just gravy
I have almost the exact same car except in a nicer IMO brillant blue. Re the 19s, I’ve just come out of an E220d AMG Line also on 19” RFs, after 2 years. The ride is actually BETTER in the C43 vs the E220d. The damping on the AMG Ride Control is just more sophisticated at controlling body movements, and is both more comfortable at low speed over big & small bumps and at high speeds.