Turtledove

What we like:

Solidly built

agile and willing to play

What we dislike:

Polarising looks and rather appalling rear visibility

But it’s a coupe, so you shouldn't care about practicality when you buy one should you?

The highlight of the coupe is of course its biturbo V6 that has been bumped up to 362 bhp (34 more than the GLE) and 520 Nm of torque (up 40 over the GLE). It’s not exactly the fastest thing in the world despite those figures, but it certainly isn't slow. Paired the new 9G-TRONIC 9-speed gearbox (you won’t really use all the gears here in case you’re wondering) that shifts nearly as fast as a DCT box, the power train doesn’t leave you wanting in any situation.

The heft of the car contributes largely to this problem, but it does present an upside. It’s fast enough and has enough torque to be fun without being scary or unusable, which is more than I can say for a full on AMG. In the GLE 450 AMG coupe, you can switch the car to its sportiest setting, floor the throttle and enjoy the crackling exhaust (oh yes it does have a cracking sports exhaust sound track) without scaring yourself half to death or letting off the throttle before the engine revs to the redline due to legal constraints.

Find an empty, twisty straight and you’ll also find that despite the 4MATIC all-wheel drive it’s rather easy to kick that voluptuous rear end out. And because the air suspension is plenty stiff enough to hold all 2 tonnes in place, the car corners with minimal fuss and is quite precise while being a lot of fun if you want to hoon about in it.

So does it handle like a sports car? Well yes and no. Yes because it’s very well sorted and no because you're sat way too high to feel anywhere near a proper SL 63 AMG.

That said, it’s loads of fun and quite predictable although I’m not sure you’ll want to throw a nearly $400,000 SUV around if you actually paid for it. Stick it in comfort and feel the air suspension soften the car up and soak up bumps rather nicely (it’s no S-Class but still) down the highway and you’ll understand why some journalists have called it more of cruiser.

Credits: Story and Photos by Alvan Sio