Mercedes-Benz E63 2007 Review

This is the car that was responsible for the term 'bahn blaster' due to its ability to rapidly gobble up large tracts of German autobahn. They are so potent as to relegate plane travel between some European cities redundant.

It's easier to trundle your E63 out onto the autobahn and fire it in the desired direction than to muck about getting to, parking and waiting at airports, boarding, waiting. flying and landing on a plane then getting to your destination.

Over the last few decades it's evolved into one of the most desirable mainstream sedan cars you can get.

Mind you at a cool $227,600, the E63's way out of the realms of the average punter but we can dream.

The engine is not the only hand made or hand built component on the car because it's pretty much meticulously put together by a crack crew of technicians on a special assembly line.

AMG is responsible for a swag of high performance Mercs from the littlies to the biggies including an awesome ML63 4x4. One presumes there will also be an AMG version of the big GL 4x4.

The E63 is a four door, five seat sedan with a whopping 378kW/680Nm output. That's sufficient to propel the weighty beast from 0-100kmh in well under 5.0 seconds. It's almost supercar quick and has no real powerband to speak of - it's all go as soon as you push the accelerator.

But all this potency is not unbridled - it's delivered by one of the most sophisticated cars around in a silky smooth but stirring manner.

The 6.2-litre engine is a techno tour-de-force as is the chassis which features airmatic adaptive suspension and huge brakes. There's even a ride height raise function to get driveway clearance for the low-slung front end.

Drive goes to the rear wheels via a seven speed auto transmission with sequential change including steering wheel paddles.

It is never caught in the wrong cog.

In addition to the performance side of the car, there's also a luxury and safety side. It is blessed with an astonishing array of luxury goodies including gorgeous Nappa leather, a rockin' Harman Kardon audio system with massive sub woofer, TV, DVD, satnav, comprehensive computer, bluetooth and electrically operated everything. The test vehicle's roof was mostly glass with integrated front glass sunroof.

It has adaptive bi-xenon headlights, sonar cruise control and 360 degree park assist.

We really like the anti tamper, anti tow function that sounds the horn if a vehicle comes within a metre of the E63 when parked. It's a stunning drive, composed, firm, responsive and sounds fabulous. There is plenty of room for five inside and the styling enhancements not only aid aerodynamics, they also look pretty good.

Is it better than the previous supercharged E55 AMG?

You'd better believe it.