Given the fact that there's no shortage of drop-top Mercs to choose from at the moment, it's easy to forget that the S-Class cabriolet is a relatively new model altogether, having arrived shortly after the debut of the 2014 model year S-Class. Before that, we'd have to turn back a few chapters in Mercedes history to find an S-Class cabriolet. Even in the decade of the 1980s when exceedingly plush Mercedes-Benz cars became the thing to have in the tony suburbs there was only the R107 SL-Class, produced for what seemed like an eternity between 1972 and 1989. But it was a much more compact roadster sharing little with the W116 and W126 S-Class sedans of the time. And it's still around in modern form.
This brings us to the road yacht before us: Half seaside road cruiser and half parade cabriolet, with one of the most potent AMG engines under the hood, ready to make a quick escape from the proletariat with a soundtrack that could well be worth the price of entry.
If there was ever a Mercedes designed for sunny coastal roads with the summer pads of the rich and famous on one side of the road, and their yachts floating on the other, this has to be it. Not only that, but this is the high-performance version of the base Azure Coast cruiser: There is still the regular S560 cabrio on the menu for those who ran out of suicases of cash necessary for the AMG model, and there's still the even more elite V12-engined S65 further up in the range for cylinder count snobs and petro-state boyars.
High performance in this AMG version means 603 hp and 664 lb-ft of torque, courtesy of a 4.0-liter Biturbo V8 and a nine-speed automatic transmission sending power to all four wheels. This combo can propel the S63 from 0 to 60 in just 3.4 seconds, and up to a top speed of 186 mph. All this power pretty much requires all-wheel drive, and don't get us wrong — we're thankful it's there — along with a whole host of other electronic nannies.
But the powerplant and its extra horses, as great as they sound during acceleration when the four pipes belt out a sonorous thrum, are mostly here to justify the AMG version; the standard S560 cabrio with its version of the Biturbo V8 producing 463 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque isn't exactly short on power or performance.
The real treat is the interior, which lands of the right side of quiet elegance and chrome-heavy glitz, cossetting all four passengers in the best materials that Mercedes-Benz has to offer. Unlike the SL-Class cabriolets that have tried to play this role before its debut, the S63 does actually have enough room to seat four comfortbly for long journeys. With the top up the cabin offers impressive sound insulation, allowing people in both rows to carry on a quiet conversation (about natural gas pipeline plans in the Baltics) at 80 mph.
The Execution
The S63 AMG delivered an eventful week, the pinnacle of which was a 20-hour, 800-mile jaunt across the northeast states during a particularly rainy, cold and foggy day. In a nutshell, the exact opposite of the climate and usage pattern that the S63 AMG cabrio was designed for, short of off-roading in the woods of Finland in the dead of winter.
The cabrio, of course, is heavier than the coupe, and there's no amount of lightweighting that can hide the sheer feel of the curb weight. Even so, the S63 can be made to dance a bit with haste if called upon, offering the reassurance of all-wheel drive. Accelerating up or down highway on-ramps with the muted but throaty thrum of the exhaust is something we could do all day in this car, but even boring midwestern interstates offered plenty of entertainment. With the suspension set on Comfort the S63 offers a plush and refined ride over miles of pavement that hadn't been tended to since the Reagan administration, even with the Sport setting serving up a taut but never harsh ride. As this is still a cabrio there is a bit of cowl shake despite the stiffness of the chassis, stiffness that can be readily felt even when pulling into gas stations (which we have to do quite frequently on this trip due to the car's thirst for guzzoline).
At in-town speeds and "terrain," the terrain of post-industrial Pennsylvania towns, the S63 feels well composed at slow speeds, offering just a quiet warble from its exhaust. (It also feels seriously out of place, costing as much as a four-bedroom house in this area). The cabrio transforms into a performance-focused autobahn cruiser on the interstates, just egging us on to take advantage in gaps in traffic.
As this is still an S-Class, a lot of items carry over from the sedan including the double-pane widescreen with a completely digital instrument cluster, much of the dash design, and the rotary knob-controlled infotainment system. There are still plenty of buttons, as this is a high-priced Mercedes S-Class. They're all useful and all accessible, with a few shortcut buttons around the rotary controller's niche, and just below the beefy, steel-ringed AC vents on the dash. Despite the high button count it takes only a couple of days to get used to it all, to the point of pressing buttons without looking.
Even so, it's difficult to find places in the U.S. to exercise even half of this car's potential, making the AMG version of the S-Class cabrio more of a handling and appearance package that serves up dozens more horses, but not necessarily a useful range of ability that can be taken advantage of on the Pacific Coast Highway or the hell known as the Long Island Expressway. That is to say that a serious chunk of the everyday experience of the S63 can be found in the "base" S560 model, especially for the casual driver who will use this to commute to the summer house along with the same rush hour traffic heading in the same direction, such as from NYC to the Hamptons or Cape Cod.
The Takeaway
As tempting as it may be to call this S63 AMG the Mercedes version of the Bentley Continental GT, with which it competes in the French Riviera Cruiser segment, the Mercedes offers a slightly more technologically rich and complete interior experience. (For what it's worth, not only are both of these cars German but their Rolls-Royce competitor, sitting further up in the price range, is also German).
It's difficult to quantify the price of the S63 AMG without counting the number of C-Class cabriolets that you could buy for the same price — that number is four — or without making comparisons to the prices of three-bedroom houses in the American south. The normal rules just don't apply: You're buying an experience and a lifestyle item, so the price could easily be double and it wouldn't affect the value proposition or appeal of the car itself. Shoppers of both models — the S63 or the S65 — can easily afford either one.
This leaves the question of whether the AMG suspension tuning, steering feel and the exhaust note offer a significant enough departure from a mere S560 cabriolet, or a significant savings from the S65 V12 model further up in the range. Those looking for a high-powered cruiser will be satisfied with the S560 — there's certainly enough power underhood to move past traffic — but those who want a sharper edge as well as an imposing soundtrack will probably opt for the S63 AMG, which feels more of a Bentley Continental GT competitor. As for the S65 V12, that's mostly for the badge snobs as that version is both dearer (with a quarter of a million starting price) and heavier.
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