Review: the Mercedes-AMG C43

Ah, the AMG C-Class for people who can’t afford a C63, surely?

Perhaps. But there are also bound to be a few people out there who look at the C63 - with its swaggering wheelarches, raucous V8 bark and penchant for sidewaysness - and don’t fancy the full-fat AMG.

That’s where this new C43 comes in. It’s still badged as an AMG. It has a stunning interior indistinguishable from the V8 car’s – complete with the flat-bottomed steering wheel and affixed alloy paddles. You can spec identical bucket seats from the big boy. It feels extra-special inside, and it’s over £10,000 cheaper than the non-S C63.

The C43 isn’t slow, mind you. I appreciate the modern fast car numbers game is now silly beyond belief, but 0-62mph in 4.7 seconds has to still count as quite quick, right?

Tell me about the drivetrain.

It’s a good’un. Finally splitting the difference between the C-Class Coupe’s worthy four-pot diesels and the C63’s gargling V8, we’ve got a 3.0-litre, twin-turbo petrol-fed V6.

Before you ask, it makes 362bhp when you rev it out to between 5500-6500rpm, and torque’s healthy too. 383lb ft arrives at all four wheels between 2000 and 4200rpm, and no, you can’t have tyre-troubling rear-drive. It’s ‘4Matic’ only.

Can I have a manual?

Sorry. Make do with a nine-speed automatic offering varying modes of severity, or nowt.

If it’s a one-size-fits-all drivetrain it better be good...

It is quite likable. I’ve driven this engine in a couple of Mercs lately, namely the GLE Coupe and AMG SLC 43. This is by far its best application.

Partly that’s because it’s at last bolted into a chassis that actually encourages you to give it some stick, and partly because AMG has stopped mucking about with ludicrously overdone exhaust tomfoolery.

You’re still peppered with rasps on a downshift, smacked with a whumph going the other way, and the motor sounds clean and earnest without being whiney, but it’s not as well, embarrassing as the other ’43s blatantly interfered with by marketing sorts in big collars.

Ultimately, when you’re caning it you can detect that the gearbox is a boggo Merc unit pressed into sports trials, rather than a bespoke fast-car gearbox.

Downchanges sometimes have to be requested twice before the torque-converter reluctantly blips the V6 and slots the gear, and if you’re fond of upchanging just before the redline, where the V6 sounds really fruity, beware the rev limiter which seems to arrive a cheeky 250rpm or so sooner than the red blob on the tacho promises.

Does four-wheel drive make it boring in the corners?

It’s got the predictable all-weather traction boon that Audi’s been flogging quattros on for yonks, but the car doesn’t fundamentally feel like a leaden or nose-heavy. It’s more like a mega-tractable front-drive car: very neutral. It grips, it stops, and because AMG has binned the oversped variable ratio steering marketing snuck into the regular C-Class for a less aggressive set-up, you get a more consistent, intuitive turn-in.

The car also feels reasonably light, which is a clever trick to pull considering it isn’t really. There’s no M Division-style carbon trinkets, or lack of equipment. I’d swear it wasn’t a 1735kg machine. But it would feel light, given we were hopping between testing coupe and cabrio and the hard-top has a 120kg advantage to play.

AMG can build entertaining cars that aren’t yobs, eh? Who knew...

It’ll be a really interesting head-to-head with an S5, that’s for sure, with both using turbocharged V6s, all-wheel drive and many-speed automatics. It’s not an outright exciting machine, the C43 – not with an overachieving big brawny bro like the C63 in the family – but in isolation it’s a satisfying fast everyday coupe that’s sumptuous inside (I don’t mind the ‘floating iPad screen, either). Yup, I’d take one of these over the equivalent BMW 440i all day long. Your move, Audi...