Mercedes-Benz E63 S review

The price of the E63 S has gone up by £10,000 in four years. That’s a steep rise for a car that offers no more power, speed or equipment. But it’s not hard to see why. There used to be no super-saloon segment above this, but now there are the likes of the Porsche Panamera and Merc’s own AMG GT 4dr priced another £25,000 or so higher, which has tempted BMW and Audi to increase the price of their competitors. Merc has merely followed suit.

The trouble is that if we know one thing about super saloons, it’s that they make very tempting used buys. They lose a lot of money in the first few years. You’d expect this to make them pricey on lease-hire deals as the residuals aren’t that strong, but in fact there are attractive deals out there around the £1,200 per month mark. Still a lot of money, but this is a lot of car.

Just watch the running costs. First year road tax is £2,175 (after that it’s not linked to CO2 emissions and you’ll pay a far more reasonable £475 per annum), and you’ll be doing well to return over 20mpg, despite what Merc claims about the engine’s cylinder shut-off ability.