Mercedes-Benz AMG GT 4-door - long-term review

This is a salutary tale. I had to go to Paris (to interview Matt Damon and Christian Bale), which meant a sparrow’s fart start to drive to my nearest town to catch the train to London, and then to the Eurostar. So it’s 5am, and it’s been absolutely chucking it down all night. I notice the standing water as I leave my village in the GT four-door, and even at 30mph it’s enough to act as a wake-up call. 

Doesn’t slow me down, though. Once I’m onto open road, I bury the throttle, figuring the car’s size and all-wheel drive will deal with whatever comes our way. Turning right onto a back road, I’m doing maybe 50mph when we hit a wall of water that’s deep enough to throw two tonnes-plus of Merc from one side of the road to the other. It’s savage. I check the car when we park up, figuring there might be some steering damage, but all seems well.

A week later, the tyre pressure monitor does its thing and it’s evident the offside rear tyre has a slow puncture. Then I notice that something is hanging loose on the other side. There’s a composite panel that covers the rear underfloor and exhaust on the GT, except that now there isn’t. It’s only when I take the car to Mercedes, get it up on a ramp, and check out another identical car that we see that there’s a leading edge on the panel somewhere ahead of the rear axle and a gap of maybe an inch. Now picture many gallons of water being accelerated through that at 50mph, and it’s clear why said panel is now an ex-panel. 

Driving in monsoon conditions has never bothered me, but if you’re on big tyres… be extra careful out there.