C63 S E Performance (W206) | PH Used Buying Guide
Controversial and deeply unpopular among the old guard, but also very fast. And available now with one-third off
Key considerations
- Available for £64,500
- 2.0-litre inline four petrol turbo with rear electric motor, all-wheel drive
- Massive acceleration and in-gear performance, and reliable with it
- Beautifully built and equipped, but it's a C-Class so not super roomy
- Asking £100k for a four-pot meant significant depreciation…
- ... which is great if you're buying used and you accept that the V8 party is over
What's in a name? If you're talking about a Mercedes with a 63 badge on the bootlid or tailgate, the answer to that used to be 'a hell of a lot’. But on the W206-gen C 63 that was released to the press in late 2022, that 63 badge was doing some very heavy lifting. Instead of the snorting 6.2-litre V8 or even the later twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 you might have been expecting or at least hoping for, the W206 C 63 was powered by a four-cylinder engine displacing under two litres.
Sign o' the times? To be fair, the electrically turbocharged M139 four more than matched any of the V8s on both power and torque. Boosted by a 201hp electric motor, the PHEV W206 knocked out some astonishing numbers, to whit 670hp and 752lb ft, but historic AMG 63 buyers used to big V8s weren't buying it in any sense.
In September 2025 Mercedes conceded defeat, announcing that the next C 63 (due in mid-2026) would not have four-cylinder power. Sadly for some, they weren't talking about a return to eight cylinders, claiming that a V8 wouldn't fit in the new C-Class. Some journos said it probably would, but hey, what did they know...
Mercedes said it was more about space for cooling and crash protection than it was about having enough actual physical space to squeeze in a V8. Whatever, to avoid more potential in-range clashing, the next C 63 is looking like being another plug-in hybrid, but this time with an M256 3.0-litre straight-six at its core. Power and torque figures are both expected to top the 650 mark, so it will not be wanting on the performance front.
Will a six-cylinder 63 be more commercially acceptable than a four-cylinder one? Who knows. At some point in the future, when the traditional AMG market will presumably have adapted somewhat to the new order, there'll be a buying guide on here telling you what happened next. In the meantime, we've got this four-cylinder W206 to talk about. The new price for a C 63 S E Performance in 2023 was supposed to be around £90,000, but by the time they finally began to be delivered in the UK, that entry price had gone up to £97,500 for the saloon and £99,300 for the estate - making it possibly the most expensive production four-cylinder car ever. If you know different, please chip in on the forum.
By the time of writing in January 2026 the recommended retail price for a new C 63 S E Performance saloon had risen to £107,650, but they were also being readily discounted to well under £100k, and if you're happy to buy used you can get one for £64,500. As we often say in these guides, one person's depreciation is the next person's bargain. Even the oldest C 63 S E Performance will currently be less than two years old, with plenty of manufacturer's warranty left. So is this forsaken Merc a hidden gem that we ignore at our peril? Let's take a look.
SPECIFICATION | MERCEDES-AMG C 63 S E PERFORMANCE (2024-on)
Engine: 1,991cc inline four 16v turbo petrol with electric motor
Transmission: 9-speed MCT 9G auto, 4Matic+ all-wheel drive Power (hp): 680@6,750rpm incl 201hp from electric motor
Torque (Ib ft): 752@5,250-5,500rpm
0-62mph (secs): 3.4 (estate or saloon)
Top speed (mph): 155 (limited) or up to 174mph with Driver's Pack
Weight (kg): 2,111 (saloon), 2,145 (estate)
MPG (WLTP combined): 41
CO2 (g/km): 156
Wheels (in): 9.5 x 20
Tyres: 265/35 (f), 275/35 (?)
On sale: 2024-on
Price new (2024): £99,280
Price now: from £64,500
Note for reference: car weight and power data are hard to pin down with absolute certainty. For consistency, we use the same source for all our guides. We hope the data we use is right more often than it's wrong. Our advice is to treat it as relative rather than definitive.
ENGINE & GEARBOX
Setting aside its lack of V8-ness, did the W206 C 63 meet the performance expectations of the most demanding AMG 63 customer? Despite the scary-looking 'official' weights of over 2.1 tonnes for the saloon or the estate (some mags' test results had it at over 2.2 tonnes), the answer to that was unequivocally yes. When the W206 C 63 was launched in 2022, the 2.0-litre M139 motor was already quite comfortably the most powerful production four-pot engine in existence. Tuning that engine up with a big, electronically-controlled Garrett turbocharger gave the new C 63 236hp per litre, which was 18hp more than the Ferrari 296 GTB. AMG then bolted a two-speed electric motor to the rear axle to hoist the C 63 up into the supercar realms of low three-second 0-62mph times. The official 0-62 time was 3.4sec, but journalists driving on dry tracks were easily getting boringly repeatable 3.0-second times over the 0-60mph dash.
Unlike the A 45 (or indeed the previous C 63) the new C 63 had a 'wet startup' MCT nine-speed gearbox rather than a twin-clutcher. There were noticeable pauses between upchanges, but that hardly mattered in practice because on flooring the throttle the lag-free turbocharging allied to the electric motor gave you the kind of shove that would satisfy anyone before the gearbox had gone to the trouble of knocking itself down a cog or two. Hurricane torque of over 750lb ft brought thrust that was impressive to put it mildly, or downright mindboggling when you remembered the engine displacement.
If it was used as the only source of motive power, the 6.1kWh battery for the electric motor wouldn't get you more than nine miles down the road, and rather less than that if you were driving at 70mph in that mode, which you could, but its fast charge/discharge characteristics meant that it worked brilliantly as a driving enhancement tool by providing 70kW of fill-in power most of the time with peak outputs of up to 150kW available in short bursts.
There was plenty of recuperation on tap, too, effectively negating the need to ever plug the car in as the engine would start up whether you liked it or not when the battery charge was down to 20 per cent or so. One of the driving modes was 'B' which, as on the old range-extender BMW i3, held the battery at your chosen state of charge. Pressing the mode selector button while it was in B mode allowed you to choose between three levels of braking regen. The battery was built to take the strain, each of its 560 cells receiving individual attention from 14 litres of coolant to ensure consistent temperatures and good reliability.
Sound-wise, the powertrain confounded some negative expectations thanks to some cunning audio jiggery-pokery with 'enriched' (i.e. amplified, but genuine) engine sounds. Not just inside but also outside through speakers located behind both bumpers. At the end of the day, though, it was still a four-cylinder engine and there's a limit on how good you can make one of them sound. Still, jamming both feet on the pedals for a Race mode launch created a passably exciting mix of electronic turbo spin and machine gun rev-rattle. You didn't have to drive it like a loon to enjoy it, either, as it was very civilised at saner speeds.
The CO2 emissions figure was 156g/km and the WLTP combined fuel consumption figure was 41mpg. That sounded unlikely, but in energetic real-world driving it would return high 20s or low 30s, so high 30s or low 40s in gentler driving was entirely plausible. Old-school AMG owners who didn't give two hoots about fuel consumption probably regarded this as some weird kind of sacrilege. The M139 engine has a good reputation for reliability. Some 12v batteries have thrown up low/critical alarms impacting things like door control units, but that's about it. Battery problems seem to be the new norm in modern cars. A typical B service should cost between £540 and £675 depending on where you live.
CHASSIS
AMG Dynamic Select gave you a hatful of driving modes from Electric and Comfort to Slippery and Individual, via Race. AMG Dynamics control was standard too, giving finer control over chassis behaviour through four settings (plus an individual one) that you could overlay onto the drive modes to set the car up to your own tastes, be it more agility, more oversteer, sharper turn-in or whatever. The 'fully variable' 4Matic+ all-wheel drive system worked with an electronic limited-slip diff on the back axle, the whole setup facilitating not only a drift mode by disconnecting drive to the front wheels but also, and perhaps more usefully for most normal folk, some reining-in of stability control intrusion. It was all very intuitive and rather better than the old C 63's system.
Besides simple, or not so simple, electronics there was actual substance behind the new C 63's chassis talents. The metal componentry in the suspension was upgraded with C 63-specific AMG Ride Control adaptive dampers and a spruced-up front end sporting new control arms, knuckles and joints. There was also plenty of bracing to stiffen things up, the C 43-style crossmember and support plate over and under the engine supplemented by an C 63-unique X-brace at the back.
A simulator that had been developed at great expense to hone the handling of the AMG One was pressed into service for the C 63. The chassis/drivetrain package worked with the sat nav to prepare the car for upcoming conditions on road or track and all-wheel steering made its C 63 debut on the W206. Standard wheel size was nominally 19-inch, but most buyers went for the 20 inchers. The wheel design for the estate was different to the saloon's. Six-piston calipers gripped 390mm steel discs at the front with 370mm discs at the rear. Some testers found these a bit wanting in this heavy car after successive hard applications. Ceramics arrived on the option list a few months after launch.
BODYWORK
A 10mm extension to the C-Class's wheelbase was the jumping-off point for heavier modifications to the bodywork. The front end's 50mm additional length contributed to an overall growth of 76mm in the saloon and 83mm in the estate. It was 76mm wider at the front too, to accommodate not just the wider tyres but also the big (and real) vents on the front corners. Those, plus the (also real) vent in the bonnet, gave the driver the correct impression that a lot of heat was being generated by the car, not just around the engine but also in the areas occupied by the battery and the electric motor. A red C 63 S badge on the rear gave other road users a fleeting impression of what they'd just been blown off by.
An AMG 'eggbox' grille and the first time appearance of an AMG badge on the bonnet signalled a further subtle shift in the brand's positioning. The vents above the 'Turbo E Performance' badges on the trailing edges of the front wings were not real and the rear bodywork was not widened over standard. Side skirts, mirror housings and diffusers could all be had in carbon fibre. An optional aero package with larger bootlid/rooftop spoilers and the like was available. Night Edition cars had aero pieces in black rather than body colour.
Boot space in the saloon wasn't huge at 279 litres, constrained as it was by a hump for the electrical gubbins, but that's why AMG also offered the C 63 in estate form. That still had hybrid-restricted space, but there was more of it at 320 litres with the seats up or 1,335 litres with them down. There was no underfloor storage.
INTERIOR
The biggest physical cabin difference between the normal W206 C-Class and the AMG C 63 was the fitment of AMG Performance seats, which, though firmly padded, were nonetheless comfortable and supportive. You couldn't get carbon-shelled ones but the standard seats were lighter than those on previous models and alternatives with weight-saving/ventilation openings in the side bolsters were on the options list. The leathers used on the seats and door cards were soft and high quality. The trim pieces on the lower dash had a carbonfibre weave.
It was hard to feel shortchanged on screen real estate in the W206 C-Class with a big portrait display in the middle and a landscape tablet in front of the driver. Both featured custom AMG data including G force, power and torque outputs and track times on the driver screen, with more of the same on the centre screen including your 0-62 and 0-100 times and a graphic of an IWC watch. When you were enjoying yourself on one of the tracks mapped into the system the car would tell you when the best points were to give it laldy. There was an awful lot to learn about boost strategies and track pace if you could be bothered. If you were that person, or even an ordinary one, the MBUX infotainment was there for you with a bespoke AMG button on the bottom left corner of the big screen to give quick access to the various setup options.
AMG's microcut Alacantara-u-like wheel covering was nice, as were the solid-feeling metal shift paddles and the huge head-up display. The button-encrusted AMG Performance wheel was a treat for lovers of jewelly detail, but the slider controls were a bit too easy to accidentally prod and the infotainment lady could be quite annoying, an unwelcome nod back to the old C 63 that suffered from similarly pesky random chattage. Not everyone would immediately choose a C-Class for family transport as there wasn't a great deal of legroom in the back, but you did get AMG seat trim in the C 63 which at least made you feel a bit more special in your long-legged discomfort.
PH VERDICT
Have you ever looked at the particulars of a house that you'd seriously love to buy but then not followed through on it because the front door and the window frames were the wrong colour? OK, maybe that's not a 100 per cent accurate explanation of the sales resistance Mercedes-AMG has faced with the C 63 S E Performance, but there might be something in it. On numbers alone it should have been difficult bordering on impossible for AMG V8 lovers to scorn the new C 63. Even though it was hauling more than 400kg extra weight over the old C 63, the 160hp leap in poke derived from its tweaked engine and electric motor was more than enough to kill off every performance objection.
Potential buyers wouldn't have it up 'em though, because the other number - the one on the badge - wasn't right. Or to be more accurate, the badge number wasn't right for that engine configuration. Where's the soul in a plug-in hybrid four, etc? A quick drive might convince you. It will be a quick drive, too. You could definitely feel the weight when you were pressing on, and grip was prioritised over nuance, but despite its bulk the C 63 was a steady steed and its power-to-weight ratio was superior to anything else you might consider as a rival, something like an M3 or RS4.
That superiority translated directly into superior, not to say devastating, in-gear performance. Some found the steering rack a little too quick but overall the C 63 came across as a car that might reward enthusiastic owners who were prepared to put in the time and effort to learn its traits. We found no serious complaints about the W206 C 63 S E Performance. That wasn't surprising on one level, given it's only been around for a couple of years, but it is surprising on another level when you bear in mind it is a performance vehicle that you'd expect to have some issues. Whatever, the worst complaint we found was from impatient owners who weren't getting their full 670hp because they hadn't completed the running-in regime yet. A proper first-world problem.
If you can get your head past its quirks, the cultural badging difficulties and the boggling complexity of the car, a used C 63 S E Performance looks like a tempting mix of mightiness and good value - if you can find one to your liking. There aren't many used ones to choose from in the UK, maybe 20 on a good day. At the time of going to press there were three C 63 S E Performances on PH classifieds, all of them saloons. You will find some estates elsewhere that start at around £65k. The most affordable example on PH, by £5, was this 2024 Night Edition with some Manhart and Brabus cosmetic badgery and 7,000 miles on the clock at £68,990. For that extra fiver you could get this very similar Night Ed with 4,000 miles and no spurious badges. Another £1,000 put you into this '24 9,500-miler in Graphite Grey Magno. That's Magno, not Mango.
If these prove to be reliable as they age, if they avoid the attention of the "Stage 3" bros, if it really will achieve high 30s/ low 40s mpg and if it plummets a lot further, I'd consider one for my admittedly niche/ edge case commute. I'd guess for most though, if you want the pace and low running costs there's better EV options, if you want pace and noise there's better options.
If these prove to be reliable as they age, if they avoid the attention of the "Stage 3" bros, if it really will achieve high 30s/ low 40s mpg and if it plummets a lot further, I'd consider one for my admittedly niche/ edge case commute. I'd guess for most though, if you want the pace and low running costs there's better EV options, if you want pace and noise there's better options.
Uninspiring engine, weak motors/small battery, unbelievable complexity, heavy, massively expensive.
I'm amazed they sold any. I doubt anyone actually handed over their own £100k but I guess I few people have stumped up for the monthlies.
But perhaps there are some four pot lovers with 100k to burn among us?
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff