I didn’t expect to be so smitten with a bright yellow Mercedes. It stood out on the crowded New York International Auto Show floor like it was actually alive. A real living breathing thing. Just look at it. It’s beautiful. I will name you Ashley. I walked up and rested an index finger on her hood. Shhh. Don’t speak. Oh, Ashley. What’s that? Ha ha! Security will escort me out of here any second? Oh, you!
Things got even weirder when I sat inside it and closed the door. From the perfectly supportive bucket seat I looked around at the cockpit, at the row of aircraft-inspired carbon fiber vents across the top of the dash, the immensely high quality metals, the subtly contrasting leathers, and I felt like this car was already mine. Somehow, in the span of roughly 10 seconds, I had made a decisive emotional commitment to the AMG GT S. That’s a hell of a neat trick, Mercedes.
When the AMG GT was first released in 2014, some critics said it looked “too plain” and even “boring”. Those people don’t have functioning eyeballs.
This is a stunning car. It’s also certainly very fast, with the 4.0 liter twin turbo V8 churning out well over 500 horsepower. That power goes through a dual-clutch 7 speed paddle shift transmission, and even though I definitely prefer a stick, I can’t blame Ashle-, I mean, the AMG GT S for having an automatic transmission. This is a true grand touring machine, a device made for gobbling up miles of highway at a time in style and comfort. It’s not at all confused about what it was born to do. I like that.
I won’t be fulfilling my fantasy of owning an AMG GT S anytime soon, because I sure don’t have $129,000 laying around. That’s a lot of dough, but compared to its segment rivals, the Mercedes is actually a good deal. It’s about what you’d pay for an Audi R8 (not the V10, just the V8) and that’s assuming you’d be able to form an emotional connection with it, which is so cold, so teutonic, so German, that it makes the Mercedes look downright Italian.
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