Grant V
Member
- Messages
- 242
I've lived with the CLS63 AMG for a month now and, although a very different car from the Quattroporte, I can't stop myself from making comparisons. This is a bang up-to-date modern car, which I'm not used to and up until I got this car a month ago, my 10 year old Quattroporte was the most modern car I had ever owned. Before that, my 1985 928S was my daily driver.
I don't think I like all this technology. What I do like, and what the QP lacks, is the Bluetooth connectivity thing, where I can talk on my phone through the radio and connect my iPOd. I also like the Keyless-Go feature, which the QP doesn't have. Apart from that, all the other stuff will probably not be used and I wonder whether we really need to be given all the choices that are being offered. It's just overload. Why would I want four options for mood lighting? Why would I want the day driving lights not on? If the lights in the mirrors light up when I approach the car at night, why would I want this convenience tuned off?
One of the first sobering things was working out the car user manual. The information is limited and you have to go sit in the car and go through the 'Command' system to get all the detail. And you can't just push in or eject a CD, like on the QP, you have to twiddle the Command knob and ask the fecking system to take a CD. Unlike the QP, you can't change a track on the steering wheel - you have to push that particular button on the radio face. And the Merc doesn't offer individual place settings for the interior fan, only individual temperature settings. So, if my other half wants wind at his feet, it turns into a debate.
I also can't get my head around the reversing camera and still turn around and look through the back window when reversing. I do this because I'm scared I will reverse out over someone who is in the blind spot which the camera doesn't pick up. And the blind spots on the Shooting Brake make the QP look like clear vision.
Performance wise, the AMG is an absolute bruiser and I have never experienced anything like it. It defies physics that a five door sedan weighing five kilograms sort of two tons can get to a hundred in 4.8 seconds. It's astonishing in every respect. It has 800Nm of torque at 1750 rpm and you can tootle around the legal limit in town without the needle going over 1500rpm. Very different from the QP, but I just can't help thinking that the Maser is like Maria Callas doing a Puccini aria, and the AMG is an Oompah band. I don't like the nanny safety features at all, especially the lane changing thing. In South Africa you sometimes need to go out of your lane to avoid a pothole, and the AMG has a sh1tfit vibrating the wheel, braking and actually turning the wheel and correcting you into the lane. I haven't worked out if I can turn this off. But then I realised that you are probably so distracted twiddling the Command knob to load a CD that you need the lane thing to keep you on the road.
I do like the design of the Shooting Brake, but this is also it's downfall, because the interior seems cocooned and claustrophobic. The black interior doesn't help, whereas the QP feels airy and spacious. Probably has a lot to do with the cream colour of the QP interior. And almost fifteen years on, I still find the design of the Quattroporte V unsurpassed. The finishes in this car are exquisite: the inlaid wood dashboard centre, the leather grab handles - not even the new QP has these beautiful features.
I know I'm being picky, but have we really progressed? Do we really need all these features? Are the Germans not maybe continually raising the bar with unnecessary cr@p to just keep ahead of the opposition? Maybe I'm a technological dunce and pushing against the way forward? The AMG (and the QP for that matter) sometimes can't quite work out what gear it should be in and but the time it's made up it's mind you've pressed the accelerator pedal and it bangs into gear. Is this progress? My 25 year old 560SEC has never doubted which gear it's in and never changed up or down in anything but seamless changes. Is this progress?
Turns out that the stealership got it wrong and I can't fit a tow bar to the AMG, so it looks like it will have to go. The QP stays, regardless of the impending front bush replacement...second time round. Says something about the car.
I don't think I like all this technology. What I do like, and what the QP lacks, is the Bluetooth connectivity thing, where I can talk on my phone through the radio and connect my iPOd. I also like the Keyless-Go feature, which the QP doesn't have. Apart from that, all the other stuff will probably not be used and I wonder whether we really need to be given all the choices that are being offered. It's just overload. Why would I want four options for mood lighting? Why would I want the day driving lights not on? If the lights in the mirrors light up when I approach the car at night, why would I want this convenience tuned off?
One of the first sobering things was working out the car user manual. The information is limited and you have to go sit in the car and go through the 'Command' system to get all the detail. And you can't just push in or eject a CD, like on the QP, you have to twiddle the Command knob and ask the fecking system to take a CD. Unlike the QP, you can't change a track on the steering wheel - you have to push that particular button on the radio face. And the Merc doesn't offer individual place settings for the interior fan, only individual temperature settings. So, if my other half wants wind at his feet, it turns into a debate.
I also can't get my head around the reversing camera and still turn around and look through the back window when reversing. I do this because I'm scared I will reverse out over someone who is in the blind spot which the camera doesn't pick up. And the blind spots on the Shooting Brake make the QP look like clear vision.
Performance wise, the AMG is an absolute bruiser and I have never experienced anything like it. It defies physics that a five door sedan weighing five kilograms sort of two tons can get to a hundred in 4.8 seconds. It's astonishing in every respect. It has 800Nm of torque at 1750 rpm and you can tootle around the legal limit in town without the needle going over 1500rpm. Very different from the QP, but I just can't help thinking that the Maser is like Maria Callas doing a Puccini aria, and the AMG is an Oompah band. I don't like the nanny safety features at all, especially the lane changing thing. In South Africa you sometimes need to go out of your lane to avoid a pothole, and the AMG has a sh1tfit vibrating the wheel, braking and actually turning the wheel and correcting you into the lane. I haven't worked out if I can turn this off. But then I realised that you are probably so distracted twiddling the Command knob to load a CD that you need the lane thing to keep you on the road.
I do like the design of the Shooting Brake, but this is also it's downfall, because the interior seems cocooned and claustrophobic. The black interior doesn't help, whereas the QP feels airy and spacious. Probably has a lot to do with the cream colour of the QP interior. And almost fifteen years on, I still find the design of the Quattroporte V unsurpassed. The finishes in this car are exquisite: the inlaid wood dashboard centre, the leather grab handles - not even the new QP has these beautiful features.
I know I'm being picky, but have we really progressed? Do we really need all these features? Are the Germans not maybe continually raising the bar with unnecessary cr@p to just keep ahead of the opposition? Maybe I'm a technological dunce and pushing against the way forward? The AMG (and the QP for that matter) sometimes can't quite work out what gear it should be in and but the time it's made up it's mind you've pressed the accelerator pedal and it bangs into gear. Is this progress? My 25 year old 560SEC has never doubted which gear it's in and never changed up or down in anything but seamless changes. Is this progress?
Turns out that the stealership got it wrong and I can't fit a tow bar to the AMG, so it looks like it will have to go. The QP stays, regardless of the impending front bush replacement...second time round. Says something about the car.
