Daily Pick: 2009 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG

I still remember fondly The first day of the C63 press conference. It was held in Paradise Valley, Arizona, and it was my first time riding in a car. After a few miles we came to a traffic light. What should be parked next to me but a Ferrari 355 Spyder. This guy literally defines the Ferrari driver stereotype: wearing a Ferrari Polo shirt, a two-tone Rolex Datejust, Persol sunglasses, and sitting in the passenger seat is a woman one-third his age. He looked at the C63 with little interest, noting the wider fenders and huge tires (not to mention the exhaust note our car made). When the light came on, he took off with a lot of noise and wheelspin, but we were already about 50 yards ahead of him. When he met us at the next traffic light, he looked at our silver sedan in confusion. “What the hell is that Mercedes? I really want to catch you!”

“This is the new C63 AMG,” I said.

He looked a little sad, and the woman in the passenger seat turned to me and smiled. I waved to them and drove off. Mercedes-AMG fights for victory!

The C63 AMG is a car designed to compete directly with the BMW M5. AMG cars have been fast in a straight line for years, but if the roads got twisty, they couldn’t match the competition from Munich. Mercedes hopes to combine the raw power of the AMG engine with better chassis dynamics. After driving the car for a week I felt they were very close to the mark, closer than any other Mercedes at the time.

One of these extraordinary and capable sports sedans, our Daily Pick is a 2009 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG in Hope Mills, North Carolina.

The seller describes this C63 as a car built for enthusiasts who desire luxury and exciting performance. A 451-horsepower, 6.2-liter quad-cam 32-valve V-8 is somehow stuffed under the hood of the C-Class, and it accelerates from 0-60 in just 4 seconds, half a second quicker than our friend’s 355. This is also a car with excellent braking performance.

The seller states that this C63 has a total of 93,000 miles on it and from the photos in the ad the car looks to be well maintained and in pristine condition with no paint issues that I can identify.

The interior looks great too, with very little wear except for a little scuff on the driver’s side seat cushion, which is common on many cars. Overall, the leather and trim on this car look great.

It looks great under the hood, too, with everything dominated by the big 6.3-liter V8 engine.

I’ve done my homework for you and called the dealer to ask about the service history. He doesn’t think so. I asked him to look at the back of the car’s service manual, where he found years of maintenance history, all stamped by the dealer. I would ask my local Mercedes dealer to see what they have to offer as most dealers keep many old records and it is possible to look up a car’s dealer service history by the VIN.

I would buy myself a car if for no other reason than to relive my days drag racing Ferraris at press conferences. The asking price of just $20,995 makes this C63 seem like a great value, but it probably won’t last long.

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