MANUFAKTUUURRRR. so here is a @mercedesbenz S580e with all the MANUFAKTUR accoutrements. these used to be “Exclusive Manufaktur” but now, just MANUFAKTUR. you take yourself very seriously when you give yourself a mononym. well, the quality is serious. the colors are exceptional, and it seems to be quite clear those extra customization eyes on a product just make the quality level that much less assembly line standard. i am happy to report, it is good. SIGNIFICANTLY better quality than the “Maybach” in my driveway but that’s a conversation for another day. in any case, this car proves two things. 1. the S class should be electric. 2. Mercedes can easily rectify their self inflicted mass production curse if they so choose… the question is, why can’t this be consistent whether my leather is black or green? in any case, as mentioned in stories. quality is vastly improved from the COVID era. tried to do the TikTok schizo make the entire interior creak and rattle thing… couldn’t. it’s rock solid, as an S class should be. need an S class daily. this was one i really didn’t want to give back. brilliant car. FROM MY PREVIOUS STORY: the amount of people in my DM's being like "wow I think the S class is the answer" is a lot. and i agree. as i have been saying for a couple of years now. for a very long time there was a major use case dichotomy with the S class between Europe and the United States. for the last call it 10 to 15 years in Europe it was really a luxury chauffeur car. in the US, it's just sort of rich guy car, but that's really been replaced by the G, as it's more or less the same use case for 99% of buyers anyway. which is mostly due to US flex tendencies. however, if you go to your average Mercedes dealership inventory, you're like at least 80% black S classes the rest are white and if a dealer is very adventurous, you might get selenite gray... Mercedes needs to start incentivizing dealers to order inventory cars in these Manufaktur specs and watch in 3 years it'll become the G class graduation car. i’m already there. @mercedesbenz #yesamg
okay now that i’ve got it out of my system and talked all the shit i can on this generation of CarPlay and twiddled my door knobs… my new 2025 G63 is perfection. undefeated car. thank you @mercedesbenz and thank you for making me the only car in America with black brake calipers. a request even sillier (better?) given you cannot see brake calipers behind the blocs. (i paid for it, just grateful). also, @mercedesbenzgilbert is the 🐐car dealer. @mercedesbenzgclass@mercedesamg
absolutely fantastic car. stupid fast. just stupid. pretty easily kept up with @thisnicelife in a new DB12 on Angeles crest highway for 8-10 minutes until the tires gave up. but that’s fucking impressive for nearly 6,000 lbs of batteries and steel. and the SPEC. good god, the spec. i love that Mercedes brought back the OG S65 wheels for this car. A+ Mercedes. more of that decision making. if it weren’t for the depreciation i’d probably cancel my G63 order and get this. i keep seeing these Mercedes ASMR reels showing crunchy plastics and stuff. not here. tried to make crunchy plastic. can’t. i think it looks amazing. the S class Achilles heel is that it’s its own worst enemy, because it’s so good in standard S580 form, that the higher models like Maybach and AMG don’t have a super obvious distinction. certainly not Maybach. like, is a Maybach S580 really $75k better than an S580? i’d say no. is the S63? still would say no but it’s a more clearly defined product distinction. they should really just have S500 for car services, S580 for doctors, S63 for richer doctors and cool executives, and S680 Maybach for people with drivers. but, in typical Mercedes fashion, they be doing the absolute most always. skip the tables and refrigerator and highest rear seat package on the AMG. it’s too much stuff back there that rattles around. not needed. and if you’re going to be driven, then get the Maybach. here’s some pics. i’d like to see a little more “back to basics” from Mercedes. be the tech innovators you’ve always been, but keep it a little more low key. give me a volume knob please. digital stuff will never be high touch. i think this dash would have been perfect for integrating the Bentley folding screen thing. this screen will never look good on any car in the future. that said, i feel like i can see myself in the future as the “lease an S-class as a daily every 3 years forever because i can’t be fucked to play the game anymore” guy. @mercedesbenz unchallenged in this segment. again, shout out @mrminielly the 🐐 spec lord. @highsnobiety
forgot to post this car. officially my favorite American car. sometimes i enjoy a car so much i am too distracted to take photos. the GLS Maybach is one of those cars. its just so immensely pleasing to live with day to day. and the launch of the new one reminded me how simple and elegant this one is, actually. even more so now. while driving it, i thought to myself “ah, this is the perfect amount of contemporary screen.” i should have had the foresight to anticipate that was about to change. alas, wonderful car. low key the GLS is the move. it’s the Subur-Bahn… get it? you can lease them good right now before the new ones arrive. if you’d like one, let me know. i’ll plug you in. buy American 🇺🇸 🦅. @mercedesmaybach
2026 @mercedesbenz E53 AMG E-Hybrid Wagon. every owner carchetype is kind of annoying. so you can’t get too hung up on it. i’ve always sort of rolled my eyes at the performance wagon dad. not because i wasn’t a wagon fan, just like… i had a really underwhelming RS6 experience, relegated it to never meet your heroes and never looked back. well, i am here to tell you, Mercedes has delivered for all the 41 year old Jewish men in New Balances and ALD. we thank you, Mercedes. just kidding, that’s not me. but i do really like this car. in all seriousness, this is probably the most well rounded car Mercedes has delivered in years. it’s such a good product, so well balanced in its delivery, so self aware of what it’s meant to be, should do, and more importantly shouldn’t do. it’s very early 2000s BMW in that regard. just make a rockstar all rounder that doesn’t try to be everything to everyone by e.g. irrationally over indexing on handling to make it comically stiff, etc, etc. the E53 is a car for real life, maximizing daily use, not existing by trying to do things it shouldn’t in spite of daily need. it’s really quite wonderful. sound boring? sorry! you know what’s worse? getting your teeth rattled out by a four door AMG GT that doesn’t need to exist. my gripes? specs leave a bit to be desired. very neutral. interior was trying to be minimal but doesn’t read as elegant. too much surface area on panels, etc. i’d go this gray color or the brown over black leather, sport seats, 20 inch wheels, no superscreen, George Russell delete package and call it a day. perfect daily. if the cayenne diesel takes a shit, i’ll probably buy one. extremely well priced. $109k? that’s Macan GTS money these days. wonderful car. well done Mercedes. i always say death is in the middle… well, here’s an exception to the rule. @mercedesamgf1@mercedesamg
Six-ish months of dogs, horses, Christmas trees and a house renovation with this wonderful, extinct, irreplaceable, perfectly, imperfect car. if you can get one, do it. they really don’t make ‘em like this anymore. it’s sad that Porsche has to pretend this car never existed because of Dieselgate instead of doing everything possible to keep them on the road. if you ain’t rollin’ coal… #diesel #porsche
AMG GT63 e-Performance. the numbers are a lot. i remember when the original 65s came out and if my memory serves me it was like 738 lb-ft. it was unfathomable. fast forward 20 years and that’s compounded to 1,047 lb-ft. Benz out here fucking up commas. bravo. the true 65 successor imo. it’s like a baby Bugatti. it remains, as i said at launch, achingly beautiful. I truly think this is the best looking “real world” car on sale today. there aren’t a lot of cars being churned out today that “beautiful” is applicable to. impressive, wild, cool… sure… beautiful? not so much. i FEEL good in this car. but, beauty is the byproduct. the agenda is brutality and man does this thing fucking move. a true 65 successor. a true hammer successor. it is just stupidly, wickedly fast in a straight line. yes, it handles good, yes, the standard automatic is best in class. but this is a blunt force trauma weapon and the cleaning crew is not getting all the DNA evidence it left at the crime scene (skids). not here to street race, but i absolutely smoked a Taycan Turbo S in this thing. it’s no joke. and somehow, beyond the raw power, the hybrid is actually really additive to the overall experience, not just practically. the whirr of the electric motor, mixed with the classic AMG V8 is just simply, a very cool experience. so, let’s cut to the chase… new turbo starts at $70k more. The AMG fully loaded is about $225. the Porsche fully loaded is about $100k more. is the Porsche objectively “better”? of course, but Porsche owner jokes aside, the reality is everything within the 10% margin that the Porsche does better, based on how your average turbo buyer or average AMG GT buyer is going to use the car, you’ll simply never get there. so if you want that in your back pocket that you have wins on paper? cool. Porsche has you covered. if you want a rarer, more special, more fun, better sounding, better daily experience? go with this. completely slept on car. @mercedesamg@mercedesbenz
firstly, i can’t explain why this particular car feels so much different than the one i drove in monterey. perhaps its just been hammered by journos, but the suspension is clunky and noisy like a regular AMG SL. the one i drove in monterey felt more solid and very elegant. i quite enjoyed it and spoke highly of it initially. i will say, Mercedes did an excellent job with the engine. the throttle behavior and sound mimic the V12 from its predecessor as good as you could conceive a V8 to. impressed. as a reference, this car has the same number of miles as the S580e i just gave back, and that was a tank. this... is not. you can hear the roof mechanicals shaking around of bumps, etc, which while common. is just unacceptable on a car bearing this name, or price, of $233,000. a Continental GT would never, nor would it’s S650 Cabriolet elder. ultimately, despite the impressive engine, this car really just feels like an SL55 with logos. i genuinely want to like it, because i love the idea of a Maybach convertible. but this is just such a product miss that i feel like will be relegated to the Ice Spice era of Mercedes’ marketing department, which, luckily is no more. so what’s wrong with it? well, a lot. way too much direct crossover in trims from the standard SL, but worse, the Maybach specific stuff is sub-standard. the logos on the hood are cut off and incomplete. if you’re going to spend millions of dollars on a special laser etching machine, surely the machine can be programmed to have tapered scale complete logos... Rolls would never. Bentley would never. again, perpetual Mercedes gripe... nomenclature. 680... you can’t have two vehicles that bear the same name in a lineup that are made of different things. it can’t be a V8 in the SL, and a V12 in the S. that’s just preposterous. i tried to be cute and count the logos and my review was going to be something like “it has X logos. that’s my review” but it would be ignoring real product problems. so, i asked Google Gemini which says it has “possibly as many as 500 logos.” let’s go with that. (continued in stories) @mercedesmaybach
didn’t go to a single event. put more miles on the 993 in 48 hours than i did in the last year. drove a Maybach with my favorite car brand team. did my routine with my bro. hung with the boys. collectively decided butzi was a wings up guy. met new boys. broke down. other bros fixed my car. raced back down to see my girls. car week in 48 hours.
@rollsroycecars Black Badge Spectre launch. there was rain, smoking brakes, and race tracks. the sportiest Roller ever? who knows? not me! i’ve been asked to evolve my thoughts until March 24th.
