Mercedes-AMG GLC 63 S Hire Sydney: The V8 Reviewed, Specs and What It Is Really Like

For six years Mercedes-AMG put its hand-assembled 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 into a family SUV, and the GLC 63 S was the result: a school-run car that gets to 100km/h in under four seconds and sounds like the C63 while doing it. The car that replaced it in 2024 is a four-cylinder hybrid, which is why this page is specifically about the V8 generation. It is confirmed by request, so send your dates and you will hear plainly whether one can be found for them.

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Specifications

The year range on that table is the important line. It brackets the only period in which
this car had a V8, and it is the reason the page exists. What came after is a different
engine, a different sound and a different argument, and it is covered further down so nobody
books one expecting the other.

What It Is Actually Like in Sydney

The engine the replacement gave up

The GLC 63 S uses the same hand-assembled 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 as the C63 S, tuned to
375kW and 700Nm, and it behaves the same way: a deep, slightly uneven idle, a hard shove
from low revs, and a crackle on the overrun that echoes off the cutting walls on the Old
Pacific Highway. Sitting higher does not dilute any of that. If anything the contrast makes
it stranger, because the view out is of a family SUV and the noise is of something else
entirely.

From 2024 the car that wears this badge has a 2.0-litre four-cylinder with a plug-in
hybrid system, 500kW combined and none of the character described above. It is quicker on
a spreadsheet and quieter at every speed. This page is about the V8 because the V8 is what
people search for when they type this name, and because it will not be built again.

Inside, the later cars are the ones to ask for. The 2019 facelift brought the twin-screen
MBUX dashboard, the steering wheel with the drive-mode dial and the two small AMG buttons
under the thumbs, and revised lights front and rear. Earlier cars have the older dash with
the tablet-style screen and a rotary controller, which works fine and looks its age. The
seats are deep, heavily bolstered and heated, and there is nothing about the cabin that
feels like a compromise for the sake of the engine. It is a well-appointed mid-size
Mercedes that happens to be terrifyingly quick, and that ordinariness is a large part of
the appeal.

Quick everywhere, not only in a straight line

The 3.8-second sprint is the number people quote. The one that matters more is what the
car does at 60km/h in fourth gear when a gap opens, which is close everything down without
changing down at all. Seven hundred newton metres from just above idle means it never feels
like it is working. Merging across the M1, overtaking a truck on the Bells Line of Road,
pulling out of a side street into a stream of traffic: all of it happens with a squeeze of
the pedal rather than a plan.

In corners it is better than a two-tonne SUV has any right to be. The all-wheel drive
sends most of the torque rearward until the front needs it, the air suspension firms up in
its sportier modes, and it will carry real speed through a sequence with the body kept flat.
It is still tall and it still weighs what it weighs; the physics show up under hard braking
and in the way it leans on the outside front tyre if you push past sensible. Driven at eight
tenths it is genuinely enjoyable rather than merely fast.

SUV or coupe changes the car more than you would think

The SUV body has an upright tailgate, a big square boot and enough rear headroom for
adults on a long trip. The coupe has a sloping roof that costs it some of the boot, a
good deal of the rear headroom and most of the rear visibility, in exchange for looking
lower and more expensive at the kerb. Mechanically they are identical. For a weekend with
four people and luggage, the SUV is the sensible choice. For a couple who want the look, the
coupe is the obvious one. Say which you want when you send your dates and you will be told
which is possible.

Where it makes the most sense

A Blue Mountains day is the natural use: up the M4 without noticing the climb, across the
Bells Line of Road with the exhaust doing its thing in the cuttings, and back down through
the Hawkesbury with the seats ventilated and the boot full of whatever you bought. It is
also very good at the run north to the Central Coast and the Hunter, where the pace on the
motorway and the composure on the back roads both get used. The Royal National Park suits
it less, because the roads are tight, the surface is lumpy and a car this wide spends more
time being placed than being driven.

Things You Should Know

It rides firmly and it is not quiet inside

The air suspension is adjustable but even in Comfort it is tauter than any regular GLC,
and the wide tyres pick up coarse-chip surfaces and concrete motorway in a way that the
rest of the car's refinement does not hide. Passengers coming from a standard luxury SUV
will notice within a kilometre. It is not harsh; it is honest about being an AMG. If the
booking is mostly motorway with people in the back who value silence, the BMW X6 on this
page's cards is the quieter car at a fraction of the pace.

It is a family car, and the family part is real

Five proper seats, ISOFIX points in the back, a boot in the SUV that takes a pram and a
weekend of bags, and doors that open wide enough for a child seat to go in without an
argument. That combination is why this car exists and why it sells to people who would
never book a C63 S sedan. Nothing about the performance compromises the practicality. The
opposite is nearly true: the practicality makes the performance easy to justify to whoever
else is on the booking.

A realistic weekend load, to make it concrete: two adults, two children in seats, a
folded pram, two soft bags and an esky all go in the SUV with the parcel shelf still in
place. Swap the children for two more adults and the same luggage still fits, with the
rear passengers in genuine comfort for the two hours to the Hunter. The coupe manages the
same people and about two-thirds of the luggage. Neither will take a bicycle without the
seats down, which is a limitation worth knowing if the trip is that sort of trip.

Fuel, tyres and the temptation

It takes premium unleaded and uses it at a rate that a turbocharged four-cylinder SUV
would consider alarming, and more again driven the way the exhaust encourages. The tyres
are wide and expensive, and the front pair in particular wear quickly if the car is driven
hard into corners, because the weight is over them. Normal wear is included. A car returned
with the fronts scrubbed to the markers is not normal wear. Drive it properly, enjoy the
noise, and understand that a weekend of the kind of driving this car invites has a fuel bill
attached that the daily rate does not cover.

Who Books This Car

Families who want one car for the school run and the Sunday drive and refuse to accept
that those have to be different vehicles. Drivers who wanted the C63 S and then counted the
people coming. Anyone who understands what the V8 was and what replaced it, and wants the
original while it can still be found. People who like the idea of a car that looks
reasonable in a work car park and is anything but.

It is proposed from $650 a day, which places it just under the C63 S and comfortably above
the X6, and on outright pace it is the quickest SUV on this site by some distance. It is
confirmed by request: tell us your dates and the body style, we source the car, and you hear
a clear yes or no before anything is charged.

If it cannot be done for your dates, you will be told that plainly and offered the C63 S
or the X6 by name, with a straight explanation of which one is closer to what you wanted.

The shape of a good booking is short and specific. Two or three days, one proper drive
built in, and the rest of the time spent doing ordinary things in a car that makes them
feel less ordinary. Booked for a fortnight of commuting on the M5 it will still be quick and
still be comfortable enough, but the fuel bill will climb and the noise will wear, and there
are quieter ways to spend that money. Booked for a long weekend with the mountains on the
itinerary, it is very hard to beat at the price.