The previous Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG was not a compelling reason to switch your personal allegiances to the three-pointed star. Its steering was numb, the interior underwhelming, and last and maybe least, it was inefficient. Luckily for enthusiasts, a switch has flipped at AMG in recent years. AMG models are now more focused on the automaker's sporting mission than the luxurious musclecars of days past, and there's new holistic approach to design.

Recently, Mercedes flew a group of journalists from the freezing cold of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit to sunny 75-degree San Diego, California, to experience the 2012 CLS63 AMG. Not only is it a perfect location given the warm weather, beautiful scenery, and abundance of twisty roads, but California is the single largest market for AMG cars in the world. The United States takes 30 percent of all AMG cars produced, down from 50 percent pre-financial implosion. California makes up just over 40 percent of all U.S. sales.
While the 2012 CLS63 AMG isn't an entirely new car, you would be forgiven for thinking so. The engine and transmission are new; the front suspension is completely new; the silhouette is all that remains of the old sheetmetal; and even the interior is retrimmed. If Mercedes considers this a simple freshening, they are masters of the German art of understatement.

The engine, while new to the CLS63, has already been seen in the S63 and CL63. A clean sheet design for Mercedes, the 5.5-liter twin turbo direct-injection V-8 produces 525-horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque in standard trim. If the customer checks the optional performance package box, boost is increased from 14.5 pounds per square inch to 18.9 pounds per square inch, which bumps the numbers to 557 horsepower and a staggering 590 pound-feet of torque. The numbers are impressive on paper, but so is the way the engine delivers those numbers. The engine simply has power everywhere, all the time. There is no lag and there are no flat spots in the torque curve, just immediate acceleration all the time.