"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi welcome back to the channel where you join me and my friend and colleague james disdale as we set to answer a very simple question right so when we sometimes ask readers and viewers what their ideal garage is there's a car that comes up time and time again as the number one choice of daily runabout and that is an audi rs6 event conveniently it's all new but james it's not the only new car here is it it's not no we've also got the porsche panamera turbo sc hybrid sport turismo and a mercedes e63 s amg estate the question is which is the one car to rule them all so we're gonna start in the audi rs6 james tell me about it well so this is the latest rs6 uh i think it's been around about nine months now now i mean audi arguably it's the fastest state car isn't it as our readers are identified with their their kind of their views on it it kind of set the template really um they've been what three or four rs-6s now and i don't think i'll be wide of the mark if i would say not all of them really lived up to the promise of their specifications this one isn't they're all really fast in a straight line good engines as a rule yeah yeah i think so but not always dynamically the most engaging things which is why we have two of the rs6's primary rivals with us today to see if this is still the benchmark card if this is the one you should have or not uh this one's been around for let's say about nine yep nine months yeah all new nine months ago there's a revised brand all singing or dancing brand spanking absolutely and i'd argue this one after lots of attempts this one actually hits the spot i mean it's still not the sharpest yeah but you can sort of grab it by the scruff of the neck and have a good time it's kind of dynamically it's actually quite quite good um which is partly because it's got four wheel steering as standard okay yeah all of them get that so it's kind of it feels much more agile than you'd think yeah i mean it's still a big old bus i mean we're breathing in now for that van because it's quite wide rs6s they're quick as we've said this one's no exception what uh so it's the four liter v8 so essentially it's the same one as we'll see in the porsche later okay so it's the same engine as panamera yeah but without the hybrid drive it has got a 48 volt mould hybrid system i think okay uh it is the weakling of the group so it's only got 591 brake horsepower um is the porsche's engine 591 plus hybrid or is the porsche engine detuned a bit from this uh it is i believe detuned a bit from this okay uh because it all adds up to 690 i think about oh okay it also means it's the slowest so it's only 3.6 to 60 so i know well yeah i mean that e63 we've got five three five yeah so you know where they go just think what you could do what could you do with that extra ten percent well if i save a tenth every time i tell right away from the lights and if i do that five times on the way to work five times a week second every day five days a week yeah for 50 weeks of the year that's five seconds a week so that's five seconds a week which is five twenty fives twenty fives fifty hundred and hundred fifty six hundred fifty seconds yeah two minutes a year gonna make two minutes a year mercedes saves you two minutes i could do several things twice in that time uh drink a cup of tea you mean yeah yeah so yeah it's not it's not it's not it's not a lie is it no no no it's um it's probably the most easy going as well so they all come on air springs all of our cars here air springs um you can get a dynamic pack with this which ditches the air springs and goes for a slightly lower stiffer setup but we're in comfort now and it's quite wafty isn't it yeah i don't know whether you'd want oh it depends where you live does it do you think you see whether you've got a stiffer setup i don't think it's not that sort of car is it it's a practical very fast estate car and we can put it in dynamic if we want which is quite fiddly is there too much on the touchscreen there is i don't know about you but this is there's a lot going on here i used to like audi's rotary mmi thing yeah it's better um and so that gives us a bit of a stiffer ride a bit more dust yeah exactly um and we've got sports exhaust so it sounds quite fruity we won't do it here because yeah there are lots of neighbors yeah this is 565 liters i think in the boot so it's it's somewhere like 100 liters less than the sorry put that back in yes you can put it back in comfort it's quite jarring isn't it it is but it is pretty firm isn't it it is pretty firm i think all right leave it with me i'll get that drive select yeah comfort there we go it's just nice that's much better yeah and you can do you can you can have an individual rs mode can't you so you can select i can just press an rs button here which is probably what you do isn't it you just pick two and leave it with them how's the steering because i often find with audis yeah sometimes a little bit light sometimes a little bit non-feedback and then say the tai can porsche and the audi rs etron gt yes malarkey you know same car same platform underneath but they've given them a different dynamic character the audi has that lightest sort of more remote steering what's this this is the same it's very fast partly due to that rear steer but it's um it's not very informative it's it's a tall basically yeah it changes the direction of the car if you want to go very quickly and not think about it too much that's it yeah now that's funny isn't it i correct me if i'm wrong if you want to go fast quite if you want to go fast if you want to make progress but not think about where you're going too much yeah does that define the fast audi in general it does it does it's just it does it i think it does it much better now because it's it's got quite a lot of uh composure you know it breathes with the surface now it's not pummeling it into submission yeah it's it's it's a tough one it's nice to drive quickly but it's not engaging you're not really having fun you're just thinking about getting picking apart the road as quickly as you can i mean the quattro drivetrain will do clever stuff that can send 85 percent of the torque to the back axle so you you can get a sort of rear end feel to it but it's i mean it's that kind of out of a first gear hairpin it might feel like the rear wants to come around the rest of the time it's very much an audi it's point get on the throttle and go and it's bloody effective then it's really easy to live with you can see why it is the car to go for for those high net worth individuals who've got barns full of exotic stuff that they can pull out on high days and holidays yeah the rest of the sorry i didn't see that 22s are standard are they they are yeah they've got their barn full of you know exotic stuff for holidays and holidays and the rest of the time they just want to get from a to b but they want something quick yeah beautifully built relatively subtle i mean it people who know what it is know what an rs6 is but the rest of the time it's just another given that all audi's are quite aggressive now yeah they're quite aggressive it's yet another in an audi yeah yeah oh look it's four inches from my air yeah my boat yeah what's the price so we're going to jump in the mercedes and then the porsche and see if this is still the definitive go-to big fast estate car while we get out of one and the other why don't you click subscribe and then you'll never miss one of our videos we've got uh nonsense like this we've got uh some drag races we've got other reviews single car reviews twin cars twin tests news motor shows we're sitting next to each other now so who knows we might be able to go to a motor show soon um and all that good stuff you'll never miss one and we'd really really very much appreciate it anyway so that's the rs6 mate uh this then is the mercedes amg e63 s yes estate yes it used to be mercedes benz 63 e63 amg didn't know but not anymore uh his face this was last summer or thereabouts yes and it got a new look grill a little bit more aero swishness yes panamera is it panameric karna ground yeah i think you're right yeah i think you're right and we've got a little interior makeover so it's got a new steering wheel with uh the source so not exactly haptic feedback they're they're kind of shiny plastic buttons and there's more on the touchscreen than there used to be do i mean there's it's now more more reach all the way over there still got four liter v8 yeah hot in the v hot the bees are hot p turbos yeah and that's 603 brake horsepower the s4 and because the uk market doesn't like slow crap cars we don't get the non-s version which is only got five something well i mean you don't get out of bed for that yeah exactly not at all 603 or nothing i say yeah exactly when we rotated this car the first time which would have been oh i don't know 16 17 2017 i think yeah uh the road testers the road test department reckoned that perhaps the low speed ride was a bit firm so they made a few changes slightly i did i did do them talk to them about this last year they did make some changes to the suspension not loads but it did it has eased the low speed right we're in comfort now a bit oh no we're not in comfort we're in sport well i'm yes well at the moment yes my dampers are in sport ah this is the sore car isn't it now i'm now i'm in comfort now the car now the dampers are back in comfort with moderate engine but now you can feel it it's much more compliant yeah it's actually to be fair there is quite there is quite expensive do you think there is too much going on in an amg in terms of dynamic things to control yes not only is there too many choices yeah they're repeated everywhere so you can do it on your steering wheel there currently you've got two rotary dials and i can even change what some of them do so this at the moment the bottom runs down to do the exhaust yeah and make it angrier but if it but i don't have to make it i can put it in something else i can i can make it i can make that button do something else yeah and then you can do it all again on this center console yeah so you've got gear boxy dampers esp modes and i can do it up there yeah it's by the time you've worked out i mean yes you can hop here can't you i guess there's a lot you can do a shortcut key well you can go to an individual mode for your preferred mode and i think you probably would i reckon you drive it in comfort or your own mode yeah and that's unless you went on track in which cause you've set it up because by the time you've tried to set it up for a road you're approaching it's too late you're on that road i mean you're halfway down that road i would i would rather it gave me fewer options and the engineers spent a bit more time just going yeah we like this one that's the best mode for you that's all right notwithstanding the fact that of course in germany the roads are a bit different over here and therefore if you set it up for german roads only it may be too stiff for uk roads which is perhaps our problem with it that's true last time around but i don't know i ride handling engineers are better than me deciding what's best that's true because that's what they do for it i'd stick in comfort i think yeah i think you have to be driving quite um enthusiastically yeah before any lack of body control becomes apparent and it's doing i mean these aren't these are bumpy but reasonably surface roads and it's it's not bad is it no it's fine it's fine and i'm you know i'm picking holes slightly because i like this car a lot it's big but it's big with a purpose it's got the biggest boot it has the biggest boot here nine speed gearbox oh it does sound pretty good doesn't it it does it goes quite well it does yeah did it used to be louder than this it did yeah i think the gpf the petrol particular no i like it and actually it kind of suits the super saloon that it's you know booting away up the front yeah yeah right so how do i get if i want that to control the gearbox now it's amg dynamics now it's ear c off now it's doing the dampers now it's doing the drive mode so now press that now i've got manual control uh of said gears but it's it's not there's not an obvious but it's just stuck down the bottom of the dash m3 yeah telling me i should have fourth that is a kind of given its performance brief and i don't know about you i quite like driving in manual mode because the paddles are quite nice and the engine likes to be exploited that way yeah i'd like a more clear indication of what gear i'm in yeah i would because there's so many of them yeah and left to its own devices it doesn't always choose the right one so it's better it's better to do it no i mean but sorry i was going to say there is an argument that it's got so much torque that it sort of doesn't matter which gear it is that's true yeah i mean it's we're at 50 miles an hour will it take ninth it won't even take nine that's from like 1200 revs yeah that's 50 to 60 i don't know if you timely you'd say that's quite a long time but you know there's decent urge to move along but all of that notwithstanding i like how comfortable it is i like the character out engine i like the dynamic handling balance it's four wheel drive but it's predominantly rear drive and it pushes a bit to the front when it thinks you need it unless you put it in rear drive only mode oh yeah which we will not do on the road for drifting purposes because if you film yourself drifting on the road by and large this is a really engaging entertaining it's duality of purpose sorted car it's quite comfortable most of the time and it's really angry and shouty and it's big it's it's been it's an estate car and it's big the state car should be big and it's got i mean it's not it's not just the biggest boot it's like 100 liters bigger than the other two yeah it's a proper big boot it's a proper bigger state yeah lots of space for people and stuff yeah i mean it is ah am i gonna use that phrase it's all the car you could ever need you are gonna use that problem yeah however is it more than all the car you would get from the porsche panamera whose full name you will describe in a moment yes let's go into that and find out well so that was the e63 and this is the porsche panamera turbo s e hybrid just hybrid turbo s hybrid a turbo s e e hybrid e because it's not a and sport turismo dogs what's wrong porsche panamera sport turismo turbo seo and it's not just a hybrid it's an e-hybrid because it's like pluggable rather than mild yes or series or whatever that's not probably what's the electric range of this car uh 37 miles i think about that yeah 30 something do you reckon you'd get that no no i reckon there's probably 30 out of push and if you have extinguished the electric range yes plugged it in overnight and you've done your 30 miles on the way to work yep what do you get then then you get a four liter twin turbo which is you know very environmental stuff yeah of course uh and that is effectively the same one that's in the rs6 okay but it's got a little less horsepower so the electric motor is 134 horsepower uh the total system output is 690 horsepower so the petrol motor is the difference between the two it's different or metal possibly not the exact difference between two it is in this case oh is it yes yes that's interesting now uh the reason they're not always the same saturn so it's not always as simple as adding them together is because the peak power of the motor and the peak power of the engine don't always necessarily arrive at the same time no well the merc i know weighed just under two tons yes because it is um ice only yeah my size only and the rs4 similar-ish about 1900 1900 do you know what this is this is two point one on a bit tons i think okay so a bit more not light no but if you were gonna trust anybody to make a two point x ton car ride and handle uh which companies would you trust most to do them uh i think porsche yeah and maybe porsche yeah i think that's fair i and i think well i was listening to a podcast the other day um that had a ride and handling it an an independent ride in a handling engineer and he said that he thought uh porsche went to the lengths that probably nobody else quite does to do that sort of to do that sort of thing i think you're right i think they make a car that handles and rides and is also it's tremendously performantly it hasn't done it suits everybody you know it's easy to drive and yet it's also rewarding to drive when you yeah when you get off it this this has that 50-yard thing that we talked about earlier maybe not on camera about you getting it and immediately the steering rate response and the weight just feels spot on you know what you're gonna get in those first yards you know that if you don't go much faster everything is going to be proportionately the same as the speed rises you know exactly what you're getting it's probably dynamically in terms of the chassis it's probably the best here in the bandwidth of what it can do so we're in electric comfort now um it's not as smooth as the audio i don't think it's kind of picking up in terms of ride comfort yeah it's just a bit battery and yeah um yeah i would i would give her but it's not bad i mean i drove it down here on the motorway and the road raw is diabolical it is a loud car isn't it yeah so it's not it's not the most relaxing in that sense but you know when you then put it in sport plus and the four liter v8 comes in and then you you go yeah it's quite quick that's it it's very wideningly fast it is and it's a big old bus and they say it'll do more than 60 point two seconds which given how heavy it is is nuts but yeah you just flick it through a corner like that so it's got rear wheel steer like the audi the way it controls its mass is frankly ludicrous do you have active anti-rollbars uh i believe this one has yeah this one's got that so david poop was saying that uh when you get an suv because because the rock because the center of gravity is quite high yeah you you want to contain the role so you put quite big anti-roll bars on it but by the time you've done that you end up with effectively suspension that's no longer independent and of course you get different this is the inputs are not the same both sides so you end up with unindependent suspension so you end up with a ride that's really stiff the nice thing about evs is that because the center of gravity is so low even though they're heavy and the central gravity in this would be quite low you would think so even though it's heavy you don't necessarily have to have massive anti-roll bars because actually that won't have that much roll tendency anyway because the cfg certainly which i and he thinks people ev manufacturers are still catching up with that idea so the thai can rides better than this even though it's a heavier car than this solely on the basis that because the center of gravity is so much lower the anti-roll bars will be less stiff than this okay yeah which i think yeah which makes yeah so the tie can is a nicer riding car this i think this this is too i wouldn't say it's too stiff no but given it's a luxury high performance station it's got quite a few flaws is the wrong word quirks that perhaps you wouldn't expect for a car that has to mosey as much as it has to be driven by a lunatic and i wonder if it is a product of where it's developed as well but german roads being better than british roads particularly yeah better than quite a lot of the world's roads actually so if you're thinking about buying a panamera do bear in mind it works best on smooth uh road so if you live somewhere with terrible twisty roads it might not be as supple and engaging as well i don't know they're all i mean they're all german aren't they that's the thing yeah definitely feels the most supple yes ladies are somewhere in the middle this one the same thing none of them are uncomfortable no we're sort of thinking about me really yeah to be fair they're all really but then here you know that is for better or worse uh but we get people yeah nobody get paid very much for it that helps but yeah that's in this part of the gig isn't it and it's i don't like that part of gig because i like the engineers who make these cars and i like all of these cars yeah but um you've got to no i can't do it i can't will you know what they say that's my career yeah if you can't write about it it's a strange fish this car really it it's like it can't quite decide what it wants to be sports car hybrid estate car but it's not quite as big as the others i mean it's big in the back isn't it yeah and i don't know the big spot five was this five 500 liters yeah so i mean it's not right how often do you see an estate car packed as tightly as it will go not that you know taking the kids to uni that's about it isn't it anytime you see one of these with the rafters and i'm not sure if you own a porsche panamera turbo sc hybrid sport turismo you're going to be going camping you you probably afford a nice hotel well i don't know people they put the proof box on don't they go down to ski i suppose yeah yeah yeah but i would like but i'll tell you point i think if you if you if you were after the ultimate space vehicle you know maybe maybe none of these is is i i suspect porsche have problems with the kn because the sort of people that might buy this would buy okay instead yeah it's interesting i mean i'd rather have one of these because it's lower and therefore a better handling and be more efficient and it does it drives really nicely as i say it's probably it's probably the the sharpest the neatest when you're really going at it as the kids might not say so all right and so be so you're writing this testing magazine which is available in all good news agents um every wednesday and there is a digital online edition you can find it at allscott.com and it is supplemented with other things such as the podcast that we do now and again such as this video channel which you can like and uh if you subscribe to it very grateful and all of the other activities all the other initiatives the things that autocar has been doing since 1895 and that full archive will be available digitally very soon as well at uh the motoringarchive.com okay so let's knuckle down to the final point of it this is the nicest car of three to drive in a sporty sporty manner it's the most oh that's a tough question it's the most accomplished does that make it changes your choice this test is about faster state cars the mercedes is the best estate car uh it's also very fast yes it's not as accomplished technically as this but i think it's the way it's more engaging you have to work a bit harder at it don't you because it's not it's not as low audi i really like the audi is the everyday one like i say if you've got a garage full of lots of other stuff and you just want to get about really quickly and semi-discreetly you go for the audi this i think because it's a hybrid maybe you have to strip the hybrid part out but it is a hybrid and i think that will appeal to some people and if you do i get that if you if you if you want one of these cars and for the most most part of the year you don't want to burn any fuel when you're doing your normal daily commute yeah it costs you have one of these because there's no list price is what 40 grand more than the other two but if you're a if you're putting on your fleet yeah that'll pay dividends but it's i can't help feeling they do a non-hybrid one that you probably feel like you might want instead wouldn't you than this yeah because it's lighter and therefore yeah probably nicer to drive yeah oh that's interesting oh i think that's going to change the the nuance of the verdict i was looking for me because yeah because yes maybe that would be nicer to drive and therefore that would swing this test yeah in its favor however i'm sort of detecting that that in a two or three word answer which would you which one would you have i think it's the mercedes that is this is like i say this is a test about really quick entertaining fast estate cars and it is it does it its compromise of all those ingredients is the best yeah i am inclined to agree i think the e-class is a great estate car anyway the e-class wagon is a really good big estate car and if you want the first one the e63 is the is the way to do it i'll tell you point if you were gonna if you if you want to plug it in and you want to moot around without burning fuel for quite a lot of the time you'd buy you'd buy this but i i'm i'm with you i think the best fastest state you can buy is a mercedes amg e63 s is that verdict that's a verdict come on we are in uh we are in agreement if you're not an agreement drop a or even if you are drop a comment below and um tell us we don't know what we're talking about i think we do i think we do i think that's good i think the e63 is a good car i think it's a really good car they're all good cars i like them all the answer as ever is buy the one you want because that's the one you'll want really they're all really capable they're all really sophisticated they're all really good but i think in terms of the sort of blend of estate in us plus engagement mercedes e-services is the way to go yeah so yes there we are we have a verdict brilliant if you disagree or even if you do agree drop a comment down below we'll see you there and we'll see you here next time on the autocar youtube or join us on our other channels thanks very much for watching till then youhi welcome back to the channel where you join me and my friend and colleague james disdale as we set to answer a very simple question right so when we sometimes ask readers and viewers what their ideal garage is there's a car that comes up time and time again as the number one choice of daily runabout and that is an audi rs6 event conveniently it's all new but james it's not the only new car here is it it's not no we've also got the porsche panamera turbo sc hybrid sport turismo and a mercedes e63 s amg estate the question is which is the one car to rule them all so we're gonna start in the audi rs6 james tell me about it well so this is the latest rs6 uh i think it's been around about nine months now now i mean audi arguably it's the fastest state car isn't it as our readers are identified with their their kind of their views on it it kind of set the template really um they've been what three or four rs-6s now and i don't think i'll be wide of the mark if i would say not all of them really lived up to the promise of their specifications this one isn't they're all really fast in a straight line good engines as a rule yeah yeah i think so but not always dynamically the most engaging things which is why we have two of the rs6's primary rivals with us today to see if this is still the benchmark card if this is the one you should have or not uh this one's been around for let's say about nine yep nine months yeah all new nine months ago there's a revised brand all singing or dancing brand spanking absolutely and i'd argue this one after lots of attempts this one actually hits the spot i mean it's still not the sharpest yeah but you can sort of grab it by the scruff of the neck and have a good time it's kind of dynamically it's actually quite quite good um which is partly because it's got four wheel steering as standard okay yeah all of them get that so it's kind of it feels much more agile than you'd think yeah i mean it's still a big old bus i mean we're breathing in now for that van because it's quite wide rs6s they're quick as we've said this one's no exception what uh so it's the four liter v8 so essentially it's the same one as we'll see in the porsche later okay so it's the same engine as panamera yeah but without the hybrid drive it has got a 48 volt mould hybrid system i think okay uh it is the weakling of the group so it's only got 591 brake horsepower um is the porsche's engine 591 plus hybrid or is the porsche engine detuned a bit from this uh it is i believe detuned a bit from this okay uh because it all adds up to 690 i think about oh okay it also means it's the slowest so it's only 3.6 to 60 so i know well yeah i mean that e63 we've got five three five yeah so you know where they go just think what you could do what could you do with that extra ten percent well if i save a tenth every time i tell right away from the lights and if i do that five times on the way to work five times a week second every day five days a week yeah for 50 weeks of the year that's five seconds a week so that's five seconds a week which is five twenty fives twenty fives fifty hundred and hundred fifty six hundred fifty seconds yeah two minutes a year gonna make two minutes a year mercedes saves you two minutes i could do several things twice in that time uh drink a cup of tea you mean yeah yeah so yeah it's not it's not it's not it's not a lie is it no no no it's um it's probably the most easy going as well so they all come on air springs all of our cars here air springs um you can get a dynamic pack with this which ditches the air springs and goes for a slightly lower stiffer setup but we're in comfort now and it's quite wafty isn't it yeah i don't know whether you'd want oh it depends where you live does it do you think you see whether you've got a stiffer setup i don't think it's not that sort of car is it it's a practical very fast estate car and we can put it in dynamic if we want which is quite fiddly is there too much on the touchscreen there is i don't know about you but this is there's a lot going on here i used to like audi's rotary mmi thing yeah it's better um and so that gives us a bit of a stiffer ride a bit more dust yeah exactly um and we've got sports exhaust so it sounds quite fruity we won't do it here because yeah there are lots of neighbors yeah this is 565 liters i think in the boot so it's it's somewhere like 100 liters less than the sorry put that back in yes you can put it back in comfort it's quite jarring isn't it it is but it is pretty firm isn't it it is pretty firm i think all right leave it with me i'll get that drive select yeah comfort there we go it's just nice that's much better yeah and you can do you can you can have an individual rs mode can't you so you can select i can just press an rs button here which is probably what you do isn't it you just pick two and leave it with them how's the steering because i often find with audis yeah sometimes a little bit light sometimes a little bit non-feedback and then say the tai can porsche and the audi rs etron gt yes malarkey you know same car same platform underneath but they've given them a different dynamic character the audi has that lightest sort of more remote steering what's this this is the same it's very fast partly due to that rear steer but it's um it's not very informative it's it's a tall basically yeah it changes the direction of the car if you want to go very quickly and not think about it too much that's it yeah now that's funny isn't it i correct me if i'm wrong if you want to go fast quite if you want to go fast if you want to make progress but not think about where you're going too much yeah does that define the fast audi in general it does it does it's just it does it i think it does it much better now because it's it's got quite a lot of uh composure you know it breathes with the surface now it's not pummeling it into submission yeah it's it's it's a tough one it's nice to drive quickly but it's not engaging you're not really having fun you're just thinking about getting picking apart the road as quickly as you can i mean the quattro drivetrain will do clever stuff that can send 85 percent of the torque to the back axle so you you can get a sort of rear end feel to it but it's i mean it's that kind of out of a first gear hairpin it might feel like the rear wants to come around the rest of the time it's very much an audi it's point get on the throttle and go and it's bloody effective then it's really easy to live with you can see why it is the car to go for for those high net worth individuals who've got barns full of exotic stuff that they can pull out on high days and holidays yeah the rest of the sorry i didn't see that 22s are standard are they they are yeah they've got their barn full of you know exotic stuff for holidays and holidays and the rest of the time they just want to get from a to b but they want something quick yeah beautifully built relatively subtle i mean it people who know what it is know what an rs6 is but the rest of the time it's just another given that all audi's are quite aggressive now yeah they're quite aggressive it's yet another in an audi yeah yeah oh look it's four inches from my air yeah my boat yeah what's the price so we're going to jump in the mercedes and then the porsche and see if this is still the definitive go-to big fast estate car while we get out of one and the other why don't you click subscribe and then you'll never miss one of our videos we've got uh nonsense like this we've got uh some drag races we've got other reviews single car reviews twin cars twin tests news motor shows we're sitting next to each other now so who knows we might be able to go to a motor show soon um and all that good stuff you'll never miss one and we'd really really very much appreciate it anyway so that's the rs6 mate uh this then is the mercedes amg e63 s yes estate yes it used to be mercedes benz 63 e63 amg didn't know but not anymore uh his face this was last summer or thereabouts yes and it got a new look grill a little bit more aero swishness yes panamera is it panameric karna ground yeah i think you're right yeah i think you're right and we've got a little interior makeover so it's got a new steering wheel with uh the source so not exactly haptic feedback they're they're kind of shiny plastic buttons and there's more on the touchscreen than there used to be do i mean there's it's now more more reach all the way over there still got four liter v8 yeah hot in the v hot the bees are hot p turbos yeah and that's 603 brake horsepower the s4 and because the uk market doesn't like slow crap cars we don't get the non-s version which is only got five something well i mean you don't get out of bed for that yeah exactly not at all 603 or nothing i say yeah exactly when we rotated this car the first time which would have been oh i don't know 16 17 2017 i think yeah uh the road testers the road test department reckoned that perhaps the low speed ride was a bit firm so they made a few changes slightly i did i did do them talk to them about this last year they did make some changes to the suspension not loads but it did it has eased the low speed right we're in comfort now a bit oh no we're not in comfort we're in sport well i'm yes well at the moment yes my dampers are in sport ah this is the sore car isn't it now i'm now i'm in comfort now the car now the dampers are back in comfort with moderate engine but now you can feel it it's much more compliant yeah it's actually to be fair there is quite there is quite expensive do you think there is too much going on in an amg in terms of dynamic things to control yes not only is there too many choices yeah they're repeated everywhere so you can do it on your steering wheel there currently you've got two rotary dials and i can even change what some of them do so this at the moment the bottom runs down to do the exhaust yeah and make it angrier but if it but i don't have to make it i can put it in something else i can i can make it i can make that button do something else yeah and then you can do it all again on this center console yeah so you've got gear boxy dampers esp modes and i can do it up there yeah it's by the time you've worked out i mean yes you can hop here can't you i guess there's a lot you can do a shortcut key well you can go to an individual mode for your preferred mode and i think you probably would i reckon you drive it in comfort or your own mode yeah and that's unless you went on track in which cause you've set it up because by the time you've tried to set it up for a road you're approaching it's too late you're on that road i mean you're halfway down that road i would i would rather it gave me fewer options and the engineers spent a bit more time just going yeah we like this one that's the best mode for you that's all right notwithstanding the fact that of course in germany the roads are a bit different over here and therefore if you set it up for german roads only it may be too stiff for uk roads which is perhaps our problem with it that's true last time around but i don't know i ride handling engineers are better than me deciding what's best that's true because that's what they do for it i'd stick in comfort i think yeah i think you have to be driving quite um enthusiastically yeah before any lack of body control becomes apparent and it's doing i mean these aren't these are bumpy but reasonably surface roads and it's it's not bad is it no it's fine it's fine and i'm you know i'm picking holes slightly because i like this car a lot it's big but it's big with a purpose it's got the biggest boot it has the biggest boot here nine speed gearbox oh it does sound pretty good doesn't it it does it goes quite well it does yeah did it used to be louder than this it did yeah i think the gpf the petrol particular no i like it and actually it kind of suits the super saloon that it's you know booting away up the front yeah yeah right so how do i get if i want that to control the gearbox now it's amg dynamics now it's ear c off now it's doing the dampers now it's doing the drive mode so now press that now i've got manual control uh of said gears but it's it's not there's not an obvious but it's just stuck down the bottom of the dash m3 yeah telling me i should have fourth that is a kind of given its performance brief and i don't know about you i quite like driving in manual mode because the paddles are quite nice and the engine likes to be exploited that way yeah i'd like a more clear indication of what gear i'm in yeah i would because there's so many of them yeah and left to its own devices it doesn't always choose the right one so it's better it's better to do it no i mean but sorry i was going to say there is an argument that it's got so much torque that it sort of doesn't matter which gear it is that's true yeah i mean it's we're at 50 miles an hour will it take ninth it won't even take nine that's from like 1200 revs yeah that's 50 to 60 i don't know if you timely you'd say that's quite a long time but you know there's decent urge to move along but all of that notwithstanding i like how comfortable it is i like the character out engine i like the dynamic handling balance it's four wheel drive but it's predominantly rear drive and it pushes a bit to the front when it thinks you need it unless you put it in rear drive only mode oh yeah which we will not do on the road for drifting purposes because if you film yourself drifting on the road by and large this is a really engaging entertaining it's duality of purpose sorted car it's quite comfortable most of the time and it's really angry and shouty and it's big it's it's been it's an estate car and it's big the state car should be big and it's got i mean it's not it's not just the biggest boot it's like 100 liters bigger than the other two yeah it's a proper big boot it's a proper bigger state yeah lots of space for people and stuff yeah i mean it is ah am i gonna use that phrase it's all the car you could ever need you are gonna use that problem yeah however is it more than all the car you would get from the porsche panamera whose full name you will describe in a moment yes let's go into that and find out well so that was the e63 and this is the porsche panamera turbo s e hybrid just hybrid turbo s hybrid a turbo s e e hybrid e because it's not a and sport turismo dogs what's wrong porsche panamera sport turismo turbo seo and it's not just a hybrid it's an e-hybrid because it's like pluggable rather than mild yes or series or whatever that's not probably what's the electric range of this car uh 37 miles i think about that yeah 30 something do you reckon you'd get that no no i reckon there's probably 30 out of push and if you have extinguished the electric range yes plugged it in overnight and you've done your 30 miles on the way to work yep what do you get then then you get a four liter twin turbo which is you know very environmental stuff yeah of course uh and that is effectively the same one that's in the rs6 okay but it's got a little less horsepower so the electric motor is 134 horsepower uh the total system output is 690 horsepower so the petrol motor is the difference between the two it's different or metal possibly not the exact difference between two it is in this case oh is it yes yes that's interesting now uh the reason they're not always the same saturn so it's not always as simple as adding them together is because the peak power of the motor and the peak power of the engine don't always necessarily arrive at the same time no well the merc i know weighed just under two tons yes because it is um ice only yeah my size only and the rs4 similar-ish about 1900 1900 do you know what this is this is two point one on a bit tons i think okay so a bit more not light no but if you were gonna trust anybody to make a two point x ton car ride and handle uh which companies would you trust most to do them uh i think porsche yeah and maybe porsche yeah i think that's fair i and i think well i was listening to a podcast the other day um that had a ride and handling it an an independent ride in a handling engineer and he said that he thought uh porsche went to the lengths that probably nobody else quite does to do that sort of to do that sort of thing i think you're right i think they make a car that handles and rides and is also it's tremendously performantly it hasn't done it suits everybody you know it's easy to drive and yet it's also rewarding to drive when you yeah when you get off it this this has that 50-yard thing that we talked about earlier maybe not on camera about you getting it and immediately the steering rate response and the weight just feels spot on you know what you're gonna get in those first yards you know that if you don't go much faster everything is going to be proportionately the same as the speed rises you know exactly what you're getting it's probably dynamically in terms of the chassis it's probably the best here in the bandwidth of what it can do so we're in electric comfort now um it's not as smooth as the audio i don't think it's kind of picking up in terms of ride comfort yeah it's just a bit battery and yeah um yeah i would i would give her but it's not bad i mean i drove it down here on the motorway and the road raw is diabolical it is a loud car isn't it yeah so it's not it's not the most relaxing in that sense but you know when you then put it in sport plus and the four liter v8 comes in and then you you go yeah it's quite quick that's it it's very wideningly fast it is and it's a big old bus and they say it'll do more than 60 point two seconds which given how heavy it is is nuts but yeah you just flick it through a corner like that so it's got rear wheel steer like the audi the way it controls its mass is frankly ludicrous do you have active anti-rollbars uh i believe this one has yeah this one's got that so david poop was saying that uh when you get an suv because because the rock because the center of gravity is quite high yeah you you want to contain the role so you put quite big anti-roll bars on it but by the time you've done that you end up with effectively suspension that's no longer independent and of course you get different this is the inputs are not the same both sides so you end up with unindependent suspension so you end up with a ride that's really stiff the nice thing about evs is that because the center of gravity is so low even though they're heavy and the central gravity in this would be quite low you would think so even though it's heavy you don't necessarily have to have massive anti-roll bars because actually that won't have that much roll tendency anyway because the cfg certainly which i and he thinks people ev manufacturers are still catching up with that idea so the thai can rides better than this even though it's a heavier car than this solely on the basis that because the center of gravity is so much lower the anti-roll bars will be less stiff than this okay yeah which i think yeah which makes yeah so the tie can is a nicer riding car this i think this this is too i wouldn't say it's too stiff no but given it's a luxury high performance station it's got quite a few flaws is the wrong word quirks that perhaps you wouldn't expect for a car that has to mosey as much as it has to be driven by a lunatic and i wonder if it is a product of where it's developed as well but german roads being better than british roads particularly yeah better than quite a lot of the world's roads actually so if you're thinking about buying a panamera do bear in mind it works best on smooth uh road so if you live somewhere with terrible twisty roads it might not be as supple and engaging as well i don't know they're all i mean they're all german aren't they that's the thing yeah definitely feels the most supple yes ladies are somewhere in the middle this one the same thing none of them are uncomfortable no we're sort of thinking about me really yeah to be fair they're all really but then here you know that is for better or worse uh but we get people yeah nobody get paid very much for it that helps but yeah that's in this part of the gig isn't it and it's i don't like that part of gig because i like the engineers who make these cars and i like all of these cars yeah but um you've got to no i can't do it i can't will you know what they say that's my career yeah if you can't write about it it's a strange fish this car really it it's like it can't quite decide what it wants to be sports car hybrid estate car but it's not quite as big as the others i mean it's big in the back isn't it yeah and i don't know the big spot five was this five 500 liters yeah so i mean it's not right how often do you see an estate car packed as tightly as it will go not that you know taking the kids to uni that's about it isn't it anytime you see one of these with the rafters and i'm not sure if you own a porsche panamera turbo sc hybrid sport turismo you're going to be going camping you you probably afford a nice hotel well i don't know people they put the proof box on don't they go down to ski i suppose yeah yeah yeah but i would like but i'll tell you point i think if you if you if you were after the ultimate space vehicle you know maybe maybe none of these is is i i suspect porsche have problems with the kn because the sort of people that might buy this would buy okay instead yeah it's interesting i mean i'd rather have one of these because it's lower and therefore a better handling and be more efficient and it does it drives really nicely as i say it's probably it's probably the the sharpest the neatest when you're really going at it as the kids might not say so all right and so be so you're writing this testing magazine which is available in all good news agents um every wednesday and there is a digital online edition you can find it at allscott.com and it is supplemented with other things such as the podcast that we do now and again such as this video channel which you can like and uh if you subscribe to it very grateful and all of the other activities all the other initiatives the things that autocar has been doing since 1895 and that full archive will be available digitally very soon as well at uh the motoringarchive.com okay so let's knuckle down to the final point of it this is the nicest car of three to drive in a sporty sporty manner it's the most oh that's a tough question it's the most accomplished does that make it changes your choice this test is about faster state cars the mercedes is the best estate car uh it's also very fast yes it's not as accomplished technically as this but i think it's the way it's more engaging you have to work a bit harder at it don't you because it's not it's not as low audi i really like the audi is the everyday one like i say if you've got a garage full of lots of other stuff and you just want to get about really quickly and semi-discreetly you go for the audi this i think because it's a hybrid maybe you have to strip the hybrid part out but it is a hybrid and i think that will appeal to some people and if you do i get that if you if you if you want one of these cars and for the most most part of the year you don't want to burn any fuel when you're doing your normal daily commute yeah it costs you have one of these because there's no list price is what 40 grand more than the other two but if you're a if you're putting on your fleet yeah that'll pay dividends but it's i can't help feeling they do a non-hybrid one that you probably feel like you might want instead wouldn't you than this yeah because it's lighter and therefore yeah probably nicer to drive yeah oh that's interesting oh i think that's going to change the the nuance of the verdict i was looking for me because yeah because yes maybe that would be nicer to drive and therefore that would swing this test yeah in its favor however i'm sort of detecting that that in a two or three word answer which would you which one would you have i think it's the mercedes that is this is like i say this is a test about really quick entertaining fast estate cars and it is it does it its compromise of all those ingredients is the best yeah i am inclined to agree i think the e-class is a great estate car anyway the e-class wagon is a really good big estate car and if you want the first one the e63 is the is the way to do it i'll tell you point if you were gonna if you if you want to plug it in and you want to moot around without burning fuel for quite a lot of the time you'd buy you'd buy this but i i'm i'm with you i think the best fastest state you can buy is a mercedes amg e63 s is that verdict that's a verdict come on we are in uh we are in agreement if you're not an agreement drop a or even if you are drop a comment below and um tell us we don't know what we're talking about i think we do i think we do i think that's good i think the e63 is a good car i think it's a really good car they're all good cars i like them all the answer as ever is buy the one you want because that's the one you'll want really they're all really capable they're all really sophisticated they're all really good but i think in terms of the sort of blend of estate in us plus engagement mercedes e-services is the way to go yeah so yes there we are we have a verdict brilliant if you disagree or even if you do agree drop a comment down below we'll see you there and we'll see you here next time on the autocar youtube or join us on our other channels thanks very much for watching till then you\n"