The seven-speed transmission can coast automatically in neutral to save fuel, and is smart enough to momentarily ‘lift’ the throttle even when your foot is buried to the floorboard. Paddle shifters behind the steering wheel can automatically rev match upon downshifts for smoother trail braking when you’re going into corners hot. There’s even a near autonomous automatic parking system that will spin the steering wheel for you to help you parallel park or back into a tight space at the mall, all without touching the steering wheel or your brakes, the latter of which was the toughest to trust in a few test parks in a nearby mall parking lot.

Safety-wise, the C-Class brings a host of technologies from its larger and pricier Benz siblings. This includes Collision Prevention Assist Plus, which will warn the driver with first visual and then audible warnings about a dangerous approach speed to the vehicle ahead, and then either boost the driver’s brake pressure if it’s not deemed strong enough or autonomously brake the vehicle to the point where it’ll avoid or mitigate the collision.

Mercedes-Benz hasn’t confirmed Canadian pricing on either C 63 yet, but with main rival BMW at $74,000 for a base M3, plus the ’14 C 63 AMG starting in the mid-$60K range before options, 2015 starting prices closer to $70k and $75k for the C 63 and C 63 S respectively seem a fair bet.

Competitors:
Audi S4
BMW M3
Cadillac ATS-V
Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge
Lexus RC F
Volvo S60 Polestar

For that price, roughly, you’re receiving the king of power in this hugely powerful class, with all the practicality of a regular C-Class and its family-friendly 40/20/40 split-folding seats and sizable trunk. Perhaps most amazingly, if its overall combined fuel efficiency average of 8.2 L/100 km on the optimistic European ratings scale holds up, the more powerful twin-turbo V8 C 63 S is still amazingly rated as more efficient than the single turbo six in the latest M3, which achieves a low of 8.3 on the same scale.

And in this business, there aren’t many power kings that don’t drink heavily.

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