Stealthy Business Line Exterior Package to be Offered for Euro-Spec 2014 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG

AMG's new Business Line exterior treatment will take this 2014 E63 AMG and make it look more like a plebeian E350. In America and Asia, car owners typically want to flaunt what they've got. It's a bit of a different story in Europe: The public is sensitive to inequality, and it's considered to be in poor taste to drive a vehicle that draws too much attention to itself. This explains the utter failure of traditional luxury cars on the Continent. (Sales of the BMW 7-series and the Mercedes S-class are a fraction of what they were decades ago.) It's more acceptable to arrive in a mid-size sedan, preferably without range- or lineup-topping badging. Affluent car owners don't just shun the luxury segment, they also prefer to keep their vehicle's performance under wraps, too. This mindset doesn't do any favors for Mercedes-Benz or its new E-class. Affalterbach's take on Benz's new mainstream sedan, the E63 AMG, is so aggressively styled that there is no way to mask its status at the top of the automotive food chain. This 550- or 577-hp monster can easily be distinguished from its less powerful siblings thanks to massive air intakes, darkened wheels, and enormous quad exhaust outlets. It's the antithesis of automotive modesty; in Europe, and particularly in Germany, this is precisely the sort of thing that's frowned upon. Comparison Test: 2013 Audi S6 vs. 2013 BMW M5, 2012 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG Instrumented Test: 2012 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG Wagon Short Take Road Test: 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG No doubt in an effort to protect the social fabric in Germany, AMG will provide a convenient solution to this predicament—a solution that does not involve a performance downgrade. Instead, we are told by AMG CEO Ola Källenius, the company soon will offer a Business Line option. This is a package that must be ordered through AMG's Performance Studio, bringing the styling of the E63 AMG—a prototype of which we've been taken for a ride in by Mercedes—in line with the more pedestrian level of a standard E-class and doing away with the quad exhaust. The option won't be offered in the U.S. as Källenius says the desire to tone down exterior appearances is an "almost exclusively German phenomenon." from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com

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