Mercedes ditches junior varsity subbrand; rolls out number 43
AMG Sport, a mild version of AMG with some of the flavor but lower tar, will be killed off by parent company Mercedes-Benz as it seeks to bring the same great taste to all the AMG models (and to remove lineup confusion by getting rid of a minor league version of its in-house tuner).
That's good news for current AMG Sport models, because going forth they will all be promoted to full AMG status without any effort on their part. They will also receive the number 43 for their jerseys for some reason, even though nothing in the lineup will have a 4.3-liter anything (badges that denote displacement are long gone, folks).
Thus, the C450 AMG Sport shall be known as Mercedes-AMG C43 (in the process summoning memories of the 1990s W202 C-Class ubersedan), while the GLE450 AMG Sport will become the Mercedes-AMG GLE43. Both of those models are powered by a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V6, but if Mercedes-Benz has found some way to round that up to 43 we suppose that's fine too.
The first model with the new name actually debuted this week at the Detroit auto show -- that'll be the 2017 Mercedes-AMG SLC43 -- and thankfully it uses the same engine as the two models cited above, so at least there's some consistency there. Get ready to see the number 43 on even more cars later in the year: Mercedes will stick that badge on the next-generation E-Class, knighting it E43.
Overall, this will make it easier for buyers to get into the exclusive AMG club. Perhaps too easy; AMG has arguably been losing exclusivity after increasing (and occasionally unconvincing) number of models started gaining AMG badges -- remember the R63 AMG, for instance?
Will Brabus, Carlsson and Kleemann become the tuners to aspire to among the Mercedes-Benz crowd? You might not be able to get most of their products in the States easily, unless you want to do most of the work yourself, but there's value in exclusivity.
If you equate tuning with more power rather than wild custom design elements, however AMG will remain the natural choice for most -- and buying AMG cars does not require being on the phone with someone in Germany for hours at a time. So we wouldn't count on Affalterbach losing its primacy any time soon.