Tested: 2023 Mercedes-AMG C43 Is a Little Undercooked

From the November 2023 issue of Car and Driver.

Medium-rare steak. Gooey-soft chocolate chip cookies. There are benefits to taking things off the heat before they’ve fully cooked. However, some items should absolutely not come out any earlier than they need to. This includes chicken, cake, and the 2023 Mercedes-AMG C43.

Returning from its hiatus, the C43 now inhabits the skin of the latest-generation C-class. The shrunken-down S-class looks suit it, and the cabin is more what you would expect from a Mercedes that’s no longer the entry-level model. The center tunnel sits a little high, but there’s plenty of usable storage space, and the interior rarely feels cramped. The materials above the center console are quite nice, although there’s plenty of hard plastic below that waterline.

The old C43’s six-cylinder is gone, and in its place is a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four that produces 402 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque. With all-wheel drive and a nine-speed automatic transmission, the new C43 is quick, ripping to 60 mph in just 3.9 seconds and passing the quarter-mile mark in 12.5 seconds at 111 mph. For the first time on a production car, an electric motor is integrated into the turbocharger, which should spool it up more quickly, resulting in better response. Still, it didn’t eliminate lag as much as we hoped (note the 5.0-second 5-to-60-mph time). A high-voltage hybrid system and powerful electric motor would do wonders, but you’d need a C63 for that.

Whereas the C43’s engine is mostly peachy, its transmission is more of a crab apple. The nine-speed kicks like a mule on random downshifts, regardless of drive mode, and other times, it will take upward of a second to call up a gear after a hefty press of the go pedal. It holds revs for weird amounts of time in Comfort and Sport, as if your passing maneuver signaled to the computer that it’s time to lap Watkins Glen. We wonder whether the engineers let ChatGPT do the final tune.

The stop-start system is also frustrating. During deceleration, it kills the engine at around 5 mph, and there’s an awkwardly long pause before it kicks back in. That’s fine at stop signs, but in stop-and-go traffic, it makes for even more uncomfortable bucking and hesitations between inputs and expected outputs, and that’s after pressing through the brake pedal’s dead zone.

The outgoing C43’s suspension had all the compliance of an I-beam, but things are better in 2023. Standard adaptive dampers are still a bit too stiff in Comfort, but the C43 at least attempts to be comfortable now, even with our test car’s optional 20-inch wheels and Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tires (245/35 front, 265/30 rear). The ride is appropriately firm in Sport and beyond, keeping things nice and orderly in corners. Rear-axle steering, up to 2.5 degrees, is standard, boosting agility in both chill and decidedly not-chill circumstances. The C43 is incapable of meeting a corner it can’t bend to its will.

At $61,050 to start and $68,820 as tested, the C43’s price isn’t the hardest pill to swallow, and even the base model comes with loads of standard equipment, including keyless entry, parking sensors, a surround-view camera system, and blind-spot monitoring. However, the C43 is no Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing, which bests the Merc not only in the quarter-mile and around the skidpad but, most important, in tactility when tearing down a favorite road. Plus, the Caddy’s V-6 sounds better, is better suited to daily driving, and has an optional manual transmission that doesn’t even exist in the Mercedes-verse. All you have to sacrifice is two driven wheels and a stylish interior. Granted, the new C43 makes gains in some areas, but this powertrain isn’t quite ready to be served.

Senior Editor

Cars are Andrew Krok’s jam, along with boysenberry. After graduating with a degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009, Andrew cut his teeth writing freelance magazine features, and now he has a decade of full-time review experience under his belt. A Chicagoan by birth, he has been a Detroit resident since 2015. Maybe one day he’ll do something about that half-finished engineering degree.