– Detroit, Michigan

Getting to drive the Mercedes-AMG E63 S on a race track in Europe was an incredible experience. But as I don’t live next door to a race track, the E63 can feel like a little too much power for everyday driving. That’s where the Mercedes-AMG E43 comes into play.

The AMG “43” range provides a nice in-between level of performance that builds on standard Mercedes cars without going to the extreme track-ready power of hotter models wearing 63 or 65 suffixes. In the case of the E-Class sedan, that means you get 396 horsepower and 384 pound-feet of torque – more than the base E300 but less intense than the 603-hp top-dog E63.

Providing both luxury and sportiness, the Mercedes-AMG E43 is my favorite of the three current E-Class sedan models. But what’s it like to live with every day? We put the E43 through our Why Buy? test regime to find out.

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