Video: 2016 Mercedes-Benz C450 AMG

Now visually the C450 looks pretty much like a C300 with the optional sport package. Best way to tell the two cars apart, the grill. One bar here on the 450, two bars on the 300. Around back, you've got splitters for the tailpipes. Those are just cosmetic, 'cause if you look through them, there's actually still just two tailpipes. Now, speaking of exhaust, you take the C450 driving modes. You dial them over to their sportiest settings, and the car does have kind of a blatting, hissing, popping exhaust noise, just as you get off the gas. Kind of a cool effect there. Performance also matches the noise here. I always thought the C400 was a little bit of a glorified version of the C300. Already, a pretty quick car but the C450 takes that performance envelope and just pushes it to another discernible level here. Now by the numbers Mercedes-Benz says a C450 does zero to 60 in 4.9 seconds. That's versus 5.2 seconds in the C400 but the visceral effect is actually pretty good. Pretty sudden here. There's very good throttle response, accelerated response from the get go and at speed. Lots of torque coming from the drive train and from 2000 RPM all the way up to red line. It just crests and has a nice flat torque. Be very easy to pass slower traffic and a nice smooth sort of revving crescendo. A really, really nice overall power band here. Seven speed automatic transmission, all wheel drive. Both of those are standard in the C450 AMG. The automatic transmission, pretty quick to downshift. Kicks you down two, three gears at once. Whenever you need holds lower gears, very nicely. Doesn't up shift too soon. All wheel drive does keep the car a little more planted than some performance enthusiasts may want. It's not really a kind of drift master of a car but you can kind of work the tail out a little bit on some lift throttle applications as you kind of work it through mid-corner. Ride quality, an adaptive suspension is standard here in the C450 and certainly firmer than in the C300's that we have driven. Still pretty good in terms of isolation that you can, you can feel the car firm up as you dial it over to explore your modes. And there still is a lot of body motion at lower speeds. When you get over rapid elevation changes. Things like ruts in the road, manhole covers. That just comes from the fact that overall the C class, though a pretty comfortable car is still a smaller car. So not a terribly long wheelbase to kind of deal with some of that stuff. And inside the C450, still being a C class has the same excellent cabin materials that helped the redesigned car earn Cars.com's best of 2015 award. Reliability for this generation hasn't been so great out the gate but this C450 should still increase the car's overall appeal being sort of an AMG light version that seems more AMG than not. (upbeat music) (trunk slamming)