A good friend just picked up a CLS 63 with 030 Performance package.

The steering wheel is very nice, 030 package gives you a nice half leather
half Alcantara wheel, the paddle shifters are definitely nice, very firm and solid when shifting. First impression on the power, it doesn't have immediate throw back like the 55, when I got on it I was waiting for it to move, it eventually did, but not like the 55. The car only had 25 miles so I didn't want to abuse it, took it to 7K once and it did feel smooth. 7 speed tranny was nice, definitely an improvement over the 5 speed. Brakes on the 030 were very touchy, I did feel a slight improvement over the non 030. All in all a nice change, but I do prefer my 55 over it. I think for the 55 owners to upgrade would take some TT's on 63 to make the change.

 

Why do you think MB didn't put new wheels on the CLS? The E63 wheels would look great on that car, although those 030 wheels look pretty good as well.

 

Does the steering feedback seem improved? One of my dislikes of MB so far.

 

Yeah I heard the steering wheel is not so precise and gives poor feedback...let us know!

 

I think because the 55 wheels are still new, only a year old, where the E55 wheels are dated and need a change.

Not really, felt the same to me, when I was in Europe I played with the suspension settings a lot, I felt a big difference when I set the suspension to Sport mode cornering at higher speeds like 80-100MPH range, give that a try.

 

i drove both recently and prefer the 63 over the 55. torque is nice, but ultimately it's about power and the 63 is faster and throttle response and smooth deliver is just better for my driving needs which shouldn't be too diff from any other street car enthusiast guy.

and the fact that the engine is all built by AMG, v. a regular mb engine tweaked by amg... that counts in my book as well.