2020 Mercedes-AMG GT C Roadster Road Test and Review

2020 Mercedes AMG GT Roadster ・ Photo by Nicole Wakelin

Mercedes-Benz is a luxury brand, and atop its lofty lineup is the 2020 Mercedes-AMG GT Roadster. While every Mercedes comes with a healthy dose of luxury features and performance capabilities, once you add the AMG badge to the mix, you’re breathing rarified air.

The lines of the Mercedes-AMG GT Roadster are sleek and bold. It has style that turns heads whether you’re sitting at a stoplight or effortlessly accelerating up to highway speeds. The interior looks and feels like a luxury car with quilted leather upholstery, a cockpit-like design, and supportive, comfortable seats. Finally, there’s what’s under the hood. The powerful V8 engine delivers a responsive driving experience with crisp handling that begs for some time at the local track. Let’s take a closer look at the 2020 Mercedes-AMG GT Roadster to see if it’s the right luxury car for you.

Choice of Two Trim Levels

The 2020 Mercedes-AMG GT Roadster is available in two trim levels. There’s the base AMG GT Roadster with a 4.0-liter biturbo V8 engine that boasts 469 horsepower and 465 lb-ft of torque paired to a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, priced from $127,900. It includes power-adjustable performance seats with memory, dual-zone automatic climate control, and a 10.25-inch infotainment screen. There’s also a wide suite of standard safety features, including dual roll bars and active brake assist.

Next up is the AMG GT C, like our test car. It has the same engine, but with a boost to 550 horsepower and 502 lb-ft of torque. It adds ventilated seats, a performance steering wheel, blind-spot monitoring, lane-keeping assist, and a premium Burmester surround sound system, with pricing starting at $162,400. Both trims offer a luxury performance experience, but the GT C adds a significant amount of horsepower to the mix.

Photo by Nicole Wakelin

Don’t forget about the AMG GT R.

In addition to the GT and GT C, which are exclusive in their own rights, there’s the even more exclusive GT R. It sits on its own at the top of the lineup and is limited to only 750 units worldwide. This version of the GT Roadster is tailor-made for those who might be driving on the road some of the time but will absolutely be driving on the track as often as possible.

The 4.0-liter V8 in this model puts out 577 horsepower with 516 lb-ft of torque, offering the most aggressive ride of the lot. It has a 0-60 mph time of only 3.5 seconds and a host of performance features. These include a Race mode and Race Start function, a manually adjustable rear wing spoiler, nine-mode AMG traction control, and a lightweight titanium and steel AMG dynamic performance exhaust. Pricing for the GT R starts at $189,750.

Photo by Nicole Wakelin

Impressive Performance in Any Guise

Mercedes-Benz is a luxury brand, and atop its lofty lineup is the 2020 Mercedes-AMG GT Roadster. While every Mercedes comes with a healthy dose of luxury features and performance capabilities, once you add the AMG badge to the mix, you’re breathing rarified air.

The lines of the Mercedes-AMG GT Roadster are sleek and bold. It has style that turns heads whether you’re sitting at a stoplight or effortlessly accelerating up to highway speeds. The interior looks and feels like a luxury car with quilted leather upholstery, a cockpit-like design, and supportive, comfortable seats. Finally, there’s what’s under the hood. The powerful V8 engine delivers a responsive driving experience with crisp handling that begs for some time at the local track. Let’s take a closer look at the 2020 Mercedes-AMG GT Roadster to see if it’s the right luxury car for you.

Photo by Nicole Wakelin

Luxurious, Performance-Focused Interior

There’s no such thing as a bare-bones Mercedes-Benz. This is a luxury brand, so you get a luxury experience with every trim; it’s just a matter of how much luxury your need. In the AMG GT Roadster, the focus is twofold. Not only does it deliver in the luxury department, but it also delivers a performance-focused interior that ensures you’re able to take advantage of this roadster’s capabilities.

Seats are comfortable and supportive with good adjustability and heavy bolstering. This helps keep you in place on the corners but may be snug for wider frames. The seating position is extremely low, which makes it easy to sit back and relax, but which can prove challenging getting in and out of the vehicle. Those on the taller side will find this two-seater offers just enough legroom, but headroom is short. Of course, you can always drop the top and solve that problem.

Photo by Nicole Wakelin

Confident Handling but a Harsh Ride

The AMG GT Roadster tries to offer the best of both worlds. On the one hand, it’s a performance convertible with all the power, driving dynamics, and impressive handling one would expect from such a car. It corners effortlessly and responds to the slightest steering inputs. When it comes time to slow down, braking is smooth with no nosedive, even if you hit the brakes hard.

Where the sacrifice comes is in ride quality. Exactly what makes this great as a performance vehicle makes it harsh as a daily driver. Bumps and dips in the road are keenly felt by driver and passenger. Even slightly rough road surfaces, including pavement that’s pebbled rather than smooth asphalt, jostle occupants. It’s a bit of a tradeoff. Driving the AMG GT Roadster is exhilarating, but it’s not the kind of car you’d want to take on a longer trip.

Photo by Nicole Wakelin

Life With a Convertible

There are plenty of good reasons to get a convertible, even if you live where the weather isn’t sunny all year. If you do live someplace sunny, then lucky you, but for the rest of us, Mercedes makes it a bit easier with what it calls an Airscarf. This feature is standard on the AMG GT Roadster. At the press of a button, it sends warm air cascading over your shoulders. Think of it a bit like having air vents behind you instead of only the ones on the dashboard.

We took the AMG GT out on a brisk 30-degree morning and gave the Airscarf a test run. It provided just enough warm air to take the chill off and make it possible to drive with the top down. The Airscarf lets you enjoy a few extra days of top-down driving when the temperature isn’t quite up to summertime levels.

Photo by Nicole Wakelin

Standard Safety Features

There is a wide range of standard safety features packed into the AMG GT Roadster. These include active brake assist, attention assist, predictive brake priming, automatic brake drying, hill-start assist, brake hold, emergency-sensing brake assist, and front and rear cameras. There’s also standard Parktronic. This uses ultrasonic sensors in the front and rear bumpers to detect objects close to the car. It then issues both an audible and visual cue if things get close to help navigate tight spaces with ease.

Optional features include blind-spot monitoring and lane-keeping assist, which are standard features on the GT C. And since this is a convertible, there are dual roll bars. These are affixed just behind the headrests and offer protection in the event of a rollover. The windshield frame is also fortified to provide further protection.

Photo by Nicole Wakelin

Comprehensive Infotainment

Infotainment in the AMG GT Roadster features a 10.25-inch high-resolution display screen mounted high on the dashboard for easy viewing by both driver and passenger. There’s standard Apple CarPlay and Android Auto along with Bluetooth audio streaming and a six-month trial of SiriusXM. Audio includes a four-speaker system, but there is an optional 10-speaker Burmester surround sound system for audiophiles.

This infotainment system is not a touchscreen. It is instead controlled by a large rotary dial on the center console. Optional is a touchpad controller instead of the rotary dial. This lets you swipe through menus as you would on a smartphone or tablet screen and includes one-touch keys for commonly used functions. Touchpads can be a challenge, as the smallest bump in the road can have you accidentally selecting the wrong item on your screen. This touchpad is less finicky than most and easily becomes second nature.

Photo by Nicole Wakelin

Final Thoughts

The 2020 Mercedes-AMG GT Roadster is an aspirational car that delivers a true premium experience. A powerful engine combined with sharp handling makes it a true performance car, not just one that looks good on paper. The drawback to that performance focus is a ride that isn’t as smooth as something like a luxury sedan. But this is a performance roadster. It delivers an open-air experience that makes you long to get behind the wheel on a warm summer day, even if it’s not ideal for road trips.

The interior is beautiful and comfortable with trims that enhance its luxury appeal. Passersby who get a glimpse of what’s inside the car will be duly impressed. A wide range of standard safety and a fully featured infotainment system complete the package, while the stunning good looks of this roadster make it almost as fun to look at as it is to drive.

Photo by Nicole Wakelin