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Another AMG GT 4-Door Roast?
After much attention had been given to the Ferrari Luce, another critique video has been made about the Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door. Well, Ferrari can’t hog the spotlight for the most divisive design of 2026, and there have been a lot of contenders so far. Oh, what an age we live in. But this critique is a little different. This one comes from Davis Yongwon Lee, and he’s backed up by loads of credentials.
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Lee was an exterior designer for Mercedes-Benz for seven years. During his stint, he designed and contributed to several models, including the CLS and S-Class, and was behind the stunning Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6.
These days, Lee is doing well for himself as he has his own firm, Adro, specializing in aerodynamic enhancement and optimization. In other words, he knows what he’s talking about – and he was there.
A Top-Heavy Design
“It’s easy to say ‘oh, it looks ugly,’ but let’s break it down,” said Lee in the video. He did say that the car’s silhouette actually looks good, with a streamlined, aero look. The main problem of the car, according to him, is the graphics. He pointed out that the headlights are too high, and so is the hood. The grille is a tad on the large side, and the side intakes are, in his words, stretched too far.
As for the rear, Lee had much more to say about it. Turns out the AMG GT 4-Door drew inspiration from the 2015 Concept IAA. He called the resulting GT 4-Door ‘the worst case scenario,’ when it comes to turning a concept car into a production vehicle. It wasn’t even the ‘biohazard’ taillights he has a beef with here, but rather, the excessive use of black materials.
For him, the tail looks top-heavy, which runs counter to the fundamentals of designing a sporty vehicle. Of course, he understands there are production challenges, such as license plate placement, but there are ways to address them. Lee proceeded to do just that.
The Fix
Lee’s fix for the AMG GT 4-Door is to lower the front end and give it a sleeker set of headlights. He also adjusted the grille and made the corner air intakes more prominent. He did touch the sides as he already thought the profile looked good, but heavy work went into the rear.
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For that, he reduced the amount of black by giving it an even more coupe-like tailgate. He also tweaked the diffuser for a more athletic stance. You can watch the whole process in the video below, and with seemingly simple changes, it’s transformed into something far, far less polarizing. Dare we say it actually looks pretty?
An Insight
As a former Mercedes-Benz designer, Lee has some insight into what’s going on at the company’s studios. When Gordon Wagener took over as chief of design at Mercedes-Benz in 2009, he introduced a philosophy called Sensual Purity. The vehicles that first followed that ideology were the C-, E-, and S-Class in the 2010s, along with other models like the AMG GT.
However, as the years went by, Wagener stuck to the Sensual Purity ethos, while the board wanted something different. According to Lee, the designers had become fearful of coming up with something new because Wagener would likely have shut it down. The result was the ‘blobby’ era, as those in the design studio had to fulfill the board’s request while adhering to Sensual Purity.
The Future of Mercedes Design
Lee came to the defense of his former colleagues. He said that there are a lot of talented designers in the company, only bound by the unwritten rules set at the time. “They were just following the direction Gordon Wagener had in his era. The good news is, he resigned this year,” said the designer. We’re starting to get the feeling there’s no love lost between him and his former boss.
That said, there will still be traces of Wagener-era cars emerging in a year or two, as Mercedes-Benz design cycles last four to five years, with a new generation after seven. It’s now up to the new chief, Bastian Baudy, to define the next generation of models to wear the three-pointed star.
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