Guide

Mercedes-AMG or Audi RS — which should you lease?

Updated September 2026 6 min read Performance & Prestige

Mercedes-AMG covers far more ground: a hot hatch, saloons, SUVs, a convertible and a ladder-frame off-roader, with much of the top of the range now plug-in hybrid. Audi RS is a narrower, more consistent idea — turbocharged, quattro, and moving towards electric rather than hybrid. AMG also has the gentlest entry criteria in our whole catalogue.

What separates the two ranges?

Breadth. RS is one idea applied consistently; AMG is a family of quite different cars sharing a badge.

Every Audi RS car we list is turbocharged, drives all four wheels and sits in a saloon, Sportback, estate or SUV body. Whatever you pick, you know roughly what you are getting, and that consistency is a virtue rather than a limitation.

AMG spreads much wider. The A 35 4MATIC at one end is a hot hatch. The G 63 at the other is a hand-built ladder-frame off-roader with a V8 in the nose. In between sit saloons, three sizes of SUV, a four-door coupé and the SL 63 convertible.

If you know exactly what you want, RS is the cleaner range to shop. If you are not sure yet, AMG has more chance of having it.

Which goes further in each direction?

AMG, at both extremes, and that is the practical headline.

At the accessible end, the A 35 4MATIC and the A 45 S 4MATIC+ are small, fast and easy to park, with nothing on the RS side we list that is quite as compact. At the far end, nothing in the RS range is remotely like the G 63, and nothing in it is open-topped at all.

Where RS wins outright is the estate. The RS 4 Avant is a fast car that carries a family and its luggage without apology, and AMG has no equivalent in our catalogue.

Those two facts — an off-roader and a convertible on one side, an estate on the other — settle more enquiries than any comparison of how the two makes feel to drive.

Where has each of them gone hybrid?

Down two different roads, and it is the most interesting difference between them right now.

AMG has electrified the top of its range as plug-in hybrids: the GT 63 S E Performance, the GLC 63 S E Performance and our own C 63 S E Performance. On those cars the battery is there for performance and for quiet local running, in that order.

Audi's RS range has gone the other way, straight to electric, with the RS e-tron GT sitting alongside petrol cars rather than replacing them. There is no plug-in hybrid RS in our catalogue.

That matters because the two drivetrains ask completely different things of you. A plug-in hybrid is only worth having if you plug it in — what changes day to day is the honest version — while an electric car needs somewhere to charge where it sleeps.

Which gives a younger driver the easier route in?

AMG, at the very bottom, and by a wider margin than anything else in the catalogue.

The A 35 4MATIC asks 25 with two years of full licence held — the shortest licence-held requirement of any car we list — on a £1,500 deposit, which is also the lowest figure in the catalogue. For a younger driver who has not held a licence long, that is the most accessible route into a prestige lease we have.

Beyond that the two ranges converge. The A 45 S asks 25 and three years; so do the RS 3 Sportback and the RS 7 Sportback performance. The bigger AMGs climb: the E 63 S, the GLE 63 S and the GLS 63 all ask 30.

Every figure here is provisional pending confirmation and published on each car's own page. Driver requirements sets out how they work.

What about deposits and excess mileage?

AMG spans a wider band, which follows from the range being wider.

Deposits run from £1,500 on the A 35 up to £5,000 on the GLS 63 and the GT 63 S E Performance. RS sits in a tighter band, from £2,000 on the RS 3 Sportback to £5,000 on the RS e-tron GT. The excess matches the deposit on every car we list.

Beyond the 1,000 miles a month every agreement includes, most cars in both ranges are charged £1.50 a mile. Our own G 63, the A 35 and the GLE 63 S are gentler still, at £1.25 a mile, which is worth knowing if the car is going to cover distance.

Which of these are ours?

Two, both AMGs, and none of the RS range.

The Mercedes-AMG G 63 is ours, on the three-month minimum term — one month up front, then one a month, with 1,000 miles a month included. We own it, prepare it and deliver it, and it is the gentlest car in this comparison on excess mileage at £1.25 a mile.

Our C 63 S E Performance is also ours. Both are quoted on request, as every car on the site is, and on both the figure is ours to settle rather than a partner's.

Every Audi RS car in the catalogue is arranged through a vetted partner, so the specific vehicle is confirmed before we commit to a date. If your start date is tight, that difference matters more than the badge does.

So which should you take?

Take the AMG if you want something the RS range simply does not make — an open car, an off-roader, a very small fast car, or a plug-in hybrid you will actually plug in. It is also the answer if you are a younger driver at the start of your licence history.

Take the RS if you want one clear idea done consistently, if you need the estate, or if you want the electric option in a four-door.

And if the choice is really between the two German ranges and BMW, read Audi RS against BMW M as well — the drivetrain split on the M side is the thing that decides a lot of these.

Common questions

Is AMG faster than RS?

It varies car by car, and comparing the ranges as a whole is not useful — an A 35 and a G 63 wear the same badge and share almost nothing. Pick on body shape, drivetrain and what the car has to do over your term; both ranges have more performance than a British road will take.

What does the 63 in an AMG name mean?

It is a model designation rather than an engine size these days, and it marks the top of a given AMG line rather than a specific capacity. The practical reading is that a 63 is the fastest and most expensive version of that car, with the criteria and deposits to match.

Is there an AMG estate or an RS convertible?

Not in our catalogue. RS gives you the estate — the RS 4 Avant — and AMG gives you the convertible in the SL 63. If either of those is the brief, it decides the make for you before anything else does.

Which is the cheapest way into either range?

The AMG A 35 4MATIC has the lowest deposit in our entire catalogue at £1,500 and the shortest licence-held requirement at two years. The monthly figure is quoted on request, as it is on every car we list.

Do you own any of these?

Two AMGs: the G 63 and the C 63 S E Performance. We own, prepare and deliver both, on the three-month minimum term, and both are quoted on request as every car on the site is. No Audi RS car in the catalogue is ours.

See the two agreements next to each other

What you put down, what you carry as insurance excess, what you pay over the allowance and the minimum driver age are set per car. This puts both sets in one table so you can see where they part company.

Compare the Mercedes-AMG C 63 S E Performance and the Audi RS 4 Avant