Most people understand that owning a hypercar is expensive. What many probably do not realize is that sometimes the maintenance bill alone can cost more than an entire brand-new luxury car.
That reality is now painfully clear thanks to a nearly new Mercedes-AMG ONE currently listed through RM Sotheby’s. Despite showing just 185 kilometers, roughly 115 miles, the car reportedly required a routine “Service A” maintenance visit costing an eye-watering €37,610, or around $44,000 at current exchange rates.
For context, that is enough money to buy a nicely equipped Toyota Camry, a new Ford Maverick, or several decent, used sports cars. In this case, it was spent servicing a hypercar that has barely even been driven.
Still, the AMG ONE is not exactly a normal car. Mercedes essentially took Formula 1 technology designed for Lewis Hamilton’s championship-winning race car and somehow made it road legal, which may help explain why maintaining it sounds more like servicing aerospace equipment than changing fluids on a road car.
Eighty Hours Of Labor For Routine Maintenance
The most shocking part of the invoice is not actually the parts. According to the listing details, roughly €31,600 of the total bill came purely from labor charges.
That means technicians reportedly spent around 80 hours performing the service. Broken down hourly, that works out to approximately €395, or about $463, per hour.
The remaining costs included items like a €1,872 air filter, a €2,300 transmission oil filter, €555 worth of engine oil, and even a €150 drain plug. On most cars, replacing those components would be a straightforward afternoon job, but the AMG ONE is packaged so tightly that accessing basic service areas likely requires partial disassembly of major systems.
That complexity comes directly from the car’s Formula 1-derived drivetrain. The AMG ONE uses a turbocharged 1.6-liter hybrid V6 based on Mercedes’ 2016 championship-winning Formula 1 engine, paired with multiple electric motors for a combined output exceeding 1,000 horsepower.
Essentially A Street-Legal Formula 1 Car
Mercedes originally unveiled the AMG ONE concept back in 2017, though turning the idea into a production car proved dramatically more difficult than expected. Engineers reportedly struggled with everything from emissions compliance to idle stability because Formula 1 engines were never designed to behave like normal road-car powerplants.
The finished result became one of the most technically complicated road cars ever built. Production was limited to just 275 units worldwide, instantly making the car one of the rarest and most exclusive hypercars on the planet.
Performance figures remain staggering even by modern hypercar standards. The AMG ONE produces 1,063 horsepower, hits 62 mph in just 2.9 seconds, and currently holds the Nürburgring production-car lap record with a blistering 6:29.090 lap time.
The car also features active aerodynamics inspired directly by Formula 1, including a drag reduction system rear wing and deployable aero elements around the wheel arches. In its most aggressive “Strat 2” driving mode, the AMG ONE essentially transforms into a barely civilized race car wearing license plates.
The Price Of Owning Something This Extreme
The example currently heading to auction is estimated to sell for between €2.65 million and €3 million. Finished in a rare paint-to-sample Reingrün green with black magnesium wheels, it stands out from the more common silver and black AMG ONE specifications.
Interestingly, the massive service bill also came with one important upside. Because the car completed its factory-prescribed Service A maintenance, Mercedes-AMG reportedly extended the vehicle’s warranty through February 2028.
For buyers shopping in this price bracket, the maintenance costs probably are not a dealbreaker. If anything, the absurdity almost becomes part of the appeal.
Still, the invoice offers a fascinating glimpse into what happens when an automaker decides to build a road car around Formula 1 engineering with almost no compromises. The AMG ONE may be one of the greatest hypercars ever created, but the ownership experience clearly comes with operating costs that make ordinary supercars suddenly seem affordable.