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Mercedes-Benz E-Class review
£57,240 – £78,780
“A fine, relaxing executive saloon. Provided you’re able to ignore the distracting tech. And coarse four cylinder engine”
Good stuff
Supremely quiet, composed road manners, so comfy you’ll want to park it in your living room
Bad stuff
Harsh four cylinder engine, spongy brakes, tech often overwhelming, no air suspension for UK, price
What is it?
It’s the sixth-generation Mercedes E-Class saloon. Or not, if you want to be pedantic and include the 50-odd years of Merc’s ‘upper mid-range’ history before the E-Class name was coined. In which case you’re looking at more than 16 million sales and a longer origin story than some religions.
This latest E-Class is up against familiar foes; chiefly the BMW 5 Series and to a lesser extent the (much older) Audi A6 and (much cheaper) Jaguar XF. You thought half of them had disappeared from showrooms didn’t you? They haven’t (well, the S90 has), it’s just the sales figures are much uglier than they used to be and the cars themselves feel like they’re biding their time until the axe falls.
But Merc is serious about the new E-Class, when it already has the EQE?
It is. The EQE is all electric, the E-Class is primarily internally fed on petrol or diesel (all are at least mild hybrid though). Important to remember that these cars are designed for global sale, not just UK or even Europe and what may seem puzzling here might not elsewhere. Nevertheless it’s got to be an expensive strategy, building two platforms for one body size, and it’s resulted in both cars being slightly bland and unmemorable. It also contrasts with BMWs one-platform-any-powertrain approach for the 5 Series.
Is it as good as a new BMW 5 Series?
Depends how you want to frame it. The BMW drives more engagingly, but Mercedes’ big draw over the competition is comfort, and it’s wisely avoided the trap of chasing tauter dynamics and performance at the cost of keeping you relaxed and happy.
Don’t get us wrong, the E-Class grips plenty hard enough, steers fluently and is nicely composed on bumpy roads, but it won’t invite you to leather it along a country road. That ain’t its vibe. The nine-speed auto gearbox is occasionally indecisive and often sluggish to shift, the suspension is hardly crisp and the brakes – especially in the heavily-regenning PHEV models – are softer than camembert. More on all that in the Driving section.
You mentioned engines. What can I have?
At launch the UK gets three powertrains: a 2.0-litre turbo petrol with 201bhp (E 200), a 2.0-litre turbo diesel with 194bhp and 325lb ft (E 220 d), and the PHEV which marries a 127bhp motor and – you guessed it – a 2.0-litre turbo petrol for a total of 308bhp. The latter is the quickest, hitting 0-62mph in 6.4 seconds. Its 25.4kWh battery is rated for 62 miles of electric-only range. Anything that isn’t a PHEV is a mild hybrid, courtesy of an integrated starter generator and 48-volt tech. You know the drill.
The trouble is that the four cylinder engines aren’t smooth or refined enough to match the rest of the E-Class. They’re fine at low revs and cruising, but get raucous and nasally higher up, which doesn’t align with the car’s otherwise fine road manners. All of which might mean that the engine to have is the one almost no-one will buy: the E450 d with its straight six 3.0-litre 385bhp diesel.
More engines are on the way, but another miss is that the UK won’t be getting Merc’s impressive air suspension (except on the forthcoming E-Class Estate) and rear-wheel steering looks out too. The latter’s not a big loss but the former is a weird omission. We suspect it has something to do with most cars going to company purchasers who don’t tend to fit options as it drives up their costs (whereas the estate is likely to be popular with private buyers). The passive set-up is actually very good, if a long way from feature packed. No fiddling with adaptive dampers and so on here.
Read More https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/mercedes-benz/e-class
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