A RECENT trip to the Bentley factory in Crewe was illuminating. A workforce of around 4,000 includes roughly 500 skilled craftsmen and women — experts in working with wood and leather — all busily creating the finest handmade components for the interiors of the latest Bentaygas, Mulsannes, Flying Spurs and Continentals. The results, of course, are exquisite: Bentley owners are well aware that virtually everything they can see and touch in their car has been carefully put together by masters in their field, using only the finest materials. It looks special. It feels special.
But even Bentley’s master craftspeople probably look at the inside of the new Mercedes E-class and nod in approval. The German car’s interior is a jaw-dropping blend of technology and craft, all sumptuous curves and eye-catching details.
Mercedes is really on top form with its cabins right now; anyone climbing into a C-class would be impressed, yet with the larger E-class another leap has been made such that it’s not too far off that of the S-class. In the AMG-Line specification model we found a mix of leather upper dash, two large rectangular screens for infotainment and instruments (the central one being 12.3 inches in our car, or 8.4 inches as standard), and below that full-width contrast trim (“design piano lacquer” hard glossy plastic in the test car) with contour line effect design. This motif carries on into the doors and around Burmester stereo speakers.
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Then under that is a soft glow from a concealed LED strip. With its blend of minimalism and high tech, it’s one of the most striking interiors we’ve experienced. Given that those looking at the E-class may also be looking at the Tesla Model S, which may not use the finest materials or be put together by master craftsmen, but without question moved the game on in terms of clean, minimalist yet functional car interiors, Mercedes has managed to keep its premium executive car’s cabin feeling and looking like a class act. The Audi A6 and Jaguar XF are playing catch-up and even the new BMW 5-series doesn’t have such a wow factor.
The exterior is more conservative, as befits an executive car of this type, but it’s still an elegant design and a decent evolution of the outgoing E-class.
So the interior looks good, but does it work well? In a word, yes. The Comand infotainment system is clear and intuitive, with DAB radio, Bluetooth, sat nav and temperature controls all easy to find and change. There’s also the option to connect Apple Carplay or Android Auto. The touch sensitive steering wheel controls are effective and easy to use, or there’s the dial behind the cupholders and the touch sensitive pad above that, giving drivers three ways (excluding voice commands) to control the car’s functions.
Our AMG Line E 220 d also came with optional 360-degree cameras (reversing camera is standard), a split panoramic glass sunroof, keyless entry and start, and a Burmester stereo system.
It’s not all impressive stuff; a button labelled “Menu” amongst the climate control buttons, which seems to just bring up a picture of the cockpit, labelled climate control overview: we’re not really sure what to do with that.
And the AMG-Line seats can be adjusted in a million different ways but finding one that was comfortable for long stints at the wheel proved impossible. This isn’t a problem limited to Mercedes and it’s exacerbated by the fact that I’m an unnecessarily tall person. But it is often a source of bewilderment that a fixed racing seat made of a slither of carpet glued to a bit of carbon fibre can be supremely comfortable yet a hand-stitched leather job with extra padding, heating, cooling, massage and adjustments for lumber, shoulders and squab can make your right leg go to sleep and your lower back ache. Maybe it’s operator error; try out an E-class and see.
Having the passenger seat heating button on the driver’s side suggests customers told Mercedes, “My partner’s bottom must never touch a surface with a temperature below 20 degrees Celsius”
One innovation that we haven’t seen on any other car is buttons on the driver’s door for heating both fronts. Normally you’d find them in the centre console or touchscreen, or on the side of the seats themselves, but the significance of having the passenger seat heating button on the driver’s side suggests customers told Mercedes, “My partner’s bottom must never touch a surface with a temperature below 20 degrees Celsius, and I may find myself in a situation when I need to switch on the heated seats in an instant.” Problem solved.
Out on the road, our E-class proved predictably velvety. It may have been the AMG Line trim but that doesn’t mean it has suspension honed by in-house sports tuning company and the steel springs are heavily geared towards comfort rather than performance. As standard, the E 220 d comes with “Agility Control suspension with selective damping”, which is a system between basic “passive” springs/dampers and full fat Air Body Control adaptive suspension. We wouldn’t bother with it as whatever dynamic mode you select (eco, comfort, sport, sport+ and individual), the ride is always soft. It’s engineered that way for good reason: this is an E-class, designed to waft executives from London to Frankfurt in comfort.
This is a problem in Sport+ mode: while the engine goes into full psychopath mode – completely on edge, with millimetre adjustments in pressure on the pedal resulting in neck-snapping leaps forward – riding over a speed bump, the car wallows over the top and wants to scrape its nose on the ground on the other side.
There’s impressive safety tech as standard in the E 220 d: an active bonnet, to protect pedestrian in the event of a collision; active brake assist, knee airbags for the driver (on top of the usual all-round airbags); attention assist, which monitors tiredness; adaptive cruise control; and tyre pressure monitoring. There’s also parking pilot, to automatically park for you in bay or parallel spaces.
Our test car came with steering wheel-mounted paddles for the gears but as with Sport+ mode, it seems like overkill in the E 220 d when the excellent nine-speed automatic mode is able to predict which gear is required at any given time, almost as well as could any human.
The E 220 d comes with a brand new 2-litre, 192bhp turbocharged diesel engine (also fitted in the E 200 d), which as suggested above is a powerful unit with nice smooth power delivery through the rev range. The red line comes at around 5,250rpm but peak torque is between 1,600rpm and 2,800rpm, so there’s plenty of tug low down in the rev range. Flooring the throttle will give you all the power you need but it’s best left in comfort mode for the most part, and given gentle treatment with the right foot.
Doing so will yield impressive performance and consumption: The E 220 d can do 0-62mph in a claimed 7.3sec and hit 149mph, yet the combined economy figure is 72.9mpg. We averaged slightly over 41mpg in the real world, which is good, nonetheless. CO2 is a low and tax friendly 112g/km.
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The E-class also measures how economically you drive, assigning scores for accelerator inputs, speed and balance, and told me I had achieved a 3.1-mile bonus over nine hours of driving. In the words of Alan Partridge: cashback.
At the top of the diesel range is a 3-litre V6, while for petrol fans there are the AMG-derived E 43, fitted with a 395bhp 3-litre V6, or the E 63 with a 4-litre V8, as found in the AMG GT, tuned to 563bhp or a whopping 603bhp. There’s also a 2-litre petrol hybrid.
Interestingly, the 2-litre diesel sounds a bit — how shall we say… industrial — from inside the cabin, at low speeds and accelerating, especially. It’s odd, as the noise from the tyres and wind is well suppressed, suggesting that the sound insulation is more effective in the doors and floorpan than through the engine firewall.
Bentley needn’t worry about that, then. But with the E-class’s elegant exterior, technical sophistication and an interior that gives the best in the world a run for their money, some will see the W213 Mercedes, priced from a shade over £35,000, as the bargain of the century, even if you can get the entry-level BMW 5-series for more than £3,000 less.
The post Mercedes-Benz E-class review (W213 model, 2016-on) appeared first on Sunday Times Driving.
source https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/mercedes-benz-e-class-review-w213-model-2016/
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