Other features we want include the in-car fragrance dispenser, for a few hundred dollars the 64-color ambient lighting, free on most models and for more than $6,000 the Burmester sound system, with its crystal clear sound and carved-metal speaker grilles. It’s a perfect crash-tester, with leading Level 2 semi-autonomous driving capability that lets it changes lanes for itself and swerve out of the way of oncoming traffic.

At more than 4,000 pounds and 190-plus inches long, the AMG Es are a rollicking reminder that today’s Mercedes cars often perform better, much better, than the old Bavarian benchmark brands.īigger inside, divinely useful as a wagon, trunk-hampered as a Cabriolet, the E-Class offers up lush cabinetry on pricey models and ladles full of transistors in the search for safety. The shifts bang home, the twin-turbos light with a hissing fury, the AWD system shuffles power to the rear-it’s your problem now, guy-and the entire car gels into something that nothing the size of an E-Class should be able to become. You want abrasive? Take an AMG E43 or E 63 S for a spin, and roll it into Sport+ mode. Drive modes and adaptive suspensions and tunable steering give all these E-Class variants a confident, but never abrasive, set of road manners. E400 Benzes sport a 329-hp twin-turbo V-6 and all-wheel drive. The base 241-hp turbo-4 provides the E300 with 6-second oomph and available all-wheel drive we recommend the air dampers for their all-around talent. Performance comes from gasoline, no more of the electric or diesel sideshows. The screens depend on a futzy knob/pad controller on the console, but a more friendly Android or Apple interface pops up when you plug in. The cabin’s an effusive place banded with foot-wide high-resolution displays and glossy wood or metallic trim (or both) and a suave set of round air vents. Ascend into AMG heights, and the bodies get lower, the trim darker, the wheels bigger, the badges more numerous. The E-Class looks distinct-ish from the C-Class and S-Class, and hasn’t lost a bit of the beef or bulk that lets it shoulder some of its rivals aside. The short-trunk, long-hood proportions correct past grievances. The 2018 E-Class starts to rack up points with handsome profiles on all its shapes. It earns an overall score of 8.3 on our rating scale.

E-class mercedes 2018