Mercedes-Benz E-Class 2013: Launch Review

It’s not just a reskin, though, because Benz has taken the opportunity to swing in plenty of safety technology even six months in front of the S-Class’s replacement.

Dr Thomas Weber, Benz’s Director of R&D, told motoring.com.au at the Detroit motor show that his company’s new philosophy was that safety would no longer a trickle down from the S-Class to the smaller cars, but would be swung into action at the first opportunity regardless of the car’s size.

That’s exactly how it has proven here.

The E-Class has the option of a full LED hyper-intelligent headlight that uses a combination of the car’s thermal imaging camera, stereo visual cameras and its radar to identify oncoming cars and then precisely blank out the high-beam glare for them.

There is also side radar, to minimize the risk (and result) of crashes at intersections.

There is a whole bunch of other things, too, that are essentially new or more holistic ways of tying together pieces of hardware the E-Class already has.

And then there are the engines including a new four-cylinder 1.8-litre turbo petrol engine, a pair of four-pot diesels and a new biturbo 3.0-litre V6. This last engine is supposed to replace the classic 4.7-litre V8 but, as we found, the old motor still has plenty of class left in it.

PRICES AND EQUIPMENT

There is more of what you’d expect in terms of trim and the bits and pieces you can touch and play with. Outside, the quad headlight treatment has finally bitten the dust, replaced by a pair of single units, while the rear lights have been supplanted by a pair of more horizontal devices that make it look disturbingly like a BMW from a distance.

Another thing you’ll notice pretty quickly is that there are now two grille options: Fuddy Duddy and No, Look, We’re Sporty. The first one, complete with the traditional horizontal bars and the bonnet-topping Benz cyclist sights, is for the conservative E-Class heartland while the second, slicker grille is for everybody else.

On one hand Benz has been doing this for the entire life cycle of the current C-Class, so it shouldn’t be a surprise. On the other hand, well, this is the E-Class, the bastion of conservative company cars.

Inside, there are higher quality materials everywhere and the E finally gets updated switchgear that it inexplicably missed out on at its birth. There is also a new infotainment screen with the split view that allows the driver to use the satnav while the passenger watched television. Though it’s small compared to what BMW offers, it’s at least integrated into the dash rather than sitting in a pod proud of it.

There is a two-tone dash now, too, and the gear selection lever is now up on the steering column, freeing up the centre console for bigger cupholders and a huge storage area.

Perhaps the most interesting piece of new equipment is the optional Adaptive HIghbeam Plus setup. They’re stupendously clever and come standard with a Xenon/LED mix (with LEDs for low beam and daytime running lights) or optional as a full LED setup.

The lights combines stereo cameras in front of the rear-view mirror with a thermal-imaging camera and long-range radar (500 metres, according to the light boffin) to pinpoint oncoming vehicles and simply creates a dark spot for it to drive in until they’re past your car. The rest of the road is lit up in full intensity.

Good luck explaining that one to a stiff-minded highway patrol officer, but we’ve seen it in action and it’s stupendously good.

It also uses this technology to detect errant pedestrians and flashes light onto them to make it easier for drivers to notice them.

The biturbo is built around a V6 that is also offered as an atmo engine in the E350. It shrinks from the E350’s 3.5 litres down to 3.0 litres for biturbo duty, yet the motor thumps out 245kW and 480Nm (from 1600rpm).

Neither of those numbers is on a par with the imperious 4.7-litre V8, with its 300kW and 600Nm, but it gives it a fair run for its money in a straight line. Where the V8 hits 100km/h in 4.9 seconds, the biturbo E400 is only four tenths behind and, at 8.1L/100km for the combined cycle, it’s 0.7 litres more efficient.

Benz developed the engine in an effort to bring down average fuel economy in the US market (where it replaces the V8) and it won’t hurt the profit figure to push any V8 buyer into an AMG. In Australia, however, the V8 will remain at the top of the tree and the biturbo will be subservient to it.

The former is a classic V8 of 4663cc that also donated its core design to become AMG’s current twin-turbo powerplant.For plenty of E-Class buyers, 8.9L/100km is a small price to pay for this sound and this level of sophistication.

The petrol range kicks off with a 155kW 2.0-litre four (it’s new to the lineup, though it’s seen service elsewhere at Benz). The key figure here is its 350Nm which shuffles it to 100km/h in a respectable 7.4 seconds, and it sips just 5.8L/100km.

Then there’s the E350’s 185kW V6, which has less torque than the turbocharged E250 four-pot but uses an extra litre of fuel every 100km.

The diesel challenge begins with the 2.1-litre E200 four-cylinder, complete with 360Nm and 100kW. Australian sensibilities might find its 9.5-second run to 100km/h a touch slothful. So we won’t get it.

Instead, MB Oz is more likely to kick off with the E220’s 125kW/400Nm version of the same engine, which slashes a second off the sprint time and is, bizarrely, more economical anyway (4.7L/100km, and the best of the standard range).

This engine gets stretched further with the E250 CDI’s combination of 150kW and 500Nm, which sends it out to 100km/h in 7.5 seconds but still manages to eke out 4.8L/100km. That all makes it look like the pick of the four-pot diesels.

The BlueTEC stuff begins with the E300 CDI 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesel, which costs a lot more money but doesn’t step the game up considerably with only 170kW and 540Nm, then the E350 CDI ekes another 15kW and 80Nm out of the same basic engine.

It’s at least quick-ish, with a 6.6-second sprint to 100km/h and sips the same 5.5L/100km as the E300.

There’s also the diesel-based E300H hybrid, with the E250 CDI’s 150kW/500Nm four-cylinder turbodiesel supplemented by a 20kW/250Nm electric motor. It has the same acceleration figures as the E250 CDI, but returns 4.1L/100km to be the most economical E-Class on the books.

All of these engines drive the rear wheels through an updated version of Benz’s seven-speed automatic transmission. Not-for-Oz all-wheel drive versions take their helping of torque to the front wheels via a shaft built in to the rear of the gearbox housing.

But the oily mechanical bits are only a part of the package. The real highlight is how Mercedes-Benz keeps finding new ways to tie all its existing technologies together. Yes, there are plenty of new bits and pieces, but most of them involve taking bits and bobs, like cameras, electric steering, antilock brake computers etc, and making them work more closely together.

There’s PreSafe and the more advanced PreSafe Brake (which brakes for you if you decide not to); there’s an active bonnet that jumps 50mm to soften impacts for pedestrians; there’s an active lane keeping assistant that works to keep the car in the middle of the lane; and there’s the normal array of bits and pieces.

That’s all supplemented by BAS Plus, which detects if you’re going to be hit by a car at an intersection (or a pedestrian you just didn’t see) and brakes hard to minimize the impact. A large part of the reason it can do that is the stereo cameras that cross each other at a 45-degree angle and have better depth perception than the old single camera system.

PACKAGING

It’s all been fitted into a package that, in the E250 at least, weighs 1605kg, though that climbs as the engines get bigger and the luxury starts to drip from every vent.

It’s a spacious machine, too, boasting more rear legroom than the BMW 5 Series, though the biggest change to its storage capability has been the addition of a large centre console box. That’s because the central gearshift lever has emigrated to the steering column to become the only lever on the right side of the wheel.

ON THE ROAD

The pick of them remains the E500. It’s not the weapon Benz would lead with if it was going into a war of the cutting edges, but it’s still a beautifully smooth, incredibly strong companion that turns the E-Class from a conservative, default limo to a sports sedan dark horse.

There’s a lovely, refined timbre to it at every point in its rev range and while it’s quick, it never feels less than dignified as it goes about it. It’s like an athlete who refuses to sweat.

That it’s the best of the engines is in no doubt, but whither the rest of them, especially if it’s the elder statesman?

There’s the smallest petrol four, which is strong enough for an entry level machine meant to denote the company car for someone who’s made it, but not all the way. Mash the throttle and you find it gets a little thrashy in the top half of its rev range and has some harshness to it you don’t expect. But it’s an efficient device.

The real surprise packet should be the biturbo V6 in the E400. Big things are expected of this engine, particularly in the US, but it feels more like a logical step between the fours and the V8 to us.

It’s not without its charms, with a deep rumbling that could be mistaken at low rpm for a bigger engine that’s ready to get angry. Wider throttle openings uncover the V6 that lurks beneath the air of civility, though, and the vibrations from it are impossible to miss, though not overwhelming.

It’s strong, though, and all the way through the rev range. It whips through overtaking moves in a hurry, idles calmly and cruises beautifully.

In fact, that last comment could easily cover the entire E-Class family and the tweaks to its suspension and steering, though minor, have reaped rewards out of all proportion to the effort.

There’s not a situation where you can provoke the E-Class – regardless of the engine powering it – to trip into inelegance. The ride quality is never obvious, and always a strong feature for it. The handling has reverted to E-Class handling of old, where it has bags of handling reserves deep in its grip envelope but doesn’t ever encourage you to explore them They’re there just in case and they do everything they can to make it a stupendously easy machine to manage in an emergency situation.

The only real issue we have with it, bearing in mind its typical buyer profile, is that it seems clear Benz wants to run the show and only wants the driver to aim it just enough to stay out of trouble.

Want to turn off the lane-keeping assistant? It’s a one-button thing in a BMW or an Audi. E-Class drivers have to dive three levels into a menu board, then find their way out again. That sort of thing is repeated all over the car.

The other thing that’s irksome is that it defaults to the Eco setting every time you start it, which you need to switch off (fortunately, that’s a one-touch operation) if you want to use everything you’ve paid for.

But those are minor niggles. The major one is that while the body updates seem designed to claw in new buyers who thought the old car too stodgy and angular, the car’s ride, handling and engine packages deliver more of the strong, conservative E-Class character for which the badge has become famous.