MotorTrend

2017 Mercedes-Benz E300 First Drive Review

Steady As She Goes: Mercedes’ Heartbeat Remains Strong
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I've had many a wild taxi ride in my life; it's the hidden cost of constant travel. From seeing 110 mph in the back seat of a Crown Vic on FDR Drive in Manhattan to a dude actually turning and saying "chicane" in Palermo, Sicily, after taking a traffic circle like Fernando Alonso, I've survived more than my share of cabbie-induced nonsense. The craziest, however, occurred almost 19 years ago in Lisbon, Portugal. The cab was a Mercedes-Benz W124 E-Class, the transmission was a five-speed manual, and the driver felt he was Ayrton Senna. Or at least related to him. I'm not sure if I've ever witnessed more needless downshifting in my life—maybe in the first "Fast & Furious" movie—but once I realized death wasn't in fact imminent (the guy was pretty good), I remember thinking what a cool taxicab the midsize Mercedes was.

Funny thing happened as I exited the Lisbon airport to attend the launch of the latest and (Mercedes claims) greatest E-Class, the fifth-generation W213. The cab turned out—shocker—to be a last-gen E-Class, a W212. Apropos, no? If the S-Class is the jewel in Mercedes' crown, the E-Class has long been the crown itself. From 2010 to 2014, the E-Class sold more than 60,000 units annually in the U.S. In 2015, customers picked up 49,736 W212s, a respectable number for an expensive car in its final last year of full production. The E-Class is Mercedes-Benz North America's third-best-selling model after the C-Class and the former M-, now GLE-Class. In Europe the E-Class sells even better, averaging 100K units per year since 2010. And yes, many are indeed taxis identical to the one I rode to the hotel in. Obviously, replacing a major volume model like the E-Class is no small or easy task. So does the new W213 have any chance at matching its predecessors' success?

Read more about the 2017 E-Class:

  • 2017 Mercedes-AMG E43 First Test
  • 2017 Mercedes-Benz E300 4Matic First Test

More on the 2017 E-Class:

  • Q&A with Mercedes-Benz Chief Engineer Michael Kelz
  • 2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class First Look
  • Refreshing or Revolting: 2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Before we answer that, let's take a look at what makes the new E-Class tick. A fine place to start is its looks, and I think it's safe to say that the new car looks better than the last one. Sure, the E-Class bears a strong, undeniable resemblance to both the C-Class and the S-Class. Intentional no doubt, but I can and will argue that Mercedes has painted itself into the old BMW design conundrum corner: one sausage, three lengths. But hey, it's a decent-looking hunk of meat. Especially in matte. The interior story is largely the same. Feel free to think of the E's innards as a snug S-Class or a marginally bigger C. Either way, the top-shelf design and industry-leading materials continue unabated. The E-Class can be had with a fully digital dashboard that includes three different looks: Normal, Sport, and Eco. Normal looks, well, like a normal speedo and tach, whereas Sport turns the gauges yellow. Why not? Eco moves the tachometer to the center and frankly looks a little too Prius-y for my tastes, though I suppose that's the point. In Normal mode, the virtual tach can be replaced with other information, such as a map.

Initially, the only E-Class we get in the States late this summer will be the E300. Powering it is a 2.0-liter, turbocharged inline-four good for 241 hp and 273 lb-ft of torque. That might not sound like much, but it's competitive with, say, a BMW 528i (240 hp, 260 lb-ft). Fear not, horsepower junkies, as more potent iterations of the W213 are coming later. Both are badged AMGs. The E43 will have a twin-turbo V-6, and the E63 will have the brand's 4.0-liter, twin-turbo V-8. We will eventually get diesel and plug-in hybrid versions of the W213, as well. No matter the motivator, power will be routed to the wheels via Mercedes' smooth and smart new nine-speed automatic transmission. The E300 comes with rear- or all-wheel drive, and we estimate it should hit 60 mph in 6.2 seconds.

On the road, the overwhelming impression is one of sturdiness, in the best Benzian sense of the word. The new E rides incredibly well. On smooth freeways I'm hard-pressed to think of a finer-feeling car. This is noteworthy because I've never thought the current W205 C-Class rides all that great, yet both cars are derivatives of the same MRA chassis. I suspect the E-Class' extra 3.9 inches of wheelbase get the credit for the big improvement. Also, obviously, the engineers had an extra two years to get it right. For such a large car, the handling is pretty good, though of course we'll have to wait for the AMG siblings to really see what's what. That said, the back seat is tight. Which is why Mercedes is building a long-wheelbase version for China.

Mercedes has stepped up the E's semiautonomous game quite well. The system is called Drive Pilot, and here are the big bullet points: The E300 can follow the car in front of it at up to 130 mph. As long as the lanes are clearly marked, you can keep your hands off the wheel. Every now and then a graphic will pop up telling you to grab the wheel, but you can just lightly brush one of the two thumb buttons on the steering wheel, and the car will keep driving forward hands-free. While Drive Pilot is engaged, you can hit the turn signal to change lanes in either direction. Once you're in the lane you want, just cancel the turn signal. In the States the system uses GPS to automatically adjust for posted speed limits, though you can override that (i.e. speed) by pushing up on the cruise control stalk.

Back to our initial question: Is the 2017 E-Class as competitive in its segment as the car it replaces? I can tell you the W213 is a proper E-Class. Moreover, it is one well-wrought sedan, regardless of make, model, and badge. Bigger, lighter, techier, safer, better-looking, and much more elegant than before, the new W213 E-Class should be quite a hit for Mercedes-Benz—assuming people are still willing to buy sedans with gas prices so low and not go completely SUV crazy. Either way, Portuguese taxi drivers will be stoked.

Jonny Lieberman

When I was just one-year-old and newly walking, I managed to paint a white racing stripe down the side of my father’s Datsun 280Z. It’s been downhill ever since then. Moral of the story? Painting the garage leads to petrolheads. I’ve always loved writing, and I’ve always had strong opinions about cars. One day I realized that I should combine two of my biggest passions and see what happened. Turns out that some people liked what I had to say and within a few years Angus MacKenzie came calling. I regularly come to the realization that I have the best job in the entire world. My father is the one most responsible for my car obsession. While driving, he would never fail to regale me with tales of my grandfather’s 1950 Cadillac 60 Special and 1953 Buick Roadmaster. He’d also try to impart driving wisdom, explaining how the younger you learn to drive, the safer driver you’ll be. “I learned to drive when I was 12 and I’ve never been in an accident.” He also, at least once per month warned, “No matter how good you drive, someday, somewhere, a drunk’s going to come out of nowhere and plow into you.” When I was very young my dad would strap my car seat into the front of his Datsun 280Z and we’d go flying around the hills above Malibu, near where I grew up. The same roads, in fact, that we now use for the majority of our comparison tests. I believe these weekend runs are part of the reason why I’ve never developed motion sickness, a trait that comes in handy when my “job” requires me to sit in the passenger seats for repeated hot laps of the Nurburgring. Outside of cars and writing, my great passions include beer — brewing and judging as well as tasting — and tournament poker. I also like collecting cactus, because they’re tough to kill. My amazing wife Amy is an actress here in Los Angeles and we have a wonderful son, Richard.

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