Mercedes-Benz E-Class review
It may be one of the oldest cars in its sector, but the range of options makes sure the E-Class is bang up-to-date
When it comes to optional kit Mercedes is a past master, and the Mercedes E-Class executive model is no exception. Its pricelist is brimming with extra features but you need to spend your money wisely, or costs can spiral out of control. For example, our test model was fitted with £22,590 worth of add-ons, which is the price of a well-equipped family hatchback on its own!
Read the Mercedes-Benz E-Class review on our sister site, CarBuyer, for the full low-down on how the car drives. In this review, we’ll concentrate on the technology and option packs.
Driving Assistance Package
Safety doesn’t come cheap, but the £2,345 Driving Assistance Package includes a raft of kit. The Lane Tracking Package, which comprises Active Blind Spot Assist and Active Lane Keeping Assist, is designed to make motorway driving safer for you and other vehicles.
Active Blind Spot Assist monitors the area around the car to warn you if another car is in your blind spot. If one is detected, small red warning triangles appear in the door mirrors. Should you still try and pull out, an audible warning sounds. The system can also apply light braking to the relevant wheels to keep you within your own lane and prevent an accident. It’s a neat system and the combination of warnings, rather than just an indicator light, should help keep you safer on the road.
Active Lane Keeping Assist uses a front-facing camera to monitor the car’s position on the road to detect if you’re straying from your lane. If you start to drift out of lane, the system sends a series of vibrations pulsing through the steering wheel to warn you. We found that the vibrations were a little too subtle and we expected a more urgent signal.
As with Active Blind Spot Assist, the Lane Keeping Assist can apply light braking to individual wheels to keep you within lane. If you indicate first, the system is disabled to let you manoeuvre safely.
The final element of the Driving Assistance Package is Distronic Plus, a radar-based cruise control system that matches your speed to that of the vehicle in front. It can even bring the car to a complete halt if traffic slows to a stop, pulling away again once things start moving again.
As a way of relieving the stress of long motorway drives it is great, but it’s not perfect as you often find yourself adopting the lower speed of the car in front, rather than maintaining your own pace and overtaking.
The Driving Assistance Package can only be fitted in conjunction with the optional Navigation 50 or COMAND systems, which makes it an expensive extra. If you spend most of your time on single carriageway roads it’s one to avoid, then, but high mileage motorway users will feel the benefit of its stress-reducing features.
Attention Assist
Built-in as standard is Attention Assist, which monitors 70 different parameters to test how you’re driving. Speed, angle of the steering wheel, pedal and indicator use, road surface and even wind conditions are all measured and compared against your driving profile.
If the car notices that you’re driving is becoming more erratic, it sounds a loud chime and displays an indicator on the dashboard screen warning you to take a break. This should be enough to wake you from a quick ‘one second nap’ and avoid an accident.
COMAND multimedia system with Media Interface
The Mercedes multimedia set-up is another expensive add-on, at £2,230, but it comes with many features that you may consider as essential.
First off, there’s a brilliant hard disk-based sat-nav system with full postcode entry, which makes finding your destination reassuringly simple. The whole set-up is operated using a rotary controller, located sensibly on the centre console, to select from menus on the central 7in screen. It is intuitive to use and the mapping and instructions are both clear and precise. Given the size of the cabin and position on the screen, the rotary controller works much better than having a touch screen.
Also included in the package is an integrated CD/DVD changer, while the Media Interface allows you to hook up iPods and MP3 players to the excellent built-in stereo using cables and sockets hidden in the glovebox. This clever set-up gives you the opportunity to browse your music collection using the same rotary controller used to operate the other major functions, or use the car’s steering wheel controls. Alternatively, the car’s 6GB of music storage means you can load your favourite songs directly onto the vehicle itself.
Voice controls and Traffic Message Channel (TMC), for live traffic updates, make the COMAND system a really worthwhile addition to the standard specification.
Speed Limit Assist Plus
One of the most useful developments to hit showrooms in the last few years is technology that keeps you informed about the prevailing speed limit.
Mercedes was one of the first car manufacturers to provide this helpful kit, and it’s available on the E-Class as a £300 extra when you specify the optional Navigation 50 or COMAND systems. It spots roadside signs and displays the speed limit clearly on the dashboard. It works superbly and will be a real help to drivers who regularly travel on unfamiliar roads.
Night View Assist Plus
In-car gadgets don’t come any more futuristic than Mercedes’ Night View Assist Plus (£1,225). It uses infra-red light and a hi-tech camera to project an image of the road ahead onto the central screen to help the driver to spot dangers in the road that lurk beyond the reach of the dipped headlamps. It even highlights pedestrians as an added safety aid. In reality, it offers little, if any, extra warning. And while looking at the screen does allow you to avoid the glare of oncoming headlamps, the display is located away from your eye line, so it’s of limited use. This is one hi-tech feature we think you can file under ‘gimmick’, although it will impress your friends.
Reversing camera
The 7in screen can also be used for the optional Reversing camera (£390). This gives you a clear view out of the rear, helping to park the car without hitting any troublesome objects, such as bollards.
Parking sensors come as standard (front and rear), so this extra isn’t essential, but for the money it’s a good way to add extra visibility.
Conclusion
Choosing the right options for your lifestyle is the key to getting it right in the executive car class, as the Mercedes E-Class shows. It is one of the oldest cars in this sector of the market but it gives buyers access to just as much cutting-edge kit as its younger rivals.
