It's time to take a
spin with the all-new Mercedes E-Class, this
new generation of the famous business sedan.
Do we even still need an S-Class or is this
just right enough? Here with Thomas and
Autogefühl in 4K, full screen, full length, let's go
here with the new front, new headlamp design,
a little bit more playful, I would say, around
here, daytime running light integration, also completely new grille. We
can see this is here the AMG line with the micro star pattern. The
base Avantgarde would also look kind of
similar, so there's not a big differentiation between
the base and the AMG line visually. AMG also
features here this more sporty accentuations in
the lower part. This color here is called Alpine
Gray, a very beautiful one. It is not a matte color, but it already has
somewhat of a matte look, and I think it's pretty cool. Here also
in combination with the Night package, that
means that the side mirrors, for example, are blacked
out. You also have black frames around, but of
course, you can still stick with chrome frames around
the window. Length 4.95m or 195 inches, not a big
change, slightly 3cm/1 inch that went into the
wheelbase. Let's see if that has a significant effect
on the rear legroom later on. Wheels, 17 to
21-inch, these are 20-inch wheels, pretty massive
already, multi-spoke design, also with some aerodynamic
character. I think it looks very cool here,
this black-gray contrast, doesn't it? Rear
axle steering is also a technology highlight.
And there you can see it, the rear wheels turn
in the opposite direction than the front wheels,
maximum 4.5 degrees, and it comes together
in a package with the optional air suspension.
This vehicle is also equipped with that one,
it's air suspension on both axles. The plug-in
hybrid and the estate will actually come
standard with air suspension at the rear, and then
again, you can upgrade to the full air suspension.
However, rear axle steering only available here for
the classic sedan form and not for the estate or
for the wagon. The base suspension, by the
way, has already selective dampening. What does
that mean? So, they're not actively adaptive, you
cannot adjust them in the infotainment system,
but when they actually get the different bumps,
they rule in a different way depending on the speed
of the bump, on the impact it gets, and that is
standard, but then there's no adaptive suspension
in between, you directly go from the base
suspension to the optional air suspension, that option
in the middle is gone now. To the rear, that's super
interesting because we have a completely
new rear design, it goes through, but the middle
part is not illuminated, but here, that's also one
of my favorite features here, look at that, the
tail lamp signature forms these tiny stars, a cool new
signature that differentiates also the E-Class right
now, and in the lower part, Autogefühl fake exhaust
police alert because this is a clear case
for a fake exhaust, not with the Autogefühl
fake exhaust police. Turning indicator
check here in the front, looks pretty cool on top,
right? Really wide area. Turning indicators in
the rear, well, not that spectacular. And if you
want a change of styles, oh, how did that happen?
You can go for a Nautical blue one, very beautiful
blue color, here you can see the light nuances
in the sun, and this one is also the Exclusive
line, the more traditional E-Class look, here you
can see this more traditional chrome frame grille with
horizontal chrome spokes, here the sensor field,
that one is a little bit more prominent than
in this grille, and here, of course, the standing
star on top of the hood, the typical one, yeah,
you know, it's being ripped off many, many
times when they're just standing on the road,
so, yeah, better keep it in a closed garage,
definitely, but I think it has something, this very
elegant look, but which one do you prefer, the more
traditional one or the more modern, more sporty one
in the AMG styling? Tell me in the comments. Here
at the side profile, we can also see, once again,
20-inch wheels, but a little bit different styling
here also with the bright spokes, and then we have
the chrome frames around, this one you can also
combine freely, for example, you can go for an AMG
line, but don't go for black frames, but for the chrome
frame, so it depends if you take the Night package
or not, without a Night package, you have here
also the blue normal vehicle color side mirror caps,
so, once again, more elegant in the side profile,
and the same counts also for the rear. You
can still get a classic key fob, but the philosophy
of Mercedes is now also to encourage people to use
their phone, for example, just have it here in your
pocket, and then you slide right here, have
the flush door handles, not the biggest fan of that,
they also give you here some kind of feedback,
but it's kind of weird, I feel, door closing sound
is really solid, like that, and what you can also
do is then, for example, also lock the doors here
in the Mercedes me app, you also have this
locked confirmation, for example, and you can
also have different things like trip data, your
consumption, digital key, over-the-air vehicle updates,
and so on, so, yeah, a little bit more functionality
in this new generation, of course. Then, let's open
it once again. Inside of the doors here, that
looks actually quite good from the build quality.
In this new generation, you have these high-gloss
black panels like the C-Class, S-Class, and so
on, and this one does not give any haptic feedback
anymore. I think that's a wrong development by
Mercedes. Here, still good from these levers, and
also nice, we have the brown interior, and also then
the brown felt at the inside here, so this is also
different than, for example, if you compare lower
Mercedes models, that here we also have this fabric
covering on the inside. This all-new interior, being
the AMG line, you also get the AMG steering wheel
with the two horizontal spokes with #CAPACITIVEBSBUTTONS,
not too easy to control while driving,
that's the catch, actually, and then I found this
here, a very, very tiny detail, but from a build
quality, I think this gap here, hmm, critical. I
don't see that this is doing any good. I don't know,
but I have to say the rest of the interior, for
example, looks actually even better than the S-Class,
I feel. These seats here, optional animal skin
equipment, but you can also get the Artico man-made
leatherette, and that is, of course, more
animal-friendly and also less in the CO2 E output, and
the color would be actually the same, you get brown,
black, gray, and so on, beige, and seating comfort
here, it's typical E-Class business sedan comfort,
headroom, 189 or 6'2", still leaves some headroom,
no problem, although this one here is the
panoramic roof, this one here indeed has a roof you
can still open, this slider function here is doubtful,
you have this shade here, lucky to have
that, especially in hot temperature, and then
slide once again, or maybe five times, or six times, or
seven times, or, ah, there we go, and then the real
roof is opening, and that opening is actually quite
wide. You can also use the voice controls, I fear it
doesn't work for closing. Close the sunroof. Please close all doors to use this
function. Close all doors first, sorry. Let's try again, close
the sunroof. Closing the sunroof for you now.
That works, not sure if it also works in the US
because of different safety regulations, but that
also works with the real roof, not only with the
shade. By the way, you maybe saw or heard that I did
not say "Hey, Mercedes" first, and the thing is,
if you are alone in the vehicle, and you see
this small symbol in the top of the infotainment system,
then you can also put the voice commands without
saying "Hey, Mercedes" first. So, when you have
a co-driver, then they say, "Hi, you know, we don't
know where the voice is" "coming from, maybe
people are just talking," and so on, but when you're alone,
then you can use this new function, making the
voice control easier. This cockpit layout here with
digital instruments, then this Superscreen,
14.4-inch, not Hyperscreen because it's not that
large, and you can also get this passenger display.
Digital instruments, also available with 3D effect
you can't see on camera, and you can change
the whole styling, sport, or also full screen map,
but that's just for the car internal GPS, and you can
also get this head-up display with GPS information. Whoa,
whoa, whoa, wait a minute, what is this? Yeah, that's
for the camera app. You don't have to go for that
one, you can, there we go, and then you can, for
example, take selfies or use that one here for
video conference calls, but what do you think? Is
it bad for data security? Hey, Mercedes, is it
bad for data security? This is the car internal
map, and then you have this new app view. I
think that's cool because while driving, you can
better press these huge buttons here, for example,
and also for the Apple. CarPlay integration,
which is not fully, I would say, has to be limited
somewhat because it's a wider screen, and yes, you've maybe already
seen it, you can also play Angry Birds. Also, I think a case of
over-engineering, why would the vent controls
be digitalized that they move after you
control them here in the infotainment system? I
don't see any good reason for that, but luckily,
you can still just do it manually. So, the
infotainment system has a better overview. It is quicker,
has more functionalities, but then again, the
climate unit, you have to press in the lower
part, then slide this one, plus, minus, all the
voice control, no real dials. No, no, no, thank you.
Yeah, it remains the problem, the user
interface, I think, not easy enough, and this
symbol here in the top left, very important for
European customers so far, maybe later also for
other customers, you can deactivate the speed
warning, and even better, here at the steering
wheel, we hold the mute button like a little
bit longer. So, a short press is mute the
music, and holding a little bit longer is then
activating or deactivating this speed limiter, and
what is this actually? So, new regulation for
newly homologated cars coming new to the market is that when you
exceed the speed even just by 1 kilometer, then at every startup, and also when you
stop the vehicle, and then start it again, there has to be three
warning tones in the EU regulation. So, 50
kilometers an hour, 51, it's like beep, beep,
beep, and it's super, super, super annoying, and this
is a very quick shortcut to deactivate it. It's
a law, it's a regulation thing. So, the manufacturers,
the only thing they can do is implement
some shortcuts like these, and Mercedes are the
first ones to offer these kind of shortcuts. What's
awesome here, reduction of high-gloss black
piano, like at least in the middle console, listen
to that. Ah, beautiful. I love this matte open
cell wood. Looks cool, feels cool, awesome,
and you can slide this one open, and then you
have adaptive cup holders. They are not holding
the bottles that tight, though. In the front
part here, the inductive charging pad, and two
USB-C chargers. This Superscreen is, how could it
be otherwise, an option, and the standard screen
would also fit the same size, the same screen
behind it, 14.4-inch, it stands a little bit more
out than here. It also fits underneath the air
vents, but then the right side is left blank, and
then you can work with more decor elements,
and I think maybe not a bad solution at all. The same goes also, if you
remember, EQS, EQE with that Hyperscreen, super expensive option,
but then it takes away the feature of the decor
element here. In this case, it's not as expensive as
the Hyperscreen, so you won't pay so much more
extra money here for the Superscreen, but
still, it's always worth to take a look into just the
base setup. Rear seats, welcome right here.
Take a look. This classic rear-wheel-driven platform
or rear-wheel-based all-wheel drive you
see here, a huge middle tunnel then to the rear,
this, of course, limits the space in the middle.
What about the sides? Let's take a look.
There's a little bit more wheelbase now, and you
see, you have quite some space here in front of
your knees, not too much considering the length
of the vehicle, but definitely enough, and
good comfort. Besides here, I would need more
space for my elbow. That's a little bit limited. I
can still put a hand over my head, though. Inside
of the doors of the rear. It's actually really nice
how the quality and build quality is also
from the inside, just too much high-gloss black
piano lacquer once again, I feel. In the middle part,
you can also slide to the inside part here. That's
really hard and also a little bit higher. You
can take it for shorter routes, but not ideal. You
also have more #capacitiveBS in the
middle part for the climate control, and then you
have cup holders sliding out like this. Let's
check out the trunk or the boot. At 540 liters here
for the sedan, for the. ICE version, plug-in
hybrid is limited here in height, as we had in
the studio. What's cool is that we have a significant
length here of 115 in meters or 45 inches,
and also the height here is 50 centimeters or
about 20 inches, so that's actually pretty cool.
Underneath, we also have some space, actually
a lot of space, so that's pretty cool here for the
pure combustion engine version, and then a cool
folding mechanism like here. I should show you
better on the other side. So easy, straightforward
like this, and there we go. It folds flat,
so that's pretty cool. Just this hard pack material
right here, I don't understand this, also collects so many
scratches, but then here the folding flap mechanism
is pretty cool, and another feature here when
we pull this button here on top, there's this
retractable towing hook, and it goes out, and the cool thing is it
even automatically goes in again. And here we have
second interior styling for you, fully bright color,
I think also beautiful solution, just brings
more light to the interior here, and also with the
matte wood middle console elements, also cool in
a brown style, and you maybe also saw this one
has a different steering wheel. This is the
Exclusive line, and then you don't have the AMG
two-spoke steering wheel, but that one I always
called one slot design. Yes, it's slot. Here, I
think the AMG steering wheel is way more
beautiful, isn't it? And comparing trunk or
boot of the plug-in hybrid, you can see here, you
lose something in height, otherwise, there would
be the step in there, but then again, you have
an even loading space, and this plastic part in
the back there is gone then. Yeah, but overall,
of course, the combustion engine has a better trunk
capacity. The only thing is if you compare the
predecessor here, plug-in hybrid to this one now,
before it had the massive step inside, this is,
of course, now a better solution, and here then,
you know, another back for the cable. Engines,
not as much horsepower as the ship behind me.
By the way, this is the. River Danube in Vienna,
Austria. Here, let's take a look. This is a
powerful one, the 3.0-liter six-cylinder from the E450, 380 horsepower
plus the eBoost from the mild hybrid system, and 4.5 seconds is
the acceleration figure. In general, for the
all-new Mercedes E-Class, there is this 3.0-liter
six-cylinder petrol and also a diesel upcoming,
and on a smaller scale, the 2.0-liter four-cylinder
petrol and diesel. Based on that, also the
plug-in hybrids with around electric range, 100
kilometers, 60 miles from a 20-kilowatt-hour battery.
There will be rear-wheel drive versions or
all-wheel drive versions like here the E450 4MATIC,
the 3.0-liter six-cylinder. We'll drive that one right
now. It has an all-wheel drive distribution, 45%
front, 55% in the rear, still some rear bias for that. Mercedes
E-Class 450 in a new generation, acceleration test in the sport mode
from 60 kilometers an hour, let's go. 100, 130, wow, even a little bit more,
pretty quick, right? So, good performance, 380 horsepower plus
electric boost from that mild hybrid system.
This is also equipped with the air suspension in
the sport mode. It's a little bit sportier, but
you feel it's classic. E-Class here in that
faster bend. It's not set on a super stiff note, even,
oh, yeah, guys throwing cigarettes out the
windows, great, especially for motorcycle drivers
and, of course, for the environment as well.
So, back to the car review. Let's go here, motorway,
100 kilometers an hour, one more quick
acceleration from 100 to 130. That's it. So,
yeah, that is the six-cylinder power
indeed, and it just delivers so well, slight rear-wheel
bias. So, when you have the all-wheel drive
like we have here today, no matter actually if
four-cylinder or six-cylinder, you have a distribution
45% in the front, 55% in the rear, so a slight rear-wheel
bias here for that all-wheel drive system, but overall pretty
balanced, and here when you drive the
six-cylinder, not only for the acceleration, which
is, by the way, at 4.5 seconds, easy to remember,
the E-Class E450, 4.5 seconds. Is that the
reason they do that? Yeah, it has another background.
It derived originally from the displacement
figures and so on, but, yeah, that's all gone
now, but at least it matches the acceleration figure.
That's good, but I also find good is even when
you're here, go back to the normal driving mode
here in the lower part. We have to switch it here
in comfort mode, so at least I don't have to press
again in the infotainment system. I can just press
the lower arrows here, so that's fine with me then somewhat. So,
when you have the six-cylinder engine here, you can just keep it at lower RPM, and that
keeps the car really calm and collected, and I really like that,
and here on the motorway at 130 kilometers an
hour, so like 70, 75 miles per hour, this is what
the E-Class is basically meant to be, just this
luxurious experience, this air suspension,
like a magic carpet ride, you sometimes call it.
So, when you have an air suspension here, like we
have optionally equipped, you really feel that air
suspension, and that's also what I would
expect, actually. Some air suspensions are tuned
so stiff nowadays that you really don't feel
anymore you have an air suspension. This one
does work. Here, by the way, in the GPS, the augmented
reality, we have these flying arrows, and then
you know with the camera image where to go,
but it looks cool. Me, personally, of course,
you could also deactivate it. I found a simple map description somehow
better. You can, sometimes you can't really concentrate on the real world, and
then this augmented reality world, I found just like, you
know, normal Google Maps guidance actually more
practical, I think. When you compare a previous
generation to this generation E-Class here, you still
feel that it has these core E-Class values,
not so much tuned to the sporty way, more to
the comfortable driving experience, the luxurious
driving experience. It feels a little bit more
planted on the road. Of course, they have evolved
and worked on suspension and all the electronic
systems and so on. When you have the base suspension,
by the way, it has this progressive dampening
on the top, so it's not an adaptive suspension
that it changes with the driving modes, the
standard one, but it reacts according to the situation
automatically, but here the air suspension is a
fully adapted one, so when. I go to the sports mode
here, it's also a little bit stiffer than here,
gives me a little bit more feedback. To me, the best
thing they have improved in this generation here is
the steering. We've seen it now with some new
Mercedes models. It is more precise and you have
a better feeling for the vehicle. Here, there's no
dead zone area. When I do a lane change, it does
it so well and just slide and move when it's
actually needed. I really like that new philosophy of
the steering. It is sporty and comfortable at the
very same time, so pretty cool, actually. They've
also worked on the assistance systems, so they
fine-tuned all of them. You have a blind spot monitor,
you have triangles in the side mirrors, you have
more elaborated adaptive cruise control, for example,
and what is also now possible, and there will
start a feature in the US and in Canada, that when
you set the cruise control and, for example, you
have to set a higher speed and the car is
driving in front of you, then there will be an
automatic lane change. Let's see at some
point if that's possible, actually, but here,
also the car is in front of me, the distance
is being kept very well. Yeah, the speed
cameras here in Austria are sometimes behind you,
so you always have to pay attention to that. So,
being here in the comfort mode, let's just recheck
that. Yeah, I was. That's the thing, you
know, that you have to check if you are still in the,
if you're already in comfort mode or still in
the sport mode because it always gives you a
lot of comfort. So, I'm really a fan of this air
suspension here and one of the rare manufacturers
that still follows the true air suspension
philosophy. So, the whole driving experience
feels very sophisticated, and as I said, my
favorite is the sportier steering, which is at the
same time also comfortable in the AMG setup here
from design with the two-spoke and so on.
Noise insulation, also one of the key things here
of the E-Class, has been improved further. So,
here at 180 kilometers an hour, like 50 miles an
hour, it's so super silent, you hear nothing from
the outside world, and there we go. Yeah, so, you're
supposed to keep your hands on the steering wheel.
I just, you know, lifted them a little bit now for
demonstration purposes. I had set the cruise
control to 80, and then the car was realizing, okay,
we would run on this car, we would, oh, God, God,
God, reduce the speed before. So, then, when the left
lane is free, go to the left lane, hits the
turning indicator yourself, itself, the car, well, is
the car He, She or it? Let's leave it up for the
discussion. It depends, right? Is this He, She or it E-Class?
I think E-Class is more like, you always say
it's, you know, like, like, proper business suit. I
think E-Class is more He, isn't he? Yeah? Okay, maybe. I
don't know, but, yeah, whatever. So, yeah, let's, I mean,
that was very impressive here. So, a good live
demonstration of this new feature, and why not? It
adds some more comfort. Before, it was that you
had to tip the turning indicator to introduce
that to yourself, and, you know, there are
those, those jokes out there. Obviously, it depends, of
course, on the car brands, but often there's this joke,
BMW drivers, you know, don't hit the turning
indicators. So, you can say, like, oh, is there also the
BMW feature that does the lane change
without setting the turning indicator? Yeah, I mean,
I'm frequently driving BMW myself, so probably
I shouldn't do that joke, but, you know, there are
jokes typical about every car brand, like, there's
always the taxi E-Class joke, you know, like,
hey, if I want to drive an. E-Class, I'll order a taxi,
because especially in Germany, the E-Class has
always been the taxi car. Not anymore. Mercedes
wants to do luxury experience only, says, forget about
taxi drivers, we don't sell them anymore. Toyota
and Lexus should do the taxi business. So, that's
their decision right now. Also interesting, a
lot of taxi drivers are furious about that, but
they also told me that recent E-Class got less
durable, you know, when you compare them to
previous ones. We have to see how it is with this
generation here. So, what we could feel, see,
drive experience-wise, wow, really outstanding.
Yes, there is the user interface here, which
is not ideal while driving, I like to have more
physical input there, maybe a little bit over-engineered
as for the software thing, and also having,
like, always these, like, the Chinese customers
in mind, especially, yeah, that's the only
downside of this vehicle to me, but everything
you experience as a driver, then, hardware-wise,
from the pure facts, from the engineering, is just
awesome, and you really have to wonder, does the
S-Class really deliver you more in driving? I would
actually easily take an. E-Class, and I don't see
much more benefit now in the S-Class in this
generation, besides, of course, you have more space
in the rear, and you can check out that review, for
example, BMW 7-Series versus S-Class, or more E-Class
content here from this new generation.
