2010 Mercedes-Benz E-Class – Click above for high-res image gallery
With eight generations and 12 million units sold over the last 62 years, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class' longevity represents a profound run of intelligent bets for a premium sedan sold in premium quantities. That makes Las Vegas an appropriate background for last week's introduction of the E-Class sedan, Sin City being home to numerous examples of remarkable endurance. Having been outsold by the BMW 5 Series for the last couple of years in the U.S., Mercedes went all-in on the new E, from design to fabrication to luxury to – of course – technology. To find out what we thought of the gamble, hit the jump.
Exemplifying how serious Mercedes is about the 2010 E-Class, the car's presentation began with this line from Mercedes' G.M. of product management, Bernhard Glaser: "Everything we know, everything we are went into this car."
We can begin, though, with what's gone on outside the car. To our eyes, the redesign joins the queue of vehicle forms that aren't accurately translated in photos. Unless caught at just the right angle, the car appears shorter in press shots, rendering its conspicuous design features into a somewhat stubby mass that dramatically ascends from front to rear. In person, however, the car gets properly lengthened: the shoulder line and lower door filet rise gradually, the tail doesn't come off as truncated and the E consumes the proper space of a mid-range sedan. Although an inch lower in height (yet with the same ground clearance) than the outgoing model, the new E is nearly an inch longer and four inches wider. It also has a lower Cd than the slinkier 2009 model.
The E-Class' interpretation of the now common form language introduced on the 2006 S-Class is accentuated by four things: the angular cast of the headlamps, which follow the contour of the new SL headlights but are vertically sliced in two; the upper door-line tied thematically around the front helping to break the side into three discretely angled surfaces, working with the prominent, chrome-trimmed lower door line that spans the full distance between the wheel wells, then continues much more subtly around the rear of the car; and the flared haunches that begin toward the back of the rear doors and take their inspiration from the pontoon detail that breezed in on the 180 sedan in 1953.
In photos the car looks like a cluster of lines and angles, and it takes a moment to get accustomed. In person, the effect is not so pronounced; it simply looks like a Mercedes. Being the most momentous re-skin since the 1995 E-Class debuted with the twin headlight face, it is no surprise that its looks might take some time to acclimatize. But when the E begins flooding the roads (and not to spoil the surprise, they will), the car will blend into the surroundings as comfortably as E-Classes past.
Inside, the first things of note are firmer lines and ostensible simplicity. As with the exterior, the details are sharper on this model than the current E: the IP boasts angles, not arcs; the supports are squared off, not softly contoured; and the center console doesn't cascade, it occupies three distinct spatial planes. Even the 'V' theme from the front of the car is mimicked in the instrument panel's shallow chevron.
Mercedes moved the shift lever from the center tunnel to a stalk on the column, a minor move that provides outsized returns in terms of opening up the cabin. Visually, it makes the front area feel more like a single space instead of cockpit and passenger areas, the larger backdrop reducing the impression of how many electronic and mechanical features there are in the cabin. The revamp puts the screen atop the center stack, the climate controls move to a slightly recessed space just above the cup-holders, and layout of elements like the seat controls have been subtly altered. You don't realize how many buttons there are until you start looking for them and it isn't that there are too many - there are probably fewer buttons than before - you simply don't take note until you find yourself saying, "Hmmm, I know it's in here somewhere..." Still, everything is easy to reach. The door lock button has (finally) been moved next to the door handle (hallelujah!), the COMAND control is simple (can I get an amen?), and it doesn't take long to get the layout committed to memory (preach on...).
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