I was quite excited about the prospect of getting my hands on the new Merc E Class. Ignoring the taxi stereotype of a diseasal Merc, I imagined it would be another fine large executive motor, much like the BMW 730d.
In general as a drivers car, it’s a tad too soft and lazy to be really involving. The road seems somewhat distant, which helps keep the pace relatively sedate in the twisty bits. Everything in the car is a shade of silver. All the controls, switches, leather, even the wood is stained dark grey so as not to upset the balance. It sort of sums up the car, one for people who are going a bit grey!
The three really phenomenal things about this car are the suspension, parking sensors and the fuel economy.
The ride is very smooth and soaks up pretty much anything without alerting the passengers. This does tend to turn the driver into a passenger too of course, but you could never get fatigued from driving this car.
The parking sensors are a series of lights on the dash (for the front sensors) and on the interior roof (rear sensors). They progressively illuminate several amber and then two red at each side of the car. They are also well calibrated so that two red means a few inches from the object. No annoying beeps and you know which side the object is on. Simple but brilliant.
As for fuel consumption, this car would run off the fumes from an oily rag. Driving around London in a spirited fashion (where possible) give a very impressive 30mpg. Hammering along the motorway at a naughty but nice fast lane pace gave 40mpg! That’s nothing short of amazing for a bus sized car with a 2.8 V6 engine!
In general as a drivers car, it’s a tad too soft and lazy to be really involving. The road seems somewhat distant, which helps keep the pace relatively sedate in the twisty bits. Everything in the car is a shade of silver. All the controls, switches, leather, even the wood is stained dark grey so as not to upset the balance. It sort of sums up the car, one for people who are going a bit grey!
The three really phenomenal things about this car are the suspension, parking sensors and the fuel economy.
The ride is very smooth and soaks up pretty much anything without alerting the passengers. This does tend to turn the driver into a passenger too of course, but you could never get fatigued from driving this car.
The parking sensors are a series of lights on the dash (for the front sensors) and on the interior roof (rear sensors). They progressively illuminate several amber and then two red at each side of the car. They are also well calibrated so that two red means a few inches from the object. No annoying beeps and you know which side the object is on. Simple but brilliant.
As for fuel consumption, this car would run off the fumes from an oily rag. Driving around London in a spirited fashion (where possible) give a very impressive 30mpg. Hammering along the motorway at a naughty but nice fast lane pace gave 40mpg! That’s nothing short of amazing for a bus sized car with a 2.8 V6 engine!
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