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Completely redesigned for 2010, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class now comes as a two-door coupe as well as the sedan. This review focuses on the coupe, which shares the sedan's model name but is nonetheless a smaller car. See the two compared here, along with the 2009 Mercedes CLK-Class, a similarly priced coupe that the E-Class replaces.
Typical of Mercedes, the E-Class coupe is both pricey and lean on standard features. The V-8-powered E550 I tested has its charms, but it also has its quirks, and its capabilities on the road suggest that this comfortable, stylish coupe is best realized as the E350, which has a V-6 engine.
Exterior & Styling
With the 2010 E-Class, Mercedes eliminates not one but two of its most outdated designs. The CLK-Class remained through 2009 as an awkward adaptation of the earlier and more conservative C-Class, whose 2008 redesign introduced Mercedes' new, edgier design direction. Likewise, the outgoing E-Class, which made a respectable splash upon its 2003 redesign, had come to look plainer than anything in its price class.
The 2010 model year changes that, with dramatic headlights, sculpted front bumpers and prodigiously creased hoods and bodysides. The coupe is the more daring of the two, with more pronounced fender haunches and a smaller grille dominated by the Mercedes symbol, similar to Sport versions of the C-Class. Because it was the higher, E550 trim level, my test coupe also had a deeper front bumper and side skirts.
I didn't see it at first, but after a few days with my test car -- and no shortage of positive reactions from observers -- I grew to appreciate the car's styling and its eager, forward-leaning stance.
Unbridled Power
It takes less than a few days -- more like a few seconds -- to learn that the V-8-powered E550 can lean forward with the best of them. A healthy 382 horsepower propels the coupe to 60 mph in just over 5 seconds, and if the power doesn't coax you into planting your right foot, the exhaust note will. As you'd expect from a luxury car, you don't hear the engine most of the time; it doesn't need to work very hard during normal acceleration and cruising, so it's all but silent in those conditions.
It should go without saying that the V-8's power is unnecessary. Being a luxury car, even the E350's lesser engine -- a 268-hp V-6 -- provides healthy acceleration of zero to 60 mph in about 6 seconds. Beyond the practical issues of a lower base price ($48,050 versus $54,650) and better mileage (a 2 mpg overall advantage), there's another argument for the E350: The rest of the E550 doesn't live up to its powerful V-8.
Yes, the brakes seem up to the task, but the rear wheels can't always get the V-8's robust 391 pounds-feet of torque to the ground without setting off the electronic stability system. Unlike the sedan, the E550 coupe has no all-wheel-drive option. More important, though, is that the handling is merely capable, not inspiring. Push the E550 hard into corners, and it typically holds on and behaves, but you don't get the involvement and controllability you would in a BMW 3 Series, which is, though technically a C-Class competitor, comparable in terms of interior space.
Like the C-Class, the E's steering improves on the numb performance of earlier models, but I expect more sportiness from a rear-wheel-drive car. My coupe lacked the feedback of a front-drive Audi A5, much less a BMW. Some shoppers might not demand sportiness, but it bears noting because everything from the two-door styling to the console shifter -- in place of the sedan's column gear selector -- promises sport.
Comfort Over Sport
The E550 excels in comfort, with a smooth ride and a quiet cabin. It also has a Sport button on the dashboard that's ostensibly for sportier performance -- as if it could magically transform the car into a track star. What it does in the E550 is transform a previously comfortable car into a rough-riding one with a twitchier accelerator and a transmission that's less interested in upshifting. Mercedes is by no means alone in this practice; I'd like all automakers to put the emphasis on actual performance rather than effects you can easily demonstrate.
Even if you like the results, it would be better if the adaptive suspension, transmission and throttle were divorced from each other rather than ganged together into a single, all-powerful Sport button. (The E350 has no Dynamic Handling Suspension, so its Sport button has no effect on the ride.) Even if the changes in ride quality weren't so severe, I'd still like to be able to liven up the transmission -- maybe take off in 1st rather than 2nd gear on occasion -- without feeling a road that's better left unfelt.
As for the throttle progression, I think a car's accelerator should respond consistently regardless of mode (except in off-road vehicles), but I seem to be alone in this crusade. To that end, the pedal may be slow to respond when you first pop the transmission into gear. Say you're doing a three-point midblock turn and shift from Drive into Reverse, and the car doesn't go when you hit the gas. The natural reaction is to step harder -- then the throttle finally kicks in and you're flying toward the parked cars behind you. Again, this isn't a problem that's unique to Mercedes, but it's annoying at best, and it stood out in the E550.
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