2010 Mercedes-Benz E350 Sedan test drive

 

Mercedes mid-level E-Class is not only their best-selling model in the US, it's also one of my favorite luxury cars. The E350 and E550 sedans have been redesigned for 2010, complete with new styling and a host of new electronic gadgets. All impressive stuff -- but I wanted to see if the soul of the E-Class was still intact. Was it? Read on. $49,475 base, $56,815 as tested, EPA fuel economy estimates 15-18 MPG city, 23-26 MPG highway.

i don't do well with change. I'm a bit like a two-year-old: Alter my routine, and I respond with a temper tantrum (which my wife finds more amusing than annoying). So I was not very happy when Mercedes announced that an all-new E-Class was coming for 2010.

See, I don't just like the E-Class -- I need the E-Class. I live in Los Angeles, where rush hour is like a road-going version of the Lebanese civil war. You know all those sunshiny happy Californians you see in the movies? We really are like that -- until you put us in a car and plant us on the 405 freeway at 5:07 pm, at which time we turn into bloodthirsty demons who will cheerfully run over our own children if it'll get us home one millisecond faster. To me, the E-Class is -- sorry, was -- the antidote for rush-hour traffic: A road-going cocoon of peace and tranquility. Just getting into an E-Class lowers my heart rate by ten beats per minute. The E-Class was the standard by which I judged $60,000-or-so luxury sedans, and I didn't want to see it change.
Mercedes certainly started out on the right foot: With a bribe. No, they didn't give me cash outright (although if you're thinking along those lines, Mercedes, you know where to find me). What they did is drop the price -- the 2010 E350 sedan now starts at $48,925, $5,150 less than last year, while the V8-powered E550 is $57,175, which is $5,400 less than 2009. Aside from metallic paint -- now a $720 option -- the new E comes with most of the same standard equipment as the old car, including a 6-disc CD