The New Mercedes E-Class Wagon – Info & Photos Galore

Mercedes just released info on their new, up and coming E-Class wagon, or as they are known in The Old Country, Estates. Actually, the Germans make a funny by titling their announcement: “The new Mercedes-Benz E-Class Estate, Intelligent (E)state-of-the-art”. How droll. At any rate, what this is, is a much better alternative to using an SUV, if you ask me.

Wagons, er, estates, are much more popular in Europe than they are here. They’re popular for all the reasons our parents bought them when we were kids: Practicality. Then the SUV came along, and seemed more practical, or at least cooler than a wagon, and now their popularity has dropped off. That doesn’t mean, however, that a well thought out wagon is not without its charms.

The thumbnail sketch of the new Mercedes E-Class estate breaks down like this: Lots of load capacity and ease of operation; it comes with NINE airbags as standard, plus innovative driver assistance systems; it’s comfortable with adaptive damping and self-leveling rear suspension and the buyer will get a choice of ten engines with more output and lower consumption.

Speaking of engines, the one that got my attention is the E 500 variant that comes with a 5.5 liter V8 and 7-speed automatic transmission that cranks out 388 HP, and will start for a not-so-cheap € 70,150.50. Yes, that is a LOT of money for a wagon, but think of how good, and stealthy, of a road trip car this thing would be.

For example, here’s a feature that shows what a good road tripper an E-Class wagon would be. It’s called EASY-PACK (all caps, inexplicably) and what it does is it enables the rear seat backrests to be folded down from the load compartment, i.e. the tailgate area. This feature means that there’s no need to adjust the head restraints nor the rear-seat cushions, there’s just two backrest sections are unlocked and folded down by a cable pull, creating a level loading surface.

And about those nine airbags. Although a temptation of mine, when it comes to long distance road trip cars, would be to get something like an older S-Class, I start to sway from that position when I start to think about modern safety gear, like airbags.

As mentioned, the new E-Class Estate has nine, plus four belt tensioners and belt force limiters, and NECK-PRO crash-responsive head restraints for the driver and front passenger. The airbags, include two adaptive airbags for the driver and front passenger, a kneebag for the driver, two sidebags in the front-seat backrests and two large windowbags which extend from the A-pillar to the C-pillar during a side impact. Pelvisbags for the front occupants are also included for the first time. These reduce the loads acting on the torso and pelvic area during a lateral collision.

It sounds like you could run the thing through a brick wall and come out OK, but I wouldn’t recommend testing that.

Anyway, here’s the short sketch: You got kids, road trips and money, this is probably the car for you.

Here are more shots:

Filed Under: Car News • Mercedes-Benz