THE Mercedes E-Class is already a firm favourite with company car buyers but now it’s getting one of the most extensive mid-life updates ever carried out on a mainstream Mercedes model.
The new car gets a host of safety and convenience features which are being promoted under the “intelligent drive” label, and business motorists will be especially interested in the updated car’s more efficient BlueDIRECT-branded direct-injection petrol engines – they promise to give the diesels traditionally favoured by high-mileage company car drivers a run for their money for the first time.
What’s ‘intelligent drive’?
This is a package of safety and driver convenience features. Included as standard will be adaptive cruise control, radar-based collision prevention and a drowsiness warning system. Other kit is optional, and includes ‘Pre-Safe Brake’, an autonomous braking system that works at up to 30mph and Pre-Safe Plus that anticipates a rear end shunt and primes the car’s protection features.
The most obvious changes, though, are those to the bodywork of the E-Class, which go far beyond a mere facelift and into the realms of major surgery. Out go the complicated creases of the current car in favour of smoother, simpler lines. The previous four-headlamp nose, a feature of E-Class models since 1995, is dropped in favour of a pair multi-element lighting units, each covered by a single piece of glass.
Inside, Mercedes says, materials, fit and finish have all been improved. There’s a “three-tube” instrument cluster, a redesigned centre console and a new multifunction steering wheel with a column-mounted gear selector and wheel-mounted shift paddles on automatic models.
When it comes to “intelligent drive” technology, the revised E-Class borrows heavily from its larger stablemate, the forthcoming all-new 2013 S-Class.
“Intelligent drive” started with Pre-Safe seat-belt tensioners and Distronic Plus adaptive cruise control but now runs to a much longer list of features. All new E-Class models will get radar-based Collision Prevention Assist and a drowsiness warning system – Attention Assist – as standard.
Other systems are optional, and include the Pre-Safe Brake autonomous braking system, which is effective at speeds up to 30 mph, and Pre-Safe Plus, which can detect an imminent rear-end shunt for a stationary car, priming its safety systems in order to minimise harm to the occupants.
Adaptive Highbeam Assist PLUS allows full-beam headlamps to be used permanently without dazzling oncoming traffic or drivers in cars in front by masking out other vehicles in the beams’ cone of light, while Active Blind Spot Assist warns the driver before a lane-change if it detects another vehicle in the blind spot area.
