Mercedes Benz E Class 320 Elegance Review

Overall Rating

Conventional high quality sedan. State of the art safety features, nice though a little clunky nav system, good handling. Great looks, instant credibility.

Dealer service uneven from dealer to dealer, call in service rather arrogant/dismissive. Jack almost broken because wheel chocks weren't provided (even on level ground). On heavy acceleration danger of overspeeding due to down shift to first(?).

I moved from a BMW 328i to the 01 Mercedes Benz E Class 320 Elegance xecutive Car mainly due to boredom--I'd had three BMW's and was ready for a change. At first I didn't like the change too much--missed the sport handling of the Beemer. But after a few months the MB grew on me and now I like the well organized amenities and overall quality. For examples, despite its generally great qualities, (1) the BMW speedometer was off by 3 to 5 mph (depending on speed), which I never really got used to. The MB is dead on accurate in everything; (2) The BMW cruise control had a lag after setting it and then a recovery. The MB immediately captures the speed with no perceptible movement at all. The MB is 5 years newer than the BMW.

I (vainly perhaps) decided if I was going to drive a luxury car, I should get a certain amount of, well, ATTENTION. The Beemers have become so (justifiably) popular and numerous that no one notices.

As expected, my MB purchase did get me admiration and envy. Bear in mind, I bought a black car with black upholstery, and it is the "sport" model, which has 17 inch alloy wheels and just looks more macho and cool than the standard model.

People have approached me in parking lots and said things like "Cool car", and "That's a nice looking car", and such.

Lawyers at the courthouse where I practice (lawyers are the worst for envy and concern about appearances) have tried to find out how much I paid for it, and have given me appraising looks like "How does this court-appointed lawyer get into this, he must be onto something else I don't know about."

Generally I get a lot more respect than with the faithful old 328i.

I'm at 60,000 miles now and I have little to complain about. One of the dash LED's burnt out segments at only about 30,000 miles but that was replaced on warranty. The glove box lock assembly fell off due to the two attach screws backing out (from vibration I suppose), which a dealer fixed for no charge.

I bought and stow in the trunk small collapsible wheel chocks to deal with that problem (above).

The car is under the Certified Program with a 100,000 mile warranty. I'll see how it goes from here to 100,000.

Members' Comments onEBROOKS's Review

• EBROOKS on 5th Aug 2006

  I'm at 130,000 now without any problems to mention. As soon as the car was out of warranty I (luckily) found an excellent independent shop. They charge about half of what M Benz does and are much more helpful/approachable. I can go into the shop and inspect the remaining brake pad wear with the mechanic while the car is on the hoist, for example.
  
  I replaced the front brake pads a little after 100,000. The rear pads were still serviceable. I came back at about 125,000 and the rear pads didn't show any additional wear! The mechanic accused me of dragging my feet out of the car to stop it!
  
  I commute on highways so there is little braking.
  
  I am now having some minor problems with the computerized ignition keys which are intermittant opening the door locks. I am monitoring this, but the manual override means the problem is not of any real significance.
  
  I continue getting average 27--28 mpg highway with 30,000 on the plugs installed after 100,000. These are 100,000 mile plugs, with aviation-style side electrodes (two per plug).
  
  The car does not use oil between changes (15,000 miles).