The arrival of the new E-Class is undoubtedly another charge to recapture the China market. Judging from the appearance, control, configuration and surprising price of the new E-Class, Mercedes-Benz is definitely prepared this time. Imagine what you will sigh when you see (|) instead of A6 all over the street.
In China, Mercedes-Benz always seems to be overshadowed by Audi and Audi. Although it has been made in China, the market performance of C-class is still far behind that of Audi A4 and (|), and E-class has been oppressed by Audi A6 and (|) for a long time. Even the most popular S-class has to give way to Audi A8 and (|) when it comes to market data, and there is also a spoiler by SL. Mercedes-Benz certainly doesn’t want to be regarded as a "soft persimmon", what’s more, there is a huge and growing automobile consumption market in front of us.
The new E-Class has come, just after it was listed in Europe, and it came to China at the fastest speed, and it came with a very sincere price. On July 21st, 2009, Mercedes-Benz announced that the E 300 had officially entered the China market by way of import. There were two versions of the E 300: the elegant version and the fashionable version, and the price was 618,000 yuan and 668,000 yuan respectively. To be honest, this price surprised us a little. On the 20th day after the listing of E 300, this print also received an elegant test drive of E 300.
If you don’t know enough about Mercedes-Benz E-Class, you don’t know how to appreciate the car in front of you. Mercedes-Benz E-Class was born in 1947, and now it is the 9th generation model. After 62 years of development and improvement, the new generation E 300 exudes an irresistible charm.
Compared with the previous generation E-class (W211), the shape of the new E-class pays more attention to the use of straight lines. In fact, the previous generation of E-Class is recognized as the most classic E-Class. Perhaps the designers of Mercedes-Benz are tired of endless arcs, or they want to bring a sense of freshness to consumers at a glance, so they play a straight line on the new generation of E-Class. Starting with the headlights, the design of the previous generation E-class double-round headlights won a lot of praise for it, and it is also the most important identification sign of Mercedes-Benz E-class. The new E-class still retains this design of double headlights, but the outline of the lights has been changed from round to quadrilateral with great impact. The previous generation E-class hood is full and smooth, and the new E-class hood has several obvious folding lines, which makes the new E-class body look more refined and full of power. The use of straight lines makes the new E-class bumper look tougher. There are two more LED strips arranged in a broken line in the original fog light area. The use of LED daytime running lights first appeared on (|), and now this configuration has also appeared on the new E-class, which is undoubtedly an improvement for the appearance of the new E-class.
Mercedes-Benz’s classic symmetrical chrome grille is expected to continue to be used in this century, but this simple and classic grille is more imposing against the straight headlights and bumpers, and the Mercedes-Benz logo is printed on the upper part of the grille. Like Mercedes-Benz S-Class, the front end of the new E-Class also stands a Mercedes-Benz three-pointed star logo, which is not only to let the driver know where the bumper is, but also to bring a distinguished experience to its owners. I’m afraid this feeling can only be realized by sitting in the driver’s seat and looking through the wide hood and falling on this shiny logo.
The side of the new E-class presents a dive-forward trend. The roof is no longer a smooth curve, but two obvious corners are formed at the A-pillar and the rear windshield. A shiny chrome trim surrounds the whole window, and there is also a straight chrome trim at the lower end of the door, which echoes the window up and down, further improving the overall appearance. The biggest attraction of the new E-class tail is the taillight. Compared with the previous generation E-class, the new taillight is larger in size and also adopts a straight line design. The LED lighting element in the taillight is an indispensable configuration for this class of vehicles.
It is worth mentioning that the E 300, which is full of straight lines, has a drag coefficient as low as 0.25, which directly shows that the car is still quiet even when driving at a speed of 140 km/h.
Compared with the unique shape, the E 300 car has more contents, from the layout of the whole interior to the handling of details, from the selection of materials to the extremely meticulous workmanship, showing the extremely high car-making technology of Mercedes-Benz.
The overall interior design style of E 300 continues the design elements of Mercedes-Benz and adds more straight-line design, and many details are directly taken from S-class. The steering wheel is designed with four spokes. The shiny Mercedes-Benz logo is embedded in the raised base in the middle. A few simple buttons integrated on the left and right sides can control almost all entertainment functions and vehicle information. As for the feel of the steering wheel, just looking at it shows that it is extraordinary. The levers at the rear of the steering wheel are also very knowledgeable. The most important lever is set at the lower left, which is within reach. This lever not only controls the turn signal and the far and near headlights, but also integrates the control of the wiper. People who have just come into contact with Mercedes-Benz models may not adapt to it. Above this lever is a cruise control lever with speed limit function, but it is a bit cumbersome to operate. The electronic lever is placed on the upper right of the steering wheel, which is also directly transplanted to the S-class. The size of this electronic shift lever is almost the same as that of other shift levers, and it is not the same as what we usually say. The specific use method is that in the case of P shift lever, it can be converted into D shift lever when it is pushed down to the bottom and R shift lever when it is pushed up to the top. N shift lever is located between D shift lever and R shift lever, and P shift lever can be changed through the button at the top of the shift lever. Of course, you can also shift gears through the shift paddle behind the steering wheel. The five instruments in the dashboard are designed symmetrically, the speedometer is the largest in the middle, and the tachometer and clock are the symmetrical positions on both sides. Putting the clock in the dashboard has always been a unique design element of Mercedes-Benz. This design expresses Mercedes-Benz’s respect for every owner.For those car owners who have a strong sense of time, this is undoubtedly a very humanized design.
Although the shape of the center console is more traditional, it faintly exudes a good atmosphere under the "fierce" air outlet embellishment. There is also a large-size LCD screen above, which is integrated with the dashboard through the design of the plate. This design is also like S-class. There is also an exquisite nameplate on the center console with the words "ELEGANCE" written on it, indicating that this is an elegant model, and such details may only be seen on Mercedes-Benz. Because there is no stop bar in the traditional position, it is not only transparent left and right, but also has more storage space. There is also an aluminum Comand system control knob behind the block, which is similar to the iDriver control knob on BMW.
E 300 continues the all-glass roof of the previous generation E-class, so it is easy to realize that there is a skylight in the front and rear rows. The comfort of Mercedes-Benz seats is self-evident, and the E 300 has inherited this advantage to the letter, and both the front and rear passengers have received the same preferential treatment. Compared with the previous generation E-Class, the wheelbase of E 300 has been improved, but compared with its competitors (|) and the extended BMW 5 Series, it still has no advantage.
The E 300 still uses the 3.0L V6 engine of the previous generation E-Class, and the previously rumored Blueefficiency series fuel direct injection engine did not enter China with the new E-Class. Matching this engine is a very mature 7G-Tronic transmission, which has a small impact on gear shifting. Under normal driving conditions, the gear shifting frustration and gear shifting gap can hardly be felt, so that when I first got this car, I wondered if this new E 300 was equipped with a continuously variable transmission. Even when the speed is raised and the paddle is used to shift gears, the impact of gear shifting is much weaker than expected. In addition, this transmission has excellent fuel economy because it has seven gears, and the transmission ratio of the seventh gear is very high. Even if the vehicle speed is close to 140km/h, the engine speed is still around 2000r/min.
E 300 is equipped with the newly developed "Direct Control" direct control suspension of Mercedes-Benz. At the same time, with the adaptive damping system, the damper can be adjusted according to the current driving situation: in normal driving, the damping force is automatically reduced with low damping pulse; When turning at high speed or avoiding danger urgently, the damping force will be increased to the maximum. There is a button marked with "S" and "C" next to the control knob of Comand system, through which you can directly switch between comfortable and sports driving modes. In comfort mode, the steering wheel, accelerator pedal and suspension, the whole vehicle’s driving and riding show soft characteristics. However, in sports mode, the steering wheel power seems to be lost, and it takes more effort than usual to complete the steering. This performance has only one purpose: more accurate steering. In addition to changes in steering, other parts of the vehicle have become "stiff", the most obvious of which is the suspension supporting four wheels. Especially when cornering at a certain speed, the suspension provides enough support, and the body has no inclination at all. This kind of chassis performance will make you more confident in the driver’s seat.
In order to obtain excellent handling performance, the static torsional stiffness of the car body is an important reference data. Compared with the previous generation, the static torsional stiffness of the new E-class has been improved by more than 30%. About 72% of all the body plates of the new E-class car are made of high-strength and ultra-high-strength steel, which has created a new record in the field of car manufacturing.
Generally speaking, the sum of various features of this E 300 in front of us has completely exceeded its price. Previously, in my personal opinion, compared with the same class models, Mercedes-Benz lacked everything, the only thing lacking was the price advantage. Now, in the face of this sincere E 300, I don’t know what kind of countermeasures BMW and Audi, two old rivals of Mercedes-Benz, will take.
