The 2024 Mercedes-Benz E-Class: A Luxurious Ride with Some Frustrating Features

I'm Emily Thomas, and I'll be reviewing the new all-new 2024 Mercedes-Benz E-class. This car comes with lots of new technology, a longer wheelbase, more headroom for the driver, and even more cargo room. Our test group purchased the E350 formatic, which came with a lot of packages and options. The most notable additions were the 20-inch wheels for $1,950, the MBUX Super Screen for $1,500, the Driver Assistance Package for $1,950, the Multicontour Seating Package for $2,950, and the Pinnacle Trim for $3,400. With a grand total of $77,780, this comes to an estimated cost.

Under the hood, our test car has a 2-liter inline-4-cylinder turbo engine with a mild hybrid system that produces 255 horsepower. This engine comes paired with a 9-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive, resulting in an EPA fuel economy estimate of 27 miles per gallon. It's worth noting that this mild hybrid system is different from a regular hybrid; it provides consistent climate performance and fuel efficiency gains when the stop-start system is operating.

My experience with the car was mostly positive. I found it to drive smoothly and handle turns nicely, but if you're looking for even more power and refinement, the optional 6-cylinder engine is an option. Overall, this E-class will provide beauty, luxury, and a comfortable ride, although some features may cause frustration.

When you get inside this car, you'll feel the $77,000 that you paid for everything is beautiful and luxurious. The driver and front passenger seats have really nice massage features, which I thoroughly enjoyed during my commute home. The driving position is pretty good, with lots of adjustments available to suit your needs. Basic seat adjustments are located on the door panel where Mercedes usually puts them.

However, if you want to adjust things like the lumbar or side bolsters, or even those massage features, you have to go into the infotainment screen. I recommend doing this for optimal comfort and adjustment. Once you've made all the necessary adjustments, you'll find that the front seat is actually very comfortable. However, there are a few minor issues – the seam on the side bolsters cuts into the back of my arms a bit, and personally, I wish the padded center console came forward more. As a short driver, I can barely get my elbow on it.

The rear seat is pretty spacious, allowing for two child seats to be easily fitted. One of them is my son's rear-facing car seat, which I could place behind me without any issues. Front visibility was good for me, with thin front pillars and a relatively high windshield that provides a clear view. However, the rear visibility was limited due to the sloped rear windshield and thick rear pillars.

The 2024 Mercedes-Benz E-class comes equipped with advanced safety technology, including a rear seat belt reminder, end of CHP alerts, and various convenience features like adaptive cruise control with Lane centering and Lane change assist. This car also features an interesting feature called Active Lighting. If you go into the Ambient Light settings, you can activate "Sound Visualization," which makes the light bars in the car pulse with the music.

While this might be a fun feature for kids or those looking to have a dance party, it's not ideal when driving at night. The flashing lights would reflect into the windshield and make it distracting. So, while the 2024 Mercedes-Benz E-class has many luxurious features and advanced safety technology, some of its capabilities may cause frustration or distraction.

Overall, this car is well-suited for those looking for a comfortable ride with plenty of luxury features. However, some users might find certain aspects frustrating due to their placement or functionality.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI'm Emily Thomas and this is the early review of the 2024 Mercedes-Benz E-class this is an allnew E-class that comes with lots of new technology a longer wheelbase a little bit more Headroom for the driver and Mercedes says even some more cargo room for our test group we purchased the E350 formatic this came with a lot of packages and options most notably the 20-in wheels for $1,950 the mbux super screen for $1,500 the driver assistance package for $1,950 the multicontour seating package for $2,950 and the Pinnacle trim for $3,400 the destination price was $1,150 which comes to a grand total of $ 77,78 under the hood our test car has a 2 L inline 4-cylinder turbo engine with mild hybrid system that makes 255 horsepower it comes with a 9-speed automatic transmission all-wheel drive and an EPA fuel economy estimate of 27 MP gallon overall I mentioned this has a mild hybrid system don't confuse that with a regular hybrid what that really means is that you get consistent climate performance and fuel efficiency gains when the stop start system is operating in my experience I found the car to drive really smooth and it handle turns so nicely but if you want even more power and refinement you can get the optional 6-cylinder engine overall this E-class will give you beauty and luxury probably with a side of frustration as well personally I Envision using this for spa commutes and dance parties but we'll talk more about that later when you get inside this car you're going to feel the $77,000 that you paid for everything is beautiful and luxurious is soft to the touch it's going to be very enjoyable for you the driver and front passenger seats also have really nice massage features which I fully enjoyed on my commute home driving position is pretty good there's lots of adjustments available to you your basic seat adjustments are here on the door panel where Mercedes usually puts them if you want to adjust things like the lumbar or side bolsters or even those massage features that I was talking about before you have to go into the infotainment screen I'm parked right now while I'm making these adjustments and going through these screens and that's what I recommend for you also once you've made all the adjustments for your driving position you'll find that the front seat is actually very comfortable I did find that the seam here on the side bolsters cut into the back of my arms a little bit and personally I wish that the padded center console came a bit more forward short driver like me and I can barely get my elbow on it the rear seat is pretty spacious I was able to fit two child seats back there and one of them is my son's rear facing car seat which I could put behind me and still have plenty of room front visibility was good for me these front pillars are pretty thin and as far as the rear visibility goes the rear windshield is a little too sloped and felt like it limited my view along with the fact that the rear pillars are also really thick so I mentioned before that this E-class comes with the Super Screen you might have heard of hypers screens in some Mercedes-Benz this is not that the hypers screen is one large screen that extends from the driver all the way to the passenger side the super screen has your Center screen and the passenger screen combined as one and a separate screen for the driver which I actually like a lot more the part of the super screen that extends to the passenger side allows for them to make climate adjustments radio Comfort adjustments all the kinds of things that are actually helpful and less distracting for you as a driver to do so it doesn't really mess with what you have going on on the center screen like your directions for example while everything in here looks really nice very sleek and Hightech this is where your frustration will likely begin the steering steing wheel controls are kind of annoying some of them are touch capacitive some of them require you to slide some of them are supposed to be pressed down but there's nothing that really gives you any haptic feedback that you've actually press them down in major selection so you're trying a bunch of different things as you're driving because you need to use the steering wheel controls for things like volume adjustment changing the media even turning on the adaptive cruise control and setting your distance and while using the ACC I actually learned something new you can increase the ACC by smaller increments than just 5 mph if you press the button it's 5 mph but if you slide the button it's 1 m per hour which is amazing some other things you'll experience in your day-to-day is the center console area so there's this nice covered bin which I really like as a mom cuz I like to keep all my kids stuff out of you and there's a spot here for your phone however it's a little tricky to get to if you have anything in the cup holders maybe if you have really small hands you can get in there so not a great placement another neat feature in this car is this camera which Mercedes says allows for you to do video conferencing on zoom and WebEx calls I mentioned dance parties earlier and that's because this car comes with something called active lighting if you go into the ambient light settings you can turn on something called sound visualization and what that will do is it'll make the light bars in the car pulse with the music and it'll be something like this the kids really enjoyed it but when we drove at night it was very obvious and pretty distracting to have the light bouncing with the music and it also reflected into the windshield so so not too sure about using it when I'm driving at night but maybe if the kids and I want to have a dance party in the driveway finally this car comes with a lot of safety technology including a rear seat belt binder and end of CHP reminder to tell you to check the back seats before you exit the car it also comes with active brake assist blind spot assist automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection and forward Collision warning and some convenience features like adaptive cruise control with Lane centering and Lane change assist so that's it for the 2024 Mercedes-Benz E-class be sure to check back with us for test results and more on luxury cars at consumerreports.org\n"