This 2014 Mercedes-Benz E350 4Matic sedan is the near-perfect car for me. It would be even more so as a wagon, but it is darn fine as a sedan, too.
The car does
2014 Mercedes-Benz E350 4Matic Sedan
Base Price: $54,400
As-Tested Price: $66,290
Drivetrain: 3.5-liter V6; AWD, seven-speed automatic
Output: 302 hp @ 6,500 rpm, 273 lb-ft @ 3,500-5,250 rpm
Curb Weight: 3,979 lb
Fuel Economy (EPA City/Highway/Combined): 20/29/24 mpg
AW Observed Fuel Economy: 23.8 mpg
nothing spectacularly. It doesn't stand out or shout. It goes about its business quietly and subtly. It is, however, very good in all aspects -- comfort, build quality, around-town ride, freeway cruising. It just doesn't yell.
Its overall experience is all so effortless. Just sitting and looking the exterior, the facelift is low key. The grille looks a bit different -- it's softer with new headlamp lenses and more of a blended, tighter look overall.
The V6 is silky smooth as is the seven-speed automatic. The all-wheel drive system is unnoticeable in day-to-day use, but I bet it would show itself more in the winter. The car is not a pro stocker off the line, but the power comes on smoothly. The ride is firm. The steering is really light at lower speeds but gets firmer as speed goes up. The car is not as isolated from road imperfections as I thought it might be. I don't mean that as a criticism, but you do feel road imperfections more so than in some cars considered luxury sedans.
As I said, the E-class doesn't really stand out in any one way, but the updated E feels more whole than the old car. It does everything well without screaming “look at me!” This is the luxury midsize king to me.
Back when I was a kid (we're talking early '80s here, not the Neolithic era), the few people I knew who had a Mercedes-Benz had owned their car for eons -- in a few cases, longer than I'd been alive. Everyone else seemed to rotate cars every couple years, but those Mercedes stayed constant, and both the cars' longevity and their owners' loyalty left an impression on me.
Thoughts of staid Mercedes sedans took a back seat to most everything else during my late teens and 20s, but now that life includes kids, rush-hour traffic and high-tech-but-disposable family cars, the E-class Benz speaks to a certain element of my automotive psyche. The sensible, responsible side? Perhaps, but I still have trouble calling a $66,000 sedan sensible.
Whatever characteristic appeals to me, the 2014 Mercedes-Benz E350 4Matic has a lot of it. This car exudes quality and refinement sans ostentation. No one will notice a silver E-class driving down the street, but you don't care. You're engaged in premium motoring; relaxed, confident and serene.
The impressions start the moment your butt hits the seat. There's an open, airy greenhouse -- something Mercedes cars haven't always been able to boast -- yet exceptional sound deadening. You can see everything, but you don't have to interact with it; the antithesis of sports cars, perhaps, but ideal for a luxury sedan. Steering, handling and braking are all best complemented by the lack of adjectives needed to describe them. They simply do what you want, how and when you want. That's not to say the E350 can't play -- punch up sport mode and throw the car around as much as you like. It's no AMG, but there's plenty of grip in the stock tires, solid, direct steering and remarkably flat cornering available up to a limit much higher than most E-class drivers will ever demand. Kudos, too, go to the seven-speed automatic transmission, which is perfectly programmed to the V6's output.
Even within Mercedes' own lineup, the E350 is unique: good as it is, the new S-class is too darn complicated and the C-class is too small. On the competitive front, the BMW 5-series is too sterile. The A6 is close, but it's fundamentally still a front-wheel-drive car and feels it.
