[REVIEW] E500 with 7G-tronic

[GIR]

Just came back from returning this beauty and as promised the review of the E500 I've been driving around all wekend.

Exteriour & first impression
I don't think I have to tell you guyz much about the new design, everybody has seen a new E-Class by now. It looks just like it's older brother except more sleak and less square. I think the MB design department did good with this one, it's a real beauty.



Getting in
Everybody knows about the MB keyless-go feature by now, just grab the doorhandle with the transponder key in your pocket and the car unlocks by itself. The interiour is very nice, MB did really good on this one and I think all the critics will be silenced once they see the E-Class interiour. It's actually the same interiour as the S-Class with a few subtle changes here and there which make it look fresh and modern. Also the whole looks like it's been carved out of one block of leather, there are no seams insight. I like it very much.



I specialy like the new instrument cluster and button layout. The dailplates are now round all the way round. The temprature and fuel gauges have been replaced by a analog clock. the temp and fuel gaugs have been replaced by bargraphs and moved to eitherside of the cluster. In the center of the speed-o there's a LCD display which can display allkinds of information and allows you to change stuff without taking your eyes off the road.

All in all the software onboard has the same features as the S-Class. There are some wacky settings, the thing that never made sense about my S500 is that I could set how long the licenseplate light should stay on when I got out at night. Well now that feature is on the E aswell.



One thing that bothered me is that the COMAND unit display is much smaller then the one on my S500. Like 1/3 smaller. it has barely enough room to display all the vital information and the letters on it are small. I hope they put in a larger diplsay in the next redesign.

One feature that dropped my yaw is the CD changer, I really wished I had this on my S500. The CD cartridge is loaded into the dash... "uuh?" I hear you say. Let me explain, look at this picture:



Find the flasher traingle, it's just above the shifter. Just below the flasher traingle there's a little chrome strip, no it's not for decoration. When you push that chrome strip the whole section moves froward to eject a CD cartridge holding 6 CD's. Very nice detail and very high showoff ratio.

Another thing I liked very much is that fact that they moved the climate controls to the top of the dash. In my S they were located below the COMAND unit so everytime i wanted to change the temp I had to lookdown. Now they're right infront of you're nose.

The rest is standard MB stuff. Seat, mirror and window controls are located on the doors. The phone holder is located below the armrest. Also it's filled with small gadgets and electronics that make driving safer and more comfortable but are out of sight and you won't notice that they're there.

Here comes the sun
The model I drove around had the new panorama roof with sun collectors to power the climate control and charge the battery while the engine is switched off. With a panorama roof the entire roof has been made off glass with the front half able to slide open. There'a also a regular roof available.

I don't know what to think of the panorama roof. It's a nice feature but it also destroys the asthetics of the car. The suncollectors in the panorama roof are a nice touch. Too bad you can't order the sun collectors without the panorama roof. The suncollectors power the fan which in turn keeps the car cool on a hot day. So no more stepping in to a hot car anymore.

Driving the beast
Like I said the E500 I had, has a 7G-tronic tranny. Actually I'm not even sure if it was a 7G-tronic because nowhere in the manual did they say anything about 7 gears and the ride is so smooth that you don't feel the tranny jumping gears but the guyz at the dealership assured me that it has a 7G-tronic tranny. While driving you won't notice anything but the tranny does a mighty fine job at launching that car. It's everything the 5 speed auto is and more. Even though it's a auto it's feels like it's a manual, this is because the tranny automaticaly adjusts itself to your driving style. If you're driving agressively then the tranny will hold the current gear longer while shifting up or down. If you're driving calm then the tranny will cycle through the gears as fast as possible to give you a smooth ride. IMHO nobody should criticise this transmission before tryin it out thenselves, they'll love it.

The 5 liter V8 develops 225kW (306bhp) @ 5.600rpm and 460Nm @ 2.700 - 5.200 rpm a very wide power band. but yet the car is very stable and quite even at highspeed. I took it upto 200km/h (125mph), keep in mind that the speedlimit over here is 120km/h (75mph), and the car was still very quite and calm. Driving on the highway with this beauty is a joy. The car doesn't only get upto speed very fast but also can break very hard. If some ***** infront of you cuts you off you'll always have the pece of mind that a computer system is thinking along with you, once the ***** moves out your way you just press the pedal al little further and you're upto speed once again.

Handeling is very good. A few times I even thought I was in the batmobile and tried to take 90 degree turns at highspeed. Braking is a different story. The 2003 E is the first MB car with brake-by-wire standard on all cars, this means it has a dynamic breaking balance and breaking force which needs alot of getting used to. Breaking force is adjusted depending on your speed, how fast you pushed the pedal (ie the time it took), the time it took to jump fromt he gas to the break pedal and how far you push the pedal in. If you're pushing the breakpedal to stop before a redlight you'll linear push the pedal in untill the car comes to standstill, in this situation the brake-by-wire won't do much except throttle the calipers depeding on how far you pushed the breaks in. In a emergency situation you'll jump from the gas to the break pedal really fast and slam the breaks as hard and fast as you can, which is the worste thing you can do that's why we have ABS, the computer will detect this and taking according actions to get the car to a standstill as fast as possible while still keeping traction.

If you jump out a car which doesn't have this and jump into the new E at first you'll be suprised but after a while you'll get used to it and everything will be fine. I actually prefer dynamic breaking over linear breaking because you always apply enough force to get the car to standstill before you crash it. Except from the dynamic break ratio you won't notice anything from the brake-by-wire system. It feels prefectly natural and it provides very powerfull stops from any speed.

With the use of Airmatic DC (pneumatic suspension) and ABC (Automatic Body Control) the car is stable in even the most demanding situation. In the town I live in there's an old deserted road where I always go to test cars out. It's not been maintained for years and there's a little ramp like bump in the road, normaly if you go over this bump at high speeds you're car will be launched but when I went over this bump in the E500 nothing happend, the car stayed in the road like there is no bump. It's a real bumpy road but I could hardly feel the bumps in the road.

What suprised me aswell is that the car is very silent. You don't hear any of the outside noises in the car. Even more at highspeeds you don't hear any airdrag sound in the car. This can mostly be tributed to the low air drag coefficient of 0.27, in other words this car cuts through air like a hot knife through butter.

I love this car, but...
..I still wouldn't buy it. Why I hear you ask. The answer is really straightforward, it's because of the brake-by-wire system. "AHA!" I'm hearing latenite yell. Calm down latenite let me explain. It is my principal to never buy the first generation of new technology or new car. I always buy a second or third generation because that will give them time to collect feedback and improve upon. Also because it's new there's always a race to who can put it up on the market ASAP. Most of the time the first generation of new tech doesn't have any extra features because they don;t have much time to test and implement those. With the second and later generations they have enough time to pt extra features in. In the near future I would love to own one of these, but not just yet.

Conclusion
MB did exceptionaly well on this car. It is a alround car for everybody, it has lots of storage space, you can fit the whole family in it, it is filled with new tech, it corners and breaks exceptionaly well and it is fast. To be honest I don't know why anybody would prefer an S-Class over this because it's everything the S is and even more. The only thing the S has got over the E is more bodymass. So if you're a capatalist showoff I'm sure you'd enjoy driving around in a S but if you want a good comfortable car that drives really well you'd go for a E and still have a S feeling.

I've had the car for 3 days and, except fromt he small COMAND display, I can't think up any bad points, I really love this car.

[thepolarfoxqx]

the brake by wire is a lot like BMW's active steering (so if you throw rocks at one, you must the other too!), it is a very good feature, worthwhile, makes sense, in the end everyone will love it, you just need to get adjusted to it. It just takes a bit of getting used to, nothing awful. Mercedes does need to retweak them i think, everyone i know who's driven it says it's very unnatural feeling, but maybe they just aren't used to it.

You'll never sell me on that 7Gtronic , in principal, it's a bad idea, as easy as that. I think 6 gears in an auto is still too many. I like the fact that it is so adaptive and works so well, and i'm sure driving it is great, but it seems like doing something just to have the highest number with no practical gain.

The Mercedes 5.0L V8 is getting old. It still works very well with tons of butter smooth linear torque, but it lacks the top end punch the newer audi, jaguar, lexus, and especially BMW V8s have.

Mercedes interiors are always one of their strong suits, and that one looks especially nice, but i have to, like you, wonder about that tiny comand screen, for 60k US, you probably should get something bigger.

Overall i think the E is now a very competitive car though, i'm very impressed with it.

[GIR]

I have to admit the brake-system feels different, but not all unnatural or synthetic. I think that most people immediatly would say it's unnatural because it's different.

There are two main factors that make the breaksystem different.
1. Instead of a cylinder filled with breaking fluids there's a gas cylinder behind the breakpedal providing counterforce. The principal behind it is the same but because the cylinder is filled with gas and because it doesn't have to power the calipers (hence it's much smaller) it has a much lighter feel to it, but the response is the same the harder you push the harder the gas pushes back. A plus in my opinion is the lack of ABS feedback, I hate that so much and now it's gone.

2. In some cases breaking is not instant or not linear to the amount you pressed the pedal in. Like in a emergency, when you slam the breaks, we're used to a immediate huge deceleration, which is wrong. It not only increases the needed distance to stop but also gives the car a will of it's own, the driver doesn't control it anymore. With break-by-wire the breaking force is increased little by little which results in a shorter distance and the driver still being in control of the car.

I think these 2 combined would make somebody believe it has a synthetic unnatural feel to it but it just requires alot of getting used to. I agree when you say that MB needs to tweak the breaksystem. I personaly wouldn't mind if the pedal was stiffer.

Personally I think they need the 7 gear auto for the highpower cars (ie the 65 cars) they've been producing lately, more gears means the gears can be placed closer together which in turn means smoother power and such. I think it has a little more smoother and sporty feeling to it. Heck if they would remove the limiter and gear the tranny a litle more agressive then it would have no problem reaching speeds of over 350km/h (220mph), but we know that's not gonna happen because MB tunes their cars with the topspeed of 250 km/h (155mph) in mind and aftermarket tuning on this transmission is going to be hard because of all the tech in it.

[LateNightCable]

I agree entirely about waiting for next generation technology, or at least a few model years. When they're rushing to be the first to market with something new, it won't be as good as it could be down the road. Hasn't the Lexus LS had a dash mounted pop-out CD changer for years? Not as elegant though.

So GIR, from a traveling enjoyment point of view, do you feel that with all of the good manners, and capability of the new E, is the AMG model an improvement on the formula, or unesessary - i.e. worth the bother?

[GIR]

That's a good question LNC and I was wondering about that myself. Here's what the mechanics over at ASV had to say.

With the AMG styling the E55 is a sexy beast! But for some reason it also has 110kg (that's 242 pounds) more weight up front which totaly destoys the handeling. Sure it has lots of power but when the corners come the body of the car lags behind the power. The E500 actually handles better then the E55.

The AMG mechanics probably didn't know howto deal with all the new electronic gizmo's in the car because it's setup totaly wrong. The break pedal is too soft, the suspension is too soft, the gear program is set just not right.

What would be better, and this is coming directly from the mouth of a MB mechanic, is to order a E500 and take it over to Brabus or Renntech and have them have a go at it. It will cost you a little bit more but you'll have a proper sportscar that weighs less and is setup the right way.

I'm told the first thing the Brabus guyz do is take out the standard suspension and brakes and replace them with proper ones.

Further more dynamic breaking just isn't suited for a racing car. What they need on the E55 is a toggle switch that can turn dynamic breaking off. Have linear breaking, the amount you push the breaks in is the amount of break force you get. But I guess the mayority of E55 buyers won't bother with such thing because the only reason they buy the car is because it's a AMG. They'll never race it and they'll never take it onto a track.

I think that's the mayor flaw in the whole AMG concept. Mercedes AMG tunes their cars to please their buyers, thinking that the mayority off the AMG buyers only buy the car because it sais AMG. The mayority of the buyers won't even miss the money they spend on the car and don't know jack when it comes to cars, they only look at the numbers and think they have a sporty car. They won't take it onto a track and they won't race it so just slap on some more horsies and add some extra stuff so it feels more sporty. The final result is a cruiser which has racer tendencies but just doesn't cut it as a racer. What they need todo is drop that nonsense and just tune their cars like they used todo before Mercedes bought them and also make the cars in limited production runs.

Personaly I think the E55 is a nice idea but from what I'm hearing bad execution. The E500 is made to be a cruiser not a racer, the E55 is the racer of the family. The E500 is ment to get upto cruising speed really fast and smooth. The E55 is setup to be launched and driven agressively, it's hard to explain the difference but there's a huge gap between the two.

If what the ASV mechanics are saying is true, and there's a high probabilty it is because these guyz do nothing but hang around these cars all day, then the people over at AMG could still learn alot from the people over at BMW M. At this point DaimlerChrysler should take it's hands off AMG and give them free reign over the products. Everybody can see that the AMG cars have been built to be commericaly apealing instead of being supercars, for example the 65 cars... need I say more?

For everyday travelling the E500 will do just fine. I really don't see the need for buying a E55 unless you really want that AMG badge on the car.

[skyline_r34v]

Hell if u that damn desperate and subjective to havin a AMG badge.
Get the E500 and buy this then, that should make u happy.

http://www.racerwheel.com/rt001606.html

[GIR]

That sticker should look nice on a Skyline :P ;)

[skyline_r34v]

ah HAH ah HAH very funny almost laughed.
i wouldn't have a worthless amg sticker on my skyline maybe on ur pinto but thats ur ride and u pimp it how u want BIG DAWG :P

[GIR]

Heck if I had a Pinto I would airbrush the AMG logo allover, mighty fine improvement.

[LateNightCable]

And on that note ...