In past generations, she was often labeled planet Earth’s favorite taxi. (Or have you always preferred the Ford Crown Victoria with the shiny black leatherette?) The Mercedes-Benz E-Class, however, has long since graduated to become a premium middle-management darling in all corners of the globe.
Still, even Mercedes-Benz North America would have to admit that a mid-life and/or new model year E-Class is not generally a traffic-stopping event. This time around, however, there’s more going on with Mercedes’ ninth-generation contender than, say, adding a new Pipe Smoker’s Package or overhead cold beverage storage-TRONIC. And while it may still not cause a road block, this mid-shelf-life version of the W212 E-Class should, at least, make everyone slow down to rubberneck a bit, because the new V6 and V8 E-Class wants to take you farther on a full tank while making more power and torque to exercise your executive privileges
When the freshened E350 shows up this September with its M276 3.5-liter V6, it’s expected to remain the lion of the line, with 80 percent of North American E-Class sales. It will continue to come in all three main bodystyles – sedan, coupe and convertible. All individual options and packages will be available for these three core Es. The E350 4Matic wagon will also remain, but it won’t be alone – it’ll be joined by the rear-drive E63 AMG Wagon with the latest M157 518-horsepower 5.5-liter bi-turbo V8 (550-hp with AMG Performance Package) to duke it out with the supercharged 556-hp Cadillac CTS-V Wagon. (*cue the singing angels*). There will naturally also be an E63 AMG sedan coming over with the new engine underhood.
In the meantime, all E550 V8 units sold in the U.S. will be sold only as 4Matics with Sport Styling included. That means no rear-wheel-drive E550s and no Luxury Styling pack for the V8, either.
And let’s not forget the E350 BlueTEC rear-wheel-drive-only sedan with its 3.0-liter turbodiesel V6. This one stays as is while adopting any tweaks inside and out.
We’ve just returned from Germany after driving some early examples of the E350 rear-wheel-drive sedan with Luxury styling, along with an E550 that was fully optioned with everything Sport and Premium thrown in. There were no Sport 4Matic V8s courtesy of Austria’s Magna Steyr available in the Euro-spec fleet for this test, so we made do with the 154-pound-lighter (and theoretically $2,500 cheaper) rear-driver. Folks in the Sunbelt states ought to be grumpy that we are no longer meant to get this latter trim – the car is a blast.
While North America finally gets a proper Gas Direct Injection version of the V6, which certainly accounts for most of the improvement in fuel consumption, North America’s sometimes higher sulfur content fuel has forced Mercedes to lose the stratified “lean burn” phase of the DI combustion cycle due to downstream catalyst and filter issues. The net-net is slightly less stellar mpg and C02 results versus the engine’s European counterpart. Nevertheless, the projected fuel economy improvements over the outgoing port-injected North American V6 are still around 20 percent, which means jumping from city/highway miles per gallon figures of 17/24 to roughly 20/28 – very impressive.
It’s impressive primarily because the 2012 E350 is now rated at 302 horsepower at 6,500 rpm and 273 pound-feet of torque between 3,200 and 5,250 rpm – that’s a 34-hp jump and a 15-lb ft leap in the midst of the much improved fuel economy and CO2 emitting. Other than the intro of direct injection to our 3.5-liter naturally aspirated V6, overall friction losses between the mechanical moving parts of the engine have been reduced some 28 percent, a move that permits the use of lower viscosity fluids. There’s less stress.
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