W214 Mercedes-Benz E200 Review: Not Just For The Nerds

0 218 9 minutes read

All the cool tech toys in the Mercedes-Benz E200 is fortunately just to be the cherry on top of a great car.

While Mercedes-Benz may conjure up an image of old school luxury and elegance, it would not do to forget that the products from the three-pointed star marque have also actually been at the cutting edge of automotive technology. Up until very recently after all, the poster child for what future tech in cars was in fact be the S-Class.

And while many other automakers may have since attempted to steal that crown from Mercedes-Benz, the German automaker has not exactly given up on its tech supremacy without a fight. This thus goes some way in explaining then why a significant chunk of the press material regarding its latest W214 iteration of E-Class was solely devoted to bigging up the various tech toys it has brought along to the party.

So since Mercedes-Benz went to such trouble in highlighting its techi-ness, it is perhaps only right then to start the review of this latest E200 here with a few comments on exactly that.

Let’s Talk Tech

The Screens

Despite this lower-end E200 missing out on the more premium E350 e’s Superscreen setup with a dedicated front passenger display, the 12.3-inch digital driver’s display and a 14.4-inch infotainment touchscreen it has is still to be incredibly crisp to the eye, and ever so responsive to the touch.

The massive screen however is also a total fingerprint magnet, and just slightly too tilted away for this writer’s liking. But it has to be said that even at its current angle, there was never an occasion, even in the strongest of glaring sunlight, that the screen was whited out.

AI-Assisted Routines

One of the more touted features with the latest generation of Mercedes Benz User Experience (MBUX) operating system found in the E200 is the ability to pre-set routines (like on a smartphone) for certain tasks, with the car apparently smart enough (through the touted use of AI) to create these routines for you too if it identifies a pattern of regular behaviour after a while.

Now unfortunately, in the short time this writer had with the E-Class, this particular feature wasn’t to be utilised to its fullest capacity for a proper review. Though the few simple pre-set routines that were set to test out this feature does hint at its potential usefulness for longer-term owners.

Digital Key

New to this generation of E-Class is the ability to lock and unlock the vehicle via an iPhone or an Apple Watch through ultra-wideband (UWB) tech. Perhaps more impressive than that too is there is the ability for the owner of said Mercedes-Benz to send the keys to various members through Apple Wallet, with the owner then being able to dictate who has access to these digital car keys at any given time through the app.

Unfortunately for Android users however, this rather handy feature is thus far only available for Apple products. So there is similarly to be no comment on how it actually works in the real world from this writer and his Samsung smartphone.

Navigation

While many default to Google Maps or Waze (through the available wireless Apple CarPlay or Android Auto integration) for its live traffic and potential police presence updates, the on-board Mercedes-Benz satellite navigation feature does nevertheless have quite a few cool tricks up its sleeve that will make one at least consider making use of that giant map view that is on display by default on the home screen of this E-Class.

For starters, its Google-linked destination search feature makes finding even the most obscure restaurants a reality. On the road meanwhile, augmented reality arrows overlaid on to a live feed showing the road ahead in the central screen makes life that little bit easier when it comes to determining exactly which lane exactly to stick to while navigating the various spaghetti junctions around KL.

One other rather useful feature also with this in-built nav is that when stopped at a junction, the same live feed of the front pops up as ‘traffic light view’. And thanks to the wide-angle and slightly elevated position of its camera (mounted behind the rear view mirror), this hence enables the driver to see from the display a clear view of the traffic light at any given moment, with it coming in especially handy on the occasions when the car is the first in the traffic light queue, and the sole traffic light at the junction is on the island right beside the car.

MBUX Games

Touching upon the more gimmicky aspects of this latest MBUX now, one of the features that initially sounded daft upon its reveal was for this latest E-Class to come with the ability to download various teleconferencing and game apps. Because why not take advantage of having a massive iPad on the dash, eh?

After spending quite a fun session playing Bird Bump with a friend while killing some time in the car however, this writer has since saw the social entertainment potential in these games, especially if younger kids are involved.

Mercedes Me App

The Mercedes Me smartphone app that is integrated with this latest E-Class is decently slick to use, and has all the expected usual vehicle control and information overview features. The automatic integration of one’s calendar into the app is a rather neat touch too, especially when there is also the option to natively send events and their location through to the vehicle’s navigation system.

Now beyond what is featured in the brochure meanwhile, here are just a few more comments on the other less headline-grabbing tech toys.

The surround view camera is of a rather high resolution, which makes parking this large barge a breeze. The wavy effect for proximity also adds a touch of sophistication to the proceedings.

While the climate controls have since been moved into the screen too, it at least has easy-to-identify and forever visible icons at the bottom of the screen (even when Android Auto is running) for easy temperature and fan speed adjustment.

And while on the topic of buttons, the E-Class still blessedly has physical volume controls integrated into the bank of buttons right below the massive central screen. The physical on/off button for the central infotainment screen also comes with a full system off option upon pressing it, which is amazing for when the display inevitably needs rebooting after it bugs out.

In terms of gripes on the other hand with the on-board tech, it would be remissed not to moan again about the infuriating haptic controls on the multi function steering wheel, where the change track situation (which requires a precise literal swipe) is still as fiddly as ever.

Also for the company that is currently pioneering Level 3 autonomous driving, the E200’s adaptive cruise control does like to leave a school bus-sized gap to the leading car, even when set to the closest following distance and trudging along in slow moving traffic. This therefore sees other cars constantly using this opening as an opportunity to cut in ahead, for which the system then sometimes does not register until it becomes a bit too butt-clenchingly close for the person behind the wheel.

Though perhaps even more frightening regarding its active driver aids is for this writer to have experienced more than one instance phantom braking (even when the adaptive cruise deactivated), which was certainly not a fun experience worth repeating.

But let’s be real here, the person who actually has the money to buy an E-Class is usually the more the Sony Walkman than the iPod demographic. So what’s the rest of the car like, as a car?

The Rest Of The Car

Well, starting within first and despite all its aforementioned modern tech-iness, this new E-Class’ cabin still has that sense of old-school luxury one would expect from a Mercedes-Benz. From the open-pore black ash wood on the centre console to the Artico synthetic leather on the seats and the steering wheel, everything just had a premium look and feel to it.

What is slightly disappointing about this new E-Class’ cabin though is that contrary to how massive it feels on the road, space is surprisingly skint within. While the front is decently palatial, those in the rear however will have to contend with a massive central tunnel that makes three abreast behind a bit of a squeeze. Its seat backs are also slightly too upright to be comfortable and its base bit too short for those with longer torsos and legs respectively, which is rather surprising for car built by and for the typically generously proportioned Germans.

Now moving onto the driving part meanwhile, the ride with this E-Class is expectedly waft for an executive-level Mercedes-Benz. Its rather composed suspension irons out most of the bumps on the rough KL roads, while the squidgy seats insulates one’s arse from the rest of it.

E200 only it may be also, but the 2.0-litre mild-hybrid turbo four-pot is still decently capable of seeing this large sedan pick up a good amount of speed (and make quite a good noise while doing so). As for after getting up to speed meanwhile, does it even require any mention here that this E-Class makes doing (a hypothetical) 160 km/h feel like 60 km/h, as is befitting of a Benz built to cope with the rigours of the ‘bahn.

Though while refinement is expectedly high in the E, one can’t help but be spoiled by the current crop of EVs and say that, despite the best efforts of Mercedes-Benz engineers to dampen out the four-pot under the hood, it is however still no match for the complete lack of noise and vibration that comes from an all-electric powertrain for the last word in luxury.

A few other complaints to that end worth pointing out here too is that the 9-speed dual-clutch transmission has the common dual-clutch issue of being ever so slightly juddery, especially when crawling in traffic between first and second gear. And while the automatic stop-start is expectedly smooth in its activation, it does unfortunately also have the tendency to roll back a tad if it activates on an incline.

Finally onto the last bits of the critiques about this new E-Class and to each their own here, but there could be the observation that its exterior aesthetic isn’t exactly Mercedes-Benz’s finest work. The black surround around its front grille has added unnecessary visual weight to its already-brash face, while the three-pointed star light signatures incorporated into its rear LEDs just feel a bit too chintzy for what is supposedly an elegant executive mobile.

Though all these minor niggles really don’t detract from the fact that this E200 here is still a pretty good car, and those who want an executive sedan at present should certainly be entertaining the thought of putting this Mercedes-Benz high up on their list of considered candidates. It just remains a question now then as to whether said prospective purchaser might entertain the thought of getting themselves into the E350 e plug-in hybrid variant instead, with the increased refinement and potential fuel saving benefits countered by the presumably worse future resale values and longer-term maintenance headaches.

Odds & Ends

The E200 is a rarity among modern Mercedes-Benzes where its variant numbering follows the original engine capacity designation. Eg. 200 = 2.0-litre.

The handle used to lift up the boot floor in the E200 has the nifty dual function of hooking to the boot lip, and hence holding up the boot floor for easier access to the things under the false floor. These things include a foldable basket that lives in its own dedicated cut-out under the boot floor.

Mercedes-Benz seems to be in a phase of utilising physical controls with minimal movement now. Both the seat control buttons and exterior door handles offer very little directional play upon physical interaction during their normal operation.

The E200’s weird boomerang air vents up front means that the actual adjustable bit on the extremities are quite small. It is nevertheless quite adjustable in spite of its size, meaning that one could actually get it to blow a decent-enough amount of air at precisely the desired area.

While not present anywhere in the centre console, there is still to be an auxiliary 12 V port tucked away in the passenger footwell of the E200.

The factory-branded 7-speaker setup in the E200 is decent despite not being the Burmester units found in its higher-end E350 e counterpart. One critique however was that it wasn’t exactly a surround sound unit, and the directionality of the sound from which speaker it came from was quite noticeable.
The rather sophisticated interior ambient lighting situation, with the many illuminated tiny three pointed stars on its dash panel does do a decent job of injecting the admittedly monochromatic interior palette with a bit of funky modern pizzazz when it is dark outside. It did however also invite comparisons to a disco/nightclub, depending on the age of the commenter.