2010 Mercedes-Benz E Class - Performance Review

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Shopping for a 2010 Mercedes-Benz E Class? MSRP: $48,050 - $85,750

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The 2010 Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupe grows in size and mission—and in the process, it walks away from a fight with the BMW 3-Series, according to reviews researched by TheCarConnection.com. While the CLK mixed parts from the C-Class Benz and the bigger E-Class, this time the blend is more E-Class than C-Class. As a result, “the big Merc coupe remains a boulevardier and not a 3 Series-eater,” Motor Trend observes. It’s “more relaxed and less sporty compared with the 2009 CLK, and along the way it drops out as a competitor for BMW's unbeatable 3 Series coupe.”

It is, however, a grand-touring coupe with astonishing high-speed stability and two flexible, powerful engines. The 2010 E-Class Coupe is offered to American car buyers in two flavors: the E350 Coupe and E550 Coupe. The “existing engine technology,” AutoWeek says, brings a “3.5-liter, 268-hp V6 in the E350 and the 5.5-liter 382-hp V8 in the E550.” The V-6 version “pulls hard and is capable of hustling the car to 60 mph in an impressive 6.1 seconds,” Car and Driver reports, but adds “although the E350 never feels slow or winded, it lacks the sexy engine notes of, say, the Infiniti G37 or any six-cylinder BMW.” Enthusiast magazines prefer the throatier sound and more muscular power of the V-8 engine: its “5.0 second 0-60 time will come in handy fleeing imagined paparazzi much better than the V6's 6.2 seconds,” Jalopnik thinks.

A Sport feature on the V-8 version also changes the car’s behavior slightly, quickening throttle response and speeding up transmission shifts. On both versions of the rear-drive E-Class Coupe, a seven-speed paddle-shifted automatic is the only transmission offered. Automobile calls it “smooth in normal driving,” but feels it “can be slow to react and clumsy in manic driving.”

The 2010 E-Class Coupe’s ride and handling draw universal praise for “straight-line stability,” which AutoWeek notes, “even at seriously high speeds, is superb.” Edmunds describes the Coupe’s “deeply impressive on-road character” and reports its “first impression is of real serenity.” They add it’s “a real improvement on the old CLK, even if the overall impression is not exactly sporting in nature.” Car and Driver points out the “utter repose of the chassis and the eerie silence at triple-digit speeds,” and Jalopnik remarks “corners are taken with virtually no body roll” and that the E-Class Coupe “hits the 130 MPH speed limiter in a picture of composure, it'd be happy there all day.” The Coupe does so with a pair of suspensions and electronic assists; the E350 Coupe has a standard Agility Control setup that changes shock pressures through a mechanical switch. Optional on this Coupe is “Advanced Agility Control, which adds faster and more-intuitive electronic damping and the choice of two setups, Comfort and Sport, as well as a variable steering rack boasting a quicker ratio as optional equipment,” AutoWeek states. The V-8 Coupe has a different setup altogether; the “Dynamic Handling” suspension “uses computer-controlled adjustable shocks to allow both a smoother ride and better body control than the E350's,” Automobile says. With this, drivers can “click a cheapish button on the dash marked ‘Sport’ and the suspension firms up noticeably, throttle response sharpens and revs are held longer,” Jalopnik attests.

An aside: Reviews of the 2010 E-Class Coupe’s steering are nearly as divided as those on styling. Automobile finds that “typical of most Mercedes, the steering is devoid of feedback on-center, where there's an appreciable amount of play in the system,” which can be a handful in crosswinds. Motor Trend, however, praises the mechanical, not electronic, steering and thinks it’s “very light and gets a bit numb on-center, yet it's rather quick and precise.”