We’re here today to raise awareness for luxury-car hood ornaments. As grille-mounted badges try to push hood ornaments into history, we stand tall with them—above the radiator, of course.
Nowhere is this a battle more clearly evident than at Mercedes-Benz. Despite having the most enviable logo in the automobile industry, the three-pointed star, Mercedes designers prefer to affix it to thick-ribbed grilles. Message: “We’re fresh! We’re sporty!” In previous decades, giant central stars were primarily fixed to Benz coupes and roadsters. Now every model has one, mood lighting optional. Only the C-, E-, and S-class models continue to sprout a hood ornament. But let’s be real, is there anything truly sporty about a non-AMG Mercedes sedan? If it were our money, we’d take the 2017 E-class in its most elegant form, with a badge-less, thin-lined chrome grille and a hood ornament reminding us, at every stint behind the wheel, how much we’d spent.
MODEL: 2017 Mercedes-Benz E300 4MATIC (base price: $55,575; as equipped: $63,895)
The new E300 is $950 cheaper than the outgoing E350. A 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder replaces the 3.5-liter naturally-aspirated V-6, so power is down significantly from 302 horsepower to 241, yet the 273 lb-ft of torque remains the same, but is delivered at lower revs. A lower curb weight and two more gears (the automatic is a nine-speed) will help offset that power deficit, but we still expect that the E300 won’t be as quick as the E350. But let’s talk price: We’ve configured our E300 (the 2017 AMG E43 and E400 pricing is not out yet) to be representative of what you’ll actually find in dealer inventory. This is a car that will lease for $600 a month—the sweet spot for midsize luxury sedans—and is very well equipped.
We opted for the all-wheel-drive 4MATIC, which adds $2500 over the rear-wheel-drive E300, because it’s useful to have in winter weather. And if we haven’t made it clear by now, we chose the Luxury trim—to get the traditional grille and hood ornament—which is technically free but now requires the $1900 Air Body Control suspension. So it’s really not free (before, there was no cost difference between the Sport and Luxury trims). Besides the hood ornament, the Luxury trim comes with softer dampers, extra chrome trim, smaller (17-inch) wheels, and a dash covered in MB-Tex, the fake leather that actually looks and feels like real Mercedes leather. That’s also the standard upholstery for the eight-way power seats, which feature memory and adjustable lumbar support.
There’s a huge chunk of additional standard equipment in the new car versus the 2016 E350. Navigation with three years of map updates on the 12.3-inch central screen, an upgraded COMAND infotainment system with touch-sensitive controls on the steering wheel, push-button start, 64 colors of LED ambient lighting, LED headlamps, Dynamic Select driving modes, an electric parking brake, a fold-down rear seat, power-folding mirrors, remote start, and a second USB port. Forward collision alert with automatic braking, an early version of vehicle-to-vehicle networking that sounds warnings from other E-class drivers, and PRE-SAFE Sound (which emits “pink noise” during a crash to protect ears) are all standard.
OPTIONS:
Premium 1 Package ($3950)
Air Body Control ($1900)
Designo Magnolia “Flowing Lines” wood ($1300)
Lunar Blue Metallic exterior paint ($720)
Ventilated front seats ($450)
It’s all but impossible to find an E-class without the Premium 1 Package, which includes necessities such as heated front seats and a backup camera (which must be standard, per U.S. law, for the 2019 model year). It also includes automatic parking, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, keyless entry, power trunk with kick-swipe opening, SiriusXM satellite radio, a 14-speaker 640-watt Burmester stereo with those beautiful aluminum speaker covers, and wireless device charging. To our dismay, all of the E’s incredible self-driving capabilities are bundled into a new Premium 3 Package, for $11,250. Previously, the E offered driver assists in a separate $2800 package that only required Premium 1. The second 12.3-inch display for the instrument panel ($850) also requires Premium 3, so we skipped that, too. A large multi-function display still flanks the standard analog gauges. And since we’re fully capable of spraying our own cologne, we weren’t tempted by the in-car “fragrance atomizer.”
While the burl walnut and matte-finish brown ash woods are beautiful, we splurged on the honey-toned magnolia with its thin white inlays. Not only is it unique, this wood better compliments the wavy patterns on the Macchiato Beige seats and Espresso door and dash toppers. We had to select the ventilated front seats to swap out the piano black trim on the front doors (odd, considering the rear doors get the magnolia, but hey, chilled buttocks are a bonus). The two-toned diamond-quilted Nappa leather took our breath away, but so did its $12,550 price (it requires Premium 2). A $2990 upgrade to regular leather isn’t worth it, in our opinion; MB-Tex is really that good. For maximum comfort and minimum chance of curb rash, we kept the 17-inch wheels. The whole point of an E-class is to ride impeccably smoothly and quietly. There’s no sense pretending the E300 is a performance sedan. That’s for the AMG models.
At just under $64,000, our E300 is the most accessible way to rock a big, snobby Benz. It may not have all the gizmos shown on TV, yet no one will think you’ve skimped. Aside from spending more than twice the price on a Rolls-Royce or Bentley, there’s no better perch from which to view such splendid ornamentation.
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