For decades, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class has been a great representation of the times. Each generation of the E-Class can serve as a memoir of its era, mirroring so well the palette of the rationally-driven wealthy. The fall of communism in post-Cold War Europe, for instance, had enabled a rapid transition from manufacturing to services, as a result of which, men engaged in the development of business were a highly rewarded lot. Most of them bought themselves a W124 E-Class. It wasn’t a car that made you look nouveau riche. It was a blue-collared luxury automobile. A treat you deserved, guilt-free.
So, what does the V214 E-Class tell us about the times we live in? Or, wait, does it at all? And if it doesn’t, unlike every other E-Class that precedes it, does that nameplate really belong? Is the V214 really an evolution — an improved, advanced extension of the W124’s philosophy? For those to whom the E-Class badge (even though there is no such thing in a literal sense) matters, these are fundamental questions. There was no way I was going to find the answers without a helping hand from a W124, however. Fortunately, Muzammil Kazi, a dear friend we have featured in these pages before, brought a rather pristine E220 along. A W124 (or any classic Mercedes) generally makes me forget my manners and that’s my excuse for having jumped right into the driver’s seat.
You start the W124 with the turn of a key on the dash (to the left of the steering wheel), hear the inline-four petrol thrum to life and, thereafter, become completely involved with driving it. It’s not, perhaps, a quick car off the line by today’s standards but it sure likes going fast. The ‘gathering of speed’, in the W124, feels like a literal, physical thing. A hundred is easy. Try 120, 140, 160 kph… and it’ll show you exactly why it commands so much respect, the world over. It’s impossible to imagine a car this old delivering such relevant performance, in such a perfectly modern manner, but the W124 begs to differ. It was built differently, this car, and driving it tells you just how important a chapter of Mercedes’ legacy it wrote. A chapter the brand continues to reap the dividends of to this day.
Hopping, right after, into the V214 felt like I had time travelled. It’s a larger car — as they all are, today — and it felt monumentally more luxurious. It starts with dead silence — exactly like an EV — because it’s a mild-hybrid, although the rest of its performance isn’t quite electric. Sure, it can do 0-100 kph in a claimed 7.5 seconds, but it’s not the kind of car you want to drive in a rushed manner. What you discover quite immediately as you begin driving it is its brilliant ride quality. This E-Class glides almost as well as some of the previous S-Class models and, while it has the provision for a Sport mode, it’s best enjoyed in Comfort. At expressway speed limits, the V214’s cabin is hushed and, in many ways, will question you on why you’d want to spend a dime more on something more expensive.
What I did miss is having a three-pointed star on the bonnet lead the way. That, for me, makes driving a Mercedes-Benz such a uniquely beautiful experience, although I suppose it’s now an added extra or, perhaps, reserved for the pricier E220d diesel or E450 4Matic versions. What Mercedes wants to drive your attention to instead of a hood embellishment is, instead, the dashboard, which is now entirely a screen. Okay, three of them.
I invested an afternoon delving into the contents of each of these screens and came away having learned that it has Level 2 ADAS, 4 driving modes, a phenomenal 360-degree camera, a camera to take selfies with, an auto-parking feature and – wait for this – a way to control the direction of the air-con vents. You can also switch to 4D sound, which activates speakers inside the front seats, producing a sensation you will either enjoy or hate, depending on how old you are. Oh, and if among your life’s many quests is to find out what living inside one of those party tower speakers is like, you can choose from between 64 ambient light colours. Once, sprawled out in the backseat after an entire day of shooting, I made Keshav demonstrate each of these colours before settling on Passion Pink (I think) and, within minutes, fell asleep for the course of the two-hour drive home. Make whatever you will of me.
In comparison, the W124 is austere. Well, there are a couple of rotary knobs and buttons on the wood-panelled dashboard, but most of them are to do with the air-conditioning. You do get a switch to electrically adjust the head restraints, one to turn on the hazard lights and one for the defogger, but that’s about it. The instrument cluster is analogue, with six dials in all, and you engage the handbrake with, well, your left foot. Your hands are primarily engaged in the task of shuffling the massive steering wheel and, in this case, the 5-speed manual gearbox. In other words, the W124 places the responsibility of entertainment, pleasure and comfort firmly on itself, rather than on a light-and-sound show.
So, what’s happened between six generations of the E-Class that has brought about this paradigm shift? You see, unlike in the past, the E-Class’ competition isn’t just from Munich and Ingolstadt. It’s from within Stuttgart itself. For a couple of lakhs less than the ex-showroom price of the E200 petrol, for instance, you can get yourself a GLC SUV. For sizeably less money, you could get yourself a top-flight C-Class and, if you send someone from your office into the pre-owned car market, you could land yourself a perfectly minty GLS or even an S-Class. The E-Class, therefore, is no longer required to be the best version of itself but, instead, something someone, hopefully, takes a liking to over the rest.
My first guess is, it’s for the elderly. People who find getting into and out of an SUV too cumbersome. People who have things done for them by other people. A control freak but not a micromanager. This explains why the back seat, which is clearly the more luxuriously appointed perch in the V214, is also almost entirely devoid of anything for you to do. Sure, you can recline your seat, fiddle around with the rear air-con, slide up the privacy blinds and charge your phone wirelessly on the armrest, but nothing else, really. The under-thigh support is allegedly adjustable, but it’s hard to notice it. On balance, with the chauffeur package, you can make the co-driver’s seat go all the way into the dashboard, which is fun if someone you don’t like very much happens to be seated in it.
The W124 E-Class is quite the polar opposite. It’s a car that expects you to drive it. Indeed, there is no greater testament to how driver-oriented the W124 is than to state its popularity as a taxi. Cab drivers are clear in their priorities of wanting cars that are as reliable as the sun and which have an ability to drive about as far, too. There are W124s around the world which have clocked in excess of a million kilometres, most of which continue to run to this day. The W124 showed the world Mercedes’ engineering finesse. It gave German cars a reputation for reliability and robustness. Also, I should mention that the other testament to any car’s immortality — other than being preferred by cabbies, that is — is its popularity in the African continent. W124s (also W123s) are everywhere in Africa. And in Eastern Europe. And in the less oil-rich quarters of the Middle East. It’s a car made for people who like their cars to last.
The V214 is, in its own way, a great reflection of what the car owner of today expects. It’s a car with all of the modern amenities you can think of, but also one you wouldn’t bat an eyelid before trading up to your next expensive set of wheels. Today, with extensive warranty packages and fairly easy finance, not many expect to get ten years — forget twenty — out of their cars any more. You stay within the novelty period of owning a car and, then, when a better one arrives, you move up to that. Buying a car in this league is no longer considered an emotional indulgence. You’ll never, for instance, meet anyone who’s named their V214. That’s seen as a thing for strange people. Like you and I, perhaps. But the E-Class was never meant to be that kind of car. It’s the most important car in Mercedes’ range; its best-selling one, historically. Perhaps, therein lies the problem. You see, up until 2015, Mercedes-Benz had sold 13 million E-Classes. And in the decade since? Just around a million more, globally.
It’s clearly fighting a battle of relevance. Against SUVs — from its own family, even — and it’s not a nice battle to witness. Not after 11 generations, if you count the unofficial ones from 1953. The E-Class, for what it has meant as an icon of motoring history, deserves better. It needn’t look elsewhere for inspiration. Its own legacy has enough to offer. It shouldn’t have to keep up with the times. Sometimes, it really isn’t a bad thing to take a step back and reflect. For a car that has so beautifully mirrored the times, the E-Class needs to go back to being an evolution of itself. It needs to look within. How about starting with bringing a W124 round for reference? I’ll drive!
We’d like to thank Ashesh Sajnani for loaning us his W124 for this story. Mind if we drive it to Stuttgart?
