2024 Mercedes-Benz E-Class Road Test and Review

2024 Mercedes-Benz E 450 All-Terrain ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Mercedes-Benz makes some of the finest automobiles in the world – including the S-Class full-size sedan. Beautiful to look at, sublime to relax inside of, and superlative to drive, the S-Class is simultaneously a master of comfort, performance, decadent luxury, and all-around desirability. It also costs $117,300 and up, and at 208 inches long – nearly the length of a Cadillac Escalade – it may be too long for some garages. It’s not a car for everyone. 

The Mercedes-Benz E-Class is a different matter. It’s still an exclusive luxury car, but this mid-size model’s starting price is barely half the S-Class’s. And it’s more than a foot shorter in length. 

Yet it keeps much of the S-Class’s magic, especially now that the 2024 E-Class has received its first redesign since 2017. Modernized technology, freshened styling, and improved fuel efficiency are among this year’s many upgrades. We just spent a week testing the redesigned 2024 Mercedes-Benz E-Class. Keep reading as we discuss its pros and cons to see if it’s the right luxury car for you.  

Choice of Two Body Styles

Most E-Class buyers will choose the classic four-door sedan. Priced from $62,300, it has a choice of models – the base four-cylinder E 350 and the six-cylinder E 450 ($68,100). All 2024 models use all-wheel drive, while the 2025 E 350 introduces a rear-drive model. 

Then there’s also a station wagon that Mercedes calls the All-Terrain. A wagon has been part of the Mercedes mid-size lineup since the 1970s, and it provides all the benefits of the E-Class sedan but with acres of cargo space. Our only problem? It’s available only in the E 450 version, and at a starting price of $74,700. Our E 450 All-Terrain test vehicle came to $83,610 with options and the mandatory $1,150 destination charge. 

Mercedes no longer sells coupe and convertible versions of the E-Class, directing their customers to the slightly smaller new CLE two-door lineup. 

2024 Mercedes-Benz E 450 All-Terrain ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Smoothed-Out Shape, Decorative Details

The 2024 E-Class lineup wears a fresh design this year. It’s not a radical departure from the previous generation, with the most noticeable difference being headlights that now connect to the grille. But the new model is slightly larger, and its roof now flows more smoothly into its trunk. The reshaped taillights are smoother and more closely resemble the S-Class, too. And the door handles now retract into the sides of the car for an extra-smooth look while the car is locked or in motion. 

The redesigned All-Terrain wagon is also sleeker. The windowline dips down into a spear starting above the rear door, while the old model made a similar dip only closer to the rear end. To our eyes, this subtle change might be enough to convince more sedan buyers to accept that even a useful station wagon can be beautiful. 

Whether you get a sedan or wagon, you’ll never forget it’s a Mercedes. In addition to big Benz logos in the grille and on the rear end, patterns of three-pointed stars (minus the logo’s outer circle) decorate both the grille and the taillights. 

2024 Mercedes-Benz E 350 sedan ・ Photo by Mercedes-Benz

More Screens Than Ever

The E-Class’s interior is more visibly new than the exterior. Last year’s model connected a pair of screens above a swath of wood trim to serve as the gauge cluster and the central touchscreen. This year, the big screen area shifts. Now, the gauges get their own digital cluster, disconnected from the optional “Superscreen” – a 14.4-inch central touchscreen and 12.3-inch screen that exclusively serves the front passenger. 

The screens are a cool look for tech-lovers, and the curved area around the screens makes the dashboard look less sterile than more rectangular competitors. But it won’t be to everyone’s tastes. The growing screens displace the old model’s more conventionally opulent interior surfaces. We found a surprisingly iffy fit between two shiny plastic trim pieces surrounding the gauge cluster, and the doors don’t close with the solid thunk we associate with Mercedes. And while we’re glad that the Superscreen supports Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone integration, the cabin focuses more on beauty than utility. Touch-sensitive steering wheel controls take too much concentration, and you won’t find many buttons or knobs on the dashboard, either.  

2024 Mercedes-Benz E 450 All-Terrain ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Beautiful, Comfortable Seats

Whether or not you like its new dashboard, we don’t see anyone objecting to the E-Class’s interior comfort. Especially with our test vehicle’s white leather, the inviting seats look almost like seashells. It’s a pleasure to stretch out and relax in these well-shaped chairs. The backseat isn’t limo-like, so the S-Class will still be the sedan of choice for CEOs and prime ministers, but adults will fit. Mercedes created a bit more room this year, now that it’s free from the effort to make sportier-looking two-door models. 

If you’re shopping the E-Class All-Terrain against SUVs, do note that you’ll sit lower than in something like a Mercedes-Benz GLE crossover. You’ll be more stretched out than perched up, and you won’t have the same commanding view of the road. Plenty of people prefer this seating position, but we want you to hop into the All-Terrain with the right expectations. 

2024 Mercedes-Benz E 450 All-Terrain ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Extra-Useful Wagon

The Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan has 13 cubic feet of trunk space. That’s enough for some suitcases or all your groceries, but it’s not a ton of room even for a sedan. 

The All-Terrain wagon solves that in a big way. By the numbers, it has 22 cubic feet of space behind the rear seat and 65 cubic feet with the rear seat folded. That’s only what you’d find in many subcompact crossover SUVs. But the long, low E-Class has tons of useful space to spread things out on the floor. You just can’t stack things as high as in an SUV, and some bulky items won’t fit. And besides, even a small SUV beats a sedan's utility. We also appreciate how the front seats automatically slide forward out of the way when you fold the rear seat.

2024 Mercedes-Benz E 450 Terrain ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Powerful Yet Economical Hybrid Powertrains

Most E-Class buyers will choose the E 350, whose 2.0-liter four-cylinder makes a modest 255 horsepower and a livelier 295 lb-ft of torque. This combination is good for a manufacturer-estimated 0-60 run of 6.1 seconds, which is respectable for a base-model luxury sedan. The E 450 upgrades to a 3.0-liter V6 with 375 hp and 369 lb-ft of torque, which nips that number to an excellent 4.4 seconds. That’s the speed of a sports car, but the Benz delivers it with effortless ease more than thrills. The pulse-raising model is the AMG E 53, which arrives as a 2025 model, and augments the V6 with electric motors for 577 hp, 533 lb-ft, and a 3.9-second 0-60 run. 

These quick, quiet, roomy vehicles are also surprisingly economical. The trick is mild-hybrid assist (a small electric motor) on the E 350 and E 450, which lets the engine switch off when you’re coasting in certain driving modes. And the E 53 gets a full plug-in-hybrid system. 

In EPA testing, the 2024 E 350 gets 24 mpg in the city, 33 mpg on the highway, and 27 mpg combined with standard AWD – the efficiency we’d expect from a two-wheel-drive family sedan rather than a speedy luxury model. Even the much faster E 450 is pretty thrifty: 22 mpg city, 31 mpg highway, and 25 mpg combined. Our E 450 All-Terrain test vehicle averaged 28 mpg in a week of mixed driving, better than some compact crossovers with less than 200 horsepower. For 2025, the new rear-drive E 350 offers an extra mpg versus the AWD model. And the E 53 can travel an estimated 42 miles using only electricity, which helps it get the energy equivalent of 59 mpg between its electricity and gasoline usage (depending on how often you charge it up). 

2024 Mercedes-Benz E 450 Terrain ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Sublime Ride and Handling

The E-Class’s beautifully engineered suspension is another highlight. The driving experience is simply sublime. It’s a relaxed, easy-to-drive isolation chamber when you’re just out for a cruise. Yet when you want to push things harder, the E-Class has poise, responsiveness, and natural steering feel that elude some harder-edged sports sedans. 

And if you’re shopping the E 450 All-Terrain against an SUV, this graceful agility is one of the wagon’s greatest advantages. Its low center of gravity means it drives with a fluid sense of grace that you won’t find in a taller Mercedes SUV. 

Expect a bumpier, noisier ride in the AMG E 53, which will help this performance sedan achieve higher limits on a racetrack. But we doubt it’ll improve upon the regular E-Class’s already superb handling in regular driving. 

2024 Mercedes-Benz E 450 All-Terrain ・ Photo by Brady Holt

E-Class vs. the Competition

The E-Class faces many fine machines in the mid-size luxury segment. But it’s perhaps the finest of them all. The E-Class sedan doesn’t have the spacious backseat and trunk that you’d find in a BMW 5 Series, its controls are harder to use, and the BMW gets even better gas mileage. The E-Class is also more expensive than its closest rivals: in addition to the 5 Series, we’d count the Audi A6, Volvo S90, Genesis G80, and Cadillac CT5. But the Benz drives with a finesse that you won’t find in any of these competitors – especially on a twisty road. Its engines and suspension are second to none. 

Another alternative is the Mercedes-Benz EQE. While BMW, Audi, and Genesis made electric sedans that look similar or identical to their gasoline-powered versions, Mercedes created an extra-aerodynamic EV. The EQE drives beautifully, but to us, it lacks the presence of the standard E-Class. It looks smaller and less expensive, despite costing more. Of course, if you’re interested in an electric car, the EQE delivers the typical benefits (no tailpipe emissions, plus swift and silent acceleration) and the typical downsides (the need to recharge, which is often slower and more complicated than buying gasoline). 

Finally, if you’re interested in the E 450 All-Terrain, you can shop it against the Audi A6 Allroad and the Volvo V90 Cross Country. The A6 has a more sterile feel to its interior and driving than the ultra-smooth E 450, and it costs slightly less. The V90, meanwhile, uses a smaller and less powerful four-cylinder engine and starts at some $15,000 less than the V6-only Mercedes wagon. It’s not quite as magnificent, and its dashboard screens don’t dazzle like the Mercedes’. But it’s a much more accessible way to get all the merits of a luxury station wagon: much of an SUV’s utility meeting the driving experience of a lower-slung sports sedan. 

2025 Volvo V90 Cross Country ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Not Radically New

The 2024 Mercedes-Benz E-Class continues to provide what made the previous generation great. Some folks will be understandably overwhelmed by the dashboard’s controls, and others might want a more radical-looking body on their pricy new luxury car. And the competition costs less. 

But none of these complaints is really new. The new E-Class is very much like the old E-Class – just incrementally better in most ways. There’s more space, more sleekness, more screens, more speed, and (on most versions) more miles per gallon. It remains a winner for those willing to pay for it. 

2024 Mercedes-Benz E 450 All-Terrain ・ Photo by Brady Holt