Your boat has come in: new job, or the kids are finally independent, or perhaps a win on the premium bonds?
Whatever the reason, you find yourself in a Mercedes Direct showroom drooling over a nearly new Mercedes E-Class Coupe. And you just can’t decide.
It looks expensive, classy, modern, but not controversial. It appeals to your head, whereas the BMWs and Audis you have seen appealed a little more to your heart.
Like the CLK that went before it, the E-Class coupe appeals to both men and women in equal measure – so your partner agrees that it looks the part.
Climbing in, the leather seats are expensive and bucket-like. They grip you tightly to the left and right of your waist all the way from the top of your hips to just under the arms. So you’ll either love that or hate it, but don’t be too hasty. If you scroll the little dials on the sides of the seats, they make the sound of someone subtly letting out a little wind. This softens or hardens the seats and is really very effective at adjusting your comfort.
The Sat Nav isn’t as intuitive or easy to use as some in the market, but as both Audis and BMWs take some getting used to so this doesn’t make much difference.
Heading out of town to find some open road, the gates in the gear box are all a long way apart, which means every gear change is lifting light weights, or dragging them around atleast. So you tell the salesman that you think you would prefer the automatic, and he sighs because he can sell the autos all day long but really hoped to offload the manual. Maybe you can use this to get some money knocked off? I would certainly try...
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| E-Class rear seats |
E-Class dash |
But you’re not put off because the handling is charming – not as light and unaffected as an Audi and not as racing car-like compared to BMWs. The 220 CDI engine is also perfectly judged: refined and quiet on the motorway, managing 53 mpg but delivering power right through the range to make both town driving and overtaking, easy.
The boot is cavernous and the cabin can take 4 adults better than a Volvo C70 and on a par with BMW’s theoretically 118 mm smaller 3-Series Coupe. The downside for all this space is that parking can require practice. The visibility of the rear 3/4s is limited. So you have to work with the parking sensors which bleep and almost uniquely to Mercedes light up in the roof just above the rear wind screen. Even when you get good you need a fairly big space.
So the E-Class Coupe is rather like Apple’s iPhone. Not perfect, but hard to resist.
What’s the market like?
The E-Class Coupe will probably follow a similar depreciation pattern to its predecessor, the CLKs, dropping from around £30,000 as a new car, to around £20,000 for a 2-3 year old model.
The difference between Autos and manuals in terms of ability to re-sell is not to be underestimated – there are 10-30 times more autos on the market because that’s what people want.
You can buy a nearly new model now – there are already a hundred or more on the market – but there is hardly any saving to be made over the new price because demand is very strong. So its best to wait or if you can’t you may as well buy new.
What else can this budget buy?
A used BMW 3-Series Coupe is as much as £2,500 cheaper than the E-Class coupe. While the E-Class saloon is not comparable to a 3-Series saloon in terms of size, the Coupes feel similar in terms of cabin room. But the 3-Series, as well as being cheaper, is a little easier to park and manoeuvre.
An Audi TT is a lot smaller to look at and four adults won’t fit, but at £1,000 - £2,000 more than a E-Class Coupe on the used market, it is a contender. Whereas, at £5,000 more the Audi A5 is probably out of reach.
Summary
A classy Coupe that turns heads and delivers satisfaction.