[crux]

INTRO:
Well, my dad is a diehard merc fan. It is extremely difficult to convince him to even consider any car from any other rival brands. However there was no proper service support in Goa. It was only in early 2010 that an authorised Mercedes dealership was setup. This was when my dad decided to take the plunge and buy one.

Now the question was which one. We considered the Mercedes C class a little too expensive for it offered. We found the E Class much more value for money than the C class. We didn't consider the M Class because of all the problems that was experienced by the owners. Then came the choice of the exterior and interior colour options. Well this is where it goes all wrong for Mercedes. I feel that in this price bracket Mercedes should allow their customers to customise their own colour combinations. Anyways after all the debates at home, it was decided that we would book the E 250 CDI Elegance in Cuprite Brown with beige interiors.

EXTERIORS
The car looks regal. The front of the car is instantly recognisable as that of an E Class thanks to the twin xenon headlamps and the big grill. The colour exhibits different shades under different light conditions. At night, it is very easy to mistake it for black! But the flipside of this colour is obvious that it does demand good detailing every six months and shows swirl marks rather easily.The alloys look nice but are difficult to keep clean.
The OVRMs are small for the car. Only the right one is auto dimming.The head lights come on and shut off automatically. They swivel around as you turn the steering wheel. It has a good spread and definitely a huge step up over the halogen light that the base E Class come with. Our car came with the straight DRLs. The boomerang shaped ones were available only on 2009 and early 2010 models, regardless of whether the car is in Elegance or Avantgarde trim.


INTERIORS
Frankly, I feel that the car is not as well equipped as its rivals, more specifically the new Audi A6. However the car does come with the basics such as the rear ac vents,three zone climate control etc. The stereo is nice. It is quite clear and has good bass. The COMAND system is a basic one and only incorporates the bluetooth phone functions and the stereo options.
The interiors have a very simple design and is quite well built. I say 'quite' because some bits such as the bonnet release lever and the storage compartment is quite flimsy and threaten to break off very easily. However the ergonomics are spot on. Every switch is where you want them to be. 5 to 10 mins is all you need to be familiar with the controls.
The rear seats are comfortable enough but the floor hump in the middle makes the 5th passenger a little uncomfortable. The seat headrests are soft but there is no button to make the headrests fall back to ensure more visibility.
The A.C is not the best around. It takes while to cool down even on the lowest temperature setting. The AC vents on the B-pillar are
however next to useless, as there is hardly any air coming out even when the vents are fully open.

THE DRIVE
The engine belts out around 200 bhp of power and 500 Nm of torque. That's right, 500 Nm of torque! Show the car an open stretch, push the throttle to the floor, wait a bit for the gearbox to shift down and before you know it you reach that distant speck on the road in no time. Once the gearbox shifts down, the torque surge is so much that you feel that there is a vacuum in the the seat pulling you further and further into the seat! However the engine does sound gruff at the redline.
Show the car some corners and the car doesn't fare too badly. Sure there is body roll, but it does feel controlled.The steering is light enough for the city and does weigh up as the speed increases. But it does not offer much in terms of feedback.

The gearbox though just wants to spoil the fun. It takes ages to shift down when you push down the accelerator pedal. The time it takes to shift is akin to that taken when manually shifting a gear with the clutch pedal on some other car, and sometimes even longer! The shifts are not all that smooth. Just wondering when Mercedes India is going to plonk the 7 speed gearbox, available in the E 350 CDI, into this one. The E 250 CDIs in the UK are available with these gearboxes.


RELIABILITY
When we bought the car, it came with Continental tyres. The problem with these tyres is that they have weak sidewalls. Due to this if you are not careful with the car on potholes, there is a really high probabity that a bubble form on the tire. These bubbles cannot be fixed and the tire has to be replaced. At around 16k a tire, replacing one isn't what you call cheap. What's worse is that more often than not the tyres are not replaced under warranty and the cost of the replacement has to be borne by the owner. We have replaced 2 tires due to this. Other than this it has been quite a pleasant ownership experience. The car hasnt broken down till now, touch wood. But I do hope that MB India comes up with service packages like the ones that BMW offer.

[.anshuman]

Thread moved here from Assembly line section. Thanks for sharing your experience with the car here

[crux]

Bumping the thread, pics will come up later on as the car is right now in the service centre to sort out the small problems. The power windows are acting a bit funny but the SA assured me that it can be sorted out through some programming. Some times the horns stops working but the weird part is that comes on again after some time!

[GTO]

Congrats on the E250, and thanks for sharing your ownership experience.

Do add some pictures of the beast

Originally Posted by crux

It was only in early 2010 that an authorised Mercedes dealership was setup.

Are you sure about this? I remember seeing a Merc workshop as early was 2008 when entering Panaji (from Mumbai, on the RHS).

We considered the Mercedes C class a little too expensive for it offered. We found the E Class much more value for money than the C class.

Not surprised. A humble VW Jetta or Skoda Laura are 95% of the car that a C Class / 3 Series / A4 is, at about 60% of the money.

The OVRMs are small for the car.

Still better than the miniature ones of the earlier Mercs! The ones on my C220 are useless; so much for the attention to safety.

Show the car an open stretch, push the throttle to the floor, wait a bit for the gearbox to shift down and before you know it you reach that distant speck on the road in no time. Once the gearbox shifts down, the torque surge is so much that you feel that there is a vacuum in the the seat pulling you further and further into the seat!

So true. For a 4-cylinder, it's a lovely motor and considered a workhorse internationally. Fuel efficiency is respectable too.

Originally Posted by crux

The power windows are acting a bit funny but the SA assured me that it can be sorted out through some programming. Some times the horns stops working but the weird part is that comes on again after some time!

I hope your car stays reliable as the odometer climbs up.

Congrats again, and do drive safe.

[Nikhilb2008]

Very nice objective review!

How do you find the rear legroom? I found it a little cramped compared to the Civic.

[crux]

Thanks a lot for your comments GTO!

Originally Posted by GTO

Are you sure about this? I remember seeing a Merc workshop as early was 2008 when entering Panaji (from Mumbai, on the RHS).

That was a service centre, which was set up a some time ago and had shut down sometime in 2009. Before this, IIRC, there was one even in Vasco. But quite frankly, didn't think there were up to the standards. The new dealership and service centre, operating currently, was set up sometime in March 2010 and is much better than those service centres.

About the FE, the car has been returning around 10 to 12 km/l on an average.

About the OVRMS, I am just thankful that both of them are convex. The demo car, which we had test driven before, had a flat OVRM on the left hand side, due to which even trucks overtaking from the left could not be seen. Requested the sales men to deliver the car with both the the OVRMs of the convex type. These are a big improvement and I advise all future buyers to demand the same from the dealers

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

Very nice objective review!

How do you find the rear legroom? I found it a little cramped compared to the Civic.

Thanks a ton for your comments , Nikhilb2008. Well surprisingly the rear legroom of the E Class is not that much more over the Civic despite having a longer wheelbase!

[crux]

Thought I would update the thread...
Well the tyre has picked up another puncture few days back. The power window issue was sorted out through programming. The service centre went one step ahead and even programmed the left side view mirror to dip while reversing.
Other than the puncture, the car has been running without any issues so far, touchwood.

[crux]

Finally got some time to take pics of the merc.....

[Utopian]

Congrats for the E. The brown go very well with the surroundings.
The key chain looks cool. The torque figures are awesome. It must be a lot of fun to unleash the horses on the highways.

[crux]

Don't know why the captions for the pics but anyways...
The 3rd pic shows the beige interior specific to the elegance trim. In the Avantgarde trim, you get piano black finish across the dashboard instead of the wood finish you see here.

The 4th pic shows the alloys that the elegance come with. It looks good but is extremely difficult to keep clean.

The 5th pic shows the key fob, which along with the Audi's, is IMHO one of the best looking ones out there.

The 6 th pic shows the tachometer which does not come with the silver accents as seen in the Avantgarde trim.

For comparing, check out GTO's brilliant official review of the Mercedes E 350.

[lamborghini]

The beige interiors seem to look richer than the black ones it seems. I was very disappointed with the Elegance trim's black interiors, and found the W211 to be better on that front!
That aside, the car looks great, and it is great to see that it is doing quite well. Such reviews are helpful to us enthusiasts, some of whom love mercedes ride, but hate their reliability. With a W211 in the family, I am scared of recommending another one, until their new cars are proven again. But so far, the reviews seem positive.

Also, the Avantgarde trim in the E350 and E350 CDI, comes with the top half of the dash in black, more options for interior trim, rear screens, and some more. Interiors are much nicer!

[crux]

Originally Posted by Utopian

Congrats for the E. The brown go very well with the surroundings.
The key chain looks cool. The torque figures are awesome. It must be a lot of fun to unleash the horses on the highways.

Thanks for the comments, Utopian! The car is very much at home on the highways. Its stable at 3 digit speeds and the torquey engine makes overtaking very easy.

Originally Posted by lamborghini

The beige interiors seem to look richer than the black ones it seems. I was very disappointed with the Elegance trim's black interiors, and found the W211 to be better on that front!
That aside, the car looks great, and it is great to see that it is doing quite well. Such reviews are helpful to us enthusiasts, some of whom love mercedes ride, but hate their reliability. With a W211 in the family, I am scared of recommending another one, until their new cars are proven again. But so far, the reviews seem positive.

Also, the Avantgarde trim in the E350 and E350 CDI, comes with the top half of the dash in black, more options for interior trim, rear screens, and some more. Interiors are much nicer!

Thanks you, lamborghini, for writing in! We felt very claustophobic with the black interiors and had actually chosen the exterior colour to specifically get the beige interiors!
About the reliability, it is only the tires that are preventing the car from getting a perfect score on this front! And I am not at all exaggerating.
The car starts up on first crank and runs as smoothly as the Hondas we have at home.

About the Avantgarde trim, we had bought the car in 2010. At that time, there were no rear screens and there was very little justification for 8 lakhs for the E 350, which just has 50 Nm more of torque and around 30 bhp more of power. Equipment wise, I missed the harmon kardon system and the piano black trim from what i know.

[crux]

While starting the car yesterday, the air coming out of the ac vents had an unpleasant odour to it. However it seemed to disappear after 5-10 mins of driving. Stopped the car and started it again, and the same odour came again. Has anyone experienced the same?

[Ayedongivadam]

Originally Posted by crux

While starting the car yesterday, the air coming out of the ac vents had an unpleasant odour to it. However it seemed to disappear after 5-10 mins of driving. Stopped the car and started it again, and the same odour came again. Has anyone experienced the same?

Unless you have a wet carpet in the interior due to a spill or something or you smoke in your car, this is most definitely because of something in your air intake vent area.

Number one culprit - Tree leaves and stuff that has acquired moisture and is turning to compost. Get the area cleaned and don't park under trees too often.

[crux]

Originally Posted by Ayedongivadam

Unless you have a wet carpet in the interior due to a spill or something or you smoke in your car, this is most definitely because of something in your air intake vent area.

Number one culprit - Tree leaves and stuff that has acquired moisture and is turning to compost. Get the area cleaned and don't park under trees too often.

At home, we park the car in a covered garage and have most definitely not parked the car under trees too often. More over the thing is that while there is strong odour after starting the car, the odour is not present after driving the car for a while. If there were leaves and stuff accumulated in the air intake, the smell would have been present throughout the drive, wouldn't it?