RIGHT ON THE MERC

New Saloon is comfort personified

AFTER a couple of weeks driving electric cars, with all the attendant forward-thinking needed when it comes to charging, what a joy it was to sit into the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class 220 diesel, and see predicted range of almost 1,200km on a full tank.

No need to pack the anorak for exposed public chargers. No worries if suddenly told I had to drive to Mizen Head and back for work. Instead, there just was the quiet reassurance of knowing I could go anywhere and, in the unlikely event of having to fill up, I could do so in mere minutes instead of an hour.

Don’t get me wrong. I like a lot of EVs, and stated range — albeit fanciful a lot of the time — gets better with every generation, but sometimes you just want to be free of worry and go about your business without a care in the world.

Of course, there are few places better to achieve zenlike calm than in a Mercedes, especially the new E-Class, and even more especially at night. The ambient cabin lighting is the best around, with a range of colours to keep you awake — I’m thinking the vibrant red — or just inoculate you against the tribulations of your day — the low blues and greens.

Most of the Mercs I’ve recently driven have been in the Avantgarde line, with the three-point star set in the middle of the diamond grille. How nice, then, to go a bit old school, and find that my test car was in the classic Exclusive design.

Here, the star is mounted on the bonnet, as always making it feel like the scope on a rifle. The grille features three horizontal bars split by a vertical one, and the overall appearance is of a legacy formality, like a three-piece suit compared with Avantgarde’s sports casual.

The silhouette is dreamy, boasting lots of chrome, with the glasshouse set back from the long bonnet, and the rear tapering to a short overhang.

When parked, this is a languid car, oozing selfconfidence, especially on the optional 19-inch multi-spoke light alloy wheels, a €1,513 extra over the standard 18inch. On the road, it’s a little more aggressive, but not so you’d frighten the horses.

It hits 100kph from a standing start in a tidy 7.6 seconds, with none of the noise you’d expect from the diesels of yore. Instead, it is whisperquiet, though not to the point you’d forget there was a combustion engine at all.

Striking that balance is difficult, but it is pulled off here with great success.

Inside, you get that legendary Mercedes-Benz comfort, though I did panic a little when I saw the Macchiato Beige leather upholstery, €3,310 extra.

As I told you last week, I’m minding the dog, so the first thing I did was drape the back bench and the carpet there with old rugs; no one needs to see paw prints ruining such a beautiful interior.

The fascia comes in openpore black ash, and is studded with star apertures that light up at night, and is also home to the now-familiar 14.4-inch LCD touchscreen, one of the best around.

There are lovely touches. When you lock the car, the door handles recede into the body. Simply approach it on your return and, sensing the key fob, they glide out automatically. Ignition is also keyless.

In this 9G-TRONIC automatic, the gear stalk is on the right of the steering wheel, and it takes a while to remember the windscreen wiper controls are on the left. The headlights are auto-dimming, a great aid at night so you don’t dazzle oncoming cars.

The cruise control is adaptive, slowing the car automatically when it detects a slower one in front, and it also warns when you have crept over the speed limit. Indeed, it’s just one of the safety aids, and any you can think of are present, inclining a very welcome full 360 parking camera, for this is a long vehicle at just under five metres.

Above all, though, the new E-Class is a surprisingly engaging drive.

I first had a go last autumn in the area around Vienna, and everything I liked about it there, on much better urban and rural roads, felt just as responsive and dynamic here at home.

This is not a cheap car, at €81,185 basic, but what you see is what you get, namely class-equalling, maybe even class-leading, standards of driver and passenger comfort, allied to the efficiency of a diesel, and driveability that makes you look at that range prediction and think a 1,000km-plus drive wouldn’t be such a bad idea.