E-Class Coupé lands

Meet the sexy twodoor cousin of the Mercedes-Benz executive sedan

WE’RE not sure whether the name of the new two-door Mercedes-Benz E-Class, launched in South Africa last week, should be spelled with or without an accent on the final ‘e’.

Mercedes calls it the E-Class Coupé, but its architecture is so typical of luxury Americana that ‘coupe’ might be more appropriate. It’s based on the E-Class sedan, but with a low-slung grille, a long bonnet with power bulges, four frameless, fully retractable side windows, four individual seats and no B pillars.

With LED lighting all round, it’s 38mm taller than its predecessor and at least 67mm bigger in every other dimension, with commensurate gains in interior space, emphasised by the dashboard trim that sweeps from door to door and two optional 31cm instrument displays under a single lens, to form what Mercedes calls a ‘widescreen cockpit’, with three different display styles – “Classic”, “Sport” and “Progressive”.

The standard version has two round dials with a 17.8cm display between them and a 21.3cm centre display, all set in a single piano black frame, and in either case the instrument cluster displays and multimedia system are controlled by either finger-swipe touch controls on the steering wheel, a centre console touchpad that can read handwriting, or voice control.

The standard Avantgarde trim features blue and beige leather with light wood veneer in either Continued on Page 3