Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupe review

The E-Class Coupe has recently had a big facelift, and while it doesn’t look wildly different to before outside, it’s changed a reasonable amount inside. With mixed results, we reckon. It was so spiffing inside the big E beforehand, we couldn’t really spot anything in need of change. The new steering wheel is oodles fussier, with lots of touch sensitive buttons that take too much of a deliberate swipe to get going – so much so, you might have to avert your eyes from the road to check you’re thumbing the correct bit.

Which kinda defeats the point…

Indeed. Luckily ahead of that wheel sits an impressively laid out dashboard that, with the E’s mid-life facelift, has gained much tech. Two large screens (of varying sizes depending on your options spend) offer up media and nav functions and the dials, the latter cycling through a dizzying amount of different layouts, though thankfully a classic speedometer and rev counter sit side-by-side and equally sized in at least one of them.

It all works well, operating via touchscreen, buttons or a scroll wheel – as well as voice control if you speak close enough to RP – which makes the slightly less cohesive steering wheel a bit of a disappointment.

What about the seats?

The front pair are adjustable in every direction possible and visibility is spot on, despite the E’s low driving position. Go for light leather and wood trim if you want the full land-yacht effect, though some black-with-red-stitching in the AMG is more our cup of tea.

It’s properly roomy in here, too. Fully grown adults can travel in the back with minimum fuss. The seats are quite upright, so we wouldn’t want to spend hours back there – but knee and shoulder room is more than adequate. A six-footer could sit behind themselves with little drama. If that were actually possible. Rear passengers even get a USB-C port each, as well as individual climate control toggles and a cupholder. Plenty of actual family cars aren’t as generous to those perched in the back.

Any other quirks?

It’s a coupe without much compromise, but there’s one teeny disappointment. Where the car used to allow you to framelessly drop all four windows with one central button for the full pretend convertible experience, you now need to contort your fingers across all four window switches (or just do them separately). Not a biggie, just us being fusspots.