if you are looking for a sporty, fun to drive car for the twisties, the MB will not be the car for you. however, if you are looking for a comfortable luxury car that is great on the highways, then I feel the MB actually does a better job than the E60. the MB is not fast and over the top powerful, but it does feel nice and torquey on the freeways. it really boils down to how you drive and what you are looking for.

i don't care much for audi's. leased an A4 for 3 years and started regretting it after 6 months. the combination of a V4 turbo and FWD was not fun at all even though the car had the sports package and larger-size wheels. plus, all audi's look like jelly beans to me: you get to choose from small, medium and large...

 

My wife has the car. It is a great car and the sports package looks really awesome. It comes with a dual exhaust and the sporty rims. It might even have a grey wood interior which is nice. As others have said, the sports package E350 looks awesome.


The car has been pretty reliable too - we had some initial bugs that were worked out within the first year but since then there have been no problems at all. The interior of the E series seems much bigger than the E60 even though dimensionally the cars are about the same. The E class does get slightly worse fuel economy than my 535 xi but it is about comparable. My wife has been taking my car on her 50 mile commute (mixture of highway and city at rush hour) and my car gets 23 mpg her car gets 22 mpg. Around down, the E350 is a bit less fuel efficient.

Driving experience wise, the E350 is a very comfortable highway car. It has a better turning radius than the E60 which makes it easier to park. The E350 4 matic with the sports suspension has a nice firmness to it. However, don't be mistaken, the car is not a BMW. The E60 is much more enjoyable to drive although the E350 is probably the car we would take on a highway trip. The E350 also has a larger fuel tank which makes it better for that.

Most E350 will be on the market with the P1 package which include Navigation, heated seats, the usual power toys and a power rear sunshade. The sports package comes with blue tinted windows which look very cool. However, the E350 will have an MB-Tex interior which is the MB version of vinyl. The stuff is comfortable but it is not leather.

Coming from a 545, the E350 will seem kind of slow. It is a decent accelerating car but by no means fast. It can certainly keep up in traffic but it is nothing too spectacular. If you can find an E550, I would take a look at that car - 382 hp and a pretty good package. As an FYI the E350 4 matics come with a 5 speed tranny while the non-4 matics come with a 7 speed tranny.

Regarding problems, the SBC problem is before the E350.