Classic!

Mercedes plans to take the facelifted E-Class back to its roots

Photos of the refreshed E-Class were leaked a while ago, but now, Mercedes has unveiled the official photos of the mid-sized luxury car. As far as facelifts go, this is a pretty significant one.

Now, there are two different front-end options to choose from. Both of them feature the new fused headlamp design which still contains four distinct elements. Like the C-Class, the E-Class, in its lower trim levels will come with the standard grille with the three-pointed star on the bonnet while in the Avantgarde and above, you get the sportier grille with the star centered on it. Unlike the somewhat Japanese looking design of the older models, the E-Class is now moving towards Mercedes’ older designs again. At the rear, there’s new bumpers and a redesigned tail-light cluster that’s more in line with Mercedes’ current design philosophy. On the inside, they’ve made a few changes to the layout of the dash, with a slightly larger screen taking front stage.

The majority of the changes are pretty much unseen though. After bringing in tech like PRE-SAFE and radar guided cruise control, they’ve combined both of those, a few more sensors and a couple of cameras too to create what is called Intelligent drive. This system continuously monitors several parameters and using all sorts of complicated algorithms, it steps in when it thinks there’s an impending accident and tries to keep you safe. This also works as the park assist, attention assist, lane departure warning and a host of other safety devices rolled into one. Apart from that, on the tech front, there’s also a new COMAND infotainment system in place that takes care of everything from the stereo to the navigation duties. There’s also Google maps and StreetView support if you’re into that sort of thing.

This facelifted E-Class will be making it to our shores sometime in mid-2013 with a brand new four-cylinder petrol engine in tow which makes 184 bhp in the E200 and 211 bhp in the E250. Apart from that, the other variants on offer get slight bumps in power and efficiency as well. So, now, the E350 makes 306 bhp of peak power, while the E250 CDI and E350 CDI make 204 bhp and 252 bhp respectively. With all these new features, expect prices to rise slightly. The E-Class now lags behind in its segment, but this facelift should catapult it back to the top.