2024
Mercedes-Benz E-Class

The verdict: With up to 39 inches of screens inside, the redesigned 2024 Mercedes-Benz E-Class is the techiest version yet — which might not appeal to the traditional Benz buyer. Still, all of the familiar E-Class hallmarks are there, including a glassy ride, a silky powertrain and an excellent collection of materials.

Versus the competition: The E-Class remains near the top of the heap in the hotly contested luxury mid-size sedan class, with more tech and outright comfort than some offerings from BMW, Genesis, Audi and Lexus — just make sure you take it easy on the order form. 

After a week in an all-new 2024 Mercedes-Benz E350, the definition and general perception of “luxury” is still as nebulous as ever. Let’s start with a brief history lesson: For the better part of almost 70 years, luxury vehicles have been primarily defined by their size, materials, tinsel and trim; differentiation between the rides of the “haves” and the wagons of the “have-nots” has often distilled down to niceties like leather, chrome and burl wood.

Related: 577-HP 2025 Mercedes-AMG E53 Hybrid Revealed

Luxury Lesson

Advancements in technology and production capability have naturally trickled down from the top, with cutting-edge entertainment, driving and safety tech usually making their debut in the premium and luxury market segments. Adaptive cruise control, navigation and infotainment mostly began as playthings for high earners to differentiate luxury cars from more mass-market vehicles that by then had begun to offer a wider array of plush interior packages, with soft-touch surfaces, leather and wood. It was a relatively simple differentiation: Spend more, get more tech accoutrements.

A heady combination of increased production, economic struggles and the allure of growth — of both market share and profit margins — then pushed materials and build quality down for all (yes, all) luxury automakers between the late 1990s and late 2000s. At that point, the norm changed: Spend more, get modestly nicer materials and significantly elevated tech.

But it wasn’t long before that changed, too. Touchscreen infotainment, adaptive cruise control, active-safety features and digital displays rapidly proliferated in mass-market cars, with some loaded trims of workaday crossovers and sedans delivering a more comfortable experience than some base luxury trims. 

Superscreen Supreme

Everything’s cyclical. Now, modern luxury cars incorporate exotic (for the industry) materials like open-pore wood, cork, crystal, titanium, carbon and textured metal in their cabins, surrounding massive, hi-resolution displays that cover much of the dashboard real estate. And I do mean massive: My 2024 E350 test car was equipped with a pair — pair! — of 12.3-inch displays split between driver and passenger. With a 14.4-inch touchscreen in the center of the dash handling infotainment functions, that makes for a whopping 39 inches of digital acreage up front.

Right off the bat, I’m not sure if the traditional Mercedes customer will be the biggest fan of this screened-in cockpit. While the days of demure, leather-lined boardrooms on wheels have long been in the past, there remained a pretense of balance between “old” Mercedes and a new, younger brand. ”Younger” is the key here; adapt or die, and all that. As luxury purchasers continue to skew younger — millennials and Generation Z drove most of the growth in luxury spending in 2023 — automakers are observably catering to this generational changeover.

Much like BMW today is nearly unrecognizable from the brand it was 15 years ago, modern Mercedes is steadily pointing its products away from baby-boomer-and-older generations, with a focus on features that might make your grandfather’s hair curl: Configurable ambient mood lighting pulses to your music, slick graphics sparkle and surge across the sprawling screens, door handles are motorized pop-outs, and the cars’ swoopy, soft-edged surfaces appear lifted out of a concept car. It’s all very nu-tech and very “now.” 

Trendy Tech

None of this is an outright criticism, just something to consider if you’re looking for traditional luxury more than screens, screens, screens! Preferences aside, the new E-Class “works” for its intended function, offering quite the trick: A techy drive with oodles of surprise-and-delight features that keep your dopamine receptors sizzling.

Mercedes’ so-called Superscreen setup is one of the most graphically snazzy in the industry, with excellent processing speed, animations and refresh rate. Your front passenger will surely never bore if you opt to add the personal 12.3-inch display for them, which offers all manner of streaming functions, including YouTube. And lest you fear some aggressively distracted driving when they pull up the latest Cars.com video review, the display automatically (and non-negotiably) engages Private mode, wherein no portion of the screen is visible from the driver’s seat. Pretty neat.

If you’re all in on this, make sure you spec your E350 in Pinnacle trim, which adds a top-shelf Burmester 4D sound system with both Dolby Atmos and Apple Spatial Audio, turning your morning commute into Mercedes’ best approximation of a theater. Concerned about frustrating complexity? Don’t be. The rest of Merc’s MBUX digital architecture is mostly as you left it in the last generation, offering meaningful interface updates as needed but leaving general menu navigation and specific functions in place. My exposure to the next-gen E-Class was limited to that loaded-out E350, but buyers are under no obligation to spec the Superscreen, which is optional. In fact, leaving that passenger display off the order form results in an environment not dramatically different from the prior-generation car. 

Comfort King

Look past the lights and you’ll find panels trimmed in a familiar concoction of gloss-black plastic, frosted aluminum and dark wood. The optional leather upholstery is similarly rich and extended, with my test car’s ivory interior fabulously complementing its intriguing Verde Silver Metallic paint. The cosseting stuff is still there, with standard heated front seats and options including a heated steering wheel, heated front armrest, ventilated and massaging front seats, and a cabin fragrance system.

In symphony, it’s quite a lovely place to dispatch traffic clogs and bland scenery, buoyed by my test car’s $3,200 adaptive air suspension and rear-wheel steering. The ride is requisitely silky for both the price and the badge, soaking up all ne’er-do-well potholes and expansion joints without compromising body control. Comfort mode isn’t too wallowy and Sport isn’t too stiff; both offer excellent balance.

Steering is effortless and smooth, and turning the thick-rimmed leather wheel feels like churning a column through a vat of melted butter. Conversely, the brakes were a mite touchy, often surprising my otherwise comfy and coddled passenger with a sudden lurch. I acclimated relatively quickly, but it was never quite as smooth as I’d prefer.

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Pampering Powertrain

Speaking of smooth, the 2024 E350 still has a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder under its hood, but the powertrain gains a new 48-volt mild-hybrid system for 2024. The result is 255 horsepower and 295 pounds-feet of torque, and it makes its way to all four tires through a nine-speed automatic transmission and Mercedes’ 4Matic all-wheel-drive system. Power is more than adequate for its purpose, with Mercedes estimating a 0-60 mph scoot in a respectable 6.1 seconds.

Those numbers aren’t bad, but who cares? The E350 is entirely about refined, isolating daily transportation, not specs. And despite the above treatise on the changing definition of luxury and this car’s astounding amount of screens, the all-new E-Class continues to be a benchmark in its class. 

You gotta take it easy with the order form, though, lest you end up with an $82,000 (prices include destination) E350, as I did. Not that this fine sled isn’t “worth” that buy-in, but the E-Class positively guzzles add-ons and packages without much warning. If I were in a spendy mood, I’d certainly pass by the $63,450 base E350, opting instead for a 375-hp, six-cylinder E450 that won’t cost a penny less than $69,250 even if you leave everything else on the assembly line. 

But where’s the fun in that? Imagine all the screen time you’d be missing out on.  

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