Wheels Weekly: New Mercedes E-Class Brochures Leaked

You've got to love the internet don't you? The new Mercedes-Benz E-Class (W212), originally due to be officially unveiled in about a week’s time at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show (NAIAS), has been leaked in early December 2008 when 3 exterior photos somehow found their way onto the net. If you’re not satisfied with that “sneak preview” of some sort, we now bring you the fresh scans of the official German brochures. Enjoy.

These pictures, of which are all cropped from the original scanned documents, clearly show the differences between the 3 spec levels available (traditionally Classic, Elegance, and Avantgarde), plus the optional AMG Sports Package that comes with a full AMG bodykit.

One of the main objectives of the engineers working on this new E-Class is to give the car a confidence inspiring ‘solid/unbreakable’ look, harking back to the legendary W124 E-Class of the ’80-‘90s. To achieve this, the exterior and interior are more angularly shaped, a very sharp departure from the previous model’s (W211) all around swoopy curves. Based on the current C-Class’ interior (huge improvement over the previous generation), expect the new E-Class to have excellent build quality.

The highest level of the three is the Avantgarde, seen here with a more dynamic looking front end, equipped with LED daytime running lights (a la Audi). This spec also gets sporty 17” alloys, standard bi-xenon headlamps, and a 3-slat grille. The end result is the best looking car of the three (discounting the AMG Sports Package version), though we were slightly disappointed that they have not stuck with their grille-placed Three Pointed Star logo that’s used in the Avantgarde C-Class.

The interior gets swathes of leather in contrasting colours and aluminium trim to accentuate its sporty nature. It’s interesting to see that the minor seat adjustment controls (Dynamic Seat, Pulse Massage, shoulder, side support) have been moved to the side of the seats, next to the centre armrest, as previously these set of controls had been placed under the seats, just behind your calf. The major seat controls (position, recline, memory, etc) are still next to the door handles, as they are on every other Mercedes car.

Elegance is the mid-range spec, Mercedes’ volume-seller. It has swathes of chrome on the exterior – around the front foglamps, along with a unique 4-slat grille. This model is supposedly the more conservative one, elegant, classy, and very old-Mercedes, cue the not-so-interesting 17” rims and the champa ign beige paintjob of the car in the picture.

This conservative theme is carried out in the interior as well, with unpolished wood trim and classical vertical striped seats (the others’ are horizontally striped). This combination would no doubt appeal to Mercedes’ traditional market audience (i.e. older people). With that in mind, expect hoards of Elegance specced E-Class on our roads soon.

Being the lowest spec level available, the Classic (assumed to still be called “Classic”, as per the previous model) has a rathe r mundane looking exterior treatment. Lacking the chrome strips along the length of the windowline, lower side fairings, front lip and foglights, the Classis does indeed look entry level. Add to that the boring looking 16” rims and you get a car that is infinitely less classy compared to the higher spec models.

The interior gets cloth upholstery (oh blasphemy), manual g ea rbox, aluminium t rim (assumed to be different than the on e in the Avantgarde), and a different set of centre armrest, where from the looks of it, lacks the in-car telephone too.

All these might sound drab and very un-Mercedes-like to you, but in no way is this a new practice by the Stuttg art car maker - low sp ecced Mercedes has always looked, and felt like bastard chi lds of t he whole range. For an example take the previous C-Class that was available here in Malaysia. The C200 Kompressor came in Classic spec and there were more blank plates on the cen tre console than actual working buttons. On higher specced models, these blank plates would have been actual buttons that operate stuff like automatic rear window blinds, motion sensors, etc. The Classic models don’t have all that amenities, so yeah, they get blank plates instead. How depressing is that? And to think that so many Malaysian dream of buying entry level Mercedes cars.. Hogwash.

Now for the interesting part – the AM G Sports Package. While it i s unclear whether this option would include any sort of performance or dynamic upgrades, the AMG body kit is clearly shown. The unique front bumpers carry the usual AMG details, along with the equally familiar AMG side skirts. Also visible through the 18” AMG alloys are the cross-drilled brake rotors, though it is still not certain if this would be offere d as an option alongside the AMG Sports Package, or a general brakes upgrade available throughout the whole range.

The interior boasts sport seats (with black leather, an AMG trad ition), which can be easily spotted by the heavily bolstered side supports. Other than that, expect AMG steering wheels and hundreds of AMG plaques scattered around the interior.

This AMG Sports Package gives us a clue on how the new fire breathing E63 AMG is going to look like. Though given by the looks of the C63 AMG, that monster will look a lot more aggressive than the previous one.

Petrol engine options available in Germany are as such (0-100kmh times in brackets):-