2018 Mercedes-Benz E400 4Matic Cabriolet: Review
Gleaming ribbons of designo Magnolia “Flowing Lines” wood trim were draped across the dashboard. Ambient lighting glowed warmly in front of me. The turbine-inspired HVAC vents elevated mundane function to artform.
If I wasn’t eyeing my Distronic cruise control speed in the head-up display, I was sneaking a glance at the finery that surrounded me. The metallic window switchgear felt elegant. Gleaming ribbons of designo Magnolia “Flowing Lines” wood trim were draped across the dashboard and door panels. Ambient lighting glowed warmly in front of me. The turbine-inspired HVAC vents elevated mundane function to artform.
A soft, pleasant scent much like a versatile men’s fragrance occasionally wafted through the cabin. I had the Dynamic Select system in its Comfort setting so the E400 just sailed down the road, calmly absorbing all but the harshest of bumps. Although at certain low speeds the 9G-Tronic automatic could be slightly clunky, on the highway its shifts were always timely and smooth.
As wonderful a place as the E400’s cabin was, it wasn’t perfect. The materials used on the tops of the door panels and the hood over the main gauges appeared as if they belonged in the $87,000 car they were in while being surprisingly hard to the touch. I found the handwriting recognition system for the infotainment system to be easier to confuse and less intuitive than the BMW version of the technology. I never got used to the thumbwheel for adjusting the volume or its passenger-biased placement.
The left door on the upward-opening center storage compartment seemed to stick after I pressed its release button. There was an interior release for the trunk, but the trunk lid itself neither respected nor responded to gentleness. At times it almost seemed as if its latch was blocked, but it never was. Slamming the lid down was the best way to close it. Luckily, the cargo area underneath it was large enough to hold our jackets, a camera bag, a notebook, and the old-school jazz and surf records our friends Rachel and Austin bought at a vintage shop.
The serpentine sections of the rural roads gave me the perfect excuse to put the E400 in its Sport and Sport+ modes. Going from the first to the second further sharpened the E400’s throttle response and loosened the choke chain on the V6’s 329 horsepower and 354 lb-ft of torque. Combined with the united clawing force of the 4Matic all-wheel drive, those figures were more than up to the task of moving me, my gal, and our pals at a satisfying pace as the V6 let out a surprisingly ear-pleasing growl.
The steering and Air Body Control suspension firmed up as well, although those changes did little to make the E400 feel like a performance car or motivate me to drive it accordingly. The steering never seemed fast enough and the brakes lacked feel. To wring every bit of g-force and stopping power out of the E400 would’ve been missing the point of it, anyway. It’s not an AMG hot rod. It doesn’t even have a V8, much less an AMG-43-spec biturbo six (yet). After a few miles of twists and turns, I went back to following the advice I’ve heard before: Use as directed. I allowed the E400 to be a luxury four-seater convertible.
