I've been enjoying my 2004 E320. My parents owned Mercedes as I grew up. So buying my first Mercedes after owning two other cars... It's been great. My dad still sometimes drives the infamous 240D (with more than 260k miles).
One thing I did notice in the E is that the door does not close with the trademark, solid "thunk". I checked up on previous threads, and sure enough, I'm not the only one that noticed: see
https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w211/69859-new-mbs-closing-doors.html
Below is an excerpt from Edmund's recent review of the E550. Are they bs'ing? Did Mercedes bring back the "thunk"?
My buddy's brand new E63 doesn't have the thunk. (But my other friend's BMW 545i does!)
"Mention Mercedes-Benz and a number of images could come to mind: stately sedans, dashing drop tops, self-absorbed celebrities and their tiny dogs, a bank vault. The latter has been used so many times in analogy to describe a Benz's solid construction that it wouldn't be surprising to see an S-Class door guarding the gold at Fort Knox. Give a Mercedes the old door-shut test, and you'll see what we mean. The hefty, precise and vibration-less manner in which it closes gives the feeling that the whole car is carved out of a block of solid titanium. "