adrien

1,300 miles in 4 days in our 2012 e350 4 matic luxury P2 wagon. Previously we had an audi a6 3.0 wagon, and we have a Subaru Outback.

The Benz is by far the best in the snow. Planted, stable, and trucks through just about everything with less fuss than the Audi or the Subaru (both do great, but you can see the electronics working -- the MB is seamless). It was perfectly fine on all-seasons.

Distronic plus, Pre-safe and the lane departure system go on and off as the road gets really bad (because the sensors can't see road markings or other cars), which is actually a good heads-up to the driver to pay more attention.

If you're hesitating on this as a winter car, don't. Very strong in these conditions. Oh, and returned 27 mpg.

DBV

Nice to know just priced a E350 4 matic (lease)with P2 package tonight and a Subaru Legacy (buy) specifically for winter driving. Obviously no comparison between a Mercedes or Subaru, but Subaru always has such a good reputation of their all wheel drive system.

MinnBobber

Thanks.
where do you live, how much snow did you experience?
What wheels tires do you have, 17 or 18", stock all season tires??

I have a 2013 E350 Wagon.

adrien

I live in metro DC, and was driving back home from Ottawa, Canada. I'd estimate 3 inches, falling hard, at the worst point. Car went through 4-5 inches of fresh powder on some steep hills, no problem. Plus plenty of sleet, freezing rain, etc. -- lots of fun precipitation. On stock all-season michelins on 17 ich luxury wheels.

Relative to the Subaru -- they are great vehicles, but far from a MB. Our outback feels like a camry on stilts -- not much power and a little flinty. It's got leather and all that, but at its core it's a tractor. A great vehicle for putting bikes and a thule box on the roof, going anywhere and not worrying about it. The one thing it has on the MB is 8 inches of ground clearance. One thing on Scoobies -- the manuals have a much better AWD system over the autos, which are FWD until the viscous system senses slip.

Mustangbru8

I got a chance to drive my 2012 E350 Sedan sport 4 Matic yesterday for the first time in the snow and it was great. I have the stock 18" wheels and Conti A/S and the car was great. I tested it a few times trying to break traction and got the yellow light on the dash to light up but the car never really slipped it pretty much just gripped and went straight. One other thing I noticed was when the road was somewhat clear but still had spots of snow and slush my other vehicles would pull to that side and feel a little unstable (including my 1 ton 4 by 4 pickup) but the Merc just went through it and kept tracking straight, I don't know if the 4Matic was doing something to keep it straight or not but it felt more stable than anything else I've driven.

BenzV12

Thanks everyone for your feedbacks and OP .It's a great feeling to see 4 MATIC is perfoming very well in heavy snow conditions
Safe driving

ddeliber

Adrien, Not to hijack your thread, but I was wondering about your A6 3.0T...
How quick was it off the line? Audi states that, at least for the new ones, it will do 0-60 in 0.1s slower than an E550. Considering that it has something like 80 fewer horses and about 100 fewer lb-ft of torque I found this interesting and I wanted to get someone who had one's perspective.

1985mb

Glad to hear about your safe travels in bad weather. However, to the extent that anyone reads this thread with regard to future purchase decisions, it should be noted that tires are the single most important part of a car's safe all-weather capability.

They are the only piece of your car in contact with the road, and along with your brakes they are the only determinants of your stopping ability regardless of whether you have RWD or AWD.