My wife and I (along with our 80 lbs lab) travelled to WI over Christmas. The drive was about 830 miles from just outside DC to outside of Milwaukee, WI. I admit I was kind of nervous taking our new E550 4matic on the trip. The car is less than a month old and it is wintertime after all. Thank goodness the weather was good for travel (no snow or ice) .

The car itself performed flawlessly. I really think that this is the best road trip car I have ever driven. It just eats up the miles on the highway. On the way out we drove in the rain for most of the trip – the car did not skip a beat. After driving the trip more or less non-stop neither my wife nor I were sore. We stopped about every 3 hours to let out the dog, so that might have helped. The seats are awesome. I love the driver side adaptive seat and I am really starting to love it. I came from a BMW with the comfort seats – now those seats felt just a tad better but the MB seats are up there.

The suspension is great – communicative but not too harsh for my tastes. The drive train is simply divine – the V8 just has so much power on reserve that it is effortless to drive on the highway. I just love cruising at less than 2000 rpm and then having the ability to accelerate quickly. And boy does the E550 pull hard when you give it some gas – it takes a lot of discipline not to get it into the triple digits. For having less than 600 miles on the engine at the beginning of the trip, the car got excellent fuel economy. On the way out, we averaged 66 mph and 25.3 mpg. On the way back, we average 71 mph and 25.6 mpg. The adaptive headlights are great too – much better than xenons.

After a bath the car is back in the garage – ready for its first oil change, the next drive and the next road trip .

 

What a great pleasure you had a joyful trip and the car impressed you a lot. This must be your best car yet
I have not driven a E500/550 that's why I don't know if you hear any V8 burble under slight acceleration just under 2000 RPM though

 

You do hear that burble - but it is not noticeable at highway speed. Yes this is my best car yet .

 

In my E550 engine is not heard at all in highway driving. Even when doing heavy acceleration engine is not easy to hear. This is a big difference to the E350 that let you hear the engine much more.


Just hope road noise was dampened better. I will help that a bit when I get my next tires though.

 

I saw this thread name on the front page and came here expecting the car to be an S class


congrats OP, enjoy!

 

I was expecting it to be a wagon especially after the mention of the dog...

OP, glad you like it!

 

Just a heads up, in my 2012 E550, I have noticed that the mpg calculation is exaggerated by 2mpg (+/- 0.1mpg) every tank. Any chance you did the math manually? I'd love to find out if they increased the accuracy in the new model.

 

Sorry the wife vetoed the wagon - plus to get a V8 I would have had to get an E63 which is a bit outside of my league.

The dog loved the back of the car, which was covered with a blanket, sheets and doggie hammock to keep it drool free.

 

You need a different wife ;-) J/K. I hear you about the E63, same here plus you give up the jump seats in the trunk which was a major selling point for me so I gave up on having a V8 which is OK as the E350 is still the most powerful car I ever owned.

 

Thanks for your feedback

Thanks for your going thru trouble and post a comparison between two models . It is kinda surprising because I expected V8 to be much louder.