I have an E550 that I love and two rambunctious 50+ puppy hounds that I need to occasionally transport. It's impossible without someone to hold them down. Does anyone know whether the E class wagon can be fitted with a dog barrier and hopefully some sort of liner to keep them from destroying the carpet? Or if it is even advisable to look this direction? I'd like to lease if that makes a difference.

Ideally I would get a second beater car, but I really don't want that many cars.

 

I have a new E 350 wagon and it comes with a two part partition behind the rear seats, a privacy shade for the rear storage and a nylon mesh curtain that attaches to roof clips. That should contain normal dogs.

 

I have a 2015 E350 wagon on order, and while I don't have it yet I've thoroughly researched it. I think it will make an awesome dog taxi (that's my intended use, anyway!)

The E350 wagon has a removable piece that includes a roll out cargo cover that attaches to the tailgate, and a cargo net that rolls up and attaches to the ceiling. If your dogs will respect a net (as opposed to needing a metal barrier), then this would suffice.

You can use this net in two different placements: 1) when the rear seats are up and you're keeping the dogs solely in the cargo area (i.e. you want to also transport humans in the rear seats), the net pulls to the ceiling and attaches at points above the rear passenger seats; and 2) when the rear seats are folded down and you want to give your dogs the entire back, you can reposition the part with the cargo net & cover by sliding/hooking it onto the back seats once they are folded, and the net can be pulled up to hook onto the more forward attachments on the ceiling, not far behind the front seats. See the attached owners manual excerpt which probably illustrates it better than I'm explaining it. BMW wagons (which I have currently) have a similar functionality and I find it very useful.

If your dogs need a metal barrier, something like this looks like it could work in both placements too (rear seats down and up): http://www.autoanything.com/pet-travel/69A5164A0A0.aspx

For carpet protection, I highly recommend Coco Mats. I have these in my BMW 3-series wagon for my two 50-lb dogs, and they are really durable, attractive and easy to shake out. I've been assured that they have the pattern for the E-class wagon as well, since I plan to get the same setup for my new wagon.

(One thing I have not confirmed with Cocomats is whether the E-class wagon pattern still allows for hooking the cargo net to the rear seat backrests when the rear seats are folded down. I discovered when I put the mats in my BMW, they are so thick that they block the cargo net piece from sliding into the latches on the rear seat backs when the rear seats are folded. This is my fault because I designed the mats for the folded rear seats and didn't take into account the thickness of the mat - but something I need to confirm before I order them for my new E350 wagon.)

Edit: Yikes - sorry the image of the owner's manual is so big - not sure how to reduce the size.

 

Thanks for the replies. These two are only 8 months old, and they don't respect much when they get excited. I'm not sure the cargo net would slow them down. That metal barrier might be the ticket though.

 

I was just browsing the E-class accessories brochure (PDF attached below), and on page 23 (or page 12 of the PDF) they have a wire mesh cargo divider that looks pretty cool. The lateral divider can be purchased separately separately from the other components. I'm not sure if it can be mounted in a forward position, i.e. when the rear seats are folded - but it looks worth investigating.



I think this picture is of the divider for the C-class wagon but it's a good illustration: