I live in an are where most everyone drives a Benz, BMW or Audi or Lexus. NY Suburbs are like that. I have yet to see even one new E-class that is resident around town, even though there are tons of the W205 - C300's everywhere. What's up with the new E-Class? Are they selling? Does anyone know?

 

I live in area similar to yours. I have only seen a handful of new e classes on the road. There are plenty of other Mercedes on the road especially SUVs.

 

I am an early adopter of the E300. The Bay Area parking lots are well dotted with MB, but very few E300. Funny, I see may be 3 or 4 on the freeways between Sept. and now, none parked.

 

According to Good Car/Bad Car Net they are selling quite well thank you.

Go to goodcarbadcar.net and browse about. MB sold more E class in 2016 than they did in 2015 (which was a pretty good year for E's I believe). There is always a BUT, and it is that a portion of 2016 sales combined the outgoing CLS with E sales. In addition, I didn't find any info on how many E sales were the old E350 models rather than new E300 models.

The link below show luxury car sales for Nov 2016. The E300 did quite well. While I didn't find a chart for E class only (you could spend hours analyzing this stuff), Mercedes Benz all-model sales ranked 13th in the US through Nov 2016 YTD. Lexus #14...BMW #16...Audi #20...Cadillac #21...and, Jaguar #31. So I think it fair to say they are holding their own. Having said all this, I don't notice a lot of them on the roads. Lots of Cs, and W212 E350s, but not so many W213.

You know the old saying "figures don't lie, but liars figure".

http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2016/12...-2016-ytd.html

 

It does a good job at looking like a c class ! may be why everyone isn't seeing many on the road

 

I live in the sticks with the closest "big" city about 130 miles away (Dallas). Out here in the Texas countryside the only thing you see are pick up trucks with the occasional Honda or Chevy sedan. A MB of any kind is unusual and stands out. I have seen two new E class in the past six months and I'm sure they were going through back to Dallas where there is a Benz in every other driveway in certain parts of the city.

However, even when visiting in Dallas I do not see that many of the new E class. There are tons of my previous car around Dallas (my previous car was the ML350 SUV) and similar utility and crossover type vehicles but it appears to me that all the sedans, at least the new ones, are not nearly as popular as they were a couple years ago. My current car (2017 CLS 550) is a true rarity no matter where I go. If I see even one or two during a trip to Dallas it would be unusual.

The E class may be selling better in other places but here in Texas (from my limited observations) it appears that their SUVs are selling at two or three times its rate.

 

For sure, it is easy to miss the E-Class since it resembles the C-Class. That being said, the one I did see briefly here where I live, I recognized immediately. A customer of mine came by with one that I sat in and admired the new interior. It was a loaner while his S-Class was in for service, and he was very critical of the car's performance. Said it was lacking in power. I explained that it had the same engine as the C-Class, and that seemed to make him angry. He couldn't wait to get his S-Class back ! Judging by the comments, seems like for the moment we don't see a lot of these around yet... maybe they are all over the place, but the owners have enabled the ultra secret "camouflage mode" when parked it rebadges, and shortens to look like a C-Class. Latest anti-theft technology !

 

That is exactly why I bought a new CLS550. The E class simply did not perform the way I wanted and it did not sound very good, either at idle or in the downshifts. But the big 278 V8 twin turbo in the CLS is a beast and not in the same category. Only a few of us put performance above all else and that is why the E class would not be our choice at the moment. The upgraded interior is great, no doubt about it, but the car has to be fun. I have often said here that if I spend this kind of money on a car it has to have a heart. The E class had a perfect body but lacked a true heart. Of course AMG would be different but I was not prepared to go to that level. For my situation and desires, the CLS is ideal and very exclusive.

 

I would have thought that the cls550 is similarly priced to the e43. The cls is nice but has the at this point dated interior and is only a 4 passenger car, which I've always found silly, never understood the permanent console in the center rear. Before I ordered the e43 I test drove a gle63 coupe. It had a sticker of $125,000 which I felt was a total joke considering the dated interior full of cheap plastic. Regards. Ned.

 

The CLS is a niche type car. That is what makes it very exclusive. It's styling is iconic and timeless and does not look like a pregnant C class - it is unique and the most exclusive of the MB sedans - all the others look pretty much the same these days. The CLA is really just a cheap knock off.

In fact, the CLS started the entire automotive revolution called "4 door coupe", which all manufacturers now imitate with some of their sedan models. It remains one of the most beautiful cars on the road. Yes, the interior layout needs a refresh and I believe that will take place next year. However, the workmanship and quality of materials is second to none.

You are right that there is not a whole lot of room other than for driver and front seat passenger. A "coupe" typically only has two seats back there with only a few offering three across. Since there are only the two of us we seldom use the back seat. In fact, I bought it in September and have yet to have someone sit back there. The back seat is far more useful to me folded down. MB probably made it with seating for four only to retain the sporty quality in a "coupe" inspired four door sedan. I'm not sure what the E43 costs but it was not available back then anyway. The only E class I drove was the 300 four cylinder which I quickly dismissed during my test drive as being too lethargic for my driving style.

All in all the CLS suits me perfectly and is a ball to drive (and to hear!!), especially in sports mode. It just all depends on what people want and need.

 

With a 2-3 mth wait on orders I wouldnt expect many to be on the street yet, give oit a year

What I find surprising is the number of mb SUVs given how bloody expensive they are. We have an MDX which is not as nice inside but performancewise and spacewise (aside from towing capacity) is almost identical to a gle but it costs 40k less!

 

According to Autotrader there are 6,593 2017 E300s currently available at their 368 U.S. dealerships.

 

I would say not at this point. I live in an area considered by many to be MB capital, Orange County California, close to a large FJ MB dealership and since its release, I have seen maybe 5 or 6 on the road and 2 parked. I am sure they are selling, but at this point, I don't believe sales are where they should be. My personal opinion is that a lot of prospective buyers like myself, are waiting for the E400 to be offered. I recently finally took the call of a persistent Fletcher Jones MB salesman wondering why I have not made the leap to the E300 after turning in my 2014 E350 last September. Gave him my reasons stated above and he stated there were lots of others like me in the same situation not too pleased with the current engine offered. He proceeded to blame this on EPA requirements yada yada yada...Why then is this same engine offered in the wagon and upcoming E coupe and the monster engines offered in all the other US muscle cars I see all over the place? Maybe I am missing something but I'm just not buying it. Of course he started stirring me to come take a look at the one E43 (no EPA concerns here either) they had on the lot somewhere for a base price of $81000..sure.

 

It is selling at a decent rate, with numbers around 5000 a month. The reason you don't see it yet is because its still a relatively new vehicle on the road. The C class has been on sale for 3+ years now and that adds up to a lot. 5000 a month of the new E is only about 100 per state a month. Now think about how vast this your state is.

 

They are right about the EPA stuff, the requirements for the fleet go up each and every year to ultimately 54.5mpg by 2025! That's quite a number from where we are now but getting there slowly with smaller more efficient engines, hybrids and electric cars. And with the market now so driven by larger suvs, that makes the urgency to get sedans more fuel efficient even more severe. Regards. Ned.

 

I agree with most here...I've seen very few E's here in Vegas. Although my dealership stated they've sold quite a few...he also said I may have been the 1st luxury model they sold. I too would be challenged to distinguish the C from the E...especially if it's coming towards you. I actually kinda like that it's not as common...at least not yet!

 

I live in northern NJ and haven't seen too many yet but it is early in the game. I guess we are all wondering how much of an impact going with a base 4 cylinder engine has had. Not only is it a 4, but only a 2 liter 4 with only 241hp. I used to have access to Wards Automotive, the Bible of such stuff but not anymore since I retired. My guess is that the fans generally like it and it will sell, they are a replacement cycle ahead of the pack. If the BMW and Audi offer a 6 at a reasonable price, look out below. Regards. Ned.

 

I would assume the order delays with P03 package (and other features) causing order to delivery times for being >6 month will limit the number of e-class vehicles actually on the road, even if sales is good......

 

E-Class is simply over priced. Here is why....

Despite the site member's predilection for high acceleration rates, v8 nostalgia and other obsessions, the average luxury car owner today is shifting to a more safety conscious mentality. That is where the future of sales are at all levels of luxury or lack thereof. And, herein lies the story.

P1 at $4,000 is not a bad value, but it is not a good value either. It has the essentials of a similar $1500-2000 packages offered by mid-priced sedans. So, here we are $2k down at the starting gate.

Next, we have a $7300 jump from P1 to P3, the full Driver Assist Package. And several luxury items that most people can do without. Corporate leases, bling and residuals aside, Mercedes have priced themselves into a corner as far as I am concerned. The relevant safety packages are $3800 on the German smorgasbord order guide. That is an additional $5300 straight out of my pocket.

We have a car with great safety features being offered at a roughly $7300 premium, some 12% in just the Mercedes Benz pricing scheme. So, many people feel they cannot get the car they want at a price they ought to be paying for it. We are not talking lease payments, residuals or anything else. Just cash being left on the table. My cash.

MB also "realigned' C300 pricing, which is dealer speak for raising the cost of Driver Assist Package about $4400, by simply bundling it with a bunch of other, unwanted options as a P4 package. I am very sure someone is very proud of creating the Premium Package concept. I would like to take this menace to prudent living out cleanly, but painfully. (I walked into my Verizon store two summers ago and the first question was "have you been bundled yet?" I was not amused. I canceled my Verizon FIOS home internet, waited 31 days and got a 40% new customer discount over what I had been paying and a 50% jump in bandwidth. We were in Europe all that next month anyway.)

We are quite actively looking for a luxury vehicle with the latest safety features. The bundle concept just does not sit well and it puts both the E-class and C-class at a serious price disadvantage. A disadvantage "Der Renome" just does not cover.

I also would like a well thought out Navi and control interface that is intuitive, easy to learn and simple to operate. This latter search is more to the fact that my wife is a technophobe that will have difficulty no matter how good the control interface, but I'd like to think she will at least learn to use it in time. It only took her five years and two phones to discover the bulk of her iPhone functionality. Mercedes seems trapped by an over designed, cumbersome interface compared to a couple of other systems I have examined.

And, oh, did I mention we prefer having a spare tire for our 400 miles runs between home 1 and home 2?

From a four time Mercedes buyer.

 

Mercedes and the Luxury Like (BMW, Audi, etc.) have four model years left until US regulations require all the safety goodies in 2022. Toyota has already begun offering all 2018 models with these features standard so the premium manufacturers will be hard pressed to hold out much longer. I, along with many others, would have thought that the Luxury Like would have been out in front with these features (premium is not only plushness and rarity, but the best of everything, including safety). 2018 will be a watershed year in terms of if these manufacturers appear to keep the pace or begin falling into obscurity in the average safety conscious consumer's mind.

 

I have spoken to a few dealers about whether the new E Class is selling well and the consistent response is that with virtually no incentive programs, the pricing is about $125 a month greater than the 2016 (before they were liquidating those cars) and it has created price resistance.


Numbers are down about 50%.

On a separate note, a friend of mine who is a lease bargain hunter picked up a new $70K msrp 2016 E350 for a lease of $499 a month with taxes.

 

I don't see many of them around here, but I see tons of C class and every type of MB SUV. I am not sure I mind that - I enjoy the uniqueness of it, for however long that lasts. Also, there are tons and tons of 2014, 2015 E350s around town - I could see lots of E300s hitting the road when those are traded. Many enthusiasts are bothered by the 4cyl engine in the E300, but the upper middle class lady rolling around in a Premium 1 2014 E350 is gonna be pretty excited about the 2017 and I bet she won't miss the extra two cylinders.

 

Funny, I saw a 3 today driving to and from work.

 

I live in a gated community in South Florida. The section I live in has 145 homes. A friend got his E300 in mid-July, I got mine July 25th. Since early December there are three more, making five E300's out of 145 homes. There are a lot of Lexus ES350's, the most recent Hyundai Genesis/Genesis G80's and a number of 2010-2016 E350's. I suspect as E350 leases expire we will see more E300's.

I do not see many E300's driving around, but do see a lot of C300's. While driving it can be difficult to distinguish between the C300 and the E300 until you get up close.

 

" I suspect as E350 leases expire we will see more E300's." Or maybe not? Perhaps their lessees will decide to buy out their leases, and keep driving their E 350's rather than drive a strange sounding 4-cylinder, 2 liter engined un-fun machine. Depends a lot on the age, and gender of the lessees. Personally, I think the E300's conception and pricing was a major strategic error that MB will be forced to correct going forward.