faigenistic

Hey everyone,

Brand new to this forum and while I have been looking around I figured I'd post a thread to generate some feedback. My wife and I are expecting our first child at the end of this year and are in need of a larger family car. I currently drive a 2016 WRX and the wife drives a 2014 E350. We take a few long road trips every year and with a dog and now a kid on the way, neither of our cars are quite large enough to accommodate longer road trips with all the luggage. As much as I love my WRX, it is not a very practical family car and my wife does not want to get rid of her baby (The E350). I shudder at getting and SUV and having the riding high bouncy feeling so I have been looking at wagons. All brands considered (at least what's available in the USA), I keep coming back to the Benz 2017 and 2018 E400s. We test drove a 2019 wagon and it was pretty amazing, but the price is high.

We have time before we need to make a purchase and I have a local volume dealer that helped us find my wife's CPO car that is searching for a wagon nationwide for me. The goal is to get one with < 20k miles, under warranty, for around $50k-$55k. They found a great deal on my wife's car and offer extended wrap around warranty coverage and pretty great financing.

I was curious as to the everyone's thoughts on the 2018 E400 wagon:

• Reliability
• Value
• Cost
• Options
• Issues

Any feedback you guys can give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

wagonsrock

I have an E400 wagon that's 10 months old. Before that a BMW 5 series wagon, and before that an Audi A4 wagon. As you've noted there are few options left in the US, especially if you want a midsize wagon, in fact only the E class and Volvo V90 are left.

In the US the initial cost of an E400 can vary by about $20k depending on options, which for 2017/2018 model years were sold in packages P1, P2, P3, with only a few choices for individual options. The dual wide screen instrument display had limited availability during production, so not all P3 cars got that. So the most important thing is to find out how the car is optioned. With depreciation you might be able to save a bunch, but in US these are rare models, so you'll probably have limited choices. The P3 package adds a lot of nice extras but is expensive.
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2018 E400S Sport Styling, Diamond Silver Metallic, Macchiato Beige/Black leather, Macchiato Beige head liner, Natural Grain Black Ash Wood, Heated and Ventilated Front Seats, Acoustic Package; Heated Steering Wheel and Arm Rests, Premium Package 3 (Digital Instrument Cluster, LED Intelligent Lighting Package, Parking Assistance Package, Driver Assistance Package, HUD)

madtrader

I bought a 2012 W212 E350 diesel just before our first child and it worked pretty well for us on road trips, but occasionally it was a bit short on packing space. When child #2 came along we bought the dreaded minivan. The extra space and sliding doors are nice, but it’s no e class. I opted to replace the W212 with a new station wagon, and bought a 2018 e400 last August. It fits the family, but large car seats are tight. I can’t fit our rear facing Chicco behind me. It does fit behind my wife. Something changed in the fit between the W212 and S213. The rear seat space in the S213 feels larger to me, but the car seat doesn’t fit as well. I think it has something to do with the shape of the back of the front seat.

Anyway, that’s not your question. Figure out the options you want. I did and then went looking, but didn’t find one with the options I wanted. There was a wagon at my nearest Mercedes dealer (80 miles away) and eventually the sales folks convinced me to take it home. I like it, but it just doesn’t have enough options, so I’ve ordered a 2019 e450 wagon that has almost all the options. I’ll take quite a haircut, but hopefully I’ll wind up with exactly what I want. Options that were important to me:

• warmth and comfort package (it gets cold here), this is on my current e400 and it’s been great this winter
• air body control, less for the smooth ride, more for the ability to raise the height, also helpful this winter
• heated rear seats (I think there is a theme here)
• acoustic comfort package
• digital gauge cluster (it’s a space ship)
• parking package, for the 360 camera
• driver assistance package
• intelligent light package
• multicontour seats

That’s not everything I ordered, but if I had found a wagon with all that that wasn’t black I would have grabbed it.

On your other points, hard to say. Value is in the eye of the beholder. Reliability is still an unknown to me for S213. I loved my W212, but it had several expensive warranty fixes. They were diesel specific issues, though. My current one has been perfect, but I’ve only put 2600 miles on it. Obviously I am willing to roll the dice with a second S213 and the haircut from trading in a new car. This will be our fourth Benz, so I’m happy enough to keep buying them.

2012 merc amg

There were a lot of improvements made to the E450 over the E400 in that one model year, something to keep in mind. If you could find a 2019 demo or slightly used might be worth the extra money over a 2018.

faigenistic

Good info. I will definitely keep that in mind and mention that to the guy searching for me.

faigenistic

Appreciate all of the incredible feedback. I was pretty much up on the options, but having the input from someone who has a kid and the car is great Thanks!

faigenistic

Any insight you can offer as to what the improvements were? I'm pushing the limits of our budget by finding a very low mileage 2018 already. Thanks!

teksurv

The biggest changes that come to mind are: Increase to 362hp from 329hp, Driver's assistance package is said to be improved, Wireless service changed from Verizon to AT&T, where with the latter you pay for a plan.

2012 merc amg

Improved steering wheel layout with cruise control on steering wheel rather than that foolish nub stalk. I dunno if it was just my car but my 2018 E63 AMG wagon stereo sounded awful and both my 2019's sound great. I felt the Driver assistance was very clunky in the 2018, I could not trust it, it would dive for exits off the highway, both my 2019's don't do that and take corners tighter and drift in the lane less.

madtrader

I’m also excited about the improvements in the 2019 vs the 2018 I have. They did not factor into my decision to order, but as I’ve been lurking for several months the items teksurv and 2012 merc amg stated are things I’ve seen mentioned in bits and pieces in other threads that get me excited. A few other things I recall reading:

• some voice command improvements
• the seat memory button not having to be continuously push to move to a memory position
• improved wireless charging tray size for bigger phones
• easy entry (I forget the exact name) moving the seat in addition to the wheel (like it used to be years ago)

Aside, I got the call today that my new car is on a ship headed to the USA and to tentatively plan on having it the end of the month. I’m sure my current wagon will get turned around into a low mile CPO shortly thereafter.

2012 merc amg

other thing is I don’t remember my 2018 amg wagon having all these bright white light led lights both inside and outside. They all light up getting in and out at night providing tons of light. Either that or the amg is different. I know the amg is made in another plant. Hard to believe but I actually like this e450 better than the amg wagon and it was 70 k vs 116 k new. 46 k less. .