I am actively negotiating with 3 local MB dealers for the factory order of a fully loaded 2020 E450 Estate Wagon. I intend to buy and keep, for a number of years, and not lease. This will be my "retirement" car, and I've researched for a year to decide on the Estate Wagon.

In the back of my mind is this nagging question ... Am I better off waiting for the (eventual) release of the I6 engine or just stay with the V6 that's sold now? I like the relative mechanical simplicity of the I6 versus the V6, which has almost two of everything (e.g., 2 turbos, additional valvetrain components, etc). Plus, its 48 volt system makes a lot of sense to me.

Interested in forum member thoughts on this topic.

 

It is a very personal choice - buy and end-of-life V6 or buy the newest I6. I believe that over the long haul the I6 will be more efficient and easier to maintain. The i6 has been in production for awhile so the "1st year anomalies" have been addressed.

 

Just my $.02:

The original engine option on my 2019 E class was the inline 4 with 48 volt lithium battery which was to produce about 300 hp vs. 250 for the existing V4. I thought it would be the perfect engine for the E Class: sufficient power plus excellent fuel economy/mileage.

However, before production, this engine was "pulled" and my choice was either the V4 or V6. For personal reasons I choose the E450 with the V6 engine. (see below)

Going forward all MB engines coming to the US will be "hybrid" with the 48 lithium volt battery. The battery will run most accessories and provide "instantaneous" power with the stop/start. So from a stop light there should be no "stutter" restarting the engine. In addition fuel economy should be better as well.

I would certainly opt for the I6 with the 48 volt lithium battery.

However, having written this keep in mind this one fact: This series of ICE will be the last that Mercedes will be producing. Of course there will be incremental improvements.

But going forward all future engines will be electric. All research and development cost will be in electric engines - not ICE.

So your car will either turn out to be a "classic" and hold its value or rapidly depreciate as electric vehicles become the norm. If you are convinced that the I6 will be a classic then certainly buy it. If you think it will rapidly depreciate, my own personal opinion, then to protect yourself I suggest you lease. If the car becomes a "classic" at lease end, you can buy the car as the residual will be lower than the market value. If the market value has substantially decreased, so that the residual is substantially higher than the market value, you can turn your car in at lease end and basically cut your loses.

 

He said that he is buying for retirement. I take that to mean that he'll hold it a long time. As such, all cars depreciate over that time frame. For my part, and as the owner of a E450, which is great, I'd wait. But, only if I knew that it was coming out in 2021. I don't think it's worth waiting 2 years for it.

 

1. I too have been shopping for an E station wagon. Drove the 450 and thought it was significantly improved over the 400. Drove the E63s and loved it, but was advised against it by my independent Mercedes mechanic. Now have pretty much decided to wait for the refreshed 2021 model, which I am told will be announced this spring. The “simpler” I6 would be one reason - although one does wonder about the life expectancy of a 4 inch diameter turbo that goes from 0 rpm to 70,000 rpm in 1/3 of a second (R&T, November 1, 2016). The MBUX might be another. The facelift might be another. There might also be some new exterior and interior color choices (there is certainly room for improvement). There might be an AMG or semi-AMG version of the I6. I’d say if you don’t have to do something immediately it’s worth the wait.

 

Sure, and I6 is a simpler engine than a V6. But when was the last time you heard about a rush of V6 failures? While their I6 siblings kept on running? Today, in general, properly maintained engines do not fail. Sure, ancillary parts fail, but the core engine is capable of lasting pretty much forever, when properly maintained and lubricated. The fact that MB is going to the I6 /could/ mean it's a better engine. It also /does/ mean it's cheaper to make. Just is.

I'm very much in the same boat as the original poster: 76 years old, our last Toyota Avalon, a great car, lasted 11 years before it was totaled in a wreck, and looked and ran like new. My thought is to keep the 2020 E450 Wagon I've ordered forever or until I die, whichever comes first. Realistically, it isn't /that/ much more expensive to lease every so often, so my do that, and I /want/ to lease, just so if the car ends up a lemon, I can get out of it cheaply. I'm not the least bit worried bout the V6, although as my Acura comes off lease in December, I need the MB then and don't really have the option of waiting for 2021. But to me, it's six of one, half dozen of the other. I will do just fine with the V6 as generations of MBs have in the past.

Plus, while sure development of internal combustion engines have pretty much peaked, I believe you'll be able to buy hybrid MBs using an IC engine 10 years from now. Electric-only technology still needs to make huge leaps before they're practical for all users for long trips, for example, which most of us still have to take at some point. I can see having one electric car in a household, but at this point, an IC car is still needed to drive for vacation, visit the relatives, etc. Heck, Kia won't even sell their all-electric cars here in SC because the infrastructure for them doesn't exist (just bought a Kia Niro hybrid for the wife and I to use around town). Anyhow, if you want to keep the car "forever", you don't care what it's worth, do you? And it may even be worth more, if the landscape is all-electric; a lot of hold-outs will still want gasoline powered cars, just like a lot of them insist on driving V8s today. ;-)

 

Smart Mechanic. I had a 2018 E63 AMG. I'll leave it at that, lol. Anyhow, I think the V6 is a great motor and would not let that sway my decision. It is a well proven design and with all of Mercedes Racing experience especially with the V6 (formula 1) the engine is completely perfected at this point, too bad it's going away. When I got my Cabrio a year ago I first started looking at the E53 AMG's but the more I thought about it with the complexity of the Batteries, electronics and electric motor I would not want one myself, sometimes I park my cars in my garage when I travel connect to a battery maintainer. I'd worry more with a hybrid about something happening while I was away from the car than I do with a gas powered car like with the V6. Anyhow, thats just me. Besides that you are gonna have to wait who knows how long.