I have a "Richard" (Richard Ver.2.0) at home too. This new Richard replaced Richard Ver.1.0, who did everything Richard did, but did not fart. Richard Ver.1.0, was my 2022 E450 All-Terrain Wagon, and currently at nearly 60K (my brother owns it now) still runs like a swiss-watch.

I have grown to accept Richard 2.0 for what he is (does everything that he's designed to do, really, really well), and ignore his farts.

 

In nearly 50k miles, my 2022 All-Terrain Wagon, never bottomed out. Not one single time. And currently the car is with my brother, and have not heard anything from him, other than blissful ownership.

 

Please note that in the W213 (my 2022 E450 All-Terrain Wagon), the car has an extra couple of inches of additional ground clearance, over the previous wagons and the sedans. So bottoming out is next to impossible, unless someone wanted to play rally car with it and launch it from the top of a small hill.

But I am totally with you on the air suspension bit. If they offered the E450 All-Terrain without the Air suspension, that's exactly what I personally would have opted for. The standard Mercedes suspension with the steel springs, will go for a million miles with absolutely zero issues. Having said that, my 2022 All-Terrain does not have even a whisper of an issue with the suspension, even at 60K miles. 60K well taken-care-of-miles !

 

No. I have the standard suspension with 18" wheels, also standard.

 

Here's a side-by-side view of the E450 All-Terrain Wagon and the regular E450 Wagon. Pictures from Motortrend, and obviously shot in Europe, during the launch of the W214, X214 and the S214 E-classes.

I know there're people who are rabidly opposed to the plastic fender flares of the AT etc., but I have grown used to it, and have no problems whatsoever with it. But what I do appreciate, is the extra ground clearance in the All-Terrain variant vis-a-vis the regular wagon.

 

My 2019 did not have the air suspension and it ride really bad. It had 19 inch wheels. It did have run flats before I traded it and back to the dealer. I put regular tires on non-run flats and it did ride a little better, but still not very good.

My 214 2025 all terrain rode equally bad but at least it didn’t bottom out and of course it did have the air suspension which all the all-terrain come with. my 2018 S560 I believe is probably about the best riding car ever made. It has the mbc Magic body control suspension and it’s just outstanding the car rides on 19 inch wheels. And they are also run flat tires. One car I had that rode perfect almost as good as the S class shockingly Was a 2019 E450. Cabriolet I put the same tires that Car had On my 2019 E450 wagon and it still made no difference so it was definitely something wrong with the suspension I had taken it back to the dealer about three times because it just felt like something wasn’t right but every time they just said it’s normal.

The worst riding car I had was a 2018 E 63 AMG wagon and it rode horrible bad. I just couldn’t live with it and after only a year took a bath on that car too.

. Anyhow makes me wonder if a lot of the E class cars end up with damaged suspension on the boat ride over from Germany as I guess they bottom out the suspension when they strap them down to the boat. The other very strange thing on my 2018 amg wagon was the radio literally sounded like a transistor radio. I paid 116k for that car and again the dealer said it was normal.

The new car I have the 2025. Subaru outback touring XT turbo rides amazing. It has 18 inch wheels with Yokohama non-run flat tires I just drove the car 1400 miles in five days and I’m very happy with the ride completely vibration free on the highway it almost has a motionless feeling to it sort of like my S560 so very happy with the Subaru. It kind of caught me off guard I didn’t realize I would like the car as much as I do even though it’s the top of the-line outback.

Subaru has come a long ways but now they’re going in changing all of the 2026 outbacks as they’re totally redesigning it so that’s one reason I went with a 2025. I’ll be doing about 30,000 miles a year in the Subaru. The. Eyesight adaptive features in the car are amazing.

Very well designed car. Only complaint is the backup camera is horrible. They must have got the cameras at a five and dime store. Also no 360 camera either. You have to get the larger Ascent model to get the 360. The infotainment system seems fine to me has the upgraded HK sound system of course not as good a system as in the Benz but much less complicated and user friendly. A lot of the reviews I’ve seen on the car says the infotainment system is not good but I disagree at least on my car it’s fine.

 

I’m mulling over a 2026 E53 wagon and wondered if anyone with a 2024 or 2025 e53 sedan can comment on the heads up display and the 4 zone climate control? Is it worth the price of the pinnacle trim over the exclusive trim?