Mercedes-Benz E-Class Estate review

Following a comprehensive facelift in 2020, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class Estate continues to set the standard for premium wagons. It combines remarkable levels of space with ultimate luxury and comfort.

It’s based on the already-excellent E-Class saloon, but gracefully transitions into an estate with a curvaceous rear end. In short, it has one of the largest load areas you can get in a 2020 car – excepting those that started out life as a van. That means the E-Class offers significantly greater practicality than its main rivals – the Audi A6 Avant, BMW 5 Series Touring, Jaguar XF Sportbrake and Volvo V90.

While you may no longer be able to specify two rear-facing child seats to turn the E-Class Estate into a seven-seater, the five passengers you can still carry will enjoy sumptuous comfort, masses of space and one of the highest-quality interiors fitted to any car this side of an S-Class.

Luxurious interior

The E-Class Estate really does feel like a step above its rivals in terms of interior comfort and quality. It’s like a mini S-Class inside – every surface is covered in soft leather or quality materials, and with loads of sound deadening to make even high-speed journeys a hushed affair.

Top-end cars come with adaptive suspension or even air springs to ensure a truly pillowy ride, but even the more basic models are still incredibly comfortable to travel in. There’s loads of space, too, with rear-seat passengers enjoying enough head and legroom to really spread out. No wonder E-Classes are so popular with taxi drivers the world over.

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Laden with technology

Even at launch in 2016, the E-Class Estate featured some of the most sophisticated driving and interior tech you could get at the time. The 2020 facelift pushed that even further, with advancements ranging from a dual-screen dashboard setup for all models to 48V mild-hybrid tech on almost every engine.

The E-Class Estate features advanced cruise control and lane-keeping aids that can semi-autonomously drive the car on motorways and in traffic jams. There’s more safety kit than you can shake a stick at – active speed limiters that adjust based on the route in the sat-nav, augmented-reality navigation to ensure you never miss a junction, and blind-spot monitors that stay on even while the car’s turned off to prevent you from ‘dooring’ a pedestrian or cyclist.

Meanwhile, the two screens inside are high-quality, ultra-configurable and give the dashboard a real cinematic effect. They’re controlled via a central touchpad – an update over the previous scrollwheel – and a touch-sensitive steering wheel.

Wide engine range

The majority of E-Class Estates will be diesel-powered, with four- and six-cylinder units available to give buyers the choice of everything from an efficient cruiser to a torque-filled beast.

But diesel doesn’t have to be the de facto choice, with a range of impressive petrol engines also available. They range from basic four-cylinder units right up to the AMG-tuned E 63 Estate, which uses a twin-turbocharged V8.

The majority of these pure-combustion units feature what Mercedes calls ‘EQ Boost’ technology – a mild-hybrid system aimed at improving response and fuel economy while reducing CO2 emissions.

The really interesting engine options come in the form of the E 300 e and E 300 de plug-in hybrids. The E-Class is the only car on sale today to offer both a petrol and a diesel plug-in hybrid option, and they make really interesting choices – especially for company car drivers, who can make the most of their super-low CO2 figures. The diesel in particular is a unique proposition, being equally suited to driving around town as it is to long trips. The best of both worlds?

• Read more: Mercedes-Benz E-Class saloon review
• Read more: Best hybrid cars 2020

Read on to see how we rate the Mercedes-Benz E-Class Estate for practicality, comfort, running costs and driving dynamics – or click here to skip to the Parkers verdict.

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