2021 Mercedes-Benz E450 All-Terrain Video Review: MotorTrend Buyer's Guide

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00:00 (upbeat music)

00:03 This good looking red station wagon is the 2021

00:07 Mercedes-Benz E450 All-Terrain.

00:10 Technically, it's an SUV,

00:12 which means that technically it is not

00:15 our 2021 Motor Trend Car of the Year.

00:18 What am I talking about?

00:20 Let's find out.

00:21 You might think that Mercedes' wealthiest customers

00:28 are buying sports cars or big convertibles,

00:31 but no, they're buying E-Class wagons.

00:34 This is no longer an E-Class wagon

00:36 because it has a slight lift

00:38 and maybe some armor plating over here.

00:40 Technically, somehow, it's an SUV.

00:43 Now, there's actually a market for vehicles like this.

00:46 Small one, there's just two competitors,

00:47 is the Audi A6 Allroad,

00:49 and there's the Volvo V90 Cross Country.

00:52 But what Mercedes is trying to do,

00:54 they're trying to kill two birds with one stone, right?

00:57 You keep your wealthy wagon customers happy,

01:00 but you also trick some customers

01:03 who would never consider owning a station wagon

01:05 into purchasing an SUV.

01:08 Clever, right?

01:10 Probably too clever.

01:11 I'm of two minds about the design of the E450 All-Terrain.

01:18 On the one hand, it's a really handsome station wagon.

01:21 On the other hand, it's a really handsome station wagon

01:24 that has dressed up like a truck for Halloween.

01:27 Let's focus on the good stuff.

01:28 Mercedes' design team right now

01:31 is just firing on almost all of their cylinders.

01:33 Electric vehicles notwithstanding,

01:35 they are the masters of form,

01:37 they are the masters of surfacing.

01:39 This thing has a huge grill.

01:40 Well, Mercedes have always had a huge grill,

01:43 and this one looks really good.

01:44 Plus, look at the size of the three-pointed star.

01:48 I'll let you in on a secret.

01:49 That's what the customers like.

01:52 Then you've got these awesome headlights.

01:53 It's like opening a jewelry box, right?

01:55 If you're a mockingbird and you like shiny objects,

01:58 look at that.

02:00 Coming down the side, what jumps out at me

02:02 is that this car screams, "I'm rear-wheel drive,"

02:05 because of this huge dash-to-axle ratio right here.

02:09 All this metal between the door cut and the wheel.

02:11 However, they covered some of that metal up

02:13 with this plastic, because that's how you make it

02:15 look like an SUV.

02:16 And the idea is, when you go off-roading,

02:19 you'll scratch plastic as opposed to metal.

02:22 You're never gonna go off-roading.

02:24 You know how I know?

02:25 Look at these wheels.

02:26 These look so expensive.

02:27 You would keep these as far away from a rock as possible.

02:30 Plus, these wheels are covered up in Pirelli P Zero tires.

02:34 P Zero's our standard equipment on the Porsche 911.

02:39 You're not going off-road.

02:40 Coming back, well, I mean, it's just a great-looking wagon.

02:43 I love long roofs, my favorite type of car.

02:46 Got a dual-plane sunroof here.

02:47 I wish it was just a solid metal roof.

02:49 Can't get that in the US, oh well.

02:51 All the bright work has been pulled off.

02:53 It's replaced with blacked-out chrome,

02:55 which I think looks really cool.

02:57 There's some bright work down here to draw your eyes

02:59 to the fact that they've put in this plastic cladding

03:02 down here.

03:03 Coming out to the back, it looks like a Mercedes wagon.

03:06 It looks great.

03:07 Look, am I being unnecessarily harsh?

03:09 Yes, because they no longer sell the E450.

03:13 If they sold that alongside with this,

03:16 I'd have no complaints.

03:17 But since they don't, I do.

03:21 The thing about Mercedes' design team is

03:23 the interior people are just as good,

03:26 if not better, than the exterior people.

03:28 This is a fantastic cabin.

03:30 Sure, there's no leather right here,

03:32 but that's only because we forgot to check that option box.

03:35 Beautiful open-pore wood, everything is elegant.

03:38 The seat controls look like an Ames chair.

03:41 These speaker grills, they're drilled out.

03:43 They look so cool.

03:45 Only thing I don't get is the new steering wheel.

03:48 I do not like it.

03:49 It's just this big, giant, black plastic V.

03:52 It's just, it's not good.

03:54 It's not as nice as the rest of the car.

03:56 Moving on.

03:57 I actually owe Mercedes an apology,

03:59 and I hate to apologize to car makers,

04:01 but when this new infotainment system

04:03 that they call MBUX, M-B-U-X,

04:05 Mercedes-Benz User Experience, first came out,

04:08 I was very dismissive of it.

04:10 I said, "Ah, it's too complicated."

04:12 That said, this is so packed with features, it's crazy.

04:16 Let me show you a one menu.

04:17 So we'll come over here to Comfort.

04:20 I think we can all agree this would be a much better review

04:22 if I was getting a massage,

04:24 so I will pick full-strength massage.

04:28 Aha, much better, right?

04:30 Ambient lighting, this is nuts.

04:31 Look at this.

04:32 Okay, so I've got basically every color imaginable

04:35 available through this color wheel.

04:36 I just kind of move my finger, and now it's green.

04:39 The amount of functionality packed in here is mind-blowing.

04:42 As far as actual comfort goes, big, roomy cabin.

04:46 Yeah, it's a mid-sized car technically,

04:48 but in reality, it's pretty full-size.

04:49 Lots of room in this row, in the middle row,

04:52 there's plenty of room, and I say middle row

04:54 because there actually is a third row.

04:56 This is the only station wagon on sale in the US

04:59 that offers three rows of seats.

05:01 Let's talk performance.

05:04 Because this is an E450,

05:07 it has one of my very favorite engines under the hood.

05:10 It's a three liter inline six, not a V6, an inline six,

05:14 which means it's very smooth, and it sounds really good.

05:17 It also has a 48 volt electrical system

05:20 that makes it really efficient

05:21 because you don't have to have a water pump,

05:23 you don't have to have an alternator.

05:24 In fact, there's no belts whatsoever.

05:27 It's turbocharged, and there's a hybrid assist motor.

05:30 So you add all that together, you get 362 horsepower

05:34 and 369 pound feet of torque,

05:37 which is enough to accelerate this car

05:39 to 60 miles an hour in five seconds flat.

05:42 How does it handle?

05:43 Really well because it's not an SUV, it's a car.

05:47 Cars handle better than SUVs.

05:49 It also has a bunch of off-road driving modes,

05:52 not that you're ever going to go off-road.

05:54 Because it's a mild hybrid,

05:57 the efficiency's actually pretty good.

05:58 Your fuel economy, you get 22 miles per gallon in the city

06:02 and 28 miles per gallon on the highway.

06:04 Safety is one of Mercedes brand values,

06:09 and they have stated that in the future,

06:12 nobody will die inside of a Mercedes-Benz.

06:16 As such, this car has a five-star crash rating

06:19 in every single category.

06:21 And it has almost every active safety feature on the market.

06:26 How much?

06:29 Well, a lot.

06:30 The E450 All-Terrain starts at almost $69,000.

06:35 The red one next to me is nearly $85,000.

06:39 But how does it do against the competition?

06:41 It costs more.

06:42 It's a few thousand dollars more than the Audi,

06:45 and it's thousands and thousands of dollars more

06:48 than the Volvo.

06:49 Mercedes are expensive.

06:51 News at 11.

06:52 If there's one thing I want you to know

06:56 about the 2021 Mercedes-Benz E450 All-Terrain,

07:01 it's that it's our 2021 Motor Trend Car of the Year.

07:06 Forget all the SUV nonsense.

07:08 This is an E-Class.

07:09 The E-Class was our 2021 Motor Trend Car of the Year.

07:13 Therefore, this is the 2021 Wagon of the Year.

07:18 To see vehicle rankings and a complete buyer's guide,

07:22 please visit motortrend.com/cars.

07:26 (upbeat music)

07:28 (upbeat music)

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