Mercedes-Benz E280 CDI: One Minute Test

Date: 23 November 2006   |   Author:

Category: Executive Prices: £27,520-£68,045 Key rival: BMW 5 series

What's new: You'd struggle to spot it but Mercedes has revamped the E-class. Subtle exterior tweaks hide hundreds of modifications. We've driven the E280CDI, priced £32,350, probably the pick of the range.

Excellent: From the driver's seat, the E-class is a classy piece of kit, and that three-pointed star is still desirable, especially now Merc looks to have cured its reliability problems.

Good: With the revamp, Mercedes has introduced its Pre-safe crash system as standard. It detects that an accident is about to happen, and sets the car up to protect the driver.

Average: Apart from Pre-safe, standard kit isn't impressive,with six-CD player (£360) and leather interior (£1280) both optional. The seven-speed auto is also jerky at low speed.

Poor: The optional - £1990 - Command satnav system is clunky and difficult to programme compared to cheaper rival systems.

Verdict: Tiny tweaks for a car that didn't need much improving. Cost-per-mile figure of 50.9p is competitive versus BMW's 530d.

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