Mercedes-Benz E 200d 4MOTION All-Terrain 2017 Review - International

Mercedes-Benz E 200d 4MOTION All-Terrain     

As Audi well knows, there are plenty of executive-types who fancy a bit of off-road security without the high-rise feeling of SUVs. And now Mercedes-Benz knows it, too. It’s a terrific car, the E 220d All-Terrain, delivering just about all the car you could reasonably expect to ever need, with a luxurious package and a sweetly comfortable, incredibly competent ride. Just as well, because with only about 100 E-Class buyers opting for the Estate each year in Australia, it's likely to be the only wagon version of the new E-Class available here.

The customer is not always right. And here is proof. Mercedes-Benz avoided building a car like the All-Terrain for nine generations of the E-Class (it’s not nine real generations, incidentally), but it has fallen into it, finally, today.

They’ll tell you it’s mostly because people want the added security of a car that can lift its ride height by 35mm and has up to 156mm of ground clearance for when ordinary driving somehow gets ugly. Its standard ride height sites the body 29mm higher than the E-Class wagon, with the difference split between the taller tyre sidewalls (14mm) and the increased standard height of the air suspension (15mm).

But one of the underlying reasons this car exists is that people keep asking for bigger and bigger wheel and tyre packages because they like how they look. The unfortunate engineering truth of that, though, is that with each step beyond about 18 inches, the handling benefits become negligible, but the ride quality deteriorates in multiples with every Plus One you order.

To counter this, car companies can either limit the wheel and tyre options (fat chance, given it’s easy money) or build cars like the E 220d 4MATIC All-Terrain, which we’ll just call All-Terrain from now on, mostly because it’s awkward to write, cumbersome to read and I don’t get paid by the word for road tests [Ed: that's not by accident].

Sure, it runs a standard 19-inch wheel and tyre combination (and has a 20-inch option), but it also runs more suspension travel and a higher sidewall profile than you’d normally get on a big alloy. For example, giving the All-Terrain a 245/45 R19 tyre has lifted its diameter from the standard E-Class wagon’s 690mm to 720mm, so that’s another 30mm of squishiness to bump with.

So it’s like an E-Class Mercedes-Benz in a lot of ways, except it rides better. And it’s happy to be dirty. And it can waddle through 300mm of water and, evidently, plenty of snow.

And it has some tricky off-road software and some visual trim bits and pieces, like front and rear bits that look like plates but aren’t, blackened wheel arch surrounds that make the tyres look bigger and its own designated interior trim pieces (though you can still pick from the rest of the E-Class range).

Does that all sounds a bit familiar? Well, yes, of course it does. Audi’s been doing it for generations with both the A4 and the A6 'allroad', finding a cult following for the way they walk the middle ground between wagons and SUVs. Volvo has long loved the genre, too, and so has Subaru.

This isn’t a toe in the water for Benz, though. It’s expecting its All-Terrain to deliver at least 30 per cent of its total E-Class wagon sales globally, and there’s also a C-Class All-Terrain on the horizon (wherever could they have picked up that idea?).

Due here in the middle of next year, there’s every chance the All-Terrain will be the only E-Class wagon you’ll be able to buy in Australia, and that’s no bad thing. Oh, the stock wagon is a nice thing and all, but the All-Terrain is just a bit, well, more nice. And versatile. And robust. And it rides better.

Now, there’s no need to get all fired up about the first powertrain offering, because it’s strong and composed and frugal rather than fired up and feisty.

It uses the first of Benz’s new modular four-cylinder turbo-diesel motors, with half-litre cylinders delivering 1950cc of capacity, which Mercedes mates the new engine to a nine-speed automatic transmission, and then to its own all-wheel drive system.

It helps the All-Terrain to 143kW of power at 3800rpm from the 1950cc engine, but the core of its performance message is its 400Nm of torque from just 1600rpm. While it’s best suited to waving the needle around between 1300 and 2500rpm, it is still strong enough to ease the five-door wagon to 100km/h in eight seconds and on to a 232km/h top speed.

Mercedes-Benz claims it will use 5.1L/100km on the NEDC combined cycle, which translates to a claimed 137g/km of CO2.

There’s another engine, too, but it won’t come in the first wave, more’s the pity. It’s a 620Nm 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesel that will push the All-Terrain to 100km/h in 6.5 seconds and it turns a very good car into a bit of a special one, but more on that one later.

It’s strong without feeling urgent and it’s always willing and it’s smoother than you might think, too, without ever leaving you convinced it’s something other than a diesel.

It won’t shine, but it’s quiet most of the time and you’ll respect it for doing such a terrific job of moving a 1920kg machine around with such effortless conviction, on or off road.

The trick stuff lurks beneath, with the All-Terrain mode pushing the number of mode choices beneath the Dynamic Select switch up to five. The body lifts automatically by 20mm at up to 35km/h, while the car also has an intermediate ride-height setting for standard work and the lowest setting is reserved for higher speeds on freeways.

The All-Terrain mode is modified from the GLE SUV’s off-road software and governs the engine, transmission, suspension, skid-control, traction-control and steering behaviour of the wagon, so Benz has been down this road before.

Its off-road behaviour probably won’t get you through the hard-core work of the desert dunes or high country, but it probably won’t ever be asked to, either. It’s comfortably effective on gently broken roads, conquering mud and sand and rutted desert roads without much fuss for the occupants.

The good news is that while it’s useful off-road, the extra ride height works where it was really designed to – ironically (for something called All-Terrain), on the road.

There’s a bit more body roll in corners, but the three-chamber air suspension still manages to work its way through corners with a reasonably flat stance. It loses a little in outright grip and dynamic behaviour to the low-rise wagon, but it’s still not bad and it loses less than I’d imagined it might.

The result is that the All-Terrain becomes easily the most serene of all the E-Classes, capable of wafting along silkily on highways or oozing over bumpy city streetscapes.

If you want it to point into corners with more enthusiasm, you can always flick it into the Sport mode, which helps it corner flatter and bite a bit harder at the front end. It also alters the transmission’s ideas about when and where to shift, so the All-Terrain then holds onto its gears a bit longer. A bit too long, if you ask me, and for the price you pay in stiffer ride and the extra noise and vibrations it pulls out of the OM654 engine, it’s best used in short bursts.

The interior changes are slight, with a unique carbon-aluminium-look interior trim style (the rest of the options remain), the 670-litre cargo area is untouched and it still runs a 40:20:40 split in the rear seat. It also introduces a new set of display graphics for the E-Class’s enormous multimedia screens on the dash, including delivering information on the steering angle, the suspension ride height, the inclination angle and even a compass.

It sends out a slightly SUV vibe, with the E-Class grille swapped out and replaced by the two thicker silver bars Benz uses across its larger SUVs and with the badge in the middle of the grille. The lower part of the front bumper is dominated by a stand-alone mix of chromed pieces surrounding the air intakes and an electroplated chrome-silver brush guard.

Truth is, Benz was never going to go far wrong lifting the E-Class. It was already the best in the business as a low-rider wagon (a job made easier by going head-to-head with German rivals that were very deep in their cycles) and it’s pretty special as a crossover.

And, when it gets the bigger V6, it’s just about all the car any four- or five-member family will ever really need.

2017 Mercedes-Benz E 220d 4MATIC All-Terrain:
Price: TBC
Engine: 2.0-litre inline four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 143kW/450Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Fuel: 5.2L/100km
CO2: 137g/km
Safety rating: TBA