2021 Mercedes E450 Yearlong Review Verdict: Still a Worthy Car of the Year?

As long as "getting behind the wheel" means something, cars like the 2021 Mercedes-Benz E450 should command respect. What distinguishes the E-Class as a top-notch luxury sedan isn't technology previewing our autonomous driving future, but the way it drives. After one year of living with a 2021 E450, however, we found ourselves constantly reevaluating how well the car handles the demands of the $70,000 luxury sedan segment. When the electric Mercedes-EQ EQE midsize four-door is too new or unproven for you, the E-Class is a solid option that's served decades of buyers. But will you still feel good about picking the E-Class after a year of ownership?

Here's what impressed and frustrated us about a year with our 2021 Car of the Year.

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This Is Why You Get an E-Class

Let's start with the E450's mild hybrid inline-six powertrain, the very best part of the car. There's so much more to engines than horsepower and torque figures, which is why we feel lucky to have driven a car with this engine for a year. The 3.0-liter turbocharged I-6 is supplemented by a 48-volt mild hybrid assist system that can contribute a temporary electric boost of up to 21 hp and 184 lb-ft of torque under conditions when the engine's peak 362 hp and 369 lb-ft are not yet available. With standard AWD and a nine-speed automatic, the E450 makes the most of that combination with a luxury-first approach. It's no electric car, but the E450 always has torque to spare.

What makes the experience special isn't the car's 4.6-second acceleration to 60 mph, but how the power is delivered with such refinement and quiet. No buzzy idle affects your fast-food drive-through experience, either. As for the lesser E350, we haven't driven one recently, but we didn't have the best experience with its turbo-four engine in the GLE350 SUV. With our six-cylinder E450, we often used a custom drive mode to see how far we could coast the luxury sedan down grades with the engine off.

This is a have-cake-and-eat-it-too Mercedes. We're talking about a car that's not just quicker than the standard model (obviously), but just as efficient, as well (not so obvious). In the E-Class, the 2022 E450 4Matic's 23/30/25 mpg city/highway/combined compares well to the 2022 E350 with AWD (21/29/24 mpg) and 2022 E350 with RWD (23/31/26)—2021 EPA numbers differ slightly. The E450's 500-plus-mile driving range is superb, better than both the E350 and the direct competition from Audi and BMW. It's the kind of convenience you won't think about on a test drive, but after one year we still love the infrequent fill-ups.

We appreciate the E450's combination of refinement, quietness, smoothness, and always-there power so much, we'd recommend it over an E350 for anyone capable of making that financial jump—currently $5,300 up from an E350 4Matic.

Look beyond how the Mercedes drives, and it continues to impress. Passengers—and the driver—really liked the E450's 64-color ambient lighting. That sounds frivolous until you spend long highway miles with the subtle color-changing lights in your periphery. The setting is reminiscent of fancy pool or jacuzzi lighting, a delightful addition in both cases. Want more substance? How's this: The Mercedes E-Class is both a 2022 IIHS Top Safety Pick+ and earns five stars in every NHTSA crash test.

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Where the E-Class Could Improve

Clearly, the age of this generation E-Class (six years and counting) doesn't hold it back as much as you'd expect. But there's still plenty to improve, starting with the tech. Again, the numbers don't tell the full story. A 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster display and an equally enormous infotainment screen are both standard. The instrument cluster has plenty of different modes we explored over the course of our year, but it's not as advanced as the newer system in the S-Class.

The other screen's inability to maximize the Apple CarPlay display proved a constant frustration. A couple editors wondered what the point of a 12.3-inch display was if it won't use all of it for the phone-mirroring feature. While we owned a Subaru Outback for a year, the automaker improved its application of CarPlay, but we had no such luck with the E-Class. The lack of a one-step track-forward/backward button was also mentioned by a coupleMotorTrenders, and we wish the 360-degree camera system was the default instead of the auto-parking system it shares a button with. We changed camera views in the 360 system far more often—"Am I out of the red?"—than we used the parking system. More open storage space up front would have been great, too.

The biggest surprise was the decline in ride quality. The last E450 we drove was during our 2021 Car of the Year testing, when we lauded the Benz's ability to ride comfortably when you want yet still deliver sporty responses when the moment calls. That test car rode on 18-inch wheels; our yearlong E450 rolled on more attractive 19s. And even though both cars employed an air suspension, the ride simply didn't measure up. Although our E450 still provided acceptable ride quality, we'd easily sacrifice the larger wheels for the hope of a better ride with the 18s.

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What's the E-Class Like to Own?

Overall, the E-Class proved reliable over the course of our ownership except for two mysterious here-now, gone-tomorrow issues toward the end of our loan. For two consecutive mornings, the car wouldn't start but had no issues turning itself to the accessory mode. Naturally, as soon as the tow-truck operator sent by Mercedes roadside assistance arrived, the car started right up (we had no similar issues before or since). We took the E450 to our local dealer anyway, where it found a fault code and inspected the car but otherwise found no other actionable fixes.

About a week later and again for two consecutive days, the car's rearview camera—and indeed the 360-degree camera system—refused to turn on. Our E450 clearly has a sense of humor because, on the morning of our appointment, the cameras all displayed on the big touchscreen without a problem. This time, three software updates were installed by the dealer—one for the infotainment system, another for the rear camera, and a third for the 360-degree camera system.

We spent $216.13 over the course of our 15,598-mile loan for one service. A 2017 BMW 5 Series and 2019 Volvo S60 we drove each cost us nothing over about 20,000 miles each thanks to complimentary maintenance, but a 2017 Audi A4 cost us $561.36 over about 19,000 miles.

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Self-Control

We understand the temptation to get the biggest and most attractive wheels you possibly can. And the 19s on our E450 look great. But over a year of driving, the ride quality and a few tech issues stood out as needs-improvement areas. At least with the former, you can maximize that Mercedes magic by trying a car with 18s first. Just make sure to consider the E450 if you can—the powertrain is one of the very best.