Mercedes E270 CDI E-Class Estate Review | Practicality & Luxury?
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- čas přidán 26. 06. 2015
- / robabooth
Mercedes E270 CDI (S211) Review:
Right up to the early nineties, Mercedes were said to be over engineered, meaning that company profits were not as they could have been. When designing the 1995 W210 E-Class, Mercedes made the brave decision to lower build quality in aid of greater profitability. Long story short, the W210 generation was a rust nightmare - try finding one with clear bodywork in the classifieds! With the German’s reputation strongly damaged, they released the W211 E-Class in 2002 - staking a return to the brand’s earlier manufacturing philosophy. Today’s example is a 2003 E270 CDI Avantgarde Estate with 160k miles on the clock.
Styling - When it came out, the E-Class’s styling was a lot more conservative than that of the 5-Series - but I think it has aged pretty well - especially thanks to the LED taillights and indicators. The lower suspension fitted to Avantgarde models gives the rear of the car a hunkered-down look. I personally find the 17” Rucha alloys to be a little boring, but the relatively tall sidewalls they allow aids ride comfort enormously. Subtle design cues such as these triangular doorhandles have helped the ageing process. Facelift cars have revised bumpers and light clusters.
Interior - For me personally, the interior of the W211 is it’s strongest area. The dash is very well laid out, with an ergonomic symmetry of buttons controlling the command system, which includes audio, navigation and climate control. The command screen is complemented by this screen in the gauge cluster, which gives a massive amount of information including all trip analytics, vehicle malfunctions and equally serves as a second navigation screen if desired. The seats in the E-Class are comfortable but may lack a bit of support for more progressive driving - they do however have a memory feature meaning seating positions are saved for each driver in the household. Rear passenger room is why the E-Class is such a commonly used taxi, there is more than enough legroom and headroom for people of all sizes. Rear passengers benefit from a central armrest with interior storage and cupholders, as well as ashtrays, individual vents and a 12V socket. Build quality in the E-Class is very good reflecting Mercedes’s wish for brand improvement - all contact points are covered in soft-touch plastics. The only slight negative is the poorly aligned panel gaps surrounding the glove compartment.
Practicality - Practicality is the main reason for buying an E-Class Estate. The boot is truly cavernous with a standard 690L capacity, increasing to 1950L with the 60-40 rear seats folded down. You can tell Mercedes intended it to be a load lugger, shown by the integrated D-rings allowing to leash things down, as well as a clever motorised boot cover which automatically lifts when the tailgate is opened. There is a large amount of storage located under the boot floor. Furthermore, our car is fitted with the motorised boot floor which is very helpful for lifting heavier items out and equally helps preserve the bumper from scratches. All E-Class Estates are fitted with roof bars increasing the load potential. Interior storage is adequate, with a big centre cubby. The small door bins and the lack of upfront cupholders is however a slight nuisance. Driving visibility is excellent, parking is helped with the knowledge that the rear window is the end of the car, and the bonnet mounted star the front.
Performance and handling - On the road, the E-Class is quite interesting. The ride is very good, much plusher than the newer E-Class absorbing road imperfections with little fuss. The payoff is that the luxurious suspension is not extremely sporty, giving some body roll in corners. In this department, the E60 5 Series is superior but to the detriment of ride quality. Our car is fitted with the 2.7L common rail straight-five diesel producing 177 BHP and 420nm of torque. A little known fact is that Mercedes fitted the automatics with 20nm more than the manuals, which explains the conflicting information found on the internet. The 0-60 sprint is dealt with in 7.8 seconds carrying on to a top speed of 155 MPH. As with all high torque diesel engines, it’s the midrange punch which is the most impressive making overtaking very easy. To it’s credit, the 2.7 unit doesn’t seem to suffer from a massive power drop at higher revs, the power curve is linear and consistent right up to redline which sits at 4,500 rpm. To modern standards, the 5-speed auto is pretty dull-witted taking a bit of time to downshift when kick down in engaged, forward thinking with the tiptronic solves this however. Our car manages around 38 MPG between services, getting into the mid to high 40’s on long motorway trips. - Auta a dopravní prostředky
Seriously impressed with how far the quality of your work has come. Kudos!
+Haroon Bilal Khan Thanks for that HBK!
Fantastic review, look forward to more! :)
Callum Brand Cheers mate!
I have a 270cdi touring. 2003 . Keep up with the simple maintenance and they go forever.
Really loving your channel! Reminds me a lot of CarThrottle. You just earned a new sub :)
exoticcarlvr22 Wow, thanks very much. Being compared to CarThrottle is quite the honour.
nice review man!
+needraintodrift Cheers mate! Thanks for watching.
Rob Booth Automotive no problem I will watch the rest of your vids tommorow its kinda late and I am tired :D
+needraintodrift Fair enough. Cheers.
Does it have an electric tailgate? I have an Accord Tourer which is roughly the same room. The Mercedes has a supplementary cylinder though!
Ours only has the optional electric boot floor - electric tailgates were part of the convenience package I believe!
+Rob Booth Automotive It's German carmakers' policy : shell out if you want some more ;)
Sadly you're right. Quite handy to buy these sorts of car two years old, that way you negate the options premium with depreciation.
Really nice car, not for someone who is interested in speed as the car is very heavy. It's popular in many countries for taxi use. Rear air suspension is expensive to replace and mine had problems at 100,000 miles. I have converted to Arnott springs and wish I did as soon as problems started.
The car is currently my daily driver, and have consequently learnt more about its handling. First of all it's important to point out that it's no sports car, but then again it wasn't intended to be. However, once initial roll is dealt with, you can balance the car quite nicely. Same with the straight-line pace - the gearbox has a tendency to over rev in 2nd, making it seem a little dull-witted, this can however be mitigated by modulating the throttle.
Took me a few hundred miles to get used to its quirks, but I reckon it's not a bad car to live with!
Marek Drives I recorded the sound under a blanket, are the voice overs better now?
Sounds fine.
Please check out my latest review, testing the 2003 E270 CDI Estate!
i've got a 2003 E Class 270 CDI Avantgarde with the sports and convienience pack. The 5 cillinder engine are known as well as de 320 all unbreakable :)
mine has got 410000 kms on it, and looks new, drives like new. in our S211 club they are driving with 987000 km's
w210 a nightmare? it's the most optimal generation out there. it's not as old as the w124, it ha many modern features and in facelift the interior has a very good look. And also the engines are more powerful than on the previous models, but still damn reliable, mostly the diesels. in the later generations the quality and the reliablity drops like crazy. just remember the pre face lift brake system from the w211, that could cost you 8000 euros to fix. And if you properly take care of the painting, you wont get any rust at all. so all in all it's the best generation of e class.
We ran a W210 E300 TD, I think the quickest production diesel car in the world when first launched. Mechanically it was good, but the rust was terrible and the electrics often had issues (mostly immobiliser problems on ours). The car was basically dead by 8 years old and had to be scrapped, I think heavy use of road salt in the UK was a strong aggravating factor!
@@RobBoothAutomotive well yeah the pre-facelift was a bit underdeveloped yet, but still if you were to take care of the corrosion ther would be no problems. lots of them are still running. it needs special anticorrosion procedures every 4-5 years. the electronics had the problem of oxidation, knowing this, having a few spare cables or connectors would solve the problem. but if I'm correct the electronics were a lot better in the facelift version. the roadsalt was the biggest issue though, in countries where they didnt use such methods, it was a lot more durable
The light-coloured steering wheel/boss always makes the Mercedes look very cheap and' plasticky', even when applied to the bigger M-Class. Black is the best option.
To each their own - I personally think a black steering wheel would look drastically out of place. A black wheel may well work on the Elegance models, as it would pair with the black instrument cluster. Returning to objectivity, the wheel cleans up quite nicely within only 10 minutes or so. Cheers for watching!
i personally prefer the size of those alloys that are on this car any bigger it would make the tyres lower profile and the ride too harsh as they have harder sidewalls just like runflats not only that it makes the alloys less easier to scrape along the kerb
Indeed, the rise is amazingly good. Perhaps too soft though, handling is very boaty.
great video. sub'd !
Thanks, I appreciate it!
great car!
+Matthew Coupe Thanks for that, I'm glad you like it!
2:34 How it works?
Daniel Kirilov Good question, I don’t know - maybe a pulley?
Rob Booth Automotive On my car the blinds were working for 2 days and then stopped, I did not even know it had such a function.
Ah that's annoying! In all fairness, it's probably over-engineering anyway.
i have the same problem with an 2004 E320
im buying one of these tomorrow but the saloon model
Good luck! Make sure SBS braking pump has been replaced, and that automatic isn’t juddering! Cheers for watching
@@RobBoothAutomotive as luck would have it i have a brand new one still in box so to speak that was supposed to go into another car but that car got totalled
Great review and all but holding the key to start the car ruined it. You can only flick it once and it will start automatically
Thanks for watching. I feel the one turn start to be a little unnatural, and personally enjoy the more mechanical motion of holding down the key.
My brother has one like this, He was overtaking some guy driving really slow on highway and floored it then the car made some really loud sound like BAM! And the car went like Neutral until he got to 40 Km/h. It happened thrice now we still not sure what it is? Anyone has an Idea?
+Labinot Hasani Not sure - sounds like limp mode.
If its manual it got out from gear thats not good
MORE ABOUT SUSPENSION?!....
+Georgezama The suspension is quite nice in terms of comfort, but there's quite a bit of body roll.
my dad have it :)
DaniHyper Your dad has excellent taste!
UK- Cööaar US- Car
😂😂😂 Are you actually old enough to be driving on the road son 😂😂
mercetes e klasa karavan cdi
Is wrong how you start the engine 🤣