If you're looking to do the new thing, the popular thing, and perhaps even the conscientious thing, you want to get a bit greener, even if just in subtle ways. The Gas-Electric Hybrid market is still limited, and E-85 engines are still limited, unsupported, and environmentally debatable. Even still, there are painfully few choices in the environmentally conscious markets. Even if you're looking at a traditional diesel-powered car, in which you can pour soy-based biodiesel, you still have an array of logistical problems, most notably the car from which you can choose. To the tremendous fortune of premium buyers, Mercedes Benz has made the choice that much easier than ever before.
To my tremendous surprise, I was given the Mercedes E320 Bluetec for review last week. It was my surprise because I don't usually get such premium vehicles based on my readership, and my demographics aren't usually the sorts who would even consider a Mercedes. This car is everything Mercedes you might expect, but it's still an exception to what detractors might consider of the brand.
I bought my first (and only) Mercedes about a year after I finished college. I had a pretty high-profile job selling broadcast electronics. It was assumed I made good money, even though the wily bastards at my company were too busy pilfering the company coffer in anticipation of the untimely end of the old-world retail era. I didn't make good money, but I didn't have the decency to admit such things to any of the girls to whom I was a suitor. Should have seen them; they were each quite hot, younger in their 20s than I could ever imagine reconsidering, and enraptured by my wicked bass and suspiciously deep-discounted E190.
It wasn't just a lemon; it was a title-scrubbed total I bought from a company that ended up losing more on the transaction than the total purchase price. After six-weeks, my luckily discovered attorney (who didn't charge me single cent) handed them their asses in pre-litigation, but the previous six-weeks were other-earthly. The car was so pretty, handled like a charm, and gave me so much pleasure in ownership I would often awake in the night just to go out driving around… No, I'm not joking. I may be kind of a weirdo, perhaps, but not joking.
The problems I endured from my 1986 E190 were not Mercedes problems, but problems with totaled cars with artificially, illegally scrubbed titles. The same problem you'd find in any car. Even still, the six-weeks it ran, it was a mighty fine machine, and this is technology from more than 20-years ago.
WHAT'S GREAT ABOUT MERCEDES TODAY:
To me at least, the measure of an intelligent car can be quantified in the number of goody features I discover over time. In a Hyundai or entry-level anything, you'll likely find them all on the test drive, with no bonus features left to discover thereafter. My experience with the luxury brands I've personally owned, such as Mercedes, BMW and Lexus, is that there's always something I didn't know about I won't discover until later. Something that proves to me the engineers are smarter than me.
Mercedes today has this in spades. They've got decades of building luxury and intelligence into vehicles, so things like auto-dimming (interior AND driver's side) mirrors, in-door pull-up shades in the back-seat, smart electronic seat controls (that know when the 60/40 is folded down and prohibit smashing the passenger seat back too far), and the smartest trunk space and feature configuration are all par for the course.
Never mind that it's the smoothest quietest, and most enjoyable ride in the business. It's all those things, but that doesn't sum up the experience.
To put it more succinctly, the only people allowed to drive the car is myself and true, legitimate writers for the organization for which I write. It took some doing, but I got four of the five writers who live in a 50-mile radius to come take this biznitch out for a test drive, with myself in the passenger seat frantically pointing out all the glories that make is so spectacular.
And every last one of them was sold. The power is smooth, understated, and exceptional. The comfort is everything you'd want. The premium goodies are likely to impress you for weeks, if not months to come, and after that; you still got the car you bought.
I made one of my writers drive me downtown (with the compromise being that I agreed to take salsa lessons), and when we came back to the car, he paused to marvel at what a beautiful car it is. I've always imagined that every manufacturer has the capacity to create a work of art, and never understood why more don't do so, but the Mercedes embodies a look that's instantly classic, universally attractive, and still every bit Mercedes Benz. I don't know how they manage this, decade after decade, but then again I don't know how they make the driver's side mirror dim when I've got a high beam up my tailside… okay, the former more than the latter, but still.
WHAT'S GREAT ABOUT BLUETEC:
Now here's where it gets really exciting, and this is the reason this car has been made available to me for review. Mercedes has many models for sale in the states, but I've never been asked to review one before. Right off the bat there was something of a red flag thrown out for me, but I quickly determined, in no small part thanks to my immediate ability to Google the car, that there was something much bigger afoot.
The Bluetec Diesel isn't just the latest in a many-decades quest by European automakers to find the next big thing in diesel motors, it's a real reinvention of the time-tested power plant. The emissions are so low as to qualify it into the elite class of passenger cars licensed to operate in the exceptionally restrictive state of California. More than that, it actually pre-qualifies for the more stringent emission standards being handed down in 2009. That isn't just interesting, it's amazing. California has long been the thorn in the side of most every manufacturer for their world-leading standards, and this car has them all met and beat.
So not only is it emissions friendly, it's biodiesel ready. That means that, if you so desire, you can pay the small premium to put soybean oil in your car in lieu of Texas tea (byproducts) and come out smelling like a French fry factory. This is a matter of personal decision, of course, but if you're a green, or even a blue, you can put your bacon where your Gore is and still comply with any bumper sticker on the ass-end of a fume-spewing Vanogan begging for fuel independence, lack of blood for oil, and anything with "green" in the slogan.
Better still, in case you didn't know it, the decision to burn biodiesel in place of petroleum-based fuel will prolong the life of your engine while still helping the environment, depending which conspiracy theory we're choosing to buy into today.
All that, side of fries, and you still get 26mpg city and 35mpg on the highway, which is exceptional for anything but a tricked out Honda with an aftermarket chip and a poor choice in tail pipes. Truly, this is the humble balance between environmentalism and practical (if not excessive) comfort.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH E320 BLUETEC:
I rooted around the vehicle, read all the specs, spent a good hour or so in the manual and couldn't come up with anything bad to say about the E320 Bluetec, so I did what any high school essay writer would do; I went online to finish my story. I started with the cynical likes of the never-satisfied TheTruthAboutCars.com, and went on from there. There aren't a whole lot of things missing, and most are easily explained.
You could say it isn't luxurious enough, though it's priced right for the amenities and comfort. If you want more luxury, you can step up gradually in price along the S-series lines, if you like. You can say it isn't sporty enough, but you could step over to the SLK models if that's the issue. Basically the car is a product that exists along a spectrum, and it isn't supposed to be the tippy-top-most luxury, nor the sportiest, nor the cheapest. In other words, it is what it is.
If it was up to me, I'd ask for a backup camera (or at least a sensor), or that the technology to afford such fuel economy not come in a diesel package (because I'm still not acclimated to the chatter of a diesel engine of the comparable roll of the gasoline variety), but these are nitpicks, and not design flaws as much as design choices.
I've never been a diesel guy, but I can see wherein lies the stalwart-esque appeal. There's a tad of a lag to the turbo kicking in, and the acceleration isn't of the knock-your-knockers-off variety, but it's the sort of thing I could easily get used to. Whether for the fuel economy, the ability to seamlessly use traditional or bio fuels, or just the overall feel of the car, it's an easy decision to understand.
