Blurred Lines

It’s the 10th generation of Mercedes’ most important model in India.

- Sirish Chandran

WHERE DOES THE E-CLASS END AND THE S-Class begin? That’s the task at hand as we slip into the back seat of Mercedes-Benz’s most important model in India. Starting with the fifth generation W124, 34,000 E-Classes have been made and sold in India, representing a neat 34 per cent of all Mercedes sales in the country – and most of those cars have been enjoyed more from the rear seat. Keeping that in mind Mercedes have equipped all the new V213 test cars with a neatly attired chauffeur and insist we start our test drive by reclining the back seat and experiencing the most important attribute of this new E-Class. Space. Acres of space.

Stretched out

This could be a game changer; if nothing it’s a gutsy move by the leader in the luxury space and one that will have sent its competitors into many a boardroom huddle. In India the new E-Class will only be available in the extended wheelbase variant. In fact this is the first, and till now, the only right-hand drive market in the world where the E-Class is made in the long wheelbase configuration.

Of course we aren’t new to long wheel base variants – the S-Class and its rivals are only sold with a stretched-out wheelbase and we even have a long wheelbase 3 Series, cleverly disguised as the 3 GT. And in China, a market that is very similar to India in that expensive cars are primarily chauffeur driven, the C-, E- and S-Class (and all their rivals) have been sold in the long wheelbase format for quite some time now.

In fact, 20 per cent of this new E-Class comes from China, particularly the doors, floor pan and door trims. Roland Folger, the boss of Mercedes in India told me that the biggest challenge was the China-Germany-India integration, and also the crash tests (in Germany) because this is the first time the stretching business has been applied to a righthand drive car.