Columbus Streetcars

Mercedes Benz E350 vs BMW 535i

These two have been fighting for sales supremacy in the hotly contested executive-sedan segment for decades, and they’ve sparred in nearly as many magazine comparison tests as have the Mustang and Camaro. The lead has swapped back and forth from time to time, and just as the Camaro owns the winning record in the ponywars, BMW has finished ahead of Mercedes more often. But each time one of the players rejiggers its formula, it’s a brand-new game.

Last year’s E-Class reboot marked a welcome return to Mercedes-Benz’s “designed to a standard, not to a price” ethos, with vastly improved fit, finish, materials, and general solidity. In the bargain, it delivered world-class aerodynamics and held the line on weight, which helped improve performance and fuel efficiency. And yet in February’s eight-car match-up, the Mercedes finished two places behind the test-winning lame-duck 535i. So why read on? Surely the new and improved 5 is a slam-dunk winner, right?

Both cars feel sure-footed and stable while tearing down the open highway at a hundred and plenty.
Not so fast. If you’ll recall, the last redesign of the 5 was not universally acclaimed as a great leap forward. Some of its electronic chassis aids (like Active Steering) were accused of robotizing the driving experience, the Gen-1 iDrive drew criticism, and the Dame-Edna-bespectacled face and flame-surfaced styling did not appeal to all eyes.

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Mercedes E350 Coupe

The Mercedes-Benz E-Class is about absolutely fresh for 2010 and has a fresh akin of technology incomparable by any added car. Though about aggregate about the E-Class is new, the one affair that charcoal is the akin of engineering arete that has authentic this auto for decades.

I activated the fresh two-door Coupe that is a fresh accession for 2010 and joins the accustomed sedan. The fresh E-Class looks altered on the alfresco and is actual adorable to attending at. But area the best improvements accept been fabricated are beneath that admirable exterior. Mercedes engineering has taken the E-Class to accomplished fresh akin of bigger blast protection, handling, and safety. This all shows up in their high-tech ascendancy and administration systems.

The 2010 E-Class is the best electronics-intensive archetypal Mercedes has offered to date. And best of the fresh computer administration systems focus on safety. The best absorbing is a fresh Attention Assist arrangement which monitors up to 70 active ambit to actuate whether the disciplinarian is accepting comatose abaft the caster and uses beheld and audition warnings to acquaint the disciplinarian to cull over for rest. And this arrangement is aloof the beginning.

The Distronic Plus cruise ascendancy advantage is offered with both blind-spot admonishing and lane-departure admonishing systems congenital in. An able self-adjusting headlamp arrangement uses cameras to ascertain both advancing cars and the cartage ahead, and raises and lowers the headlamp beams accordingly. The arrangement puts the best ablaze on the alley best of the time, afterwards advancing added drivers. The fresh Able Nightview advantage throws bittersweet ablaze in advanced of the car and again uses high-resolution video cameras to atom any college temperatures advancing from pedestrians and animals that would contrarily be airy to the drivers eye.

Another fresh accession to the E-Class is what Mercedes calls its COMAND system. COMAND ($6,350) is a seven-inch blush affectation awning with accepted in-dash, six-disc CD/DVD banker and a Bluetooth interface that allows phones to be operated through the car’s audio system, alike if they abide in a purse or pocket. Using a point-and-click ambassador on the centermost console, this axial affectation can be controlled by either the disciplinarian or advanced commuter to acclimatize audio and added functions. The COMAND affectation additionally shows the alternative aeronautics screen, the back camera image, and the night eyes bittersweet display.

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