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It gets a combined city/highway rating of 18 miles per gallon.

The Environmental Protection Agency calls it a “gas guzzler” and lists it as such on the government’s fuel-economy site, http://www.fueleconomy.gov/ . That means it comes with a federal gas-guzzler tax — $1,000 in this case.

Keeping it in gas will be costly, about $2,669 a year, based on driving 15,000 miles annually using premium unleaded gasoline priced at $3.20 a gallon.

Of course, premium gasoline can cost as much as $4 a gallon in some parts of the country, possibly even more. That means your annual fuel bill for the 2007 Mercedes-Benz E550 sedan, which replaces the E500 model, could top $3,000.

If that were all there was to be said about the car, a rear-wheel-drive luxury sedan, this would be a short and brutally negative column.

But after driving the E550 hundreds of miles through California’s Napa Valley and hundreds of miles more on the East Coast, I’ve fallen in love with it.

Not everyone will.

Exterior design remains conservative, despite model year 2007 cosmetic work that has given Mercedes-Benz’s E-Class cars and wagons a wider, almost Cadillac-bold grille, more steeply raked headlamps and, on the sedans, a modest rear-end freshening.

People yearning for more fuel economy will be less than thrilled that the 5.5-liter, 382-horsepower V-8 engine that propels the humongous S550 sedan has now found a home in Mercedes-Benz’s midsize E-Class sibling.

And people for whom driving means staying ahead of everyone else on the road will remain inclined to choose BMW, or some other manufacturer’s “ultimate driving machine,” over Mercedes-Benz.

But affluent people who value ultimate craftsmanship and the very latest in safety engineering will be impressed. And here’s betting that the more time they spend behind the E550’s steering wheel, the less they will worry about fuel costs.

They will be seduced by the car’s richly appointed cabin — supple leather seats, fine wood veneers, accent lighting and the most elegantly flowing dashboard available on any midsize car. They will become slaves to comfort and convenience, much of it purchased as optional equipment, including a hands-free communications system, heated and cooled front seats, a DVD-based onboard navigation system, Sirius Satellite Radio and an automatic washing system for headlamps.

And in a world grown maddeningly dangerous, one in which the same craziness that manifests itself in wars all too frequently shows up as road rage and other egregiously rude driving behavior, they will love the advanced safety engineering they find in the E550, exemplified by Mercedes-Benz’s Pre-Safe system, also imported from the company’s big S-Class sedans.

Pre-Safe is anticipatory technology. It employs a series of computers and sensors, which, in turn, process myriad algorithms to predict when a crash is imminent. Pre-Safe automatically optimizes seatbelt and air bag protection for the driver and front passenger. Brake lights automatically blink on and off in rapid pulse to help reduce rear-end collision risks during emergency braking. Sensor-controlled headrests activate to help avoid whiplash, or other neck-head injuries, if the E550 is struck from the rear.

In addition to the car’s vault-like construction, there are other security measures, notably the Mercedes-Benz optional Intelligent Light System, which can be adjusted to improve the driver’s vision on dark, lonely country roads or to ease the strain of night-time interstate highway driving.

Still, you could be killed or injured in an E550 as you could in any car or truck. But this one comes with so much safety technology, it becomes the motorized version of a security blanket. You feel protected, much as you would with a comprehensive, expensive medical insurance policy.

But you should not allow that feeling of security to subvert common sense. The E550 is an expensive car. The people who buy it presumably have the money to afford it. They should avoid buying gasoline late at night in high-crime neighborhoods.