Video: 2010 Mercedes-Benz E-Class

You'll notice a few things right away, first of all, it still has four headlights. That's something that Mercedes has done for a while now since the late '90s on the E-Class. These are definitely more chiseled, and the outboard ones look a little bit like the ones on the C-Class. Below, interestingly, are fog lights, they arch upwards, a little bit like eyebrows almost. In back, the tail isn't quite as memorable, it leaves us a little bit flat considering the excitement that's going on up front. Inside, there's plenty of wood and leather. We're glad to see Mercedes get rid of the, some of the chintzier climate dials that the previous E-Class had for these more solid-feeling rocker panels for the climate controls. There's also a new version of Mercedes COMAND system. This is actually our favorite as far as non-based navigation systems go. It's a little bit better than Audi's MMI, even BMW's vastly improved to-do iDrive system. There's also a new shifter here, it's up on the steering wheel instead of being down here. The earlier shifter was on the console. There are paddle shifters for those of you whose spouses denied the Porsche Boxster purchase. Luxury cars aren't often known for their accommodations, but actually, this car has some pretty nice things in place of last year's sort of cover for the center console is actually an armrest. And quite a bit of room inside here, again, for a car. Same deal with the glove box, this is fairly large. This obviously is a very well-optioned example, but at first glance, materials look pretty good, there's leather wrappings on the upper-dash, some of these lower-plastics look a little bit flat to us, but overall, we're not gonna argue, this definitely befits its price range. Overhead, there's almost, there's a real nice material, suede headliner. Again, very nice for this class, almost makes you think you might be in an S-Class. New technologies include a drowsy driver warning system, as well as blind spot warnings, and lane drift warning systems. There's even a night time monitoring system now that recognizes and reportedly highlights pedestrians and puts them on the center display for you. Drivetrains essentially carry over, that means there's a 268 horsepower E 350, and a 382 horsepower E 550. Expect all-wheel-drive 4MATIC versions as well as a diesel E 350 BlueTEC, wagons, and even a high-performance E 63 AMG to arrive shortly thereafter. That gives this car the sort of versatility it needs to compete with really strong cars like the BMW 5-Series and the Audi A6. <v Narrator>For additional information on this car or any other, go to cars.com and our blog Kicking Tires.