irishcar.com

22 January 2002: After a development time of 48 months and an investment totalling more than euro 2bn, the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class will be in the showrooms of Mercedes-Benz dealerships throughout Europe from mid-March 2002.

The design of the new E-Class continues the lines of the preceding series with twin headlamps -an E-Class trade mark since 1995 - which have been redesigned and slightly angled back.

A newly developed four-link front suspension and a multi-link independent rear suspension mainly of aluminium are underfloor features, and the car has a standard-fitted electrohydraulically controlled braking system and an Electronic Stability Programme which received its world premiere in the Mercedes-Benz SL-Class a few months ago, and is now entering large-scale production for the first time.

A dual control air suspension system using microelectronics to control both springing and damping is standard equipment in the top-of-the-range E 500 V8 model, and is available for all other versions as an optional extra.

Sidebags for the front seat occupants, large windowbags, high-performance belt tensioners, automatic child seat recognition and a rollover sensor are standard safety features.

Five different engines will initially be available – three petrol engines with six and eight cylinders and an output range from 177 hp to 306 hp, and two CDI engines with four and five cylinders respectively, and an output of 150 hp to 177 hp. The fuel consumption of the new E-Class has been reduced.

There's a standard automatic climate control, and as an optional extra, Mercedes-Benz will install the four-zone air THERMOTRONIC climate control, whose microprocessor individually determines and controls the temperature for the driver and front passenger, as well as the passengers on the outer rear seats.

The dynamic multicontour seat is claimed to be a 'world first'. This is equipped with several air chambers which automatically inflate and deflate according to the driving situation to offer the driver and front passenger the best possible lateral support.

The familiar CLASSIC, ELEGANCE and AVANTGARDE designations are used for different specification levels.

The new E-Class replaces a preceding model whose average sales of more than 200,000 units per year made it the world's the most successful luxury class saloon. The proportion of this market segment accounted for by the E-Class is an average of 24 percent, and in some countries even above 40 percent. DaimlerChrysler has produced approximately 1.4 million E-Class saloons since 1995.