Well, it’s a wagon first, isn’t it? Then it is a Mercedes-Benz. An E-Class, sure, but you’ve already read in much detail what the new E-Class is about.

So for this piece, let’s concentrate on the wagony elements. Even if only 5 per cent of E-Class buyers in Ireland actually plump for the estate version.

And I should caveat that many of the neat special bits for this wagon are options, so there’s a little more money to spend.

Some of them - and we don’t yet have a cost - are likely to be worth the money if you use your E-Wagon to do what it is designed for. Lugging loads. In some style.

And that style is worth a few words. It’s a quarter of a century since Mercedes brought out their first ‘T’ model, and this is the fourth redesign in that time. Check out the four together and you’ll see that it has evolved well, with this iteration giving us an almost coupe look at the back hatch.

Strange thing is, it is a hard car to photograph well. But in the metal, it turns out sleek and smooth in execution.

It is longer than the saloon, and longer and wider than its predecessor - of which, incidentally, more than a quarter of a million were sold around the world. In volume terms it holds some 15 per cent more than the last car.

Under the generic name of EAST-PACK, the designers’ solutions to typical load issues are myriad. First among them is a special demountable long ‘box’ for storing long and skinny things behind the rear seats, and accessible by pulling the seatbacks forward. The advantage is they’re out of sight and also not rolling around the rear.

Those same seatbacks can be folded forward in the usual way to give a long flat space, but the engineers have worked on the sometimes awkward way the latches and folding can be, and they seem to have made it fairly painless.

The tailgate is also built so that it can be left open at any height in the last third of its travel without springing up higher, useful in many garages, for instance. It also has as standard an automatic closing aid, which motorises the actual final closing and locking.

An extra which I found very easy to get to like is the fully-electric tailgate opening that eliminates any work in raising or lowering. Closing is done simply by pressing a button set into the lower edge of the door, or you can do it from inside the car or with the keyfob.

If you regularly carry loads of boxes - perhaps you’re in the wine bar business - another EASY-PACK option worth considering is the hydraulically operated load compartment floor, which at the touch of another tailgate button raises the load floor and slides it out the back of the car.

Higher-specification cars come with a secondary load floor, segmented into compartments of various sizes.

Other ideas include a retractable tow-ball, activated by a lever under the load floor. And a ‘Fixkit’ load securing kit works on aluminium rails set into the load floor and with a retractable belt, or a telescopic bar, awkward loads can be secured safely.

The load compartment cover lifts up and retracts automatically when you open the tailgate, and then resets itself when you close it again.

It’s all very well thought out, and for the regular load lugger I’d be in favour of ordering the full kit.

On the other hand, if young children are your regular cargo, and more of them than just the ‘one and one’, you can order an extra pair of rear-facing seats that fit in the back but which can disappear under the load floor when not wanted. They come complete with their own adjustable head restraints, 3-point seatbelts and storage compartment and nets.

The estate E-Class is a particularly important variant in the US, where there’s a tradition of wagons as second ‘mom’ cars. And in Ireland, a fair number of those sold in previous versions have gone as second cars to a household where a Mercedes is already the primary car.

But the overall execution of this latest ‘T’ could well shove it out there to owners as their first M-B. It has, for the first time in the range, that intangible something that says ‘buy me’.

The E-Class Estate is a luxury item. This is one which makes its very own statement as not being just a saloon with an extension added.

It almost doesn’t look Germanic. There’s a fluidness about the overall look that is more Gallic than we’d expect.

But the comfort zone is everything we already understand well from Mercedes-Benz, whose E-Class is the world’s biggest-selling luxury car. And almost 800,000 E-Class wagons have been sold since it was first introduced in 1978.

They give us the loaded versions at these launches, so basic experience is not what happens. Still, for Ireland, that probably doesn’t matter a jot, because practically nobody ordering a new Merc goes for the ‘entry-level’

Indeed, so high is the personal choice element that of the 5,500 or so M-Bs sold in Ireland last year, less than a score were the same.

In the driving area, we have that familiar ‘double sweep’ dashboard style of current Mercedes cars.

The instruments cluster is essentially simple, three main dials and a pair of ‘bar’ vertical indicators on the outsides to show fuel and temperature.

A real neat system replicated extra information in the middle of the central speedometer dial - all in accordance with choice, such as trip info or repeats of the sat-nav guidance that otherwise lives over in the centre of the dash. And it comes out in a clear sharp white, no messing with reds or oranges which aren’t as instantly understandable.

Sure, we don’t have - or even have a real use for - sat-nav in Ireland, but all the other information is provided in a very clear way. I’ve developed an aversion to large mid-dash screens, not only because they are a distraction, but also because they give designers too much room to throw in too much information, usually in too many colours.

Keep it simple, keep it inside the speedo dial. Nice one, M-B.

The test run for the first day was simple too. Well, most of the time. A quick run up, in a 320 petrol version, from the outskirts of Marseille to skirt Aix-en-Provence, gave a handy feel for the car on motorways and then good regional roads. The feeling on the motorway was that the car floated a little, and the steering might also have been sharper.

Later, with judicious use of the different settings available on the suspension, the ride and handling tightened up nicely, and I suspect many owners will leave it in one of the harder settings all the time.

There was plenty of oomph, with an 8.5sec capability for the 0-60, not bad for a 2360kg car.

Then it was back down to the coast, to the port of Cassis, by way of the Corniche des Crêtes, which was something of a challenge and very much stupendous in its views. Parts of that particular road had steep drops with no barriers, except the odd wooden one on a really tight bend, and it was interesting to see how many driving schools were bringing their pupils up along that. Get ’em used to the high ground early, I suppose.

In Cassis itself, by way of a break, we all had the chance to take out one of the new 4-litre V8 diesel E-Classes, which won’t be coming to Ireland because there are no plans to do that version in RHD. But it proved a very smooth performer, and the relatively mild-mannered 260 horses under the hood were a civilised herd indeed.

The next morning it was time to try one of what is likely to be the most popular versions here, the 220 CDi. With a mere 150 horses pulling us along, things were rather more leisurely, but respectable and again very smooth. Mercedes-Benz is one of the luxury manufacturers who have got their diesels right, and I wouldn’t mind being behind this one for a long time.

The cars will be in Ireland in July. Last year they sold about 110 or so here. It’ll be interesting to see if there will be conquests to boost that figure in the next full year.