Mercedes E-Class Estate long-term test: report 3
The Mercedes E-Class makes for an exceptionally comfortable cruiser, but can those credentials be boosted with its unconventional diesel-hybrid set up? We're running one to find out...
The car Mercedes E300de Urban Edition Estate Run by Stuart Milne, digital editor
Why it’s here Diesel plug-in hybrids are few and far between, so we’re seeing whether the combination of long-legged diesel economy and PHEV smoothness delivers
Needs to provide a comfortable, upmarket experience for a family in need of space – with stellar fuel economy
Miles covered 5702 Price £69,970 Target price £69,970 Price as tested £69,970 Official economy 166.2mpg Test economy 90.1mpg
3 September 2025 – Carry on camping
A couple of times a year, the Milne family trades a warm, suburban house, with hot and cold running water and comfortable beds for sleeping in a field, being nibbled by gnats and sleeping on a self-inflating mattress that gives a wafer-thin layer of protection from the divots and hidden rocks beneath.
Yet despite this, we enjoy being out in the (mostly) fresh air, away from the stress and strain on daily life. And for these excursions under canvas, my Mercedes E300de Estate has proved to be an ideal partner.
Firstly, the Mercedes has seats which are the perfect antidote for uncomfortable sleeping positions. They really are brilliant. And even after a hellish six-hour drive home from work on the M25 recently, I arrived fit as a fiddle. A long-distance holiday jaunt poses no challenge.
There have been no complaints from my wife or kids, either, and despite spending a fraction of my time in the car, they are often a car’s harshest critics.
Our trips often take us to far-flung parts of the country, where mobile phone reception can be patchy at best. As a fully paid-up member of the Apple CarPlay fan club, this often fills me with dread, as I have to ditch Google Maps for the car’s own native sat-nav – which is almost without exception worse. Not so with the E-Class, though, because its own system is clear, quick and – because it’s also provided by Google – delivers useful real-time traffic information.
Crucially, though, it also appears to be impervious to mobile black-spots – and I really like that it can also beam its maps to the instrument display, which more than makes up for the lack of a head-up display which I enjoyed so much in my last car, an Audi Q6 e-tron.
The extra boot space afforded by the E-Class estate over the sleeker saloon has come in useful, although outright space is sapped significantly by the diesel-plug-in-hybrid’s batteries, so the 615 litres of non-hybrid models reduces to just 460 litres – which is actually less than the saloon. It’s a problem that afflicts the BMW 5 Series Touring, too, albeit to a lesser degree.
It meant we needed to travel lighter than usual, but that’s no bad thing, given the amount we usually take. But it also gave me time to reflect on the usefulness of the elastic net that keeps luggage pinned to the boot floor, and the luggage cover that automatically tilts and slides whenever the electric bootlid is opened. Features like that make load-lugging easy.
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