2024 Mercedes E-Class: In a World of SUVs, Mercedes Makes a Sedan

• The iconic Mercedes E-Class sedan is new for 2024, riding on a new platform with a freshened front and rear look and a sweeping Superscreen inside.
• You get a choice of improved 2.0-liter turbo-four or 3.0-liter turbo straight-six engines. Both get 48-volt mild hybrids for efficiency.
• Prices start at $63,450 for the E 350 and $69,250 for the E 450. They're in showrooms now.

You can’t drive down the road anywhere in America without seeing SUVs, crossovers, and other things that trace their heritage back to off-roaders only about as much as we trace our genetic makeup back to monkeys.

Into this world, while every other automaker, darn near, has given over entirely to the almighty SUV and crossover, Mercedes, the company that invented the automobile, offers a sedan. Several sedans. And a bunch of coupes, convertibles, roadsters, and wagons, too.

We should all kneel down, or at least genuflect in reflective contemplation if not an outright Danke Schoen to Mercedes for just giving us options that are not crossover utility vehicles.

Among the six sedans, five coupes, two convertibles, one roadster and a wagon in the Mercedes fleet right now is our subject car, the new 2024 E-Class sedan.

“There’s still a market out there for sedans,” said Paul Harmon, Mercedes product manager for the E-Class (and a bunch of other cars).

It’s still there, like print magazines and bundled cable television. A little over 20 years ago the E-Class sedan was selling almost 200,000 units a year in the US. That number has steadily declined, with a bump up every time there was a new model cycle. The figure last year was 17,075, if you include the CLS.

So it’s not a big market, but it’s at least profitable for Mercedes and, as I said, we should all be grateful the option still exists. It won’t be long until we’re all going to be packed off in autonomous internet-connected infotainment bathtub electric cocoon pods that we can’t drive at all. So enjoy these days while you still can!

And you will enjoy the big E.

The E-Class is considered all-new for 2024, Mercedes says. It’s based on the MRA II platform that also underpins the current C-Class and S-Class, while the prior generation E-Class