2000 Mercedes-Benz E-Class Sports Car Reviews & Ratings

Like the sheetmetal, the cabin is mostly basic E-class, but the changes are significant. The seats are by AMG; heated and high-bolstered, they fit extremely well, and are not nearly so rigid as those in the standard E-Class. Their leather comes in black, black and blue, or black and silver. For visual distinction, there 's black maple trim. The instrument faces are classic and classy in ivory.

The thick, leather-wrapped steering wheel is simply the best for feeling and maneuvering the car over the road. It can be made to fit perfectly, with power tilt and telescope functions. The leather padding on the dash is without sharp angles. The cruise-control lever is standard Mercedes, very easy to use because it's like a turn-signal stalk, which also makes it too easy to bump and set by accident. As with all Mercedes, operation of some of the switchgear is far from intuitive. Presumably, an owner will read his manual and figure it out. But that may not be a safe presumption. Like an expensive VCR that gets used as a clock (until the first time there's a power failure, after which it's used as a tiny blinking reminder that midnight rules), some owners may drive their $70,000 car for years without ever fully knowing how to operate, say, the climate control system.

It is a safe presumption that anyone with 70 grand to spend on a car will want all the trimming. So every available E-class option is included, except all-wheel drive, and the portable cell phone and CD changer. Among other things, the E55 sports a power sunroof, Bose sound system, high-intensity headlights with washers, security system with anti-start lockout, a tiny AC-fed cooler in the console, and an electric sunscreen in the backlight. Safety-wise, the standard Mercedes benefits include steel cabin reinforcement with front and rear crumple zones, front airbags (with passenger-side BabySmart sensors), front-door side airbags, and airbag curtains spanning the pillars. Fourteen inches tall and two inches thick, these curtains drop from the ceiling as head protection against window glass. Introduced in '99, Mercedes is first with this feature.

You could drive this car forever. On the freeway you might get bored but you'll never get tired or sore, and on the curvy back roads you'll never be able to go fast enough, limited by skill as well as law. The car simply accelerates and handles better than any non-professional race driver can punch it or steer it.

With most cars, the reviewer tries to define the car's limits. With the E55, the important thing for you to know is that you must set your own. For starters, it would take a great deal of effort to spin it out. The E55 comes with Mercedes' Electronic Stability Program (ESP), which catches and corrects understeer or oversteer by applying the brakes to one of the wheels (outside front corrects oversteer, inside rear corrects understeer). Think safety on slick roads. We tested it on some smooth dirt logging roads, and it is magic.

Mostly, the E55 is about kick-in-the-pants acceleration. A ticket magnet, because it's so smooth; speed often isn't premeditated, it's just appears on the gauge. Unfortunately, even the exhaust won't inform you. You have to hammer the throttle to hear its mere throaty rumble. The E55 speaks softly as it carries its big stick.

We may have been generally sardonic about mind-reading transmissions in the Walkaround, but we never felt this one. When you're hard on the throttle the upshifts are expectedly and wonderfully snappy, and when you're casual they're undetectable. The five-speed automatic doesn't have separate manual shifting linkage, but the lever neatly slides up and down between 2, 3 and 4. Five is overdrive, over a notch, and 1 requires an over-and-down movement. There is a winter mode, which starts the car in second gear.

The traction control system tames any wheel spin by applying the brakes; if that's not enough the throttle is reduced. If you find an open straight road and decide to play drag racer and upshift manually, it won't let you get away with anything silly. At 6000 rpm, 500 past the power peak, the rev limiter whacks you like a nun with a ruler. It retards the timing before it cuts the spark, in order to "soften the attack of spark interrupt," says Mercedes, but the attack remains pretty convincing. There were two things we never adusted to during our week in the E55. The throttle has a hair trigger, so, for example in fast-food drive-thru lines, you have to think eggshells under your foot if you don't want to take off. The other thing was dartiness over certain freeway terrain, which may have come from the big tires. The car seemed to leap sideways at both ends - not a lot, but enough to get our attention. By the same token, it moved between lanes as if the front wheels were mind readers. The steering wheel takes a hint and delivers you precisely to your destination. Dead-on every time, never a correction necessary.

Now comes the dazzling part. Country roads. We have a 100-mile loop in our favorite remote county in Washington, and the E55 totally erased the ripples and bumps that almost always find imperfections in other cars' suspensions. And the faster the car travels, the better the suspension works. It hits a dip and takes a set. And around corners, the E55 hugs the road so well you simply have to give up any notion of challenge, and back off when reason prevails. Given the racing quality of the brakes, it shouldn't need to be said that they work. And like a racing car, the feel to the pedal is firm. The suspension geometry helps prevent front-end dive during braking. There is also Brake Assist, another mind-reading computer function which takes over brake boost based on how aggressively you hit the brakes. The computer says, You want panic? You got it.

The E55 may be part of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedans, but its performance clearly separates it from the 221-horsepower V6-powered E320 ($47,100) and 275-horsepower V8-powered E430 ($52,450). (There's also a $47,950 E320 wagon.)

Mercedes sets the E55 AMG price at $69,800, but a gas guzzler tax adds to the bottom line.