A Merc for a driver going places

The beautiful Mercedes E-Class coupe is for the aspirational

The coupe no longer has to be a two-door (there are SUV and four-door versions), but the Mercedes E-Class variant is purist and a thing of beauty.

Mercedes E-Class Coupe
Rating	★★★★☆
Price	From €68,245 - €72,768 as tested
Engine	Regular two litre with a bit of mild hybrid tech installed
The Spec	Pretty sorted
Verdict	Pretty. And pretty damn good too

The coupe does not appeal to every class of driver, but still represents something  important: It stands for  freedom, prestige, desire, standing out from the crowd. The ambition to one day own a coupe 'keeps the sun shining' for many people, even on the darkest and dreariest of days.

Coupes are a form of exotica and not necessarily in any  of the more outré definitions of that word, but, simply, as an expression of things that are more exciting or unusual, for lives that often lack exhilaration or anything extraordinary.

But the coupe has changed drastically in recent times — like so much else in our lives, I guess — and it has pivoted away from the purist's view that it should simply be a two-door, 2+2. 

These days, not only do we have those appalling 'coupe' SUVs, which have shot automotive ugliness into the  stratosphere, but we have  four-door coupes, which sort of muddy the waters.

Indeed, Mercedes itself is a guilty party in the dilution of the coupe concept, what with its wildly successful CLS model, which was a very appealing, four-door coupe. We first saw it back in 2004 and it is now in its third iteration.

Audi and BMW were quick to climb aboard this bandwagon, what with respective A7 and 8 Series Grand Coupe variants, which are more expensive than what's on offer here; BMW and Audi also have produced  the 2 and 4 Series Grand Coupe and the A5 Sportback, while Mercedes  has the CLA 35 and 45, which are cheaper.

Others in the non-premium sector have also dabbled in this field, but the results have not been either big sellers or displayed any form of longevity.

As a pure coupe, however, the E-Class has been with us for some time, although its place in the Mercedes range was usurped for a while by various — now redundant — CLK models.

These variants largely appealed to female drivers, who needed a runaround while visiting their Spanish villa and kept one there just for that purpose.

That's not to say there are no men who drive these things (other than on their holidays, that is), but those are the men to whom it is important to take the road less travelled, so to speak, who like standing out from the pack and being different.

That's a pity, in a way, and especially so as this new E-Class coupe is a stunning visual tour de force. When the E-Class was given a facelift in 2020, it got a bright new look, but with the introduction of the coupe version, a lot of sculpting was done to clearly differentiate the two.

Far from hacking out the two back doors and doing various bits of nipping and tucking, the designers have gone all-in on the coupe and, in truth, on the visual evidence, it is hard to draw any connection between the two cars, so dissimilar do they look.

Some might mistake this as evidence that the car is actually based on the C-Class (as was the case in the past), but it's not and this car is a deal bigger than any predecessor. Despite the increase in bulk, the new coupe is, nevertheless, quite the lithe and lissom thing.

And, if they've gone big on making the outside look unique, then they've done a similarly comprehensive job on the interior. The front seats are lower (those same seats are different from the saloon version). The cockpit is all digital, with two screens, one for the instrumentation and the other for all your connectivity and climate and navigation options, via Mercedes's excellent MBUX system.

Much of the interior can also be customised, if you have the money to pay for it, but, as it is, the 'grey open-pore' wood on the centre console of the tester (a relatively cheap extra) is lovely to look at and touch. On top of that, you have all the interior ambient lighting choices, some of which are pretty garish.

The overall feeling of luxury is very apparent, however, and the sheer feelgood factor of sitting into the car is something worth experiencing, even if it does cost rather a lot of money.

On the road, the E-Class Coupe is a sterling, rather than Olympic, performer. Powered by a regular, two-litre petrol engine, but with a mild hybrid element, the four-cylinder under the hood might not, on paper, seem like anything extraordinary, but with 198bhp of heft and 320Nm of torque, it's not at all bad.

This is demonstrated by the 0-100kph time of just 7.6 seconds and a top speed of just shy of 240kph, and while, in truth, this does not feel like a particularly dazzling engine, it is surprisingly fleet. Allied to a nine-speed automatic gearbox, it is not something  that will ever feel underwhelmed.

The only downside is that fuel consumption is not fantastic by modern standards, at 6.7 l/100 km (41.7 mpg), but, then, if you can afford the asking price, you won't balk at the car's drinking habits.

On the road, the standard AMG Agility Control provides a system with selective damping and, I must say, I found this worked very well, particularly so over our increasingly fractured B-road system, which is steadily buckling under the torrents of rain we've had since the new year.

The coupe rides lower than the standard car, but the overall balance is good and the ride never particularly harsh. On the handling front, you never get the impression that this is a car which enjoys getting thrown around, but it is dogged enough when it comes to grip.

This is a pure coupe — no fooling around with formats or tricking with visuals — just a simple, 2+2 two-door. That's the way a coupe should be. 

As such, it might not be everyone's cup of tea, but for the converted and also for the aspirational, the E200 coupe is a thing of beauty, whose presence is living proof of our need and desire to be able to inject a bit of panache into our lives.