Once the sign you’d made it, the E-Class – like almost all sedans, German or not – is now a footnote. That means Benz has taken it easy with this car, right? Right?
2025 Mercedes-Benz E300
Back when I was a lad two score years ago, a German sedan was a sign you had made it. Sure, we had plenty of choice if we wanted a big rear-wheel-drive machine with German or American heritage, but the three-pointer on the bonnet (or the four rings or propeller) told folks you had totally made it.
In 2024 we have the new W214-series E-Class. Well, when I say we have the E-Class, we have the E300 and nothing else. Landing here with the AMG-Line styling pack as standard, the classic big Benz for people who drive themselves is looking a little lonely in the sea of SUVs in Merc dealerships.
How much does the Mercedes-Benz E300 cost in Australia?
As ever, the E-Class slots in between the C-Class and S-Class sedans, but unlike those models, in 2025 just one E-Class variant is available, in acknowledgment of the sedan form factor’s fall from grace. You could also argue it sits somewhere in between the C-Class and all-electric EQE as that makes some kind of logical sense.
The E300 ships with plenty of gear to justify its $130,414 entry point. You get majestic 20-inch alloy wheels, a panoramic sunroof, auto LED headlamps, auto wipers, keyless entry and start, Burmester-branded 4D sound system with a whopping 17 speakers, leather interior, two screens and a head-up display.
Also fitted to this car was the Plus Package. As my esteemed colleague said on the launch drive, you really should add this to the mix because I can’t imagine the E300 without it. You get air suspension, all-wheel steer, soft-close doors, a grille surround that lights up at night and some fancy projections in the headlights.
Yes, some of that stuff is neither here nor there (the grille looks amazing at night… to other people), but the air suspension and all-wheel steer really make this car shine. For an extra $9400, granted.
So you’re really looking at just over $140K before on-roads, which eats up the effective price drop from the W123 E350 in short order. And while the previous car was perfectly pleasant, you can really see where the money has gone in the W214.
Less appealing – and here I find myself agreeing with my colleague – is the $4000 Energising Plus Package that chucks in a massage function in front, heated seats in the rear, a heated front armrest, and in-cabin fragrance diffuser, which I’m almost certain nobody ever uses.
You can choose from six no-cost colours (two silvers, a grey, black, blue and brown) and three Manufaktur options (Opalite White and Patagonia Red for $1922 or Alpine Grey solid for $2229). The test car was black, and just between you and I, it’s not the best colour, not by a long shot. The silvers are lovely, and the Patagonia Red is hard to not adore.
The E300’s rivals are two obvious ones – the BMW 5 Series which starts a little cheaper in 520i spec and the Audi A6 which starts quite a bit cheaper (albeit less well equipped) in 40 TFSI guise. Match the Merc’s price and you’re in a V6 turbo Audi A6 55 TFSI or over at BMW a few grand either side gets you the 520i or the slightly left-field 540d xDrive. A fully loaded E-Class comes in quite close to a fully-electric BMW i5 too.
Slightly less obvious but hugely underrated is the Genesis G80. A turbo V6 Genesis starts at $121,000, but on the way to the E’s $140K (on the road) starting point is a fully-electric G80.
| Key details | 2025 Mercedes-Benz E300 |
| Price | $130,414 plus on-road costs |
| Colour of test car | Obsidian Black Metallic |
| Options | Plus Package – $9400 – Air suspension – Rear-axle steering – Soft-close doors – LED grille surround – Digital headlight projections |
| Price as tested | $139,814 plus on-road costs |
| Drive-away price | $151,113 (Sydney) |
| Rivals | Audi A6 | BMW 5 Series | Genesis G80 |
How big is a Mercedes-Benz E300?
For the W214 E-Class, Mercedes added a little something in every direction. Of most interest to occupants, especially rear-seat dwellers, is the extra 22mm in the wheelbase, liberating yet more room for feet and legs.
It’s 17mm longer on the outside but still runs under five metres (just), 20mm wider and 11mm taller. Just 18 more kilos went on the scales, which is pretty rare in a world where we hardly blink when a car tips two tonnes. I remember when the W140 S-Class cracked the 2000kg mark and some were demanding truck licences for its owners. Remarkably, the W214 is a comparatively sleek 1850kg (tare).
Front seat passengers enjoy very big, very comfortable, and quite attractive seats. The dark leather fitted to this car may have added to the staff car vibe given off by the dark exterior but the seats do look great. They’re also extremely comfortable and, given their width, supportive in corners.
Mercedes’s now very-familiar steering wheel looks ever-so-slightly too small but it isn’t really. It frames one of the three screens on the dash and is a delight to hold and use. Unlike Volkswagen, the Merc gets soft-touch controls on the steering wheel right too.
I’m a big fan of open-pore wood – and it looks great in this instance. It’s used judiciously in the cabin and it just works to add a bit of understated flair. The number of screens reduced the number of opportunities for the material and that’s fine by me.
You can slide the wooded cover out of the way to reveal a pair of cupholders that seem configured for American tastes or more accurately volumes. Our standard-size coffee cups were swallowed by the spaces. Also under here are two USB-C ports and an eminently sensible wireless charging pad that ensures charging and security of the phone.
The armrest splits open to uncover an underwhelmingly sized bin.
The rear seats are very comfortable if you sit outboard. The transmission tunnel is very prominent and so a middle-seat passenger won’t be enjoying themselves too much. The optional Plus pack delivers multi-zone climate in the rear as well as heating, neither of which I tried.
Space is pretty impressive, with head room and shoulder room in abundance, plenty of leg, knee and foot room, and a fairly easy entry and exit. The seats are well shaped, too, so quite comfortable for longer trips I expect.
And finally the boot offers 540 litres, slightly more than either the 5 Series or A6 sedan. There’s no spare, which is a bit tedious, just a repair kit under the floor.
| 2025 Mercedes-Benz E300 | |
| Seats | Five |
| Boot volume | 540L seats up |
| Length | 4955mm |
| Width | 1880mm |
| Height | 1466mm |
| Wheelbase | 2961mm |
Does the Mercedes-Benz E300 have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto?
Good gracious this thing is stacked to the gills with gear. Let’s start with the 14.4-inch media touchscreen arranged side by side – as is Mercedes’s pioneering want – with the 12.3-inch instrument panel. Oh, and another 12.3-inch panel in front of the passenger. I thought the cut-down dash in front of a Ferrari passenger was fun, but this is a whole new world.
Above the central screen is a camera that operates as a selfie-taker and as a face recognition authenticator to log you into your Mercedes account. It can also be used for participating in video conferencing, but that idea seems awful to me. I don’t want anyone to see me on mute ‘coaching’ other drivers.
This camera also keeps an eye on the passenger, and if it thinks they’re feeling crook or uncomfortable will adjust airflow, their seat and even the lighting.
These two pieces of functionality form the basis of some new stuff coming down the pipe, some of which will need to cover off some legal obligations, some just hasn’t been finished, and presumably some hasn’t been dreamt up yet.
Some countries let passengers watch video such as YouTube while the car is rolling and will blank the screen if it thinks the driver is watching too.
The car will also pick up on your habits, such as selecting a radio station or dropping/raising the window at specified locations. Between Mercedes Me connectivity and the updated MBUX in-car software, Merc is sure going to know a lot about you.
That connectivity suite also includes a phone app for iOS and Android, allowing you to check various levels in the car, sort out air-con, navigation and other bits and pieces. The website is a bit cagey about the subscription after the initial 36 months you get at purchase, the wording suggesting that some functions remain available while some require more money.
Added to all of this is wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. As a long-suffering iOS user, I found the wireless connectivity excellent and without lag. A lot of wireless CarPlay implementations are terrible but this one worked really well.
The sound goes out through 17 Burmester-branded speakers with 4D (basically haptic functions built into the seats) as well as Dolby Atmos. I found the sound quality excellent, the seat stuff baffling, and the Atmos wasn’t noticeable, but I will also concede I probably don’t play the kind of music built for that latter function.
The downside of all those screens – and the interior designers’ fondness for piano black – is that there is a lot of fingerprintable territory. Great if you’re training for forensics, not so flash if you want to keep it clean.
Is the Mercedes-Benz E300 a safe car?
ANCAP has not yet crash-tested the new E-Class, but its European counterpart EuroNCAP has and it delivered a five-star verdict. One might expect that to carry over given ANCAP’s agreement with the Europeans, but sometimes things don’t go according to the particular plan. Having said that, you’re in pretty good shape to go off the EuroNCAP score if ANCAP drags its feet.
The E300 ships with 11 airbags, which I’m sure you’ll agree is generous, which includes a front-centre airbag. There are three baby seat anchors and two ISOFIX points in the rear seat too.
| 2025 Mercedes-Benz E300 | |
| ANCAP rating | Unrated |
What safety technology does the Mercedes-Benz E300 have?
Mercedes didn’t mess about with its safety gear specifications and seemingly ticked all of the boxes available to it. There are a lot of standard features, and all of them behaved impeccably during my week with the big bruiser. The calibration of the lane-keep assist was particularly useful in that it seemed to understand if you were drifting or checking ahead for a lane change.
The lights that come with the Plus Package are very impressive, working with the other systems to help you understand whatever it is that’s beeping at you without you having to take your eyes off the road. When you’re drifting from your lane, for instance, it projects an arrow on to the road to tell you where you’re going wrong. That’s pretty clever.
| Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) | Yes | Includes cyclist, junction, night-time awareness |
| Adaptive Cruise Control | Yes | Includes Traffic Jam Assist |
| Blind Spot Alert | Yes | Alert with lane-change warning |
| Rear Cross-Traffic Alert | Yes | Alert and assist functions |
| Lane Assistance | Yes | Lane-departure warning, lane-keep assist, lane-centring assist |
| Road Sign Recognition | Yes | Includes speed limit assist |
| Driver Attention Warning | Yes | Includes fatigue monitor |
| Cameras & Sensors | Yes | Front and rear sensors, 360-degree camera |
How much does the Mercedes-Benz E300 cost to maintain?
Avid followers of Mercedes reviews won’t be shocked to learn that the servicing costs are considerable. Five years of maintenance weighs in at $6945, easily doubling a BMW 5 Series at $2950. An Audi A6 is $3580 for five years. Heck, the rocketship Audi RS6 is cheaper to service, at least as far as the plan goes. And for a few hundred bucks more, Audi will extend the warranty, the service plan and two more years of roadside assist.
Intervals are set at 12 months or 25,000km, the latter being obviously quite generous, so if you’re a high-miler, the value for money improves against those with lesser mileage allowances.
Insurance worked out at $3782 per year based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male driver living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.
That’s a reasonably hefty cost, but as it turns out the BMW and the Audi are even more, so the Benz is competitive in that area.
| At a glance | 2025 Mercedes-Benz E300 |
| Warranty | Five years, unlimited km |
| Service intervals | Service intervals 12 months or 25,000km |
| Servicing costs | $3395 (3 years) $6945 (5 years) |
Is the Mercedes-Benz E300 fuel-efficient?
In isolation, 10.2 litres per 100 kilometres as-tested for a near five-metre sedan dripping with tech is not bad going. The only problem is that Mercedes quotes 7.2L/100km for the combined cycle, which represents a fairly solid miss.
As you’ll see in the next section, I drove this car quite conservatively because there was no point doing otherwise. The mileage was a fairly even split between the suburbs and urban running, and then a long motorway run up to the Blue Mountains during a double-demerits weekend.
Based on my mileage, you’d still get over 600km between fills. If you were to hit the quoted number, you’ll get 919km before a dry tank.
I guess I expected a better result given the mild hybrid system cuts the engine out earlier and offers a little slug of torque while the engine spins up.
Having said all of that, my colleague James Ward drove the car on launch and did nail the claimed consumption number.
| Fuel efficiency | 2025 Mercedes-Benz E300 |
| Fuel cons. (claimed) | 7.2L/100km |
| Fuel cons. (on test) | 10.2L/100km |
| Fuel type | 95-octane premium unleaded |
| Fuel tank size | 66L |
What is the Mercedes-Benz E300 like to drive?
I absolutely loved driving this car around. It is an extremely comfortable, quiet, and surprisingly wieldy machine. It is not at all a sports sedan. If that’s what your after, the Mercedes is not for you.
Starting with the driving position, it’s all uphill from there. The driver’s seat is hugely comfortable and provides support in just about every conceivable way. The steering wheel is also adjustable so getting comfortable is easy. The dash is super clear and the head-up display is great on long drives.
The engine is near silent on start-up, with just the merest hint of a combustion engine spinning up on the button.
When you see a car rolling on 20-inch wheels, your first instinct is to think about how it’s going to ride. Twenties ruin the ride on most cars unless a hugely complex and therefore expensive solution has been thrown in, like on a McLaren.
Benz went for air suspension on the E300 and it delivers a superb ride. Sometimes – as any number of these types of systems do – it gets a little out of kilter, but it’s more of a gentle sway than anything worrying. And it’s soon dealt with by the software. The best description I can give you is that it feels like a (Sydney) train negotiating points, a gentle rocking that disappears once you’re across.
There are three modes to choose from and each mode firms the suspension up, but even in sport mode, you’ll not be upsetting passengers in either the front or back row.
Added to the luxurious ride is the excellent steering set-up. Again, it’s excellent in the context of this car’s intention. There’s not much feel or weight, but it’s accurate and sharp enough without being irritating on the motorway.
The addition of rear-axle steering is immensely useful in this car. A week previous I had driven the huge Kia EV9 and was cursing its lack of all-wheel steering, which would have resulted in a near-perfect verdict for the car.
An E-Class is big, slowly creeping up to the size of an S-Class of not so long ago. Having the rear wheels bring the car around for you in U-turns, three-point turns, but also getting you into and out of tight spaces, takes all the hassle out of a near-five-metre sedan. One of the things I enjoyed (admittedly because I’m a nerd) was seeing the rear wheel in the mirror cranking the opposite direction to the fronts when parking.
Being a mild hybrid, the E300 does not move under its own electric steam, if that makes any sense. Mild hybrids consist of a small battery connected to a generator that usually acts as the starter motor as well. It means the engine can cut out earlier on your way to a stop, power important things for longer without the engine, coast at highway speeds, that kind of thing.
It’s pretty much seamless and you only notice what’s going on when you really look. The engine itself is very smooth but you’re not in a fast car. A 2.0-litre four in such a big unit is never going to whisk you along with great authority, but with the extra whack of torque from the electric motor, it gains and holds highway speeds effortlessly and quietly. It also means overtaking is unexpectedly swift and, again, quiet.
The nine-speed auto is close to perfection, and I don’t think I ever caught it in the wrong gear, rendering the paddle shifters basically pointless but nevertheless welcome. Unfortunately, the irritating stalk shifter – a feature I have never liked – continues in this iteration, but it does clear up a lot of space in the console for a less cluttered design. The left stalk is less of a mess, though, with the lighting controls on the dashboard.
A little bit of road roar makes it to the cabin on the usual garbage on Sydney’s toll roads, but the cabin remains almost eerily quiet at speed.
| Key details | 2025 Mercedes-Benz E300 |
| Engine | 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol, 48-volt mild-hybrid |
| Power | 190kW @ 5800rpm petrol 17kW electric |
| Torque | 400Nm @ 3200–4000rpm petrol 205Nm electric |
| Drive type | Rear-wheel drive |
| Transmission | 9-speed torque converter automatic |
| Power-to-weight ratio | 102.7kW/t |
| Weight (tare) | 1850kg |
| Spare tyre type | Tyre repair kit |
| Payload | 600kg |
| Turning circle | 11.2m |
Can a Mercedes-Benz E300 tow?
The short answer to this question is no. Mercedes-Benz Australia does not offer a towing pack in Australia so there is no official tow rating.
Should I buy a Mercedes-Benz E300?
The only real impediment to buying an E300 is the price. Not many folks are spending this kind of money on a large sedan, but that’s partly because there are so few left. It’s kind of a shame there isn’t a less expensive entry-level model, but nor is there one in the 5 Series or A6 range. The 5 is a cheaper walk-up start, but can’t match the E300 for specification.
I guess the single-spec plus packs is a take-it-or-leave-it proposition and will appeal to people looking for another E-Class or jumping ship from its rivals for whatever reason. Offering more than one spec (which BMW does) is an expensive proposition in an already small market like Australia, so Mercedes is probably in a bit of a damned-if-we-do-damned-if-we-don’t position.
And everyone keeps buying SUVs. I know I’d have this over a GLE or GLC for the same money, unless there were some deal-breaking thing those other cars do.
It’s a beautiful car inside and out, lovely to drive and with few drawbacks. So if you do go for it, it’s money well spent and, in this day and age, remarkably exclusive.
How do I buy a Mercedes-Benz E300 – next steps?
Mercedes operates under the agency model, so you can buy online or from a dealer and you can expect to pay the same no matter what. As such, dealers are called “retailers” and you can find your nearest Mecedes-Benz retailer here.
Mercedes told me there are E300 vehicles available in Australia for prompt delivery, so wait times would be minimal for customers unless you manage to pick a wacky spec that isn’t here right now. You may find what you’re looking for at Drive Marketplace as well.
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