The main reason you would buy an estate over its saloon equivalent is, of course, the boot space. That's why the E-Class manages to squeeze in 670 litres of capacity into a well-shaped area, with the narrowest part, between the wheel arches, being 110 cm. Fold the seats down and you're faced with an 1820-litre cavern. As standard, Mercedes will give you 40:20:40 split folding rear seats - essentially each rear seat will fold down individually. Another standard feature is a clever system that allows you to make the rear seat backs roughly 10 degrees steeper, which frees up a further 30 litres of space in the boot whilst still allowing "full use" of the seats. Electronic switches in the boot make it easy to fold down the rear seats without having to walk around to the back doors.
EASY-PACK is what Mercedes calls its electronically powered tailgate, and guess what, it comes as standard. What doesn't come as standard is the KEYLESS-GO with HANDS-FREE ACCESS which allows you to open the boot with a kicking motion under the rear bumper. Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to why Mercedes capitalises its options and technology, though.
Being an estate, you're likely to be loading the boot up quite a bit. That's why a self-levelling rear air suspension is, yet again, standard kit. All-round AIR BODY CONTROL air suspension is, however, an option. The self-levelling rear air suspension can deal with up to 745 kg in the boot, depending on the model you choose, which is in the region of 10 people's weight. It can also deal with a trailer which can weigh up to 2,100 kg.
Inside, you can have your E-Class Estate similarly specced to the E-Class Saloon. The main feature is what appears to be one long high-res screen taking place of the instrument cluster and infotainment display. In fact, it consists of two 12.3-inch displays that sit behind one long sheet of glass. The driver can control what he or she sees with touch-sensitive controls on the steering wheel, the regular touchpad and controller in the centre console which recognises handwriting for the satellite navigation, and the LINGUATRONIC voice recognition.
Mercedes has taken all the steps it could to make the E-Class Estate "one of the quietest estate vehicles" in its class. This has included sealed door handles and door joints, extra sealing on the side windows, and wing mirrors and A-pillars that have been optimised aeroacoustically. If that's not enough, the Acoustic Comfort package can be specified at an additional cost from late 2016, and features an acoustic film in the windscreen and side windows as well as more insulation in the rear footwells and central tunnel.
Active Brake Assist will, in worst case scenarios, apply the brakes autonomously in order to help avoid any collision. DRIVE PILOT, an option, is as near to autonomous driving as we can get today. It's essentially an advanced cruise control that can work at speeds of up to 130 mph. Another cool bit of tech is the Remote Parking Pilot, which allows you to perform tight manoeuvres from outside the vehicle using nothing but your smartphone, similar to what we saw with the latest-generation BMW 7 Series.
So now that we've covered what makes the E-Class Estate different to the Saloon, let's take a quick look at the engines. Unfortunately, there's nothing new. All the Saloon's engines have just been carried over.
A brand-new 2.0-litre diesel engine is set to replace the noisier 2.1-litre unit. That will be found in the E 220 d which boasts a reasonable 191 bhp and 400 Nm. With CO2 emissions of just 109 g/km, the E 220 d will be very good to tax. MPG figures are a claimed 67.3, with a 0-62 mph sprint time of 7.7 seconds which is quick enough for most buyers.
Fancy yourself a more powerful diesel? Mercedes will be releasing the E 350 d in the last quarter of 2016. Its 3.0-litre V6 makes 254 bhp and 620 Nm. MPG figures are a bit lower, at 52.3, with CO2 emissions rising to 140 g/km. A provisional 0-62 mph time has been given to it of 6.2 seconds.
All models come as standard with the 7G-TRONIC 9-speed automatic transmission. Shift times are quicker for the AMG E 43 4MATIC, though. This uses a 3.0-litre V6 petrol engine to produce 396 bhp and 520 Nm. It will race to 62 mph in 4.7 seconds and emit a not-so-good 192 g/km. Mercedes claims a combined figure of 33.6 mpg.
Rivals such as the Volvo V90 and Audi A6 Avant offer similar engine choices, with two diesels and a plug-in petrol hybrid for the Volvo and two diesels and a 4.0-litre V8 petrol for the Audi. BMW currently offers the most, however this model has been going the longest and therefore has had time to see the introduction of more engines along its timeline. These include 5 diesels and 3 petrols.
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