Review of my new E430 vs. my W124 124.032

[suginami]

I posted this in another thread, but had intended to start a thread of my own.

I've been planning on writing a post about this very subject. I've had the car for about 3 - 4 weeks now, but haven't put a lot of miles on it, yet, as I fly a lot on my job.

One thing that has been forefront in my thoughts is the quality issue. Everyone talks about the decline in quality with the W210 chassis. We all know that the 210's were the first that Mercedes ever designed to a specific price point, instead of a specific quality level and pricing the car accordingly.

My honest opinion is that the car has as high a level of quality as my W124 300E (3.2) "E320". It feels very different, though.

By different I mean that you can certainly feel the affects of Lexus on the minds of the engineers that desgned the W210 cars. Everything has been softened, damped, and quieted. The braking is more power-assisted. It takes a much lighter touch to stop the car. The accelerator pedal has a lighter spring. The pedal in my W124 car felt overly stiff. The steering is vastly different due to the new rack and pinion in place of the recirculating ball. It feels more like your typical Japanes car. It is also more power-assisted. Again, too much so in my opinion. The interior of the car is quieter. Engine noise and road noise is considerably muffled.

The suspension leaves much to be desired. It wallows like a whale. It is massively under-damped. Going over bumps is like being on a ship in a bad storm. It rocks back and forth so much that it gives me a feeling of seasickness. My W124 with Bilstein HD's was perfect in every respect: firm but not harsh, controlled by not skittish, and rode like a magic carpet on the freeway. Even my wife, she who doesn't even know when she is driving on a flat tire, notices the difference.

Interior-wise, I love the new instrument cluster and center stack housing the radio and HVAC controls. The instrument cluster is modern and very well-lit, and the digital HVAC controls and read-out are very welcome. The push buttons and rotary dial were a relic of the past IMHO, and should've done away with in the mid-seventies. Also, even though the exterior dimensions are with a couple of inches of each other, the back seat space in the W210 is dramatically larger than the W124. I can't describe the difference it is so great. It is like being in an S class car.

Body design is a draw. But if I have to choose one over the other, I'd choose the W124. I like the front-end / hood design of the W210 better, but overall, I prefer the classic lines of the W124. It is holding up well with time like all Mercedes. Time will tell how the W210 looks 10 + years from now.

To summarize, I guess I prefer the W210 over the W124 in many ways, but not all. While I still believe it is a high quality car like the W124, I believe Mercedes has taken a lot of the Mercedes out of the car. It has lost some of its "DNA". The 124's, like 126's, feel unique. There is nothing else that handles and feels quite the same. W210's, on the other hand, feel much like any other luxury car. In fact, one could say the Mercedes has "Lexified" the car.