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These are the first official images of the new Mercedes E-class, released accidentally on Mercedes’ official German website this morning. The pictures come more than a month before the luxury saloon is due to be unveiled to the world.

Known internally under the codename W212, the new Mercedes E-class is due to go on sale in the UK in May. We’ll see it for the first time in the metal at the Geneva motor show in March.

A direct rival for the BMW 5-series and Audi A5, it has been de...Read the full article

Rear lights look a bit rubbish. Mercs have been improving a lot recently, but I suspect this will fall into the elegantly dull category.

First impression - looks very good to me. This has potential of being a handsome car in the metal.

I thought things couldn't get much worse after the disaster that is the CLC, but this is amazingly ugly. Even the new aero spec F1 cars look better.

along with a naturally aspirated and twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 diesel.

 

A bit confused, do you mean the naturally aspirated 3.0 V6 will be a diesel? Surely not?

I can see them mimicking BMW with a singleturbo and a twinturbo 3 litre diesel. A naturally aspirated diesel would be very slow indeed, unless I'm missing something? 

Autocar:

Also planned, though not likely to go on sale in the UK until late 2010, is a new E300 Hybrid model. Previewed at last year’s Frankfurt motor show, it mates Mercedes’ new 2.1-litre four-cylinder diesel with an electric motor to provide 224bhp and a combined cycle average of 55.4mpg with a CO2 rating of just 135g/km.

 

There must be little doubt that they hybrid model will be the most desirable in the range. Not sure what effect it will have on sales of other models when it is due for release in 2010 - in the current market, I dare say that people will wait.

Again another car that has grown!  This thing is nearly five meters long!  That's nudging S class territory!

Have they reduced weight on this model to aid the environmental impact?  I doubt it.

 

 

You could have interpolated this car using images of the C-class and S-class. It is far too fussy and almost Maybach-esque. Horrible.

The simple elegance of the W124 and W210 e-class is long gone.
 

It looks nice on the whole. The rear light cluster is not it's best point. M-B normally have really nice ones, like on the CL.

As for it getting longer, rarely do new models come out smaller. Although, in the 90s I was convinced a Mk7 Golf would be S-Class sized, but I guess that won't happen, haha.

It must be so disheartening to release pics of a new car only to have everyone (majority at least) say its ugly..that said 'it is' and I just don't know how these manufacturers produce such consistently dull looking cars over and over. Is there no design talent left or perhaps its down to economics ?

Looks pure Mercedes. Can't blame them for playing it safe.  In terms of design the W124 and W201 were strange, tasteful exceptions for Mercedes.  The proportions of this and the current S are closer to the Norm. 

W124:

W124 and W201 were strange, tasteful exceptions for Mercedes

 

Are you sure these two models are the only 'tasteful' Merc designs? What about W220, W215, C216, W204, W219, to name just a few modern cars?

But I agree with the critics of the new E-class to some extent; its design is a bit heavy-handed and overdone (especially rear haunches), but it's not an exception in the broader context of contemporary car design.