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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:03 This good looking red station wagon is the 2021
00:07 Mercedes-Benz E450 All-Terrain.
00:10 Technically, it's an SUV,
00:12 which means that technically it is not
00:15 our 2021 Motor Trend Car of the Year.
00:18 What am I talking about?
00:20 Let's find out.
00:21 You might think that Mercedes' wealthiest customers
00:28 are buying sports cars or big convertibles,
00:31 but no, they're buying E-Class wagons.
00:34 This is no longer an E-Class wagon
00:36 because it has a slight lift
00:38 and maybe some armor plating over here.
00:40 Technically, somehow, it's an SUV.
00:43 Now, there's actually a market for vehicles like this.
00:46 Small one, there's just two competitors,
00:47 is the Audi A6 Allroad,
00:49 and there's the Volvo V90 Cross Country.
00:52 But what Mercedes is trying to do,
00:54 they're trying to kill two birds with one stone, right?
00:57 You keep your wealthy wagon customers happy,
01:00 but you also trick some customers
01:03 who would never consider owning a station wagon
01:05 into purchasing an SUV.
01:08 Clever, right?
01:10 Probably too clever.
01:11 I'm of two minds about the design of the E450 All-Terrain.
01:18 On the one hand, it's a really handsome station wagon.
01:21 On the other hand, it's a really handsome station wagon
01:24 that has dressed up like a truck for Halloween.
01:27 Let's focus on the good stuff.
01:28 Mercedes' design team right now
01:31 is just firing on almost all of their cylinders.
01:33 Electric vehicles notwithstanding,
01:35 they are the masters of form,
01:37 they are the masters of surfacing.
01:39 This thing has a huge grill.
01:40 Well, Mercedes have always had a huge grill,
01:43 and this one looks really good.
01:44 Plus, look at the size of the three-pointed star.
01:48 I'll let you in on a secret.
01:49 That's what the customers like.
01:52 Then you've got these awesome headlights.
01:53 It's like opening a jewelry box, right?
01:55 If you're a mockingbird and you like shiny objects,
01:58 look at that.
02:00 Coming down the side, what jumps out at me
02:02 is that this car screams, "I'm rear-wheel drive,"
02:05 because of this huge dash-to-axle ratio right here.
02:09 All this metal between the door cut and the wheel.
02:11 However, they covered some of that metal up
02:13 with this plastic, because that's how you make it
02:15 look like an SUV.
02:16 And the idea is, when you go off-roading,
02:19 you'll scratch plastic as opposed to metal.
02:22 You're never gonna go off-roading.
02:24 You know how I know?
02:25 Look at these wheels.
02:26 These look so expensive.
02:27 You would keep these as far away from a rock as possible.
02:30 Plus, these wheels are covered up in Pirelli P Zero tires.
02:34 P Zero's our standard equipment on the Porsche 911.
02:39 You're not going off-road.
02:40 Coming back, well, I mean, it's just a great-looking wagon.
02:43 I love long roofs, my favorite type of car.
02:46 Got a dual-plane sunroof here.
02:47 I wish it was just a solid metal roof.
02:49 Can't get that in the US, oh well.
02:51 All the bright work has been pulled off.
02:53 It's replaced with blacked-out chrome,
02:55 which I think looks really cool.
02:57 There's some bright work down here to draw your eyes
02:59 to the fact that they've put in this plastic cladding
03:02 down here.
03:03 Coming out to the back, it looks like a Mercedes wagon.
03:06 It looks great.
03:07 Look, am I being unnecessarily harsh?
03:09 Yes, because they no longer sell the E450.
03:13 If they sold that alongside with this,
03:16 I'd have no complaints.
03:17 But since they don't, I do.
03:21 The thing about Mercedes' design team is
03:23 the interior people are just as good,
03:26 if not better, than the exterior people.
03:28 This is a fantastic cabin.
03:30 Sure, there's no leather right here,
03:32 but that's only because we forgot to check that option box.
03:35 Beautiful open-pore wood, everything is elegant.
03:38 The seat controls look like an Ames chair.
03:41 These speaker grills, they're drilled out.
03:43 They look so cool.
03:45 Only thing I don't get is the new steering wheel.
03:48 I do not like it.
03:49 It's just this big, giant, black plastic V.
03:52 It's just, it's not good.
03:54 It's not as nice as the rest of the car.
03:56 Moving on.
03:57 I actually owe Mercedes an apology,
03:59 and I hate to apologize to car makers,
04:01 but when this new infotainment system
04:03 that they call MBUX, M-B-U-X,
04:05 Mercedes-Benz User Experience, first came out,
04:08 I was very dismissive of it.
04:10 I said, "Ah, it's too complicated."
04:12 That said, this is so packed with features, it's crazy.
04:16 Let me show you a one menu.
04:17 So we'll come over here to Comfort.
04:20 I think we can all agree this would be a much better review
04:22 if I was getting a massage,
04:24 so I will pick full-strength massage.
04:28 Aha, much better, right?
04:30 Ambient lighting, this is nuts.
04:31 Look at this.
04:32 Okay, so I've got basically every color imaginable
04:35 available through this color wheel.
04:36 I just kind of move my finger, and now it's green.
04:39 The amount of functionality packed in here is mind-blowing.
04:42 As far as actual comfort goes, big, roomy cabin.
04:46 Yeah, it's a mid-sized car technically,
04:48 but in reality, it's pretty full-size.
04:49 Lots of room in this row, in the middle row,
04:52 there's plenty of room, and I say middle row
04:54 because there actually is a third row.
04:56 This is the only station wagon on sale in the US
04:59 that offers three rows of seats.
05:01 Let's talk performance.
05:04 Because this is an E450,
05:07 it has one of my very favorite engines under the hood.
05:10 It's a three liter inline six, not a V6, an inline six,
05:14 which means it's very smooth, and it sounds really good.
05:17 It also has a 48 volt electrical system
05:20 that makes it really efficient
05:21 because you don't have to have a water pump,
05:23 you don't have to have an alternator.
05:24 In fact, there's no belts whatsoever.
05:27 It's turbocharged, and there's a hybrid assist motor.
05:30 So you add all that together, you get 362 horsepower
05:34 and 369 pound feet of torque,
05:37 which is enough to accelerate this car
05:39 to 60 miles an hour in five seconds flat.
05:42 How does it handle?
05:43 Really well because it's not an SUV, it's a car.
05:47 Cars handle better than SUVs.
05:49 It also has a bunch of off-road driving modes,
05:52 not that you're ever going to go off-road.
05:54 Because it's a mild hybrid,
05:57 the efficiency's actually pretty good.
05:58 Your fuel economy, you get 22 miles per gallon in the city
06:02 and 28 miles per gallon on the highway.
06:04 Safety is one of Mercedes brand values,
06:09 and they have stated that in the future,
06:12 nobody will die inside of a Mercedes-Benz.
06:16 As such, this car has a five-star crash rating
06:19 in every single category.
06:21 And it has almost every active safety feature on the market.
06:26 How much?
06:29 Well, a lot.
06:30 The E450 All-Terrain starts at almost $69,000.
06:35 The red one next to me is nearly $85,000.
06:39 But how does it do against the competition?
06:41 It costs more.
06:42 It's a few thousand dollars more than the Audi,
06:45 and it's thousands and thousands of dollars more
06:48 than the Volvo.
06:49 Mercedes are expensive.
06:51 News at 11.
06:52 If there's one thing I want you to know
06:56 about the 2021 Mercedes-Benz E450 All-Terrain,
07:01 it's that it's our 2021 Motor Trend Car of the Year.
07:06 Forget all the SUV nonsense.
07:08 This is an E-Class.
07:09 The E-Class was our 2021 Motor Trend Car of the Year.
07:13 Therefore, this is the 2021 Wagon of the Year.
07:18 To see vehicle rankings and a complete buyer's guide,
07:22 please visit motortrend.com/cars.
07:26 (upbeat music)
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