Mercedes-Benz E-Class

The Mercedes-Benz E-Class is a range of executive cars manufactured by German automaker Mercedes-Benz in various engine and body configurations produced since 1993, marketed worldwide across five generations.

Prior to 1993, Mercedes-Benz offered the same category of car under a non-unified naming structure. The E initially stood for Einspritzmotor (German for fuel injection engine); a new feature in volume production vehicles at the time that the E-Class first appeared, with the E as a suffix to the engine nomenclature (e.g. 230 E) in the 1960s. It was not until the launch of the facelifted W124 in 1993 that the E was used as a prefix (i.e., E 220) and the model referred to officially as the E-Class (or E-Klasse). At this time all Mercedes cars used fuel injection and the company felt it was no longer necessary to add this as a distinguishing feature. All generations of the E-Class have offered either rear-wheel drive or Mercedes' 4Matic four-wheel drive system.

Historically, the E-Class is Mercedes-Benz' best-selling model, with more than 13 million sold by 2015.^[1] The First E-Klasse series was originally available as four-door sedan, five-door station wagon, 2 door coupe and 2 door convertible. From 1997 to 2009, the equivalent coupe and convertible were sold under the Mercedes-Benz CLK-Class nameplate; which was actually based on the mechanical underpinnings of the smaller C-Class while borrowing the styling and some powertrains from the E-Class, a trend continued with the C207 E-Class coupe/convertible which was sold parallel to the W212 E-Class sedan/wagon. With the latest incarnation of the E-Class released for the 2017 model year, all body styles share the same W213 platform.^[2]

Due to the E-Class's size and durability, it has filled many market segments, from personal cars to frequently serving as taxis in European countries, as well special-purpose vehicles (e.g. police or ambulance modifications) from the factory.^[3]