2010 Mercedes-Benz E550C First Test

In the late 1980s and early '90s, when Mercedes-Benz was indisputably engineering-led rather than marketing-driven, the iconic W124 series E-Class sedan defined the company: solid, sober, quietly respectable, reassuringly expensive, discreetly oozing middle-class aspiration from every panel. The W124 E-Class coupe combined that middle-class aspiration with a frisson of extravagance, like a Franck Muller watch peeking from under the cuff of a Brooks Brothers shirt.

After a 13-year hiatus, the E-Class coupe is back, joining an all-new E-Class sedan that in many ways represents a welcome return to the W124's core values. But things aren't quite what they seem to be.

The W124 E-Class coupe was basically a short-wheelbase, two-door version of the W124 sedan. It shared powertrains, suspension, major interior parts, and most key platform hardpoints and dimensions with the four-door. The coupe disappeared from the E-Class lineup with the W210 E-Class in 1996. Instead, Mercedes-Benz launched the CLK, a swoopy two-door that aped some of the W210's design features, most notably the distinctive quad-oval headlight front graphic, but was built on the smaller, less expensive C-Class platform. Crucially, the CLK was priced under the E-Class sedan, instead of above it, as the W124 E-Class coupe had been.

The new E-Class coupe appears to follow the W124 formula. It looks like a short-wheelbase, two-door version of the 2010 sedan (the W212 in Mercedes-speak). But both 2010 E-Class coupes (the V-8-powered E550C and the V-6-powered E350C) are priced below their similarly powered E-Class sedan cousins. And under that elaborately creased sheetmetal is a significantly different car.

The new E-Class coupe shares its 108.7-inch wheelbase with the current C-Class sedan. More important, the two cars' front and rear tracks are within a tenth of an inch of each other, and are about two inches narrower than the front and rear tracks of the W212 E-Class sedan. While the new E-Class sedan is built in M-B's Sindelfingen plant, the E-Class coupe is built in the Bremen plant -- along with the current C-Class. The logical conclusion? The new E-Class Coupe is basically built on the C-Class platform. It is a new CLK coupe by any other badge.