Used Mercedes-Benz E-Class (W213/S213/X213): They confuse it with a cheaper

To the untrained eye, you can easily mistake the previous Mercedes E-class for a cheaper, smaller “brand”. But certainly not the crew. More space, more silence, a more comfortable chassis and access to more modern technologies show who is higher in the hierarchy.

In the days when the model series could be counted on the fingers of one hand, it used to be the best-selling and best-known Mercedes. In the current model stew, last year’s generational change of the E class was noticed only by those who are intrinsically interested in this brand – for the lay public, it is an almost “invisible” car. On the one hand, the typical Mercedes customer increasingly prefers high seating in SUVs. Second, the design differences between the previous C and E classes were unfortunately reduced to a minimum. Of course, to the detriment of the more expensive and technically more valuable E-Class, which was more similar in features to the executive S-Klasse (meaning the previous W222).

Unhappy carbon dioxide

The endless list of possible motorizations, innovative solutions and optional equipment would probably give you a headache, so let’s put it more practically. Firstly: for 2016-2018 E-Classes, avoid units equipped with the optional three-zone Thermotronic air conditioning (equipment code 581), which, like the S-Klasse of the time, was filled with the atypical refrigerant R744, i.e. carbon dioxide – CO₂. It is non-flammable and apparently cheap to refill, but it is 16 times thinner than today’s common tetrafluoropropene R-1234yf, and it also works with an incomparably higher system pressure (in hot summer it can reach up to 100 bars!). In non-hybrid cars with a classic belt-driven air conditioning compressor, the R744 refrigerant system is chronically prone to leaks and loss of refrigerant, and it also has an absurdly expensive and frequently failing compressor, which costs CZK 104,000 in the original version.