Road Test and Review: Mercedes Benz E400 Cabriolet

Most say buying a convertible in India makes no sense. Dust, smoke, stink, noise… our cities offer the most unfavorable conditions for open-top motoring and the roof spends a lot more time up than down. However, convertibles are meant to be driven across wide-open country roads in fair weather with sun on face and wind in hair. Thankfully, our country has no dearth of such roads.

Mercedes Benz E400 Cabriolet recently came to Bangalore to adorn the carmaker’s new state-of-the-art city showroom and the weather down south was just perfect to indulge in open-top motoring.

Design

I was not really comfortable driving this car around city; not for anything else, but because I’m slightly scopophobic. The E400 Cabriolet is such an attention-grabber that no one passes by without staring at the car and also the one behind the wheel.

Talking about the styling, I would say the E400 Cabriolet is elegance personified. Viewed up front, the Cabriolet is a lot similar to the E-Class but the arrow-shape of the front end extends from the radiator right across the entire bonnet, making it much sportier. It has sleeker headlamps and the chiseled front bumper with upside-down airdam imparts an AMG-ish feel to it.

In profile, the two-door Cabriolet is much shorter compared to the sedan because it is built on the previous generation C-class platform. However, the neat lines inherited from the sedan give it an elongated stance. The car is best-appreciated from the rear three-quarters, but with the canvas roof retracted.

Interior

The E400 Cabriolet welcomes you to the cabin with some feel-good factors. One such feature is the automatic seatbelt feeder that extends the belt to you once behind the wheel. Those peering inside when you’re stationary at traffic signals will see a classy, upmarket interior.

The centre console houses the familiar COMAND infotainment system with the rotary controller and integrated colour display, and an elegant analogue clock. The COMAND system now features Mercedes Benz Apps and applications like Facebook and Tunein radio can be accessed on the 7-inch multimedia screen with your phone connected. The centre console houses a lever tucked under the armrest to operate the roof, which can be opened and closed even when the car is on the move – up to a speed of 40 km/h. The soft-top fabric is available in a choice of four colours – black, dark blue, dark brown or red – and is resistant to extreme climatic conditions. Sitting inside with the roof closed, you don’t really feel it’s a soft top because it’s neatly stitched together with a premium finish.

All four seats are wide and well-bolstered but rear seats are a little lacking in legroom. However, when compared to other two-door cabriolets, the E400 wont be a compromise as expected. The front seat backrest folds and the seat slides forwards at the tap of a lever, making access to the rear compartment effortless. The system stores the exact position of the front seat so it can simply be moved back into this position afterwards.

There’s also 390 litres of boot space with the roof up. It reduces to 300 litres when the roof is tucked in. Convenience features include two zone climate control, rear AC vents, seat memory, front and rear parking sensors with 360 degree parking assist and a rear parking camera and automatic parking.

Performance

The E Cabriolet is available in India with the 3.5-litre naturally aspirated V6 petrol engine only. The engine churns out a meaty 338PS of peak power between 5250-6000rpm and 480Nm of peak torque from 1600-4000rpm. The engine provides effortless acceleration from a standstill and boasts excellent passing power to blast past slower traffic on highways. It’s seriously quick, capable of going from 0 - 100 km/h in 5.3 seconds while top speed is electronically limited to 248 km/h. And, what’s more, the sound track of the V6 petrol engine is so good to stir an enthusiast’s soul.

The 7-speed automatic transmission is fairly keen to respond to throttle inputs. Although paddle shifters are provided to please those wanting to row their own gears, I never felt the need to use them.

Fuel-efficiency should be the last thing an E Cabriolet owner should worry about, but for curiosity’s sake, I tested the mileage at low cruising speeds and the car returned a little over 12kmpl.

Ride and Handling

With the roof down and the windows up, those in the front are well protected from buffeting. The innovative AIRCAP system, which consists of an air deflector module in the roof frame combined with a small draught-stop between the rear head restraints, diverts the airflow above the heads of all four occupants, allowing the passengers to communicate and the climate control to do its job. Put the roof up and you wont realize it’s a soft top - occupants are well isolated from outside noise.

Although the soft suspension set up makes driving the E400 in city a delight with a supple approach to potholes, low ground clearance means you need to be extremely careful over the unscientific speed humps in our cities. The Agility Control stiffens the suspension at higher speeds giving you good control around sharp corners. Chopping off the roof of any car takes a toll on its handling. Mercedes has equipped the E Cabriolet with additional floor and side strengthening but the car tends to roll slightly during hard cornering.

Safety At Its Finest

Wearing a seat belt is a must while travelling in a convertible car. When driving with roof down, seat belts are the only things that keep occupants inside during accident. To protect the passengers in the event of a rollover, Mercedes-Benz has made the upper windscreen frame and the A-pillars exceptionally robust. The rollover bars integrated in the rear head restraints pops up within fractions of a second as soon as the airbag control system’s crash sensors detect the risk of an accident.

Apart from these Cabriolet-specific safety features, the E400 comes with 9 airbags, PRE-SAFE, NECK Pro, ABS with Brake Assist, Active Bonnet for enhanced pedestrian safety, Adaptive High Beam Assist among others.

Bottom line

Convertibles are all about style and sophistication, but they also cost a king’s ransom. Priced at Rs 78.5 lakh, ex-showroom Delhi, the E Cabriolet is certainly not a cheap car but it does provide a lot for the money. Rich kids of the town aspiring to a premium open-top driving experience will find the E Cabriolet on top of their shortlist.