Mercedes' new topless beauty

Go for it! Racing the Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet with its soft-top roof lowered is like letting your hair down for a heady adventure, say DH's t

Call it pure pleasure, the finesse of German engineering, or both! It’s hard to find words that best describe the experience while gliding in the luxury of a Mercedes-Benz beauty. The marquee premium carmaker has surprised India with many a remarkable offering that suit those with a taste for ultimate luxury. The tri-star Mercedes logo is an enduring presence, a promise of style, substance, and safety.

The E-Class has held a pride of place as a much sought-after model from the Mercedes stable in India. Ready for the next leg of its journey, the Mercedes-Benz recently rolled out the E-Class Cabriolet, a well-crafted machine. Before narrating our experience with the E-Class Cabriolet, a little background would help.

A cabriolet originally referred to a light, horse-drawn vehicle, with two wheels and a single horse. The uniqueness of the carriage was a folding hood that covered its two occupants, one of whom was the driver.

Soft top, tough looks

In later decades, the cabriolet concept was adopted by carmakers who added it as a distinguishing design feature. A largely luxury car concept, in modern parlance a cabriolet (AKA convertible) is an automobile body style that can convert between an open-air mode and an enclosed one, varying in degree and means by model. Convertibles evolved from the earlier phaeton, an open vehicle without glass side windows that may have had removable panels of fabric or other material for protection from the elements.

The Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet is a part of the company’s ‘15 in 15’ strategy (which involves many car launches this year), and is positioned in the top-end segment. A compact body build retains the sleek features of the E-Class sedan; the Cabriolet, though, adds new style capabilities.

The E-Class Cabriolet calls for an enticing drive, and that’s what we do, one sunny weekday afternoon. The shiny white car packs in a peppy, sporty build, along with a regal bearing.

At a length of 4,699 mm, the E-Class Cabriolet is quite a big car with its smart, two-door design. On the front, the Cabriolet carries a pretty dual headlight arrangement around a well-placed single-slat grille and curvier front bumper. The car’s supremely sculpted lines draw all the way to the rear, where they open up to new tail lamps with LED detailing, and a new bumper that hides the dual exhausts. The fresh elements fused together are pleasing to the eye.

The most impressive exterior feature yet of the E-Class Cabriolet is the contrasted colour schemes of its soft-top fabric roof against the white body of the car. But the car looks best with its 23.5 mm thick three-component fabric soft top tucked firmly within the boot, the hallmark of any Cabriolet. The sight of this, coupled with its muscular bearing, makes the car a stunner.

Sporty, yet luxe ambience

The new E-Class Cabriolet features an interior, thoroughly done up to bring in design harmony. The car is the blend of a sporty character in a luxurious ambience. The ergonomic cockpit has a very comfortable seating for four (three plus one), which suits all drivers on all kinds of drives. The seats pack in premium leather upholstery, made elegant by the Nappa leather dashboard with contrast stitching. The centre console integrates the Harman Kardon Logic 7: 610 watt music system with 14 speakers, whose musical tones and effects can be felt even with the soft-top down.

The pleasure of driving an E-Class Cabriolet is especially to be had with the soft-top roof tucked down. Once inside, we are able to experience the wholesome comfort its interiors offer. Being a two-door car, the four-seater is spacious enough to seat even taller occupants.

Our plan is to take the E-Class Cabriolet a little outside Bengaluru, to experience its thrill at different speeds and see how it manages the traffic challenges thrown at it. The quaint temple hamlet of Ghati Subramanya, through inclined green stretches of road, is our destination.

It’s quite a task to drive a premium car at high speed and navigate it through the various roadblocks and traffic snarls that are commonplace in India. The electrically powered acoustic soft top raises and lowers at the touch of a button in 20 seconds, even while the car is gliding at a pace of not more than 40 kmph.

As soon as the roof is down, the automatic belt feeder stretches out to help the driver and co-driver reach out to the seat belt with ease, before retreating to its original position once the belts have been firmly fastened.

We begin by slowly hitting the accelerator, and bringing the almost noiseless car to life.
A few revs later, the E400 Cabriolet has taken off with us on board, heading through the busy roads leading to Ghati Subramanya. The road gets wider at a junction with scant traffic, and it is here that we push the pedal to hit higher speeds. From 0-100 km takes only a little over five seconds, while the top speed is far above 200 kmph

Fast metal, smooth drive

The car’s six-cylinder engine takes any challenge on the road by its horns, as it darts its way through. The 2,996-cc petrol engine is robust and stays true to the reputation of Mercedes as a name in brilliant automobile engineering. The car is able to smoothly accelerate to higher speeds, at the same time swiftly dropping to a crawl depending on the need. With a maximum engine output of 245 kW (333) hp @ 5,250-6,000 rpm at a maximum torque of 480 Nm @ 1,600-4,000 rpm, the car is indeed a very fast machine, and can climb well on inclined roads.

The day presents us with unusually heavy traffic, with trucks and regional buses plying on the way to our destination. This is a piece of cake for the fast and peppy E400 Cabriolet, whose Agility Control Suspension, and turning diameter of 11.15 metres, ensures that the car is able to manoeuvre itself well, while maintaining consistent speeds.

While the roof is down, the innovative AIRCAP wind deflector reduces in-cabin noise and turbulence, and makes the drive even more pleasing and safe. The E-Class Cabriolet’s body shell is made up of high tensile steel, designed to provide optimum safety.

The integral roll-over bars are extended in less than 0.3 seconds, during which time the rear head restraints move into the highest possible position. The nine airbags on board offer a sense of care and concern that the carmaker has for its customers.

One of the most unique features of the car — a first in India — is the integration of cloud-based Mercedes-Benz apps, which helps occupants to be connected and well in touch with the world while on the road. The apps offer unrestricted internet surfing, access to Mercedes-Benz Radio, Tune-in Radio, weather, audio, news, and Facebook, among other resources. We are impressed by the thoughtful utilisation of this sort of media convergence that is so much the need of the hour.

A Mercedes-Benz E400 Cabriolet may be possessed at a hefty price of Rs 79.9 lakh (ex-showroom Bengaluru).

Approaching our destination, the sun above has compelled us to raise the soft-top roof, but the comfort within the cabin is intact. Except for the lower ground clearance, the car is sheer grace. Even here, we would blame it on the bad roads which can do with some good engineering themselves.

Mercedes-Benz E400 Cabriolet Smart Specs:

 Number of Cylinders/    Arrangement 6/V
 Total Displacement 2,996 cc
 Rated output in kW (hp) @ rpm 245 (333)
@5,250-6,000
 Acceleration 0-100 kmph 5.3 seconds
 Turning Diameter 11.15 metres