Another fast and furious day at the office – finally you call it a day: You climb into your car, the door slips into its lock. Already you’re in another world. Welcome home — to the new
E 250 CDI. It is Mercedes-Benz’ new generation of
4-cylinder CDI units with cutting-edge common-rail technology, two-stage turbocharging and precise piezo injection. The new E 250 CDI burns just 5.3 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (44 mpg), a figure only a compact car could previously have hoped to achieve. The new sedan is therefore 23 percent more frugal than its comparable predecessor model, the E 280 CDI. And yet it also pushes up output by 7 percent and increases torque by 25 percent to 500 Nm, ensuring outstanding pulling power from as low down as
1,600 rpm.
Seven airbags, belt tensioners, belt force limiters, crash-responsive head restraints, the preventive
PRE-SAFE® concept and extremely durable front and rear crumple zones make up a standard-fitted protection system which springs into action before and during an impact. The standard fatigue recognition system, Attention Assist, is able to notice whether the driver is getting tired. If a number of crucial indicators signal that the driver is about to nod off, the system flashes up a warning on the cockpit display: “ATTENTION ASSIST. Break!”
An optional video camera in the windshield reads the speed restriction signs at the side of the road and shows the permitted top speed on the display. At the same time, it also has the road markings in view. If so, the Lane Keeping Assist causes the steering wheel to vibrate and reminds the driver to keep within the lines.
During the evening traffic the optional radar-controlled Distronic Plus rolls up its sleeves. The sensors continuously control the distance to other vehicles. This keeps the E-Class at the correct distance to the vehicle in front, braking the car to a standstill in stop-start traffic and even prompting it to automatically pull away again. If there is a sudden build-up of traffic and a consequent danger of a front-to-rear impact, the E-Class will be prepared, the system warning the driver and instinctively calculating the brake force required. Even when the driver does not respond to the warning signal, the technology, as a last resort, activates automatic emergency braking. While this cannot prevent an accident, it does cut the impact speed by an average 16 km/h (10 mph).
The on demand intelligent bi-xenon headlamps can be specified with the new Adaptive Highbeam Assist. This system calculates the distance to vehicles travelling ahead or approaching from the opposite direction and adjusts the range of the headlamp beams. Thanks to its adaptive properties the range of the low beam light to can be increased from around 65 meters to as far as 300 meters (213 — 984 ft).