A big V8, small wheels and clear glass? It's the fast estate full house
Sometimes, an over-the-top car is completely appropriate. Nobody wants to see a grey supercar, really, or a stripped-out roadster without a splash of colour. Muscle cars need stripes, hot hatches need spoilers, homologation cars need stickers and so on.
But by the same token, there are occasions where discretion makes more sense. Luxury saloons and SUVs, where possible, should be subtle rather than shouty, even if that doesn't always happen these days. Happily, you don’t have to look very far back in time to rediscover Q-car paradise. absolutely understood the spec assignment. The AMG model was there for someone who required maximum V8 muscle and the visual intent that came with it; those plumping for an E500 were after the incomparable charm of an eight-cylinder engine in something rather less conspicuous. It’s the kind of car that doesn’t really exist anymore, boasting a large combustion engine but little sporting pretence at all, and all the more interesting for it. The paint isn’t black, so there are no hearse comparisons to make, and the wheels aren’t either - meaning you can actually see them. The glass went untinted, the wood retained, and in fact the E500 kitted out to such an extent that it must have been close to E63 money when new: Nappa leather and radar cruise can’t have come cheap. There’s additional intrigue here, too, as this is a post-facelift E500. The entire ‘211 range was overhauled in 2006, and notably for the E500 that meant replacing the M113 5.0-litre with the 5.5-litre M273; not as iconic in the back catalogue perhaps, but significantly more potent than the engine it replaced. The 5.5’s peaks of 387hp and 391lb were 81hp and 52lb ft stronger than before. Once upon a time, that meant this E500 was capable of 0-62mph in little more than five seconds… On top of that, this E-Class has only ever been serviced at Mercedes' main agents, which must have been another expensive endeavour. While no longer perfect, money has clearly been spent on this E500 to keep it in fine fettle; it looks to have been carefully used in its 87,500 miles as well, if the condition of the seat bolsters, boot and dash are anything to go by. Maybe the 211 will never go down as the best E-Class ever, but this must be one of the best of them. . Or £10,990 to be precise; maybe there’s a bit of wiggle room given the niche ground this occupies between the ordinary E-Classes and the full-fat AMGs. Certainly it looks to still have plenty of radar-guided cruising left in it, and it’s easy to imagine the appeal of a 5.5-litre Mercedes that looks like this to be pretty enduring. It’d surely be just the thing, in fact, to sit alongside a silly sports car for when that’s more appropriate.
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