The thing that stands out for me on that review is....
The engineers have made the new E-Class a little sharper to drive, too. On SE models the suspension is lowered by 15mm and the steering revised, making it more responsive just off-centre and a little heavier. As a result, the E-Class is more involving, but with a small penalty when it comes to smoothing bumps over very rough roads.
Now, I think that the Avantgarde suspension was already at the limit of firmness.
However the steering thing sounds great.
I hated the steering with a passion on the E350 I had, hated it and thought it to be a bit dangerous.
Just off dead centre you could move it an inch and it did nothing, then as you turned the wheel it turned tighter and tighter. It was not linear.
Doing 80mph on the Autoroute I came into a long sweeping corner that got a bit tighter and you simply couldn't tell how much the wheel was turning, because it was not linear it was a guessing game and made faster driving very uneasy.
Also, just going round a big roundabout was an effort, this light steering is meant to make it easy, but it does the opposite.
In teh 5 series to go round the A47/A11 roundabout the top of the wheel goes as far as 2 o'clock and 10 o'clock, in the E Class your hands go to 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock.
This may sound petty, but when you have been in the car for 8 hours already all this extra steering movement to make simple manouvers becomes very, very tiring.
It was the above coupled with the fact I had to have the steering wheel so far away from me to see the instrument cluster that made me get rid of the car.
An E Class is meant to be effortless driving, the last one was just knackering me out after a couple of hours in it.
So can't wait to try one of these out.