USA: Coast2coast in the Mercedes-Benz E-Class
Out and about in Drive Pilot Habitat
To understand a country, you have to travel it. To understand a car, you have to drive it. So far, so simple. The new I already know the E-Class. This was the international premiere for journalists, then the station wagon and the colleagues are currently driving the AMG hammer of the E-Class. But press driving events are tightly timed experiences. To really "experience" such a "full spec" E-Class - rather difficult. And also to test all the engines. You'd rather be tempted to go to the E43 and AMG.
Under the surface
The situation is similar in the USA. A country that fascinates. I actually know it too. But just, superficially. And currently the country touches me personally. What happens there What do people think when you don't visit the hip east and west coast cities? When the question came up whether I would like to take the new E-Class from Miami to Los Angeles, my answer was clear before the question was ended. Yes I do. So thoughtless and yet clear was probably only still my answer before the registrar.
And this time, no AMG was available. No G63, no SL63, not even a fine S-Class 550. No, it should be an E300 4matic, in accountant gray, or as the Mercedes-Benz experts call it, in diamond silver. With a four-cylinder. In the USA. Through the USA. The charged "300er" four-cylinder and the Mercedes four-wheel drive including 9-speed automatic transmission is not available in this combination in the rest of Germany. Exciting choice, anyway. Much more exciting, however, was the question of how the drive-pilot would beat. Is the time ripe for level 2 on the 5 levels for autonomous driving?
Caribbean-colorful ambient light
The US is multi-layered. Like the equipment catalogs of the Mercedes-Benz Configurator. The start in Miami is a colorful experience. A whimsical Caribbean feeling mingles with the presence of seniors and winter refugees from all over the world. The first miles pass while you get lost in the configuration options of the business-class sedan. Where was the ambient lighting again? Cursed? Which of the 64 colors suits Miami?
The Drive-Pilot is activated at the start of the tour. Uncertainty. First off. You know the TESLA fiasco. But it is simply not an “autopilot”, as the others call it, it is and remains an assistance system on the Level 2. So for the navigation I prefer to try out the voice recognition, so my eyes stay on the road and "writing" on the rotary push button may work, but it's not that intuitive. And anyway - what did you have to consider again with the US addresses? First the house number? Then the street? Was the destination of the day's stage now "South" or "North"? The command system doesn't care. It benevolently accepts my US slang. Searching through voice recognition? A blessing. The results, 99.9% to the point. This is how it has to work with “assisting”. Help, not annoy.
The eyes do not tire, the drive pilot does not
After 250 miles tire eyes. The impressions along the coast of Florida are intoxicating. The sea, Strandverläufe and always the same ever small towns. Here a gas station from the chain A, there a fast food restaurant from the chain B and over there, again a shop of chain C. Already on the first day it becomes clear: The USA likes eternally equally structured process sequences. The USA, the land of chains and system gastronomy. But you're wrong about that, right? The 300er it does not matter in any case. He pushes us while his four-cylinder under 2.000 revolutions in 9.Gang grumbles to himself, with surprising efficiency towards the goal of the day. Not erotic, the sound, but efficient in the drive.
Yes, cold start is not his thing. Do we have to refuel gas, or not diesel? As we head west, the first day we head north along the east coast, the question arises for the first time. The 300 may present itself as a miracle of efficiency, but for that it requires the indulgence of the noise image. At the beginning, I still thought, because the riser would be torn.
Efficient, but rough
The miles add up. Consumption drops to just under 32 mpg. When converting in the phone folds the jaw down.
The landscape changes for the first time when we reach Texas and leave the Gulf Coast. The almost tropical image becomes a little more barren. People change. The cars we share the interstate with are transforming. SUVs and limousines become pick-up trucks. Not these "little things". The big ones. With twin tires and coarse soot plumes when accelerating. Fine dust and NOx emissions? The other's problems. Just as it is slowly becoming more and more about “the other”.
For the first 1.000 miles, the drive pilot has become a best friend. No interstate passes without using the vigilance and assistance of the drive pilot. It warns you of trucks that change lanes without notice, it will keep you safely on your lane while you search for new music on satellite radio between stations 85 and 179. And of course it relaxes your posture. The hands more relaxed on the steering wheel, easy guidance, the right foot relaxed in the footwell, away from the accelerator pedal. So this E-Class gives you the freedom to let your mind wander. Let your eyes wander across the horizon. Process the impressions mentally. From the subtropical climate of Florida to the dry Texas landscape towards the north, towards the forests and extensive mountains. Colorado is the most surprising. The climbs flagge the four-cylinder turbo to over 4.000 meters in altitude. Now, yes now, the E400 would be the easy choice. Or a 350 diesel? But the US no longer understands diesel. At least not if he can get by without soot clouds. A diesel without soot clouds - and in general, a diesel, yes, but only a truck drive. Sometimes you can't get out of shaking your head. There is blissful agreement and dodgy love for the past with the engines, but woe, you ask for French toast or coffee, there are more variants of both than your own cholesterol level or the gastric gland does. Texas, New Mexico and Colorado are so completely different from the vacation spots on the east and west coast. Not that people are not friendly. On the whole trip we didn't meet a person who wasn't friendly. But it is different. The Midwest believes. And sometimes you even believe the unintelligible promise of a seducer with orange skin and strange head hair.
Breathtaking
The demanding landscape of Colorado with its thin air not only takes my breath away. The consumption of the E300 also suffers. 30 mpg is history for now. As I said, “rightsizing” the drive is a multi-layered question. And sometimes more is just right. Note in the ring binder: E-Class for the next USA road trip? At least as a 400 petrol engine.
Movie backdrop USA
Colorado leads the way to UTAH. The land of the canyons. And again the vegetation changes completely. Endless highways lead to the horizon. Mile after mile, straight ahead. The speed limit is generously designed, raising the warning threshold of the Comand system. Meanwhile, the fingers find blind to the sub-menu for the seat massage. After over 2.800 miles, the favorite here is clearly found. The "Active Massage" wins. The sound of the "small" Burmester system provides the acoustic spectacle for the stunning impressions of the vastness. Slowly it all seems like an endless intro for a Roland Emmerich movie.
Aliens and weapons
Again and again the thoughts of what it was like when it wasn't the star that carried west, but a carriage. A horse. The loneliness must have been brutal. The wild West"? Not a simple backdrop, a symbol for the requirements that had to be mastered. A history that shapes people, a story that explains why the “Americans” do not simply “Second Amendment”Can take away. There are supposed to be aliens in Nevada. Or at least an “extraterestrial highway”. Like many things in the USA, you quickly get lost in tourist traps - but off the beaten track you will always find places where the fascination of the vastness robs you of any sounds.
Sin tempted on the penultimate day. Las Vegas. This sea of lights in the desert. Anyone visiting "Vegas" should do so by car. And he should arrive in the evening. Vegas lies in a valley basin, long before you arrive the sky shimmers orange over the desert. After the endless expanse, the loneliness, outside - the crazy Las Vegas looks surreal. Over the top. Too bright. Like some of the light colors of the ambient lighting, like the full boom from the Burmester facility with excessive fatigue.
Leaving Vegas is as nice as arriving.
The desert beckons for the last time. Even after more than 3.300 miles, the seats in the E-Class play the perfect host. Why is it so eager to get involved in the E-Class as a fleet vehicle? Probably because, even in the youngest generation, she has not forgotten her classic virtues. Okay, the Ulm-Munich route would probably have done the same for this realization. But after you have convinced yourself across the entire width of the North American continent - it has to be mentioned again.
The salt scent of the West Coast overlays the scent system of the E-Class as the target becomes visible. The pier in Santa Monica, terminus of Route 66 by the USA. End of a journey that gave me more answers at the end of the E-Class than the US.
Welcome to Drive Pilot Habitat Country, welcome to the US
The classic touring limousine, even as a 300 series, is the winner of the heart, not the performance and not the noise - but when it comes to the virtue of "arriving", it scores a clear victory. To understand the US, well, I'll probably have to come back to that. Perhaps fully autonomous next time? East coast -> West coast? That should be a challenge for the “star” too.
