Automotive

The E has been in the household for a while, while the M is relatively fresh. So how do they compare? In some ways I find them surprisingly closer than anticipated. 

They are both similar in how they drive on a day to day basis. And where I felt the M3 would feel smaller (more like a glove) and nimbler, it doesn’t. That’s not a criticism, as the E really does hustle nowadays but is surprising nevertheless. The Ms seating position is lower and the seats more overtly sporty looking. Both offer a decent enough seating position and will grip you adequately for road use. 

Engine wise it’s straight six vs. V8. After the latest facelift the AMG voice has been greatly diminished, making for a car that you can comfortably drive for over 1.000km a day but which will not always have you reach for a downshift when you see a tunnel. The BMW is the much more vocal of the two and sounds angrier when pushed. 

Acceleration wise there’s not much in it and the same in terms of top speed - in theory the BMW is faster at 300kph vs. 290 but the AMG matches it in reality (GPS measured). They can both run all day at 250 without you breaking much of a sweat. Above that speed at public roads you need a heightened concentration with all cars (here these speeds are legal). But both are reasonably stable up to their top speeds, and will require some work with the steering wheel if you need to decelerate quickly from 280 or above. 

In the rain the situation is somewhat different. The Merc remains rock solid and controlled, while the BMW is a lot more twitchy and aquaplanes at much lower speeds. They do have different tires (Pirelli vs Michelin), so there might be some effect from that, size wise the rears are a centimeter wider on the Merc and the fronts one wider on the BMW. 

Both make for incredibly competent autobahn tools and are a lot of fun on a country road, albeit not on a very narrow one, as they are large cars that never fully shrink. You can place them well but there’s a lot of them 🤷🏻‍♂️

In terms of practicality there’s no contest / the Merc has a significantly larger boot (the one in the M3 is, well, not much to write home about), some more space for passengers (although here the difference in a not as drastic anymore) and a much larger fuel tank, so you do not need to stop at every single petrol station. 

The controls and infotainment tend to be personal choices but both work well enough, with the steering wheel controls being better for me in the Beemer, still using buttons with haptic feedback. On the other hand the Merc has the nice pods, where you can configure the driving modes without removing your hands from the steering wheel, while the Beemer only offers you the choice of the two preconfigured M buttons on the steering wheel. 

Finally, looks. I am sure these are a personal choice but the E is downright stealthy, if you delete all the model descriptions on the boot lid and the front, while the BMW raises a lot more attention wherever you go (you get stopped at borders a lot more, cause the customs officials would like to take a look, something that never happened to me in the Mercedes).

Both might be amongst the last specimen of the genre in their current form. There will be an E63 and M5 estates in the coming generation but both as plug in hybrids, adding several hundred kilos and diminishing the boot capacity to something much more laughable if you actually intend to travel with a family. 

Makes me think it might be worth while to hold on to both 😉

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