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A LIFELONG LOVE AFFAIR
I was delighted by your MercedesBenz E450d road test (19 March). I had been humming and hawing about ordering one for a while, and this test pushed me over the edge. I guess I’m the archetypical customer: I do quite big mileages and have run Mercedes estates ever since the W123 (a rare five-speed manual 280TE). I’ve had one or more from each series since; the E450d will be my 10th.
My current car is a 2018 E400d in which I’ve covered 191,000 miles, and it’s still wonderful. I ordered it in silver with tan leather and on air suspension (standard on the E450d), and it has been an unalloyed joy in which to cover big mileages.
Over the past 40-odd years, I’ve had a few other cars between my Mercedes estates. I ran an Alpina D3 Touring from 2014 to 2018; I covered 210,000 miles and loved every one of them. I bought a new D3 S Touring in 2022 to split my mileage with the E400d, but that remains my car of choice for the various long European drives I often do. Thus I was fascinated to see those two cars at first and second in your ranking.