S212 Mercedes-Benz E220 AMG Night Edition

[RS Grant]

This is the car which will replace the E91 320d which I have been using since the tail end of last year.

I hadn't been looking to change the E91 to any serious degree, however with the realisation that I didn't want to use my Golf Clubsport as a daily.. I started to have a little look around at what I could get to bridge the tech-gap between the E91 and what I wanted from a daily in 2026. My list of requirements is quite small really; enough space for Barney, good headlights, cruise control and Apple CarPlay to stream music/use Waze.

It just happened to be that a guy I know through Instagram had been to Arnold Shark to look at a C63 Estate and put on his Instagram story that he would was going to sell his E220d privately rather than trade it in after the salesman said that they would just bin his (large and detailed!) A4 folder of history for the E-class because of GDPR and the car had all the servicing stored on the computer in the car and on Mercedes online system anyway.. it feels absolutely crazy to do that, but I guess they need to keep themselves right.

I have always liked this era of Mercedes and the E-class represents far better value than the C-class does in my opinion.. much like how you get a lot more 5er for your money in comparison to a 3er in the BMW world.. so I fired him a message and organised a time to view/buy.

This is my first Mercedes, so I'm not totally sure what comes as standard but this car seems to be really well specified:

- Self park feature
- Full leather
- Both front seats are heated and have memory functions
- Adaptive LED lights (these are particularly excellent!)
- Panoramic sunroof
- Factory Apple CarPlay
- Electric tailgate

Here are a couple of pictures I took of it the other night:

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr
Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr

The car got a baptism of fire with a ~1000 mile round trip taking the family down to London for the rugby final at Twickenham a couple of days after picking it up.. the weather was sweltering, so the AC was on full blooter for most of the journey there and back, but it carried us and our luggage with room to spare. It even returned reasonable economy given the pace/heat/load:

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr
Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr
Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr
Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr
Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr


So far I've been really enjoying the car, it's a very comfy and spacious way to waft around. It's absolutely suited to the motorway/dual carriageway because it may have AMG in the model name, but the composure of the suspension unravels quickly if you try and hustle it along a B-road at any rate; which is certainly different to any of the M-sport badged BMWs that I've had previously and made a good fist of it when driven quickly on a B-road.

It's a definite step up in tech compared to the E91 and even though it doesn't have the Burmeister audio upgrade which I believe comes as part of the Premium Plus package, the sound quality is certainly good enough for me.

My plans for the car are quite simple.. just use it and enjoy the comfort on the commute and with Barney. I think the 18" wheels are a little lost on such a big car, so will likely switch those for something in either 19" or 20" flavour but apart from that I don't plan to change anything else.

Here is the most important picture, Barney on guard in the vast boot.

Untitled by Grant F, on Flickr

[spreadsheet monkey]

RS Grant said:

a guy I know through Instagram had been to Arnold Shark to look at a C63 Estate and put on his Instagram story that he would was going to sell his E220d privately rather than trade it in after the salesman said that they would just bin his (large and detailed!) A4 folder of history for the E-class because of GDPR and the car had all the servicing stored on the computer in the car and on Mercedes online system anyway... so I fired him a message and organised a time to view/buy.

Nice car. I really like the look of the post-facelift W212/S212 Mercs. The last of the "hewn from solid" looking cars, before Mercedes went off in a blobby generic Hyundai/Kia/whatever styling direction.

Walking away from a trade-in deal just because the dealer says he's going to shred the A4 folder of service receipts seems like a massive flounce! Maybe there were other factors that put him off as well. Glad it worked out well for you, and you got to buy the car at a (hopefully) good price.

[snotrag]

That is a great purchase. They are the brilliant example of a car that nails the brief perfectly. Big, comfy, easy to drive, solid.

Having owned loads of 'sporty' cars, I do still look back on my S212 350 as one of the best cars I've owned.

Regards the C Class - your absolutely right. I mistakenly traded my S212 in for a slightly newer and higher spec S204 - whilst on paper it was a 'better' car with more toys and more power, the C Class isnt half the car the E Class is.

[danb79]

That's a nice motor Grant

Keep the 18s; just get them in a different colour and enjoy the smooth, comfy and quieter ride

[TheAngryDog]

Cracking car this - I really like the W212 / S212 variant. The Night Edition I believe has some nice front seats as well.

I've considered getting one when my CLS sells, but I don't want another diesel and 42mpg at 70mph seems quite low still to me, especially as it'll be closer to 39/40 when you come to fill up.

Also, Merc's are terrible for digital radio it seems.

I'd definitely keep the 18s and go silver, or go no bigger than 19s. The 19s on my CLS with the AMG suspension is quite firm.

[RS Grant]

spreadsheet monkey said:

Walking away from a trade-in deal just because the dealer says he's going to shred the A4 folder of service receipts seems like a massive flounce! Maybe there were other factors that put him off as well. Glad it worked out well for you, and you got to buy the car at a (hopefully) good price.

There could have been more to it I guess.. but I understand the history thing as well. I put time into maintaining a proper history folder for my cars, so to be told that it will just get binned once I trade the car in would also rile me. But it all worked out in the end, he got the C63 that he wanted and I benefitted from knowing the previous owner of my new car, getting a better deal on it than I would if I was buying from a dealer/privately.. and it having a large, comprehensive history folder!

[RS Grant]

snotrag said:

That is a great purchase. They are the brilliant example of a car that nails the brief perfectly. Big, comfy, easy to drive, solid.

Having owned loads of 'sporty' cars, I do still look back on my S212 350 as one of the best cars I've owned.

Regards the C Class - your absolutely right. I mistakenly traded my S212 in for a slightly newer and higher spec S204 - whilst on paper it was a 'better' car with more toys and more power, the C Class isnt half the car the E Class is.

Yep, I cannot think of another car I could have bought at this price point which would have got close to offering as much 'car' as this. The C-Class are lovely looking things too, the only part I don't like is the navigation screen, which sits on the dash rather than being integrated to the dash like it is in the E-Class.. but I had a B9 Audi A4 and that had a similar set up, so it's not enough to put me off buying the correct car.

[RS Grant]

danb79 said:

That's a nice motor Grant

Keep the 18s; just get them in a different colour and enjoy the smooth, comfy and quieter ride

There is no denying that the ride is really very good on the 18s mate.. so I'm a little loathed/concerned that I may ruin that by increasing the diameter. That said, the 18s really do look a bit lost on the E-Class and I'm a bit of a wheel tart, haha, so I think a switch to some 19s for summer and keeping the 18s for winter might be the way I go.

[RS Grant]

TheAngryDog said:

Cracking car this - I really like the W212 / S212 variant. The Night Edition I believe has some nice front seats as well.

I've considered getting one when my CLS sells, but I don't want another diesel and 42mpg at 70mph seems quite low still to me, especially as it'll be closer to 39/40 when you come to fill up.

Also, Merc's are terrible for digital radio it seems.

I'd definitely keep the 18s and go silver, or go no bigger than 19s. The 19s on my CLS with the AMG suspension is quite firm.

Yeah the drive was pretty grim in places with hellish traffic jams/stop-start periods. But even so, I am certain that my E91 would have returned 50mpg on the same journey and from what I have read, an equivalent aged F11/F31 20d would have returned even better economy again.

I have noticed that the auto gearbox in the Mercedes will hang onto gears a little longer than I think is necessary.. for example, it will change to 7th gear at ~1800rpm if left in auto, but you can shift to 7th manually a good few 000rpms lower than that and does not cause the engine to labour or struggle at all. The same goes for other gears too, so I feel like I'm in a gear lower than I should/could be and there will be a penalty in consumption to pay for that.

I've not actually listened to DAB once since I bought it, sounds like I better steer clear of it and stick to Spotify!

[mwstewart]

These are built so well - they feel like a Mercedes of old. I just bought a coupe for my Dad and he loves it as well.

[TheAngryDog]

RS Grant said:

TheAngryDog said:

Cracking car this - I really like the W212 / S212 variant. The Night Edition I believe has some nice front seats as well.

I've considered getting one when my CLS sells, but I don't want another diesel and 42mpg at 70mph seems quite low still to me, especially as it'll be closer to 39/40 when you come to fill up.

Also, Merc's are terrible for digital radio it seems.

I'd definitely keep the 18s and go silver, or go no bigger than 19s. The 19s on my CLS with the AMG suspension is quite firm.

Yeah the drive was pretty grim in places with hellish traffic jams/stop-start periods. But even so, I am certain that my E91 would have returned 50mpg on the same journey and from what I have read, an equivalent aged F11/F31 20d would have returned even better economy again.

I have noticed that the auto gearbox in the Mercedes will hang onto gears a little longer than I think is necessary.. for example, it will change to 7th gear at ~1800rpm if left in auto, but you can shift to 7th manually a good few 000rpms lower than that and does not cause the engine to labour or struggle at all. The same goes for other gears too, so I feel like I'm in a gear lower than I should/could be and there will be a penalty in consumption to pay for that.

I've not actually listened to DAB once since I bought it, sounds like I better steer clear of it and stick to Spotify!

Yeah I can imagine it not being much fun! It's interesting that the Merc diesels seem less economical than the BMW ones.

Yeah the gearboxes on these do hold gears longer. Mine won't go into 7th until I am doing 75mph indicated (private road, officer), but in manual mode I can put it into 7th at 55mph indicated, so when I am going to be on the motorway / A roads for while, I put it in manual and into 7th asap.

Annoyingly, the AMG Night Edition was a run out model and never received the 9 speed box, which I think would have been better for economy and in general.

Re DAB, I think it improved on later cars such as yours, which will be DAB+ as well. NTG 5.1 I think.

[snotrag]

TheAngryDog said:

Mine won't go into 7th until I am doing 75mph indicated

This was one of the changes made for emissions purposes after the ripples of VW diesel gate went through every manufacturer.

The car didnt originally do this - but a previous owner will have been invited back to Merc for a 'free software update'.

[Sitcat]

The DAB never worked on my s204, radio worked fine otherwise. I think a combination of partial key turn and throttle resets the gearbox

[Petevxl]

spreadsheet monkey said:

Walking away from a trade-in deal just because the dealer says he's going to shred the A4 folder of service receipts seems like a massive flounce!

What can I say, I'm a diva.

Glad Barney approves!

[danb79]

RS Grant said:

danb79 said:

That's a nice motor Grant

Keep the 18s; just get them in a different colour and enjoy the smooth, comfy and quieter ride

There is no denying that the ride is really very good on the 18s mate.. so I'm a little loathed/concerned that I may ruin that by increasing the diameter. That said, the 18s really do look a bit lost on the E-Class and I'm a bit of a wheel tart, haha, so I think a switch to some 19s for summer and keeping the 18s for winter might be the way I go.

A good idea; exactly what I was going to do on our F31, but it's not my car anymore, so just do as I'm told

I kept the 19s and fitted Michelin CrossClimate 3 Sports to my current 635d - best of both worlds for me then - lovely wheels, perfect size, and can be used all year around