First real shots of the re-freshed Mercedes-Benz E-Class

It looks elegant, but it will take more than a bumper tweak to make this star shine again.

Lets hope they improved the handling, too.

Mercedes really missed the bullseye on this one.

Boring. Boring. Boring.

This car looks more mundane than the last one.

How can THIS compete with the CLS and the BMW 5 and Audi A6 ?

Isnt the E-class Mercedes most important car ?

And I'll be the first to say I hate the new Mercedes rear lights. They did this to the CLK as well. A big piece of clear (cheap loooking) plastic smack in the middle of the lamp. Ugly and totally boring. They just look wrong on the car.

This is NOT the new E-class.

This is just a mid-life re-fresh, and most changes will have been made inside and under the skin.

When Mercedes-Benz face-lifts a model, don't expect major cosmetic changes, because they always do it subtle.

Perhaps Mercedes was trying to keep it simple with this refresh.

But the 2003-2006 model looked a lot cleaner and sleeker than this. This looks like an older design to me.

I just think Mercedes could have tried a little harder to make this refresh stand out. Or at least look good.

It doesnt. But at least the new E550 will have an awesome engine.

Perhaps Mercedes was trying to keep it simple with this refresh.

But the 2003-2006 model looked a lot cleaner and sleeker than this. This looks like an older design to me.

I just think Mercedes could have tried a little harder to make this refresh stand out. Or at least look good.

It doesnt. But at least the new E550 will have an awesome engine.

At first glance, what's so different?

This is supposed to be entirely new?

Sales have been declining on the very important E-Class. How can THIS possibly re-ignite them?

Uh oh.

Mild-refresh.

Duh.

What's up with all those silly teen-age comments about the refreshed E-Class being boring etc. I like simple elegant designs. What I dislike about Mercedes is that they had a nice in-line 6 cylinder diesel which I understand has been abandoned in favour of an inherently-out-of-balance 90-degree V-6 diesel.

I liked the rear of the CLK before they but that cheap looking thing in the middle of the rear lights. The indicator which from far away is invisible looked good, but it looks cheap now.