BACK IN THE 1970s, if you wanted a big, upmarket car to carry your family around in, you bought a Mercedes-Benz E-Class Estate – even though it wasn’t officially called that until 1993. Yep, Merc’s wagon had no direct rivals, so it was either that or ‘slum it’ in a Ford Granada.
These days, though, most rivals, including Audi and BMW, also do big estates, and there are countless posh SUVs to pick from – the latter being the avenue that most family buyers now go down. So, is Mercedes flogging a dead horse by launching an all-new E-Class Estate? Should it follow Volvo and kill off anything that isn’t SUV-shaped – or is there something about a seemingly old-fashioned, traditional estate car that too many people are overlooking?
Well,…
