If the S-Class is the car that defines Mercedes as a purveyor of very clever, safe and refined luxury cars, then the E-Class is the lucky little brother that comes along shortly afterwards and gets most - if not all - of the S-Classs tricks and toys, in a smaller, cheaper package.
It's bigger than a C-Class, more upright and businesslike than the open-neck CLS, and nothing like as nouveau-riche as its SUV cousin, the GLE. The E-Class is here to fight the likes of the BMW 5 Series, Jaguar XF, Volvo S90 in Europe, plus the likes of Cadillac, Lexus, Infiniti and Genesis in sunnier parts of the world. It's a very important car, then. Worldwide sales of the current model have just rocketed past 1.2 million with everyone from politicians to grime artists signing up for an E.
This generation of E Cabrio is thus longer and wider than the car it directly replaced, making it more commodious than you might expect. There are four seats, and the rears' backrests fold so you can load big items through into the cabin. Its bigness also means the E-Class Cabrio isn't that much smaller than the S-Class Cabriolet - Merc's flagship drop-top.
