Mercedes' Unpretentious Sportiness
July 28, 2006 — -- Growing up, my mother drove an old diesel-powered Mercedes. I still remember the sound of it. I could anticipate the arrival of that car minutes before it actually appeared (something that could have proven useful had I been more rebellious in my youth).
At the time, I didn't know that Mercedes was a "la-di-da" car to be driving. I figured it was your run-of-the-mill stinky, noisy, mom car — until I was being watched over by a new babysitter one summer afternoon. My mom left the car just in case we needed to go somewhere. As soon as the sitter realized it was a Mercedes, we suddenly 'needed' to visit all her friends and family to show them what she was driving. Suddenly I felt elevated to a new level. Sure, I was usually the last to be picked up from school, and my mom never had milk and cookies awaiting my arrival, but at least she drove a Mercedes. (It didn't matter that it was old).
The 2007 Mercedes E550 Sport still comes with the la-di-da-ness built right in, just by virtue of the brand, but somehow it seems to be lacking the pretentiousness of other high-end luxury vehicles that superficially flaunt around their badges like courting peacocks. The E-Class is definitely a Mercedes; let's just get that out of the way now. However, it goes much deeper than that. It's also functional, comfortable and on the cutting edge of safety innovations — something important to me now that I'm hauling around children of my own.
As with the previous model year E-Class, the '07 model still has LATCH connectors that should be adopted by every other car manufacturer out there. A discreet flap hides the Latches when not in use, and lifts up for easy access to them when needed. I simply love the fact that Mercedes hasn't forgotten about the parents of the world. Although their target market may not be middle-American carpoolers, chances are if their target market is human, their target market is procreating. Do I have to go into the birds and the bees? The end result is a baby/child in an awkward and usually hard to install car seat.
