Can I fit child seats and a buggy in the Mercedes E-Class Mk4?
With the saloon packing a 540-litre boot, storage in the E-Class is pretty decent, but 60:40 split rear-seats were a cost option, so not every car will have them. The E-Class Estate is clearly the model to go for if you've got kids, because its boot is a whopping 695 litres, rising to 1,950 litres with the rear seats folded away. The Coupe takes 450 litres, while the Cabriolet manages 390 litres with its hood up and 300 litres with its hood down, so neither of these is ideal for families - and that's doubly true of the interior, because these two are four-seaters, whereas the saloon and Estate are five-seaters.
However, there's still a sizeable transmission tunnel in the back of those E-Class cars, so getting three child seats across the second row might not be easy, despite the Mercedes' physical size. Like most cars of this era, the W212 has two ISOFIX mounting points in the rear row.
How safe is the Mercedes E-Class Mk4?
Tested by EuroNCAP in 2010, the Mk4 E-Class picked up the full four-star rating, with notably impressive scores of 86 per cent for both adult occupant safety and its safety assist systems - the latter pointing to the fact that the every new E-Class is always a technologically advanced machine when it launches. The Mk4 also recorded 77 per cent for child occupant safety and a more modest 59 per cent for pedestrian safety, but it's a sturdily built machine with a plethora of airbags and safety systems as standard, so its safety rating should give buyers peace of mind.
Click here for the full EuroNCAP report on the Mercedes E-Class Mk4