The Mercedes-Benz E-Class has been reincarnated as the new baby S-Class, and people are already falling in love with it. The defining themes of the S-Class are engineering, quality, exclusivity, speed, luxury, and luxurious ride quality. The flagship Mercedes S-Class will always have an edge in exclusivity. This perception of S-Class exclusivity in the car world is unbeatable by the E-Class, but when it comes to some areas, the E-Class is arguably equal to or even better than its larger much more expensive sibling.

RELATED: Mercedes S-Class Turns 50 Years: The Benchmark Of Luxury Sedans

What Are The Essential Qualities That Define The Soul of the S-Class?

When most people think of a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, they visualize a highly refined vehicle blasting down the autobahn at high speed while the occupants feel more like they are in some kind of fusion of a luxury liner and jet fighter than a car. These renowned S-Class qualities of smooth ride and quiet cabin partially stem from mass and muscle. The Mercedes-Benz S-Class tips the scales at close to 5,000 pounds, while the muscle is provided by a 496 horsepower 4.0 twin-turbo V-8. The S-Class AMG S63 E model raises the bar to 791 horsepower.

When you climb into an S-Class, its impeccable engineering and luxury pour into all your senses. Large touch screens dazzle your eyes. Soft leather coddles your body. Doors shut as if they belong in a bank vault instead of a car. Its controls and handling make highway speed feel like parking lot speed. The sum of all these aspects and more whisper quality with such assurance that no doubt remains in the mind of the occupants that they are in a world-class vehicle. Every bit of this can also be said about the E-Class!

The Mercedes-Benz S-Class starts at around $114,500, with the S-Class AMG 63 E tipping the scale with an estimated price of $190,000. In comparison, the 2024 Mercedes-Benz E-Class is estimated to start at $60,000, with the E-Class AMG historically priced a hair less than the lowest-priced S-Class. It is remarkable that the E-Class, a car that costs significantly less than the S-Class, can now almost equal or even slightly exceed the Mercedes-Benz flagship in most categories.

How The E-Class Embodies The Spirit Of The S-Class

In some ways, the E-Class is so close to the S-Class that only scientific instruments can measure the difference. If you could somehow be blindfolded by the exclusivity and size of the S-Class, then get behind the wheel of both cars, it is unlikely you’d be able to split the hairs between these two exceptional vehicles.

A good way to understand how similar these two vehicles are is to take a look at them by the numbers, that is, industry rating numbers. In almost every category, the top-of-the-line S-Class and top-of-the-line E-Class are in a dead heat, according to both J.D. Power and Edmunds.

JD Powers rates the E-Class 77 and the S-Class 78. Edmunds rates the E-Class 8.4 and the S-Class 8.5. So the overall rating of both cars is so close that any jury would consider it a tie.

Ratings: E-Class Vs. S-Class

The only category where the S-Class has a clear upper hand over the E-Class is the J.D. Power driving experience rating of 86 versus 74, while the E-Class ekes out a small win with slightly higher quality and reliability. Given the near-equal performance of the AMG variant of the E-Class and S-Class, it is likely that if they both were rated, the AMG models would be in dead heat in all the listed categories.

When comparing the two sedans, other than exclusivity, size seems to be the biggest differentiator. The size class of a vehicle is determined by interior volume, not exterior dimensions. A mid-size car has 110 to 119.9 cubic feet of volume, while a full-size car has over 120 cubic feet of interior volume. By this standard, the E-Class sedan is a mid-sized car, and the S-Class just barely makes it into the full-sized car category.

The current E-Class has 98 cubic feet of maximum passenger space and 13.1 cubic feet of storage space in the trunk, which gives it a total volume of 111.1 cubic feet. The 2024 model offers 19 cubic feet in the trunk. The wheelbase is also longer by 0.87 inches over the outgoing E-Class. Meanwhile, the S-Class has 112 cubic feet of maximum passenger space and 12.9 cubic feet of storage space in the trunk, which gives it a total volume of 124.9 cubic feet. So the S-Class has 14 more cubic feet of passenger volume than the E-Class.

RELATED: 10 Awesome Features In The 2024 Mercedes-Benz E-Class

How The E-Class Exceeds The S-Class

The 2023 S-Class 580 can go from 0-60 in 4.4 seconds. The 2023 E-Class 450 almost matches the S-Class with a 0-60 time of 4.9 seconds. Most drivers would be hard-pressed to feel or gauge the difference without a scientific instrument that measured acceleration.

At the top of the 2023 E-Class sits the AMG E63 with 603 horsepower and 627 pound-feet of torque. This brutal amount of power comes from a twin-turbo V-8 that transforms this luxury car into a beast that has been road-tested hitting 60 MPH in just 3.0 seconds while clawing out a top speed of 186 MPH.

For 2024 Mercedes has not yet confirmed any AMG E-Class specs, but there is little doubt there will be a 2024 E-Class AMG, and the performance will be higher. The big question is whether it will be powered by a hybrid inline-six according to the rumor mill, or the twin-turbo V-8 from the 2023 model. It’s unlikely Mercedes will come out with a slower AMG model in 2024.

Some rumors have the 2024 E-Class AMG hybrid inline-six belting out 700 horsepower versus the 2023 model’s 603 horsepower. This would make the lighter-weight E-Class significantly faster than the S-Class. If this turns out to be the case, then maybe the new meaning for the E in E-Class should be changed to Extreme.

At the top of the S-Class for 2024 is the AMG S63 with 791 horsepower and an insane 1055 pound-feet of torque. All this fury comes from a twin-turbo V-8 that propels the car to 60 MPH in 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 180 MPH. While this performance is blistering, it is a hair below what the E-Class AMG can do.

Powertrain: E-Class Vs. S-Class

Sources of E-Class and S-Class specifications

** Estimated

So if you lust for speed and your wallet is fat enough, the AMG E-Class and AMG S-Class Mercedes are almost in a dead heat with the 2023 AMG E-Class surprisingly coming out of the gate a little faster in some road tests, and the 2024 model may be faster still!

Mercedes has not forgotten about the extreme tech experience when it comes to the E-Class. While the 2024 S-Class has a standard instrument cluster and touchscreen, the E-Class one-ups its more expensive sibling with a major upgrade for 2024, the E-Class SuperScreen.

This massive touchscreen visually merges a large 14.5-inch central touchscreen with a second 12.3-inch touchscreen for the passenger while leaving the instrument cluster as a discrete 12.3-inch display. This gives the E-Class with its SuperScreen a whopping 217.9 square inches of screen space. Almost all controls in the cabin have been replaced with the SuperScreen. By contrast, the S-Class has less than half as much active touchscreen space and no passenger touchscreen at all.

RELATED: 2024 Mercedes-Benz E-Class; Do You Even Need An S-Class?

The 2024 E-Class Is Truly The More Affordable Baby S-Class

Whether you purchase a standard E-Class or an AMG model, you are buying a vehicle that in almost every way equals the S-Class except for size and exclusivity. Features like air suspension and rear-axle steering, once reserved for the flagship S-Class, can also be had on the new E-Class. You are also saving anywhere from $60,000 to $90,000. This means you could almost buy two E-Class Mercedes instead of one S-Class.

Price: Mercedes E-Class Vs. S-Class

Sources of E-Class and S-Class pricing

** Estimated

The average new car price in the United States is around $48,000. So while neither the S-Class nor E-Class can be considered inexpensive, Mercedes has given birth to a new baby S-Class that far more people can afford to bring home.