Toyota 86 vs Mercedes-Benz E300

What's the difference?

The Toyota 86 might be a bit of a blast from the past in 2020, especially considering there is a new-generation version just around the corner, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad car.

In fact, it serves up a fun and visceral driving experience seldom seen in anything other than the most focussed of sports cars, but packaged up with an attainable price.

If you value practicality and straight-line pace, a hot hatch will be the easy choice, but if the driving experience is the most important aspect of a car to you, it’s hard to pass up the Toyota 86.

The E-Class is stacked with kit, looks great, and is an effective and comfortable way to get around in built-up areas or across the countryside.

While it’s not the most dynamically engaging - it’s pipped by its Bavarian rival there - it offers more comfort-oriented features than most, and the cabin is a pleasant place to spend a day driving.

If you're disposed towards stumping up the asking price, the extra outlay for the 'Plus Package' will probably be most relevant to you if you’re covering long distances due to the Airmatic suspension.

Otherwise, even a simple-spec E300 provides a step up from what you might expect from an executive sedan.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with accommodation and meals provided.

There’s no denying Toyota’s 86 boasts classic sports car proportions thanks to a long bonnet, short overhangs and a sleek coupe body-style.

Though some things have changed since the model first came to market in 2012, such as revised bumpers and lights, the 86 is just as recognisable today as it was back then.

From the front, the 86 gives off a purposeful and aggressive stance thanks to its angled headlights, gaping intake and bulging arches.

Move to the side and you will see the wheelbase stretches nearly to the edges of the car, while a strong shoulder- and roofline join at the rear haunches to emphasise the 86’s rear-drive character.

The rear end is probable the least favourable angle for the 86, but the wide tail-lights, large diffuser and dual-exhaust outlets add to its sporting character.

Our test car was fitted in the eye-catching Apollo Blue colour, as well as 17-inch wheels, mirror caps and a rear spoiler finished in black.

After eight years on the market, we still think the 86 is one of the better-looking sports cars on the market, largely thanks to its purposeful and no-frills approach to styling.

It’s not quite as over-the-top as something like a Honda Civic Type R, but you still know it means business if it showed up to a track day.

Step inside though, and the cabin has not aged as well as the exterior.

The centre stack houses a 6.1-inch multimedia touchscreen that looks like it was picked out at a Repco sale, while you can practically see the pixels on the digital clock and temperature readout screens.

It’s not all bad though, as the chunky switchgear and large push-button starter add a little character to the interior.

We also like the instrumentation, which puts the tachometer front and centre for the driver while also incorporating a 4.2-inch display to add a bit of modernity.

Evolution rather than revolution is obvious when it comes to the E-Class’ styling, but that’s in Mercedes’ best interests, because it’s still a good-looking thing, and being a bit subtle is warranted in the executive sedan game.

The biggest changes come in the headlights and tail-lights. Up-front there are now more than one million pixels in the LED headlights, which have adaptive high beam as standard and are more connected to the grille via black trim, as has been seen in EQ electric models.

Underneath, the bumper now features an AMG-style 'A-wing' apron as part of the 'AMG Line' exterior package as standard. A set of 20-inch AMG alloys are also included.

To the rear, and the digital tail-lights feature a Mercedes-Benz star motif, making its lighting signature now more recognisable from behind.

The German Rainbow is well-represented with mostly shades of grey, black, or white available, though 'Verde Silver Metallic' is a slightly retro green, and 'Nautic Blue Metallic' is a subtle and classy tone.

The daring ‘Manufaktur’ shade of 'Patagonia Red Metallic' is a $2500 option, as is 'Opalite White Bright' while 'Alpine Grey Solid' is $2900.

Measuring 4240mm long, 1775mm wide, 1320mm tall and with a 2570mm wheelbase, the 86 coupe is dimensionally smaller in every measure to its Corolla hatchback sibling.

Despite this, Toyota says there is enough seating for four, but the 86 is much closer to a 2+2 than it is to a proper four-seater.

Front occupant space is ample enough, with plenty of adjustable in the seat and steering column for drivers to get into the perfect position.

There’s cupholders in the centre console, storage and the door pockets will even take a water bottle.

Front occupants also have access to a very, very small tray just in front of the shifter, though what it could accommodate is unknown.

We will also mention that when in odd-numbered gears, it can get tricky to use the climate controls, though it wouldn’t be a problem in auto-equipped cars.

Flick the front seats forward, contort yourself into the rear and, well, its more akin to a medieval torture device than passenger-friendly seating.

Headroom is especially limited, though we were surprised with the better-than-expected legroom due to the bucket-shape of the rear seats.

Don’t expect any mod-cons in the rear though, as the only thing to keep yourself entertained back there is the seat belt.

The boot accommodates just 237 litres of volume, which is just about enough to fit a large suitcase, though because of the short space, it will have to go in sideways leaving not a lot of room for much else.

Boot floor is also quite high, meaning tall objects will struggle to fit, but the rear seats can be folded flat to accommodate longer items.

While early versions of the 86 came with a spare wheel, in 2020, all new cars come with a puncture-repair kit.

Inside, the E-Class should feel familiar to anyone who’s spent time in a recent Benz, though the Superscreen might be the main point of difference. It’s an immediately comfortable place, though, with a relatively visually busy cabin.

The seats and their adjustability mean most drivers and passengers, regardless of height and size, should feel supported (and ideally relaxed), while touch-points are mostly either leather upholstery or digital screens.

The steering wheel, also seen in plenty of other Mercedes models, is a bit of a let-down, however, with its haptic touch pads on a slightly busy two-tier layout. This millennial found it irritating, surely too will the usually older E-Class buyer.

There are a few other small annoyances, one being that the MBUX Assistant sometimes won’t hear a command, or that not everything seems to be able to be controlled by it. The climate control vent positions are electrically adjustable to certain pre-sets through the menu, but the MBUX Assistant isn’t able to do this for you.

And while the driver display and central multimedia screen are fairly user-friendly, it’s not always immediately apparent what the quickest way to find some information or a setting is.

Our test car was fitted with the 'Plus Package', which means four-zone climate control available to the rear seats, which my 180cm-tall self found spacious with plenty of headroom, kneeroom, and even a fair bit of room under the driver’s seat.

Behind the rear seats, there’s a generous 540 litres of boot space, exactly the same capacity as the previous generation E-Class.

While cross-shopping the E-Class and a BMW 5 Series would normally be relatively easy, the Merc’s $131,500 starting price, before on-road costs, puts it plenty north of the base 520i, the only petrol one available, at $114,900. The electric i5 eDrive40 starts from $155,900, more than $20K over the Mercedes.

But the E-Class is stacked with features as standard, and while there are a couple of option packs, Mercedes Australia has tried to streamline the most popular features and specifications into the E300.

Its $131,500 price gets you a tech-heavy sedan with Merc’s latest 'MBUX' system housed in a visually impressive, if perhaps unnecessary, 'Superscreen' dash.

The dual-screen set-up incorporates a main 14.4-inch central multimedia touchscreen and a 12.3-inch display for the passenger, allowing the driver to keep, for example, a map visible while a passenger sorts out media or comfort settings.

The system is also designed to avoid taking users through sub-menus, though can be bypassed by wireless Android Auto or Apple CarPlay.

It also features a selfie camera mounted to the dash, which is disabled for the Australian market at present. Mercedes-Benz Australia hopes to change this soon.

Mercedes also plans to allow the MBUX system to learn what settings and functions will be most useful to the driver under certain conditions, but currently users are able to manually create so-called ‘Routines’ such as setting the climate control and seats to warm up if it’s below a certain temperature, and can even adjust the ambient lighting to a warmer colour.

More automation comes in the brand’s MBUX ‘Hey Mercedes’ system, which can now respond to commands without the driver needing to say “Hey Mercedes”. 

Heated and vented front seats, leather upholstery, wireless phone charging, and a 17-speaker Burmester sound system with Dolby Atmos 4D sound are also standard - the latter being a clever feature that positions different elements of the audio, usually music, to give a 360-degree feeling, as well as turning bassier tones into a physical vibration via “tactile transducers” in each front seat’s backrest. Good for bassline junkies, then (apologies to Mr. Rascal).

With the $9400 'Plus Package', the E-Class also comes with 'Airmatic' suspension and rear-axle steering (which I’ll touch more on later), power-closing doors, 'Urban Guard' to monitor your vehicle while it’s parked, an illuminated grille up front, a more capable version of the MBUX 'Interior Assistant', four-zone climate control and Mercedes’ 'Digital Light' function, which uses the more-than one-million pixels in the headlights to project onto the road or surface in front of you when turning the car off or in driving situations to alert road users of potential danger.

A $6200 'Energising Package' adds multicontour front seats with comfort headrests, upgraded climate controls with 'Air-Balance' and fragrances, upgraded seat heating with armrest heating for the front occupants and heated seats for the rear.

Powering all Toyota 86s is a 2.0-litre four-cylinder Boxer petrol engine, outputting 152kW/212Nm when paired to a the six-speed manual gearbox.

Automatic transmission versions are downgraded to 147kW/205Nm.

Peak power comes in at a heady 7000rpm, while maximum torque is available from 6400-6600rpm for both manual and automatic versions.

Tipping the scales at around 1258kg means the manual 86 can accelerate from zero to 100km/h in 7.6 seconds, while the automatic version is 0.6s slower to the landmark time.

This lone E-Class variant is powered by a turbocharged 2.0-litre engine pumping out 190kW and 400Nm, assisted by a 48-volt battery system. Under EQ boost, an extra 17kW and 205Nm is available for a short time.

It’s hooked up to a nine-speed auto that drives the rear wheels, and it’s all pretty traditional… for 2024, that is.

Mercedes says the E300 is able to hit 100km/h in a respectable 6.3 seconds.

Official fuel-consumption figures for the 86 is 8.4 litres per 100km with the six-speed manual.

However, we managed an 8.3L/100km figure after a week’s worth of driving, which is especially impressive given most of our time was spent in Melbourne’s inner-city.

Of note, the 86 requires 98 RON petrol.

Mercedes claims the E-Class drinks 7.2L/100km on the combined cycle, and though we weren’t able to test that properly at the pump on the launch program, the trip computer showed up to 9.4L/100km after some quite spirited driving, which gradually averaged out to about 8.6L/100km in the afternoon once some more calm, E-Class-appropriate distance had been covered.

With its 50L fuel tank, the E-Class should theoretically be able to cover 694km on a single tank if the 7.2L/100km is achieved, though realistically it would be much less, 550-600km depending on driving style.

Front engine, rear-wheel drive, it’s a tried-and-true formula for an engaging driving experience and the Toyota 86 certainly doesn’t disappoint its spiritual predecessors in this regard.

Sure, the engine is a little underpowered, but the free-revving 2.0-litre will happily be wrung out until the 7600pm cut off.

The slick six-speed shifter is also an absolute joy to move, offering satisfying ‘snicks’ with every gear change, and a positive and natural throw that makes it hard to mis-shift.

Pedal placement, a crucial element in a manual car, is equally excellent, with just the right amount of spacing between the clutch, brake and throttle.

Don’t get us wrong, we aren’t heel-and-toe devotees, but it's nice they are positioned well, and offer the right amount of feedback and engagement.

From the driver’s position, looking out over the long bonnet can be a bit daunting, but with the bulging front wheelarches, you can actually tell exactly where the front wheels are, making apex-clipping a breeze.

The fantastic steering response helps with that too, as does the communicative chassis that conveys exactly what the rear axle is wanting to do.

Balanced, neutral handling is the name of the game here, with MacPherson struts up front and a double wishbone rear.

Our test car was also fitted with the up-rated Brembo brakes and Sachs-branded dampers that are designed to improve stopping power and handling respectively.

However, without driving this car and an 86 without the Dynamic Performance Pack fitted, it’s hard to make comment on how much the handling characteristics have changed.

We can say that the Brembo brakes are excellent at scrubbing speed from the perky Toyota coupe, thanks to larger callipers and rotors.

While the E-Class has taken fairly sizeable steps in terms of its tech, it remains a fairly traditional car from behind the wheel, save for a few small changes like its mild-hybrid system and rear-wheel steering.

It’s still a petrol-powered rear-drive sedan, and it feels built more for eating up highway kilometres than it does tackling twisty turns. But that’s okay, because it will still do the latter.

Comfort is the main focus, clearly, for the E300, and the big Merc does it well. We weren’t offered a car without Airmatic air suspension on the launch, but the E-Class doesn’t seem like it would be particularly rough without it.

With it, however, large bumps and minor road annoyances only make their way into the cabin in the sense that you’re aware of them, but not bothered by them.

That slight dulling of feedback does extend to the steering wheel however, where, despite the rear-wheel steering making the car more nimble, the feedback to the driver is less encouraging of eager driving. 

While 190kW on paper doesn’t seem like enough, the E-Class makes do with its meagre engine quite well - and even though it can seem like it’s working a bit too hard at times, the E-Class’ natural state isn’t responding to a planted foot, so it’s unlikely to be a daily bother.

Engine noise, as well as wind and road noise are suitably dulled by the E300’s NVH fitout, too.

The tuning of its drive modes, in particular Comfort and Sport, seemed well-judged on our drive loop, with the option to set the 'Individual' mode to a custom configuration, most elements in Comfort while the drivetrain is set to Sport is particularly helpful when on gentle, high-speed country roads.

If you do start to approach the limits of the big sedan’s capability, it’ll let you know fairly early on. The heavy E-Class isn’t prone to sudden lurching or poor handling, and isn’t much phased by mid-corner bumps.

It’s not as dynamically engaging as some rivals, particularly the 5 Series, but it does appear to be a better provider of cross-country comfort.

ANCAP hasn’t had a go at crash-testing the E-Class yet, and it might not given the relatively small number that will be sold here compared to volume models, but Mercedes’ track record with safety is pretty stellar, and it’s extremely rare for a Mercedes to not cop the maximum five stars.

In the new E300 there are 11 airbags - plenty for a sedan. Mercedes lists front airbags, knee bags and pelvic/thorax airbags for the driver and front passenger, side bags for the rear and a front centre airbag.

It also comes with a fairly extensive suite of safety tech, including the usual ABS, lane-keep assist, blind spot monitoring and surround-view parking cameras.

But on top of that, there’s also ‘Evasive Steering Assist’, semi-automated cruise control with sign recognition, distance assist for following leading vehicles and can even project light arrows onto the road if leaving your lane, when 'Digital Lights' are optioned.

The E-Class also has a function if an imminent collision is detected in which it can, depending on the type of collision, take occupant protection measures. In the case of a side-on collision, the E-Class can “move an affected front occupant towards the centre of the car” before impact.

Like all new Toyota vehicles, the 86 comes with a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, which is also accompanied by a seven-year anti-corrosion assurance.

The first service is due in the first month of ownership and is free, while scheduled servicing is usually every 15,000km/nine months, which every comes first.

Each of the next four services covering up to 36 months/60,000km is capped at $200 per servicing, while the next service rises to $391, $1860 and $391

Therefore, the first 63 months/105,000km of ownership will set buyers back $3051 in servicing.

The E-Class comes with Mercedes’ fairly industry standard five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty, though Mercedes-Benz Australia was unable to confirm exact servicing pricing on the launch. 

It does however list pricing for the E-Class on its website for a three-service pack at $3325, four at $4535, and five at $6800, the latter averaging out to $1360 each.

This could increase with the new generation car, and Mercedes doesn’t list estimated serving pricing for new E-Classes yet in its booking system (I checked with one of the test cars).

Servicing intervals are every 12 months or 25,000km, whichever comes first.