2025 Mercedes-Benz E450 All-Terrain Review: Aiming For All Roads

If you don’t like a station wagon that rides on air suspension, has an off-road driving mode, comes standard with all-wheel drive, and is lined with leather, I’m just not sure we can be friends. The 2025 Mercedes-Benz E450 All-Terrain is all those things and more. It’s also the cheapest way to get into an E-Class wagon in the U.S, and absolutely the most practical model of the lineup.

But is it better than the Audi A6 Allroad?

The Basics

The E-Class All-Terrain was reintroduced with the new E-Class generation for the 2024 model year. The design and tech were updated, but the core formula remained the same as before: air suspension, higher ground clearance, and some off-pavement capability. This isn’t a Rubicon crawler, it’s a ski weekend adventure mobile.

The latest All-Terrain adopts the new E-Class’s design, which translates to a handsome wagon. The horizontal headlights meet the black grille surround for a raccoon-like look. The rest of the body is an evolution, at best, and the rear hatch gets those fun star-studded LED taillights. It’s handsome, understated, but a smidge flashier than before. The electronic retracting door handles that sometimes don’t slide out immediately when touched are unnecessary. The defining characteristic of the All-Terrain is the unpainted plastic fender cladding, which gives it a butch “I can go off-road” look.

Inside, the All-Terrain is an E-Class with more cargo space and no trunk. Which is to say, a nice place to be. The Macchiato Beige on Black leather interior felt worth the as-tested price of $87,960. However, the shiny piano-black plastic trim appears cheap, and the $1,500 MBUX Superscreen Package, which transformed the entire dashboard into a massive panel of glass with three screens, including a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster, a 14.4-inch touchscreen infotainment system, and a 12.3-inch passenger display, is unnecessary.

The E-Class has grown over the years, and neither of my kids complained about rear seat legroom. But my daughter instantly noted that the cup holders in the flip-down center armrest were “designed for ants” and that the Germans need to buy some American-sized water bottles to test in the future. The girl’s got opinions, and I can’t imagine where she gets it.

Driving the 2025 Mercedes-Benz E450 All-Terrain

Every E450 All-Terrain features a 3.0-liter, twin-turbo inline-six engine paired with a mild-hybrid system, producing 375 horsepower and 369 lb-ft of torque. A nine-speed automatic handles shifting duties, and all-wheel drive is standard. Mercedes said the entire setup is good for a zero-to-60-mph sprint of 4.6 seconds, making this thing righteously quick, and it feels it.

The inline-six is smooth, and the nine-speed automatic transmission glides from shift to shift without missing a beat. The steering is light in Comfort mode, yet accurate and precise, requiring minimal corrections on the highway. Sport mode increases steering heft, but it feels like fake weight that isn’t natural.

One of the defining features of the All-Terrain should be the pairing of its air suspension and all-wheel-drive system, but it falls short and disappoints. The air suspension will automatically lower by 0.6 inches at speeds exceeding 75 mph to enhance fuel efficiency and high-speed agility while in comfort mode. However, while Off-Road mode raises the car to provide 7.8 inches of ground clearance (compared to the standard 6.4 inches), it only operates at speeds of up to 9 mph and then automatically disengages, lowering the car.

Unlike the Audi A6 Allroad, which can be switched into Allroad mode to raise the air suspension one level and lock the all-wheel-drive system, even after power-cycling the car, there’s no way to raise the All-Terrain and lock the all-wheel-drive system for sustained use. That instantly defeats part of the purpose of this all-weather vehicle.

Off-Road mode does offer hill descent control, which seems rather unnecessary in this vehicle, as well as a surround-view camera system, and a transparent hood function to help the driver avoid large rocks and obstacles that may damage its face. And here I just want all-weather stability in a raging blizzard while headed to the slopes.

Quick Verdict

The 2025 Mercedes-Benz E450 All-Terrain costs $77,250, including an $1,150 destination charge. My well-equipped tester, optioned out with 20-inch AMG-designed wheels and summer tires for $859, included the MBUX Superscreen Package, a $1,950 Driver Assistance Package, a $990 Digital Light Package, a $800 Leather Package, and a $2,250 Pinnacle Trim package, which brought the window sticker to $87,960. That’s still thousands less than the plug-in hybrid AMG-badged E 53 E-Class wagon. But it’s more than an Audi A6 Allroad, which is a problem. 

As an all-weather car or ski weekend vehicle, I’d choose the Audi A6 Allroad every day. The simple ability to raise the vehicle while at speed and lock the all-wheel-drive system defines the purpose of a car like this. The fact that the E-Class All-Terrain can’t do these things makes it just an E-Class wagon with some plastic cladding, and that doesn’t live up to the name, despite being a lovely vehicle. The world needs more wagons, but this falls short on the All-Terrain bit.

Mercedes-Benz provided The Drive with a seven-day loan of this vehicle for the purpose of writing this review.

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