I am travelling in the new Mercedes E500, quite quickly. This itself is a cause for celebration; the previous E-class V8 was a mere E430 unless you re-mortgaged yourself for an E55 AMG, and the original E500/500E of two generations ago was left-hand drive only. Anyway, I'm steering into a fast right-hand bend and the left side of my thorax has just had a little nudge.

Gaining confidence in the E500's gargantuan grip, I up the velocity and feel another thoracic squeeze. The bend's exit approaches, I accelerate again and - ooh - there goes another puff of side bolster pressure, the computed result of another reading of speed, lateral-acceleration and steering-angle sensors. What would happen if I piled on yet more cornering g-force? Would the (optional) Dynamic Multicontour Seat explode in a final bid for ultimate lateral support?

Mercedes says it has put 'everything we know in one car' and it clearly knows a lot. There's more: petrol models have an adaptive accelerator, which sharpens its response during a determined drive. An optional all-glass roof with two blinds contains solar cells to power the cabin vents and cool the E when parked. All E-classes have Sensotronic brake-by-wire whilst Airmatic DC, a new air-suspension which alters both springing and damping as needed, is standard on the E500 and a ΂£950 option for the others.

The car that houses this gizmofest bears more than a passing resemblance to the smaller C and larger S, though it does keep the four separate headlights of the last E. Healthy family likeness or size-variable cloning? It's a fine line but you can't deny that this is a more gorgeous-looking saloon than most, especially in subtly skirted AMG-option guise. (A true AMG version, using the SL55's super-charged V8, arrives at the year's end. A more restrictive exhaust knocks a few bhp off the SL's 475 total. We'll get over it.)

Past notions of geostatic build quality and timeproof materials took a bit of a battering with the previous E-class and even the current C-class, but this new car re-establishes the notion of a permanent Benz. The bodyshell is so stiff that a finger placed between door-top and roof-edge remains entirely unsqueezed however bumpy the road. Textures are tactile, switches are smooth, actions are beautifully sprung and damped. Top marks here go to the panel below the stereo/nav/phone unit in the centre stack. It contains various minor buttons, but if you press a tiny chrome bar below the hazard flasher triangle it powers itself back, then up to avoid the gear selector and finally back a bit more. Behind it is a storage space or a single-slot, six-disc CD changer.

Trim levels are the familiar Classic (now pretty well equipped), sybaritic Elegance and sporty Avantgarde, the E500 coming as either of the latter two. Avantgardes have sportier-looking bumpers, bi-xenon headlights and five-hole wheels, they sit a little lower and their interior wood is black-lacquered. They also have black-on-white dials on a silver panel.

Back to that pneumatic drive. With 306bhp to haul a car slightly lighter than before, thanks to aluminium suspension arms, bonnet, front wings, bootlid and more, the effortless E500 is missile and cocoon in one. It's not as crisp-edged and mind-focusing as an M5, nor could it be with its five-speed autobox, but the steering is smooth and feel-full, the cornering balance on the new four-link front suspension is exemplary, and in the firmest of the Airmatic's three ranges this hefty car follows a road's twists deliciously tidily at the expense of a choppier ride. That V8 sounds great, too.

Other E-classes are E240 and E320 V6s and a pair of CDI turbodiesels; the E220 (four cylinders) and E270 (five cylinders). Supercharged four-cylinder petrol engines join the range later, as does an E320 turbodiesel and, in a year's time, estate cars including an E55 AMG version.

The new E - any version - is a deeply covetable car. Better than a 5-series? It's somehow airier, leaner, handier, more complete... so, yes.