Given that almost every new car — including $25,000 cars — either has or offers climate control air conditioning, seat heaters and an LCD touch screen, are there sound reasons to spend $50,000 on a car?

Several, actually.

How about massaging seats that automatically slide you out of the way of a pending T-bone impact? Heated armrests? The ability to self-park? And a 23-speaker Burmester ultra-premium audio rig with A-pillar mounted tweeters that corkscrew out of their hiding place as the concert experience begins?

These are just a few of the special things that you'll find inside the Mercedes E-Class sedan.

The outside is pretty nice, too.

What It Is

The E-Class is Mercedes' midsize luxury-sport sedan.

It comes as either a Luxury or a Sport sedan, the Luxury having a more traditional Benz front clip with the three-pointed star mounted as a hood ornament, while the Sport gets a different grille with an integrated Benz badge.

It comes as an E300, E300 4MATIC or E450 4MATIC sedan. Prices start at $53,500 for the all-wheel-drive E300 and $56,000 for the rear-wheel-drive E300 4MATIC. Both also come standard with a turbocharged 2.0-liter engine and a nine-speed automatic transmission.

The E450, also available in Sport ($59,950) or Luxury ($60,450) variations, comes with a much more powerful twin-turbo V-6 and standard AWD.

What's New

The E450 replaces the E400, and its V-6 engine gets a 33 horsepower upgrade.

What's Good

There are tailored versions — each priced the same, or nearly so.

In the E300, rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive are optional with the 2.0-liter engine.

Mercedes cossets amenities.

What's Not so Good

There is a relatively small trunk (13.1 cubic feet).

The 12-volt power point is absent if you opt for the extra USB port.

The E450 is AWD only.

Under the Hood

Small engines have never been so big — in terms of their output. Which is the result of lots of airflow via compression of the airflow. Turbochargers have made it feasible to maintain the power — and performance — formerly provide by thirsty V-6 and V-8 engines while delivering fuel efficiency comparable to that of economy cars.

There's a torque benefit, too. These turbo'd gas engines are coming very close to diesel torque numbers — and immediacy of delivery. The E's 2.0-liter engine has 241 horsepower and whelps out 273 foot-pounds of torque at 1,300 rpm. Which is why this big (and heavy) sedan with such a little engine is capable of getting to 60 mph in about six seconds and achieving 21 mpg in the city and 30 mpg on the highway.

Even more spectacular, though, is the twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6 in the E450. It has 121 more horsepower than the 2.0-liter just-one-turbo four-cylinder and gets the two ton-plus AWD-equipped E-Class (weighing 4,134 pounds empty) to 60 mph in just over five seconds while delivering pretty much the same mileage as the smaller four-cylinder: 20 mpg city and 28 mpg highway.

That's like having two cakes, eating them both and not getting fat!

On the Road

Mercedes says the E-Class offers "sporty comfort," as opposed to the usual "luxury sport" description. Actually, it's both — or either.

You have your choice of Dynamic Select or Air Body Control (ABC) suspension systems. The first allows individual tailoring of ride quality/firmness via four selectable programs (Eco, Comfort, Sport and Sport+) as well as an Individual fifth program that allows further adjustments on an a la carte basis.

ABC is a multi-chambered air suspension that automatically tailors the ride quality and suspension firmness to match your driving as you go, and auto-levels the car (to compensate for loads) and lowers it once under way, which improves both airflow and handling by lowering the center of gravity.

At the Curb

Whether Luxury or Sport, the E is an elegant car.

The Luxury expresses this elegance more traditionally with a slightly different front end and a very different Mercedes three-pointed star, the traditional metal hood ornament standing traditionally upright.

The Sport gets a racier and bigger Benz emblem as the centerpiece of a larger, racier-looking grille.

Both are available with a very elegant full-width LCD instrument panel, which is actually two 12.3 displays side by side, the main display for the driver (which can be almost infinitely configured to suit) and the secondary display for the also-almost-infinitely configurable secondary systems.

The Rest

A practical touch is the three-across bench rear seat. Many luxury-sport sedans have bucket rear seats, which makes it awkward for a third passenger to sit in between them.

The E-Class seats five comfortably.

The one missing thing, if you opt for the optional forward-mounted USB port in the center console, is a 12-volt power point. Two additional USB ports are mounted in the center console, so you can skip the third upfront and still have a place to plug in your radar detector.

The Bottom Line

Given how nice almost any new car is — including $25k cars — it is no easy thing to make a case for a $50k-plus car. Mercedes makes it seem like child's play.

View the Mercedes E-Class this week.

Eric's new book, "Don't Get Taken for a Ride!" is available now. To find out more about Eric and read his past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.