I've found
http://www.emercedesbenz.com/
to be pretty good on the up-coming models and reviews, including one of the
Bluetec at Car and Driver (they prefer the gasoline E class).
http://www.caranddriver.com/roadtests/12686/2007-mercedes-benz-e320-bluetec.html

John M.
also looking at a European delivery E320 diesel to replace my
'94 E320

Anyone calling me?   I'm here, I'm here!!! ;-)))

MBSPY.COM is offline - much too much work involved!!!

Which especially means research, investigation and
digging through an ocean of information to be able
to select and prepare appropriate (= top, not any
"me too") site content.
That meant a total of 40+ hours a week for a hobby
project, which obviously is way too much in the
long run.

And to Bluetec:
Since some longer time it was more than obvious
that there is a relatively small, but very profitable
market for Diesel MBs in the USA.
At some time even the sleep caps in Stuttgart heard
the shoutings and decided to offer diesel passenger
cars in the US again.
Not only they grossly underestimated the size of the
market, but also had slept in terms of emmissions
with their entire diesel engine line as they were soooo
busy to pump up power output (e.g. new C-Class W204
smallest diesel version 200CDI has 136 PS) they
neglected emissions (plus of course, why should
they change anything as long as the buyers bought
the old diesel engines? Yes, yes, the GM-and-Ford
syndrome...).

In 2006 they introduced BLUETEC, see the Press Kit at
<http://wwwsg.daimlerchrysler.com/SD7DEV/GMS/TEMPLATES/GMS_PRESS_KIT/0,2970,0-3-7
5739-1-1-text-1-75736,00.html>

Of course the whole matter has a lot of other
facets, mostly highly political ones, which are
too many and too complicated to be really
discussed here, but a summary for new car buyers
buying diesel passenger cars which can be drawn
from them is:

A) What's environmentally (emissions related)
  "state-of-the-art" today may in some few years
  be "crap".
  That means no more long-term security when
  buying diesel cars, taxes may sky-rocket
  or access to cities may be denied, all effecting
  the resale value of the car.

B) Anything less than today's state-of-the-art
  should not be bought.
  So refrain from diesel cars without particulate
  filters ex-factory and don't buy a car without
  a maintenance-free system plus don't buy a car
  whose system needs additives.

Note A) and B) are from observing Europe (and Germany
in particular), but I have no doubt are (or will be
soon) valid in countries like the USA, too.

Although I'm kind of a diesel fan I recommend to
think about the engine type, diesel or gas:
It turns out that there is a (not that small?)
number of people for whom driving a gas car would
be cheaper - of course that depends on many
variables like car's price, mileage per year,
insurance, taxes, fuel prices and the country you
live in as well as comparing engines with
similar power output.

Juergen

The '97 was sold in February; the (local) buyers love it!