Why in Mercs costing £30+
Two stalks on left hand side of steering and nothing on right?
Parking brake operated by foot and released by a handle? (we have in many other cars but still it is wrong) Good at least people buy auto Mercs mostly.
An analog clock besides speedo which makes seeing time difficult for passenger?
No proper spare wheel? (only space saver which doesn't save much space in already big boots)
Speedometer not calibrated in km/h along with mi/h? (you do get km/h reading via digitally though) I thought it is law to have both mi/h & km/h in speedo?
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>> Why in Mercs costing £30+
Different nationalities have different thought processes. For example, Orientals are poor at original design but are good at refining other people's designs.
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I fully agree that having a clock directly in front of the driver is a bit perverse. It should in the centre of the dash so all can see it.
Having one stalk is quite painless with a Merc, especially if you have auto lights and auto wipers. The other stalk just being for the cruise control, it is easy to use.
Nothing wrong with a digital kmh readout. Many cars have purely mph digital readout and you need to switch over to get the kmh (Citroens). So having a analogue dial for mph and digital read out for kmh makes a lot of sense. In Europe they must have both digital and analogue kmh which makes less sense.
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You think Mercedes controls are bad - you should try BMW indicators. (Yes, I know people make jokes about this, but let me be serious here).
They are extremely fiddly to use, and unless you use just the right amount of force in trying to cancel them you find yourself indicating in the opposite direction.
It's not just me. SWMBO loves my car, but even she hates the indicators!
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I dont know why it was Vauxhall who got slated becasue they use a simaler system
if anyone complained about the indicators it was always the Vauxhall fitted ones that where topic of conversation however a selection of other manufactures fit them but they hardly get a mention
I dont actually mind them ok they cancell a bit early sometimes however Ive got used to them now, and dont mind them at all - however its a breath of fresh air when I drive SWMBO's Citreon C4 that alough tis "alive with technology" just has standard indicators which work very well as they are supposed to
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>> They are extremely fiddly to use and unless you use just the right amount of
>> force in trying to cancel them you find yourself indicating in the opposite direction.
If they work the same way as the Vauxhall ones, instead of flicking the stalk the other way to cancel and risk putting on the idicators on the opposite side, try flicking the stalk in the same direction as you're currently indicating. On Vauxhall's this cancels the indicators. If you are too heavy handed at least you end up still indicating the same way.
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I don't see a problem with the stalks on a Merc. - like any car they take a few miles to adjust, but as mentioned before auto lights and autos wipers reduce a lot of the use of stalks.
The foot-brake is fine with an automatic, but I would not like to drive an older manual Mercedes. Most of the newer ones have hill-assist which means you only really need the footbrake when parking, so it is less of a problem than it used to be.
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I think my Corsa had the most simple layout of any cars. It had all the electrics (windows etc) but everything was in the right place.
My dads Fiesta is a bit more random with some headlight controls on stalks and others on switches.
My new Panda will have the electric window switches on the centre console which isn't really ideal :(.
The electric window switches on the Escort were next to the gear lever meaning they attracted dust and dirt. I had to completly re-assembly the switches every year to get all the junk out of them.
The Fiesta also has an annoying boot release which dosn't work when the engine is running, it is a safety feature but it means when off loading things in the lock up I have to turn the engine off causing more wear and tear on the 13 year old starter motor.
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Awkward Mercedes controls - L'escargot
