I never understood why Mercedes didn't just switch everything over to LEDs. The window switches use LEDs, some of the switches on the dash of my car still use the fiber optic hydra for nighttime illumination, except for the rear dome light switch which I suspect has an LED in it, and the fader wheel which has a bulb? The hazard switch uses one bright filament lamp with a resistor for backlighting... such an odd mix. Yet somehow the brightness and color of all of the switches is the same!

Yes, VW was doing the same thing in the 90s... in fact they still had a mix of LEDs and small filament lamps until the 4th gen cars came out in 98. My 99 Jetta has only one filament lamp in the interior excluding the dome lamps. I guess Mercedes didn't think LED technology was ready in the 80s? Not having half of your dashboard burn out is a nice selling feature IMHO.

-J

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1991 350SDL. 230,000 miles (new motor @ 150,000). Blown head gasket

Tesla Model 3. 205,000 miles. Been to 48 states!
Past: A fleet of VW TDIs.... including a V10,a Dieselgate Passat, and 2 ECOdiesels.
2014 Cadillac ELR
2013 Fiat 500E.