No, his car does not have the Summer/Winter Switch.

A. Roische, please double check because your car should start in first gear. If it's starting in second gear, then something is wrong.

Rbrduck, your transmission is totally normal. It starts in second gear unless put in kickdown, this was done to conserve fuel at the time, thought I'm not sure if it really helped. And your RPMs at speed are normal too.

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2006 E350 w/ 155k miles (Daily Driver)

Previous:
1993 300E 3.2L Sedan w/ close to about 300k miles
2003 E500 Brilliant Silver (Had 217k miles when totalled!)
1989 300E with 289,000 miles (had for <1 yr while in HI)
03 CLK 500 cabrio (Mom's)
2006 C230k (Dad's)
1999 S420 (Mom's/Dad's)
2000 C230k Sport sedans
2001 CLK320 Cabrio (Mom's)
1995 C280 My First Mercedes-Benz... (155k miles. EXCEPTIONAL AUTOMOBILE. Was Very hard to let go of!)