Strange armrest question...
 

I've noticed that the driver's door arm rest is different from the passenger side arm rest on my 85 300D. I've always wondered about it and I haven't had a chance to look at another car to compare. The passenger side rest is longer and goes all the way up to the door handle while the driver's side rest is a small one kind of like the back seat door rests. Is this the way its supposed to be?

Mine is the same. I assume it is to give more room to steer.

That's what I was thinking since I guess if you had the same kind of armrest as the passenger side you might get your knuckles caught between the huge steering wheel and the upper armrest handle. It's just that it looked kind of strange and I wanted to ask around about it.
Thanks!