Meticuously analizing the new W221 the other day at the local dealership, I found some new and interesting features:

1/ The new reverse camera has three modes: standard (plain view at the back), parallel lines (it will project a couple of virtual red vertical lines about six feet away of the rear of the car on the the screen to advise the driver if the car would pass through a narrow opening (like a garage door), and projected zone parking: a virtual yellow rectangle (about the size of the car) will appear on the screen also six to teen feet away and will position itself accordingly of your rear speed and steering angle. This will actually predicts if the car will fit between two cars when parallel parking well BEFORE you start to manouvre to get between them.

2/ Each rear door holds switches for the rear right and left window.

3/ Also, each rear door holds a switch for the rear electric sunscreem, besides the regular switch at the front dash.

4/ The trunk inner lining holds a special bracket to store wet umbrellas.

5/ The central multipurpose navigation monitor can be adjusted sideways, to face more directly the driver or the front passenger.

6/ The dreaded I-knob at the central dash has a simulated stop feature that holds the knob frozen when you have reached the end of a menu when moving up/down or left/right.

7/ When a door is open, it will provide automatic accessory power to all features for three minutes before starting the car. Before turning itself off, it will advise you to turn the car on by its smart-key feature.

8/ The radio display at the central multipurpose screen mimicks the old radio displays with numbers and a needle passing over them from side to side. It is really a nice retro touch which looks almost identical to the tuner display of a Telefunken radio my father had many years ago.

Smart, isn't it?

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A. Rosich
CL 500, 1998
S 500 L, 1998
E 320 T, 1995 [Sadly sold ]