Well,
I have sat in the back seat of my 560SEC behind the driver and had no issue with legroom or space, but also I am 5'11" and the driver was about the same. It was a bit difficult to get in and out of, but once in the back seat, it was comfortable - I had nothing to complain about.

It is not quite true that Germans are under 6' on average. I have been living in Germany for a long time. Germans are taller than most Europeans except for the Viking descendants in Northern.

You would think with the price of gas in Europe, carpooling would be encouraged...and MB would design the cockpit so that 4 people could sit comfortably.

I'm a little under 6' and have been in the back of a number of coupes. When your reading these articles and they are talking about ample leg room you have to consider that they are comparing all the coupes on the market. If you think a Mercedes coupe has no leg room then go and look at the back seat of a lot of the other available coupes. In this case lets say a Mitsubishi Eclipse....now thats a squeeze.

The CLS rear seat was an ok place to sit but yes the lack of headroom could be a problem but once again is nowhere near as bad as a VW CC.

I was surprised at how spacious a 300CD's rear seat was.

I was surprised at how tight a Bentley Continental GT's rear seats were.

I was greatly impressed with the rear seat of a 560SEC....those back seats are very comfortable and you have loads of headroom. You would be fine back there even on a longer trip. Sure you can't beat a LWB S-Class for comfort but thats not the point.


One reason why I would never own an SL is because it only has two seats. If you have to transport more then one person your going to be in trouble. Technically 560SEC would be far better for me in comparison to my full sized S-Class. Its very rare that I have passengers in my car so a big coupe makes lots of sense to me. You have the smaller size of a 560SEC but if you need to carry people its not a problem.

I have to argue the no space thing as well.

When my parent's van died a bit back, and there was an appointment scheduled before the parts chain would open the next day, my 76" tall father and 68" or so mother both sat on the passenger side. Mom had no complaints about leg room, even when my dad was carefully asking to make sure.

If I remember correctly, her only complaint was getting back up OUT of the back seat in the SEC.

No, they don't look like there's much room there, but it's surprisingly usable, at least with someone less than 6' in the rear seats.

Sure its not as easy as opening the door on a 4 door but again its not exactly something that your going to have to deal with on a daily basis.


Isn't the best approach for rear access/exit to lower the rear windows? (Assuming its not raining of course)

What can I (5'7") contribute to the non-problem? :D

Albert, I bet you have longish legs for your height too. For me at 5 8 there was room in front and back for adults of average size in both my 123 coupe and my 126 coupe.

Tell me about that Europa. Is it a car that could be autocrossed and hold up? I saw one for sale on the web that looked very sweet!