I should preface this by stating that I have worked in the aerospace industry for nearly 20 years as an avoinics and flight deck design engineer. The planes that were built and flown in the 1970s do not even resemble those built after the introduction of the 757/767 series in the 1980s. There are two reasons for this: First, the flight engineer station was eliminated through increased automation on the overhead panel. Second, the displays have gone from steamgauge to glass to LCD.

On aircraft, there is a very good reason to employ glass or LCD displays--they can be rapidly reconfigured to present the pilot with new information at the touch of a button. Additionally, most are designed so that as new technology features come along, they can be implemented on these displays.

What does all this have to do with the new MBs? Quite a bit I think.

First, and this is MY personal quirk, when it comes to automotive displays, I prefer analog for the major components (speed, tach, fuel, temp, oil [lost on my 96 E]). There are some areas where digital displays are nice to have--for example, temperature control on the climate system (although many friends who have the pre-digital MBs love their dials). And I do like the diagnostic screen under the speedo on my 96 E320. That follows design principles used on modern commercial aircraft and provides the operator with useful data.

When I asked the dealer about the removal of my oil gauge and the analog fuel ecomony gauge on the 96, I was told that "customers did not want to see this information". How many people did they sample to get this data?

What bothers me most when I look at these new models is that the dashboard dispays look like they have been put together by .... I don't know what. They look like a ..... [I will refer from using a well known phase out of kindness and civility].

The colors are HORRIBLE and give me a headache.

The information that is provided in digital format in the center of the speedometer is questionable (do I really need to see the FM station that I am listening to or tuning?)

Why do I need a clock that is as large as my current tach?

I was looking at other car models earlier this week [Jag, Aston Martin, Lincoln] and I am noticing that the center control panel on all the cars (including the new MBs) are beginning to look alike. I do not like the reconfig of the climate contol system on the newer E models. They look like the Lincoln systems.

I guess alot of these changes are to make allowance for placement of GPS guidance units in the central dash. Yeah, I think the GPS units are nice, but I installed a Garmin on my E320 which works just fine and cost me $380 with the rebate I received (it is not in color, but it does the trick for me).

Why do I need to have a rear seat fold forward and down over the front seat? If I am going to move something that large, I would use one of my other vehicles--certainly not a luxury car that I spent 75K+ on. Have you ever noticed that when you move something large in a sedan, you almost always find scratches later on?

I read all the major car mags and for Mercedes, I read the Star and Mercedes Enthusiast (a UK mag which is excellent).

I've come to the conclusion that unless MB returns to its original goals and commitment to building the best cars, I will not purchase any of their cars post 1998 and stick to the pre C-MB merger days. Consolidation seems to be the rule in today's competitive auto world, but to me from the results I have seen, it appears that these mergers have mixed a bottle of $10,000 liquor with a bottle of $9.99 generic. The result is that the high end suffers badly and the low end can make a big deal out of how the company makes Jags, Land Rovers, MBs [depending upon which company you are dealing with].

My two cents on all this. I have to admit that I find all it highly depressing.

Do others have similar feelings to the ones that I have expressed above or am I a "technophobe"?

- Jon

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- Jon E320 210.055

90 Wrangler
77 Mustang 307,000 mi
63 T-Bird [fully restored]