Swapping Interior Panels in 95 to 96 C-Class
 

Don't know the name of the panel (the kick panel?)... but it's the panel above the driver's feet, below the cluster. The panel where the OBDII connector is!

It is plastic on my 95 C280... cheap looking, and it protrudes (towards my knees) more than the ones in the 96 and later 202. Does anyone know if these panels are interchangeable? The newer one looks padded, or similar to the dash (material), while the 95 is plastic and cheap looking!

THANKS.

Ok, I was able to find some pix on my harddrive of the two types.

OK the darn pix won't upload right!

Ok, I was able to upload this pic (it's small) of the 95 panel.. you can see that it's plastic and protrudes (curves out) more than the 96 and later models.

With some cropping, I got the 99's C pic to upload.

So to make a 3rd 'reply' to my own post.. but I couldn't swap out the pic in the first posting... kept putting the 1st one back.
Here is a better pic of the 95 panel.

From what I understand, the 94-95 had this as a anti-submarine feature, so if you are in accident you don't slide down under your seat belt (your knees would hit the bolster). I guess MB received many complaints about not enough leg room so they changed it in 1996.

I believe that is the only reason. Not sure if the new one can be retrofitted though. My local MB dealer is pretty good about letting me return parts, maybe you have access to a similar dealer that would let you order the part and try it, then if it does not fit you could return it. I have done this many times.

good luck

Thanks for the info! My knees are always finding that dumb panel.
THanks for the explanation!

One of my girlfriends has a 99 C230k, I'm going to check hers out, and if it looks similar, I'll buy one and check it out. Thanks for the info!