Switch Blanks

[Blobcat]

Does anyone else find that the switch blanks in new Mercedes look really cheap?
Almost all of the new models have a black plastic panel under the heater controls which is populated fully only with ££££ of options. On previous models there would be a separate centre panel with different cut outs for different options so there would be no blank switches. My W210 although nowhere near loaded has no blank switch panels. I know there is space for additional switches but it doesn't look like it and that is my point.

I think they have moved to the black panel for two main reasons; one is that it is much cheaper to have one common part and the other is that it embarrass people into buying options to fill the spaces.

Here is a picture of a new 'E' fully populated. I wonder why I couldn't find a picture of a basic model???

 

[television]

Having Distronic that take out 3 blanks in my car ,only got 1 now,thats for the engine heater,i will think of something to put there. You can alway buy the switches.

Malcolm

 

[Blobcat]

Having Distronic that take out 3 blanks in my car ,only got 1 now,thats for the engine heater,i will think of something to put there. You can alway buy the switches.

Malcolm

Malcolm, you will have to edit your signature line, as there appears to be an option missing on your car.

That's my point, how much was your SL500 new including all the options?
Yet still you have switch blanks!

 

[television]

Malcolm, you will have to edit your signature line, as there appears to be an option missing on your car.

That's my point, how much was your SL500 new including all the options?
Yet still you have switch blanks!

To be truthful on this subject, the blanks in the basic car put me off, as you say they do look cheap and are, also the wording wears off the most used buttons, thats also why i went for the most options, the SL350 is all blanks. In fact the basic cars come with 10 or 11 blanks.

Malcolm

 

[hawk20]

To be truthful on this subject, the blanks in the basic car put me off, as you say they do look cheap and are, also the wording wears off the most used buttons, thats also why i went for the most options, the SL350 is all blanks. In fact the basic cars come with 10 or 11 blanks.

Malcolm

Who are you trying to impress? Do they really care? Do really care for those who really care about a few blanks? Reminds me of a guy I knew who said he had to have the latest Porsche to pull more birds. I asked why he wanted to go out with the kind of bird who woulld only go out with someone who had the latest Porsche. He looked non-plussed. So am I.

Reminds me of that lovely country and western song "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex on his Television Show?

But I do agree with Blobcat that it looks nicer if their are no blanks. There are none on the 220 S class however many or few extras you order. Each switch is a cut-out set in the walnut and if you don't need a switch they don't cut the slot. But in addition on the S most of the goodies are standard.

 

[television]

Who are you trying to impress? Do they really care? Do really care for those who really care about a few blanks? Reminds me of a guy I knew who said he had to have the latest Porsche to pull more birds. I asked why he wanted to go out with the kind of bird who woulld only go out with someone who had the latest Porsche. He looked non-plussed. So am I.

QUOTE]

I am not trying to impress anyone,I dont have anyone other than me to impress. Hanz is the only person to have been in my car in the couple of months that I have had it.
I made it clear before I bought it that i wanted one with everything, and that is me. Its never crossed my mind once since the purchase that I wished it had this or that as it is all there. It did not cost one penny more than cars without it all.

Back to the original thread i used the blanks in the interior shots of the cars to determine what the car had, owing to the poor computer generated discriptions where 100's of standard features are listed as extras.

Malcolm

 

[noops]

Like most people will say when you spend a shed load of money on a car you want to get the very best for your money, mine is fully loaded but I was not looking for that I was looking for one that was well maintained, I saw two others before I bought mine, one was black fully loaded but it had blacked out windows and looked too 'pimped' out for my liking (my brother's friend bought it), and the other was silver but was poorly maintained I walked away quite disappointed, I decided to take a chance and drove to Reading and that was when I saw mine, just from looking at the outside of it my brother told me "this is the one", when I looked inside it was 'fully loaded' but most importantly is was so meticulously maintained. (Sorry for the long winded post).

 

[hawk20]

Who are you trying to impress? Do they really care? Do really care for those who really care about a few blanks? Reminds me of a guy I knew who said he had to have the latest Porsche to pull more birds. I asked why he wanted to go out with the kind of bird who woulld only go out with someone who had the latest Porsche. He looked non-plussed. So am I.

QUOTE]

Back to the original thread i used the blanks in the interior shots of the cars to determine what the car had, owing to the poor computer generated discriptions where 100's of standard features are listed as extras.

Malcolm

Absolutely maddening how they list loads of standard items and often miss out a few of the genuine extras. Did you really pay no more for fully loaded? That seems so daft of dealers to me. Most of us know what extras we want and will pay to get them. According to Glass's only auto and leather get back in higher resale what they cost; BUT they show many other extras increasing the price by about half what they cost.

 

[television]

Absolutely maddening how they list loads of standard items and often miss out a few of the genuine extras. Did you really pay no more for fully loaded? That seems so daft of dealers to me. Most of us know what extras we want and will pay to get them. According to Glass's only auto and leather get back in higher resale what they cost; BUT they show many other extras increasing the price by about half what they cost.

How the MB dealers work is that all cars taken in part exchange are entered into the computer,this looks up the original sale spec and that is what goes out. It drove me mad seing things like folding roof,ABC and alloy wheels as you cant buy one without. Non MB dealers do not know the standard spec and do not know what the extra's are, so a catch 22 situation. I only resolved it by looking at the interior photos. In the SL the extra's are all around the gear shift with the exception of the massage seats.

With the few dealers i spoke to,I did not mention the extra's as i knew that they were there.

It has always been the rule that cars with all of the goodies are not worth more,they are just easier to sell. I used to buy at auctions by the transporter load at a time, thats OK for bread and butter cars and it was the same back then. Looking for something like what i bought was impossible from an auction as without seeing it you would not know what it had.

My car came from a Ford garage,I wanted it under 20k miles and the right price, and by that i mean average book. Most people have a car to PX, had i done that i would have been stuck with the price offered on my old one, and the car they had in stock. I looked at cars in Poole,Bournmouth,london, Exeter,Taunton and the worst being Sailsbury, no maybe Croydon where the car they had advertised was not theirs,and belonged to a freind of the boss. I was told that if i cared to leave a £5k deposit they would get it in for me to see. I duly informed him of where the monkeys put their nuts and he could do the same with the car.

No I did not pay any more for my car,just the going rate for all of the basic models. The only thing not working on the car is the massage seats,I have a leak on the drivers side that i will fix in the spring. I new it was like it and could have had it done,but no one other than me will dismantle the interior. the whole drivers seat has to be dismantled.

Malcolm.

 

[jberks]

well, I agree, the blanks are a backwards step. That was always the thing with previous mercs, no blanks. It gave a certain 'made to measure' feeling. Clearly, its a shortcut that saves a few quid so that's why they've done it, and it would have been hard to do a no blank design with the current layout, but it's still a bad thing.
As I have heated seats I only have the blind switch missing (you wouldn't know the vented seat switch was a blank) but it was the reason I bought the leather seated one in preference to the standard seats. I'd have been happy with cloth but the blanks would have bugged me.