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Car Forum / Mercedes-Benz Cars / October 2008

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What is this dash lever for?

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Joe - 25 Oct 2008 00:06 GMT
1997 C280: just to the right of the Parking brake
release there is a smaller lever with only a white
image of what looks like a windhield on it.  You can
push it down and it locks in place...until you push it
down again and then it will pop back to the rest position.

Anyone know what that lever is for?  I can't find
anything about it in the owner's manual.
Thanks,
Joe
Juergen. - 25 Oct 2008 02:17 GMT
Steering-column adjustment.

--------------------------------------------

Joe schrieb:
> 1997 C280: just to the right of the Parking brake release there is a
> smaller lever with only a white image of what looks like a windhield on
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> Thanks,
> Joe
Joe - 25 Oct 2008 03:58 GMT
Gee, it seems such a small lever from what I remember
on my ??? 1984 325 BMW.   But there's no reason to
doubt you, I'll give it a try when the car comes home
tonight.
Thank you,
Joe

> Steering-column adjustment.
>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>> Thanks,
>> Joe
Juergen. - 25 Oct 2008 06:36 GMT
Joe schrieb:
> Gee, it seems such a small lever from what I remember on my ??? 1984 325
> BMW.   But there's no reason to doubt you, I'll give it a try when the

Oh, you can doubt me all day long - no problem!

It's MB option code 441, adjustable steering column,
that's mechanical (not electrical) with the W202 series.

The symbol pictures the steering wheel.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

> car comes home tonight.
> Thank you,
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>>> Thanks,
>>> Joe
Joe - 25 Oct 2008 23:43 GMT
> Joe schrieb:
>> Gee, it seems such a small lever from what I remember on my ??? 1984
>> 325 BMW.   But there's no reason to doubt you, I'll give it a try when
>> the
>
> Oh, you can doubt me all day long - no problem!

No Problem is right, and so were you.  :-D

> It's MB option code 441, adjustable steering column,
> that's mechanical (not electrical) with the W202 series.

Is that by any chance specific to the AMG version?
Tiger told me where to look for the placecard on the
driver's door but its not there.  In fact I can't find
anything specific to the AMG version except the chrome
trim on the doors and trunk lid.  I don't have the
title yet...just registered at DMV yesterday.  Got a
CARFAX today so know the car's history. Still no
verification of AMG.

Thank you for the expert help.
Joe

> The symbol pictures the steering wheel.
>
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Joe
Juergen. - 26 Oct 2008 01:11 GMT
Joe schrieb:
I have a GERMAN price list from September 1997
(modelyear 1998, the face-lifted version).

> Is that by any chance specific to the AMG version? Tiger told me where

No, it's not, It could be ordered with any W202.

> to look for the placecard on the driver's door but its not there.  In
> fact I can't find anything specific to the AMG version except the chrome
> trim on the doors and trunk lid.  I don't have the title yet...just
> registered at DMV yesterday.  Got a CARFAX today so know the car's
> history. Still no verification of AMG.

The above mentioned price list (Germany) states
for the C43 as aditional standard items:
- "Sports" package (code 956; could also be ordered with
           any W202, not only C43, additions and changes
           to standard trim "Classic")
   - rear center armrest folding with cup holders
   - instrument cluster with light ivory clock faces and needles
  - light ivory scales for semi-automatic climate control
  - interiour cloth "wimbledon"
   - gear lever/automatic lever leather with "sports" badge
   - sports steering wheel diameter 380 millimetres
   - sports seats front
   - sports suspension
   - tyres 205/55 R 16
   - light alloy wheels 6-hole 7Jx16 ET37 ((5x, incl. spare tyre)
   - bumpers and side trim in body colour
   - some other, minor trim changes
and then for C43
- AMG sports steering wheel
- centre armrest front with stowage
- through-loading feature
- electric windows front and rear
- fully automatic climate control with residual heat feature
- 2-tone leather
- heated front seats
- electrically adjustable front seats with multi contour backrest
- AMG light alloy wheels, one-piece rims
- front axle 7,5Jx17 ET 35
- rear axle 8,5Jx17 ET 30
- AMG sports suspension
- AMG styling
- battery with higher capacity
- electronic stability programme ESP
- alternator with higher capacity
- 5-speed automatic with variable speed limiter "Speedtronic"

Please note that most additional features could be ordered also
for other W202 variants and that some standard features of
the "Sports" package do not apply to the C43 as the latter
has different features (e.g. the wheels of the C43 are better
than those of the "Sports" package).

I just translated the above descriptions "on the fly" by
reading the German price list so they may contain some errors,
also there might be some differences between the German and
the US version.
Joe - 26 Oct 2008 14:34 GMT
Thank you for taking the time to translate this
information, Juergen.  Saved for future reference.
Some things agree, and some don't. I'm still a bit
puzzled about this car from that standpoint.  But
overall it is quite a bit better in many respects than
the 1997 E 320 I had.  I do wish it had 4-wheel drive,
but I may not have any trouble.  In the 70's I drove a
Porsche 911 all  over New Mexico and use it for ski
trips, etc.; never had any trouble with ice on the
roads.  Of course I'm almost 40 years older now but
feel my reaction and road feel haven't changed much.

With 112,000 miles this vehicle is in excellent
condition! Only a bit of Tri-Flo Lubricant needed on
door hinges, etc. really made a difference in the
little things that have been ignored for many years.   :-(

Thanks again for your help!

> Joe schrieb:
> I have a GERMAN price list from September 1997
[quoted text clipped - 56 lines]
> also there might be some differences between the German and
> the US version.
Chip - 26 Oct 2008 23:31 GMT
  In the 70's
> I drove a Porsche 911 all  over New Mexico and use it for ski trips,
> etc.; never had any trouble with ice on the roads.  Of course I'm almost
> 40 years older now but feel my reaction and road feel haven't changed much.

Don't tell that to the insurance people!  The statistics of
# of crashes goes way up after 65.  Interesting tho, the #
of deaths goes down.  They think because older people drive
slower.   Would love a statistic to show the crashes and
deaths of others due to the slowing down of older drivers.

BTW, when I was doing R&D on drivers we dropped the question
asking them to rate their driving ability.  Over 90% rated
their ability at the highest rating.  Totally useless
question.  If everybody is an Expert driver, who are all the
"jerks" we see on the road?

Chip  (an older driver)
Happy Trails - 27 Oct 2008 05:07 GMT
>Totally useless
>question.  If everybody is an Expert driver, who are all the
>"jerks" we see on the road?

Younger drivers!

I have to suspect that the more you drive, the better you get at it
(like just about everything else in life!).
Chip - 27 Oct 2008 17:23 GMT
>> Totally useless
>> question.  If everybody is an Expert driver, who are all the
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> I have to suspect that the more you drive, the better you get at it
> (like just about everything else in life!).

PSSST!  Wrong answer.  The younger drivers in our studies
ALL rated themselves as expert drivers.  The older ones
tended to be a bit more realistic. And the kids do have much
faster reaction times and the ability to keep track of many
more things simultaneously.  The older you get, the more
random firings of neurons in your brain, raising the noise
level that attention needs to get above.  It's a fact we
don't like to face, but it is a measurable problem. Also
when we get more experience at something we tend to rely
more on "automatic pilot" to do them.  Very bad for
unexpected or unusual situations during driving.

Try this test.  My grandkids did much better than my kids
and my kids much better than my wife and I.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081003-allstate-testing-video-games-to-id
entify-safe-older-drivers.html


The true answer is that EVERY driver is a "jerk" at some
point in his/her driving.  It may be rarer for some than
others, but we all piss off somebody else occasionally.
Since we all drive in traffic mostly, your "jerkiness" is
multiplied by the number of drivers observing. You may think
that you have plenty of room to cut into another lane, the
guy you get in front of may have been trying to observe the
"2-sec rule" and you just cut it in half.  One "jerk"!  We
are driving the speed limit, but may be an obstacle to the
flow of traffic doing 10 MPH over.  Another "jerk".  We are
SAFELY talking on the cell phone, but another driver may
call us a "jerk" for doing so.

Chip
Guenter Scholz - 27 Oct 2008 17:57 GMT
I'm not so sure I agree with young drivers being the 'jerks'.  sure a lot of
them are, but so are a lot of other demographics.  I bicycle/walk a fair amount
being close to work and what I notice more often than not are mothers with
children in the car even cutting me off and/or running me down in crosswalks
within a few hundred feet of their kids school.  This morning some mid age
female executive type decided to pass me in her car ONLY to make an immediate
left turn (cutting me off) in front of me.... I'm going a pretty good clip
downhill on the bike.  I do notice a lot of younger guys being considerably
MORE courteous on the road with me on the bike.... maybe it's because they
bike as well..... Young wifes with kids in their SUV's are THE worst drivers
I believe.....
cheers

>>Totally useless
>>question.  If everybody is an Expert driver, who are all the
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>I have to suspect that the more you drive, the better you get at it
>(like just about everything else in life!).
Chip - 27 Oct 2008 18:24 GMT
> I'm not so sure I agree with young drivers being the 'jerks'.  sure a lot of
> them are, but so are a lot of other demographics.  I bicycle/walk a fair amount
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> I believe.....
> cheers

.  If everybody is an Expert driver, who are all the
>>> "jerks" we see on the road?
>>>
>> Younger drivers!

Funny you should bring up that, but I also have noticed the
proportion of my "jerks" shifting to young or middle age
women.  It used to be evenly divided between young male
"cowboys" and older males still trying to "strut their
stuff".  Now when I curse at drivers, I mostly find a female
at the other end.

Chip
Joe - 27 Oct 2008 14:15 GMT
>   In the 70's
>> I drove a Porsche 911 all  over New Mexico and use it for ski trips,
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> highest rating.  Totally useless question.  If everybody is an Expert
> driver, who are all the "jerks" we see on the road?

NON-expert drivers...like me who went through
Bonderants course some 30 years ago and nnt raced
since that time.  I know I've been fortunate and never
had an accident and the day of reckoning will probably
come if I let that go to my head.   Sigh...  ;-)

> Chip  (an older driver)
Chip - 27 Oct 2008 17:49 GMT
>>   In the 70's
>>> I drove a Porsche 911 all  over New Mexico and use it for ski trips,
>>> etc.; never had any trouble with ice on the roads.  Of course I'm
>>> almost 40 years older now but feel my reaction and road feel haven't
>>> changed much.

>>  If everybody is an
>> Expert driver, who are all the "jerks" we see on the road?
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
>> Chip  (an older driver)

You certainly have the right attitude, but I'm afraid even
your Bondurant training ( about 10 miles from me, south of
Phoenix) isn't a good indicator of # of crashes.

A huge study in England several years ago measured
EVERYTHING that could be measured in a very large population
of older drivers.  They compared about 30 parameters against
# of crashes.  The ONLY measure that was correlated
(inversely) with # of crashes was IQ.  Training, years of
experience, reaction time , eye acuity, road and paper
testing scores, nothing else correlated.

BTW, racing is a very poor approximation of in-traffic
driving.  Almost everybody almost all the time is going in
the same direction at approximately the same speed.  The
relative speed and direction is small.  This does happen on
super highways, but rarely elsewhere.

Chip
joe_tide - 28 Oct 2008 12:49 GMT
<<<snippage>>>

> BTW, racing is a very poor approximation of in-traffic driving.  Almost
> everybody almost all the time is going in the same direction at
> approximately the same speed.  The relative speed and direction is small.
> This does happen on super highways, but rarely elsewhere.
>
> Chip

That's interesting.

As an engineer in the transportation arena for quite a few years, and after
studying many accident reports, it becomes fairly obvious that speed does
not play into increasing the number of accidents in real life on multiple
lane highways (assuming drivers are not exceeding the design speed of the
highway). That is discounting drivers under the influence, falling asleep,
and in-cabin distractions.

The thing that causes the most accidents is *difference* in speeds. When you
have some driving at or slightly below the posted speed limit and others
driving above the speed limit, you have the inherent passing and weaving
associated with losing control.

There is no way to control that. I have commented to my wife numerous times
how dangerous it is for someone to be traveling under the speed limit,
especially in the passing lane.
Chip - 28 Oct 2008 16:44 GMT
> "Chip" <chip.a.wood@gmail.com> wrote in message

>> BTW, racing is a very poor approximation of in-traffic driving.  
>> Almost everybody almost all the time is going in the same direction at
>> approximately the same speed.  The relative speed and direction is
>> small. This does happen on super highways, but rarely elsewhere.

> As an engineer in the transportation arena for quite a few years, and
> after studying many accident reports, it becomes fairly obvious that
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> times how dangerous it is for someone to be traveling under the speed
> limit, especially in the passing lane.

I am glad you agree with me.  Another factor in racing is
that all the drivers have experience and training, if not,
almost exact skill levels for a given class of race.  They
also are concentrating on the same objective.  This is most
certainly not true in regular traffic..

Chip
me - 30 Oct 2008 02:09 GMT
>   In the 70's
>> I drove a Porsche 911 all  over New Mexico and use it for ski trips,
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>
> Chip  (an older driver)

That's easy. Everyone driving faster than me is a jerk, everyone driving
slower than me is an idiot :)
Joe - 30 Oct 2008 04:51 GMT
>>   In the 70's
>>> I drove a Porsche 911 all  over New Mexico and use it for ski trips,
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
> That's easy. Everyone driving faster than me is a jerk, everyone driving
> slower than me is an idiot :)

I'll use my favorite expression on that one: "That's
intuitively obvious!" ;-)
Juergen. - 26 Oct 2008 23:35 GMT
Joe schrieb:
> Saved for future reference. Some things agree, and some don't. I'm still
> a bit puzzled about this car from that standpoint.

As said, my info is only guaranteed for cars
for the German market - there might be differences
to cars for the USA in terms of trim and/or
options.

Which things exactly don't fit? Maybe we can
find out. Also take in mind that since the
car was built it could have been modified.

If you like to send me the vehicle's VIN *via
email* and I can have a look.
 
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