• For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
• Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
• Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason, you would simply accept this.
• Occasionally, executing a manoeuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
• Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive – but would run on only five percent of the roads.
• The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single “General Protection Fault” warning light. Engine management warning light!
• The airbag system would ask “Are you sure?” before deploying.
• Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna. See above on passenger door opening!
• Every time GM introduced a new car, car buyers would have to learn to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car. That has become the case between different manufacturers with myriad buttons and functions on the steering wheel and a 600-page manual!
• You'd have to press the “Start” button to turn the engine off. Exactly!

One of the buttons each side of the wheel is a mini track pad and is swiped up/down and sideways to scroll and pressed to select. A button on one side of that is the Home button which goes to the top level menu, and on the other is a Back button that goes up a level if you are in a nest of menus. The left-hand upper and central ones controlling the information displayed on the central panel, the right-hand upper controls the driving information in front of the driver and the lower the cruise control/limiter. The lower half of the left-hand set controls the phone on the left, volume control of media and sat-nav centrally, and on the right up for voice control functions and left to call up previously saved favourites such as media, sat-nav destination, phone contact etc.

The central set puts commonly used features like navigation and radio/media on individual buttons, but unless you know where they are by touch it's a bigger distraction looking all down there than using the wheel buttons. The steering wheel buttons need that as well but it's not so far to look down.

Heating/cooling/demisting is on a strip of physical buttons below the dash - the Thermotronic control panel, not terribly easy to see the symbols especially in the dark when they don't seem to be illuminated (they are, but not enough for me):

Slightly better than having to tap the Golf screen with your 'wrong' hand which is hard enough when stationary, impossible when moving, but still not easy for a right-hander. I note some functions on the Golf 8 and ID3 have moved from physical controls to the central screen, and people don't like it.

Trackpad and buttons:
The central trackpad is a large swipe area and button with haptic feedback (a physical sensation through the trackpad when performing certain operations) with Back and Home areas at the top corners, and a left/right swipe area in the upper middle for things like previous and next media track. Even though I'm using my 'wrong' hand I'm resting my wrist on the centre console which stabilises it, not like having a whole arm waving around trying to hit a small area of the screen with a finger-tip. You can also use the track-pad to write freehand when entering sat-nav destinations, but that probably will be tricky with the 'wrong' hand. Commonly used buttons round the outside - Volume adjusts media/radio audio up/down if rotated, or mute/unmute if pressed and released. Navi/Map displays the Navigation screen, Radio/Media switches between the two, Tel calls up the Telephone screen. On the left 'Dynamic' switches between driving styles. P is Active Parking Assist which displays suitable parking spaces as you pass by them. The picture of the car calls up the Settings, Quick Access screen. The star is 'Profiles' where you can store up to seven different combinations of settings such as seat position, Nav destination, radio station/media, climate temperature, and so-on for multiple drivers. So a single button for some commonly used function rather than stepping through the menus with the steering wheel buttons, but you have to look right down to see the button instead of to just below the windscreen. Probably fine for LHD when most people are right-handed, I never use it, I'd rather have a multi-function 'joystick' that does all the navigation and selection which wouldn't need looking for to put your hand on, like the gear-lever, and would stabilise it better.

Dynamic:
Three settings on the manual - Individual, Sport and Comfort with additional positions on Auto and Hybrid:

As well as a symbol at the top of the selection screen 'I*' (Individual), 'S' (Sport) and 'C' (Comfort) each within their own coloured surround appear on the screens in front of the driver. All three are shown here but only one appears in use of course:

Lighting switch: A huge subject but this just concerns the main lights for the road. A panel to the right (on an RHD) to the steering wheel with a rotary switch, a push-button for the rear fog light, and below that a thumbwheel to control the level of instrument lighting. Parking brake on the left:
In Auto the driving lights are on all the time while driving and the headlights and tail lights come on as light levels drop. Left of Auto turns the rear lights on, and right of Auto turns the headlights on. You have to remember to do this manually in daylight fog or spray as the light levels may not be low enough to bring them on automatically.

The rear fog light is available all the time the engine is running when the switch is in 'Auto' or 'headlights', but not if switched to the left of Auto.

Far left of Auto the parking lights can be illuminated one side only according to the direction of the arrow.

Window, door, mirror and heated seat controls are all on the door cards - the latter a bit of an afterthought it would seem being on a vertical surface by themselves and a bit awkward to operate, instead of being with the others, or on the dash. Less of an afterthought if you have powered seats, the controls for which are in the same area but equally awkward. The manual lock and unlock are worse being recessed into the door card but can be operated with a thumb.

At least I was, but because I'm not handling a key to switch off when I get out I've found a couple of times that I've walked off without locking the car especially if I've gone to the passenger side or the boot. And even when I have locked it a couple of times I've doubted it so have had to check! Fortunately (in this case, not so fortunate if you drop the key and someone else finds it and can locate the car in a large car park with one click) the range of the key is several hundred yards so I didn't have to go all the way back. Mercedes me does allow you to see the lock status.

The fob has a 'double-click' feature when locking which 'turns it off' and on the face of it would defeat 'relay' systems and scanners used by thieves. Which seemed to me that if I unlock the car with one key, then take the other key which has been double-clicked into the car with me, it shouldn't be recognised. It is, but only after a few seconds, and only if you put the fob in the right-hand front cup-holder, and that is how you would start the car if the fob battery had gone flat and you used the emergency key to get in. Some fobs these days have a movement detector that turns them off after a period of no movement which stops relay thieves picking them up when in a drawer etc. in your house, but no help when out shopping. Can't see any reference to that in the manual, so whilst double-clicking probably protects against relay thieves at home or out Faraday pouches may be needed for Keyless-Go, unless you could somehow confirm that inactivity does turn them off.

After getting used to the Golf automatically unlocking the doors when a passenger wanted to get out, the first time that occurred in the A-Class with the engine still running nothing happened and I had to open my door (or push the unlock button), which is a pain. Shades of the ZS 180, although at least on that the unlock button was in the middle of the dash so the passenger can reach it. A potential safety hazard if the driver is incapacitated, forum posts indicate it is a fault and the passenger door internal lever should unlock the door. Which means a trip to the dealer, but forum experience indicates that is a bit of a lottery as far as getting anything fixed is concerned. However subsequently testing it without a passenger, I could drive off and the locks engage, then stop, then lean across and open the passenger door. So more testing in a 'real world' environment needed.

Using the car more in wet weather arriving at Tesco one day I switch off as normal and my wife goes to open the door and it won't open. As indicated above it's done that before just dropping her off i.e. while the engine was still running but not with it switched off and she regularly opens her door first. Start up and switch off again just the same, I have to open my door before hers will unlock. Back home switch off, and she opens her door as normal!

December 2022: Back home from a trip, locked and parked the car for a while and noticed the interior light was still on. Back out and messing about, if I start the car it goes out, but not if I lock it and leave it, unless I turn 'automatic lighting' off on the roof panel, so I had to leave it like that overnight. Next day go out in the car and from the driver's display notice a rear door is ajar! I had the steering wheel cover on before so couldn't see that, and of course with that rear door fully closed the interior light goes out, but why didn't I get a warning beep when I tried to lock it with it ajar? It has an 'acoustic lock' feature where you can get a (beloved of TV drama producers) beep every time you lock the car, but in some countries that is illegal and mine is turned off which for me is better than a beep - I can hear the locks engage and the mirrors move even if I'm not looking at the indicators flashing. I turn acoustic lock on, lock the car and get the beep, but when a door isn't ajar there is no beep! That's opposite to both the Golf and ZS which locked silently unless a door was ajar,then it would beep and not lock. I'd previously noticed following a forum post that you can lock and leave the car with the bonnet ajar as well, and that can be lifted without setting off the alarm which was how I measured the battery resting voltage without taking any power out of it to unlock it and 'wake it up'.

January 2023 1: Taking a parcel to the drop-off, unlocked, put parcel in the back my side, drove to drop-off, opened driver's door and there was a 'clunk' from over my right shoulder, and the rear passenger door wouldn't open from the outside. I had to use the fob again to unlock it, even though the rest of the car already unlocked. Going through the process again the next day it didn't happen - more random MB software.

January 2023 2: With the Golf if the car was locked I could open just the hatch with the fob, but I was always aware that if I happened to drop my keys inside and closed the hatch it would self-lock, and I'd be snookered. This car doesn't have that and I wondered if MB had done that deliberately. But there have been a number of complaints on the forum of people returning to their cars and the boot lid is up! They have a release button on their fobs and it must have been pressed while in a pocket etc., and given the reception distance they could be some distance away and it would still happen. My fob seems to have the position but with a blank, maybe fobs with the feature could be modified in some way to replace that, or prevent it's movement. My PO may well have not decided to pay extra for that feature and I'm not displeased, although with the hatch it would only unlock and not open like a boot lid.

February 2023: Fitting arch guards I opened the car and started the engine to turn the wheel to full lock to give more space for clamps that are needed for while the adhesive sets then switched off. A few minutes later still messing about by a front wheel the car locked itself! Surely it's only supposed to do that it it was unlocked and no door opened, then lock again in about 30 secs. Subsequently opened up to put the wheel clamp back on and shut the door (without starting the engine), deliberately leaving it unlocked to see what happened, and it hadn't locked ages later. It's not locked itself after a journey and being left unlocked either, the only difference this time is that the engine was started then switched off without the car having been moved.

October 2023: Is there no end to this car's quirks and foibles? Round at a pal's house with a boot full of tools to work on his car, my car right where were working so not locked, but the boot kept locking itself while the doors were unlocked! Never. Ever. Leave the keys in the car when you are not in it. On another occasion at pal's house I found the whole car locked, but the hatch was open on this occasion and I managed to get my jacklet out of the car to retrieve the fob from the pocket ... only to find it wasn't there! It was in my trouser pocket, so may well have leant on it when working on pal's car.

January 2024: Thinking my wife and I might be going somewhere where she stayed in the car in a public car park because of a problem using her right arm I thought she would probably feel safer if she locked herself in. But like the Golf with the button on the driver's door this would have been difficult if not impossible for her to reach from the passenger seat, the ZS180 had the button in the centre of the dash. In the event she didn't accompany me so it didn't arise.

A nice feature, the Start/Stop button is concealed behind the thick left-hand spoke like the Golf's ignition switch but at least you aren't having to insert a key in a slot. Below is the button to inhibit

While I was using my left hand to put the fob in the central cup-holder or take it out, on one occasion it slipped out of my hand straight down between my seat and the tunnel! I only have slim hands but try as I might between the seat bolster and the tunnel I could only get a finger-tip to it, no chance of lifting it out without a hook of some kind:

Fortunately the seat slides a very long way back to reveal the fob and I could get to it with fingers:

Subsequently I saw a Nick O'Leary video that showed that when the fob battery is flat you can put it in the front right-hand (RHD) cup-holder and after a couple of seconds it will be picked up and the engine will start, which is basically what I found, which begs the question what do people do under normal circumstances? And when they have keyless entry? Wondering if it could be anything to do with the weak battery, after it had been fully recovered (but Auto Start/Stop had stopped working again) I unlocked the car, put the fob in my trouser pocket, got in, shut door, clutch down, button pushed, and the engine started as normal. Since then having the fob in a right-hand trouser or jacket pocket has worked every time. I do wonder whether the salesman told me to put the fob in the cup-holder so I didn't inadvertently walk off with it, and the failure to start was just a random one-off. Either that or the starter battery was good enough to start the engine despite bringing up warnings but wasn't good enough to detect the fob in a pocket, but that would be really odd.

If you press the Start button without pushing the clutch down (may have to press it twice) the ignition comes on, many features don't work without that and you may not want to sit there with the engine running. But if you get out of the car, shut the door and try to lock it nothing happens - the ignition stays on and the doors don't lock. Pushing the Start button yet again does seem to turn the ignition off, I can hear the steering lock as I open the door and get out, and locking works as normal. A similar thing happens if you manually disengage the parking brake with the engine started but not having moved off then switch off and get out of the car - the brake isn't applied and you get a warning about risk of car rolling. Fair enough if you are working on the car, but I think there should be a bit more required to invoke that 'feature'.

However! Two weeks later, and less than a week after a 100-mile round trip on motorway and A-roads, it's stopped working again, displaying the amber 'A' with the line through i.e. 'inhibited'. Three weeks later after some local running around with several stops and restarts it suddenly works as I'm nearing home, but doesn't when I'm at home.

November 2022: Then another couple of weeks later at the end of a 200-miler it activates at a traffic light, and again next morning, but not since with shorter journeys and not being used some days.

December 2022: In cold weather I'm getting battery warnings at switch-on, and switch-off which I didn't before, battery voltage after being left overnight is 11.7v so significantly down. The warnings stopped when the weather got back up above freezing, so maybe the software senses the temperature, realises there is going to be greater load on the battery for starting and raises the warning threshold? After a 200-miler over three days no Auto Start/Stop.

March 2024 As recounted here doing two successive days of full charges then a 200-miler sees Start/Stop working over the next few days (so far) even though Mercedes Me is showing the battery variously 'charged' and 'partially charged'.

Someone mentioned he can't hear the engine restarting and as a result is botching pulling away, stalling the engine, and is having to go through the full manual start process rather than just dipping the clutch and getting an automatic restart as stalling at other times does. The area below the manual start/stop button is another button, and once the engine is started pushing that will inhibit automatic start/stops. I may never be able to confirm that as mine never works anyway!

However pushing the button with the engine started displays the Auto Start/Stop symbol in white with 'OFF' beside it, as here:

Just for the current journey, stopping the engine and starting it again will re-enable it:

Auto Start/Stop rarely works but on one occasion when it was working briefly and I released the footbrake the car started to roll, and pumping the pedal for Hold did nothing, so had to sit there with the footbrake on, after that Auto Start/Stop didn't cut in again so I was unable to confirm. Didn't want to use the parking brake as manually turning that off prevents it re-engaging automatically at the next switch-off. Some time later after a couple of 200-milers plus doing a full recondition using the Ctek Auto Start/Stop was working again for long enough for me to confirm that with the engine stopped pumping the brake pedal did engage HOLD and stop the roll. Although interestingly further pumping switched HOLD off and restarted the engine (made sure my hands were clear of the wheel)!

The handbrake control (co-located with the lighting switch) is more conveniently located than on an earlier model but still concealed behind the large right-hand spoke whereas the Golf was in the centre about where a handbrake lever would be on most cars and clearly visible - once you have looked down for it. Consequently I never (but see below) use it, opting for Auto Hold (which has its own issues) instead if I'm stationary, or just stopping the engine if I've arrived at my destination which puts the full handbrake on. Auto Start/Stop doesn't engage either brake, which perhaps it should. It's also opposite to the Golf in that you pull it to release the handbrake and push it to engage it, which is illogical for a lever although the 'push' part isn't for a button, although it's debatable as to which this is - lever or button!:

When moving off after being parked the electronic handbrake locks on really hard! I'm having to pitch the car hard forwards (or back) with the clutch and accelerator before it will release ... but not every time. Opposite to the Golf which released as soon as you started lifting the clutch so unless you manually held the handbrake switch on it would always roll on a slope, but this is too much. The A-Class seems to be different in that when it is working as it should you have to start lifting the clutch and have the throttle open before it releases, one of them on its own doesn't release it. Looking at fora one comment is that 'tapping' the brake pedal before moving off releases it ... but not on mine. Maybe for 'tapping' read 'press really really hard' as for Auto Hold! Loads of complaints of this on the A-Class UK forum with some saying it's because it has rear disc brakes and the pads are sticking to the discs but it happened right from the beginning of my ownership when we were having a heat-wave. The ZS 180 never did it in 12 years nor the Golf with the same usage (however looking at Golf fora now there are loads of complaints about it on that as well). Two people on the A-class UK forum said when they put it away wet in the garage they spray the rear discs with brake cleaner, and one says he plays a hair dryer on them! I thought classic cars were the ones that needed all the attention. It's relatively common for people to drive a couple of hundred yards after washing the car to dry off the brakes, which goes to show that messing about with brake cleaner and hairdriers at the end of a 'normal' drive is completely pointless as the brakes will be warm enough then to dry themselves off.

If it's just sticking pads then the handbrake symbol will have been extinguished but you still wouldn't move until they break free from the disc. In my experience when it is sticking pads after being washed (normally driving in wet weather will have warmed the discs so they dry off pretty quickly) it does so in two stages as first one side releases then the other a fraction later. But when I operated the handbrake switch (ignition on, engine not started) after being parked up outside for five days with heavy rain most days, I heard the motors whirr to release it and the car rolled a bit, so the pads can't have been stuck to the discs then! Since then if it doesn't want to move when I try to drive off and the handbrake symbol on the dash is still illuminated I pull the switch on the dash - I hear the motors whirr as they release the handbrake and the car moves, so again it's not stuck pads. No one on the A-Class UK forum seems to have had this, they just keep going on about physical sticking despite what I say about the dash light and the switch. Maybe others do have it, don't realise the significance of the red light, and repeat 'stuck pads' ad-infinitum, a bit like 'bad earth' in the MG world. November 2022: I have it booked in for Mercedes to have a look at it, but the problem is that it only does it after being parked up overnight or longer, and it seems to be releasing easier anyway now (including wet weather), which is odd given that it seems to be the electrics failing to release, not the brakes themselves. Update: Needless to say it didn't stick on at all when taking it to Mercedes, and hasn't done it the last few times after being parked up, so we are leaving it at that for now. Subsequently I realise that not being a mad revver, on my manual handbrake cars I release that then start lifting the clutch, and only when it starts moving do I apply the throttle. That technique on the Merc won't release the handbrake as the accelerator has to be moved as well, so now I do use both pedals together. But that definitely wasn't the cause of the early locking on as I was having to use quite a bit of both before it broke free - maybe a sticky throttle pedal switch. The chap I spoke to did say that with their loan cars not being used for a while they get the 'one side before the other' thing which probably is stuck pads, but I doubt whether they would notice what the warning light was showing, and washing the car a couple of weeks later and not driving it round the block to dry the disks off next time I did get that 'one side before the other' thing i.e. stuck pads.

Looking into this jamming on business and scanning the manual I come across some strange information under 'Notes on parking up the vehicle'.

May 2023: Over the winter I was manually clearing the side mirrors as they didn't seem to be heated, but Nick O'Leary in this video at 5:45 says they come on with the heated screen, so I'll have to wait until next winter and leave them longer to see. Nick says 10 minutes to clear them, so maybe one shouldn't be driving off without either waiting or manually clearing them. From memory the Golf (and ZS180) was faster, similar comments on the forum about other makes. Come Autumn and misty mornings and the door mirrors don't seem to be clearing. They should be powered with the heated rear screen, and eventually I can feel it but like the anti-dazzle again only the driver's side! But as the side windows need clearing manually as well it's no big deal to do those with the back of a finger.

July 2023: I've been finding that when I get in the car the interior mirror is too low pointing at the back seat. At my age I'm hardly going to be growing - shrinking more like. It's very stiff to adjust and not drooping during a journey. Then it occurred to me that the car is parked facing the morning sun, so maybe it is heat from that, even though on hot days I open the side windows a couple of inches. I could shield it, but then each time would be a one-off experiment with no control, and it might not have moved anyway. And even if that is the cause I don't think I'm going to hang a cloth or whatever over it every time I park up the car at home.

However far worse are concrete 'cushions' (a spectacularly inappropriate name) set into the road with flat angled sides, flat top, and sharp transitions between them. The wheels partially straddle them which puts the middle higher than where the tyres are on the sloping sides, and they need more care. One of them seems to be higher than the others, with the road surface breaking up in front of it, and a couple of times that generated a huge bang. At first I thought it was the suspension bottoming, but now I realise is caused by the suspension compressing as the tyres hit the dip immediately in front of the rising concrete surface, with the top higher than where the wheels are, and the undertray and front chassis member is hitting the top of the concrete block! Three other 'pillows' are a bit easier, and two easier still as the road has been resurfaced since they were installed which has reduced their effective height. The irony is that white vans and SUVs can ignore them at well over the 20mph speed limit.

2023:
If that wasn't bad enough the tarmac in front of each 'cushion' is breaking up and potholes forming, which has the effect of making them more severe, and I notice more and more cars crawling over them now. I've tried going between them as with the MGBs but with this car being wider the outer edges of the undertray hit them instead of the central section, so no better. Reported to the local council but no feedback despite being asked. Chased again and told it has been passed to their contractors but no timescale for repair despite being asked that specific question. They are like a secret society. Eventually they were repaired but as they had never deigned to update me I didn't bother to thank them.

I couldn't work out from either the manual or the buttons on the steering wheel what Limiter did. Pushing the lower left-hand switch up and down changed things on the display but I couldn't work out what was happening, which is not very safe on a public road. So back home reverted to Google. I've done that quite a bit since getting the car, and quite often YouTubes by Nick O'Leary (No, not that O'Leary ...) of Sandown Mercedes pop up and they are pretty useful. It's a case of either Cruise Control (lower left button up) or Speed Limiter (lower left button down) - but only initiating it, not engaging it. Maybe obvious but cruise Control maintains a set speed until you operate throttle (which increases speed whilst the pedal is held down), brake or clutch (which both disengage it). Limiter sets a maximum speed preventing you from drifting upwards e.g. in a section with average speed cameras, but allows you to accelerate if needed if you floor the pedal. One 'error' in the video is that we are told you wouldn't use Limiter where there are junctions, roundabouts etc. That's the case with Cruise Control as you would keep disabling it each time you used the brake or the clutch and have to reselect it each time, but there is no good reason not to leave Limiter engaged as it doesn't prevent you slowing down when you lift off the accelerator. It isn't cancelled when using brakes and clutch nor when coming to a halt, and continues to prevent you going above the set speed when you leave the junction, roundabout etc. and speed up again. It's only cancelled when you complete the journey and switch off, or press CNCL.

The first time since the car is started selecting either shows the appropriate symbol in the driving display in grey (i.e. initiated but not yet engaged), it's not until you use SET+ or SET- that a speed is set (but see RES further on). SET+ uses the current speed plus 1 or 5mph which you might not want, SET- sets the current speed. SET adjusts the speed up or down at any time, either a half movement for 1 mph changes or a full movement for multiples of 5 mph. Move the right-hand button down (CNCL) to cancel either Cruise Control or Limiter, up (RES) to resume with the previous speed if either function has been used since the car was started. If you select Cruise Control, then Limiter, Cruise Control is cancelled. The video is confusing in that it kind of implies that if you select RES twice then it will automatically change as speed limits change but mine at least doesn't. If you haven't yet used cruise or limiter in the current journey RES does nothing. But if you select LIM for the first time in a journey, then RES and you have the little lollipop (speed limit sign) next to RES it adopts the current speed limit which is better then using the up/down button to set it. However this is from either Sat Nav or Traffic Sign Assist depending on what you have, and if an incorrect speed is displayed on the driver's screen it will adopt that. Hence it cannot be totally relied upon as it depends on your Sat Nav version or how well the car can 'see' the signs, especially where there are roadworks, and you may travel quite long distances before there is a speed limit displayed. If you have previously used LIM with a low value in this journey and are now in a higher limit the first press resumes the low limit which if you are already travelling faster is a bit disconcerting as it suddenly slows the car. It's only in this scenario that a second press of RES adopts the currently displayed speed limit.

Some state that the limiter can't overcome the laws of gravity and prevent you going over the limit going down a steep hill. Some limiters might be like that, but testing it this one maintains the same speed descending as well as when the road flattens out again. Throttle open anyway, I need a longer steeper hill than we have round here to see what happens on the overrun, and how about clutch down or out of gear?

Cruise Control is not adaptive unless you pay extra (ditto the dual-dial driving display which appears throughout the manual) which is pretty cynical - Active Distance Assist DISTRONIC and the larger driving data screen is needed for that which is part of the Driving Assistance Package. The buttons on the right (RHD) of the steering wheel are labelled differently as here (a retrofit from RJAutomotive at £600, buttons in black or silver according to VIN). The salesman told me the car did have that describing how it would joggle the steering if I drifted over a white line without indicating, and I read that if I have that, then Active Distance Assist DISTRONIC is said to be exclusive to that package, so it seems I should also have Adaptive Cruise Control. But spookily I was writing this section when the salesman happened to call to check everything was OK with the car. He said all A-Class have the brake and lane change assist features but Distronic would have been £1500 extra when the car was originally specified! In use Cruise Control is a bit jerky, with the car obviously accelerating and decelerating when the road goes up or down even slightly, with the instantaneous consumption leaping up and down as well. I can see me using it less than with the Golf which was smoother as well as adaptive, neither are much use except in situations where you are not going to need to change your speed or direction for a while such as on an empty motorway. Without adaptive I would be continually cancelling and re-enabling it instead of just feathering the throttle which is far more natural speaking as someone who has been driving without any of these 'aids' (aka encouragement to 'pay less attention to what is going on around you') for over 50 years. But even adaptive had its drawbacks - primarily on a motorway if someone pulled out in front of you the Golf backed right off, which leaves a gap for someone else to pull out in front of you. You could control the distance, but I'd rather do that myself. Limiter should be more useful especially for sections of roads with average speed limits.

November 2022: Having said that on a Sunday I did use it for quite a bit of a 200 mile round trip mostly on motorway and dual carriageway, and almost certainly contributed to the 58mpg Since Start going down and the 55 overall on the day. I was using the control to inch the speed up and down matching my speed to cars in front before I could overtake, and as mentioned before it's really quite jerky. Even 1mph up or down created a noticeable jerk that the passenger didn't like as unlike me she wasn't expecting it. By contrast using CNCL even though it's effectively lifting the throttle off altogether is much smoother, implying selecting a lower speed with SET- does more than simply decelerating.

January 24: A complaint on the forum about the seat heaters not being as effective as the Golf, and going off after a period. They certainly aren't as hot, we had to turn those down from 3 to 2 to 1 quite soon after turning them on. Haven't used these much, and testing them they do eventually get too warm on 3 but it takes a long time. Deliberately leaving mine on 3 to see what happened I found that it went down to 2 after about 8 minutes. Putting it back up to three it again went down to 2 after 8 minutes. Left it there, but wasn't driving long enough to see if it went down any further or off after that.

Speaking of tiny symbols some of the information is displayed in a very small font - for my eyes at least, I didn't have that problem with the Golf. Taken with the camera in front of my face I think this is a reasonable representation (on a 17" diagonal PC screen) of what I see:

The right-hand 'Home' button shows the following options in front of the driver. No indication of how many there are or where you are in the 'list' unlike the MBUX screens. Assistance (Attention Assist, Active Lane Keeping Assist, Blind Spot/Active Blind Spot Assist), Telephone (as per MBUX) and Navigation (as per MBUX):

Trip, Radio and Media (as per MBUX):

Styles (as per MBUX) and Service:

Other info on these screens (top left to bottom right): External temp, time, speed in kph, parking brake applied, fuel including range when ignition is on, 'Comfort' driving style.

Not a patch on the Golf which had two dials plus all the trip info between them. This version of the drivers data can only display a speedo, or a tach, or consumption data, or trip data, albeit with a digital speed displayed on each including the analogue speedo!

Basic analogue speedo with digital below; trip and total miles; outside temp; current time; speed in kph; red 'P' for parking brake applied; fuel gauge with range; and selected driving style - 'C' for 'Comfort' driving mode:

An odd one this - digital speedo in the centre of an analogue dial with no numbers, and no mileage info. The pointer goes round with speed leaving nice little ticks behind, but that's all:

Tachometer with digital speed below, probably the most useful, although how often do you need a tachometer in normal driving?

Analogue instantaneous MPG with a weird 'Charge' section at the maximum end. Some have insisted that this indicates it is a hybrid, others that this shows the battery being charged at a higher voltage when driving extremely economically, being charged at a lower rate to reduce the load on the engine at other times. But to get that far you would need to average more than 60mpg (which I discovered can be achieved at a steady 30, 40 and 50!). Intermediate marks between 20 and 40 at a curious 4 mpg spacing rather than 5, maybe it makes more sense 'litres per 100km'. On initial deceleration it seems to swing round to 60, pause, then if still decelerating swings through the Charge section, and with the engine data showing in the central screen the battery voltage isn't changing. The bright blue section shows instantaneous consumption as does the digital display in the middle (10 mpg). The white line going round from zero and ending at the white triangle over 38 indicates the 'Average from start' consumption.

The only gear change information seems to be when it thinks you are revving too high and prompts you to change up one (or two) gears in the lower right-hand corner (to 3rd here) so not a lot of use. 'Range' in the centre duplicates that by the fuel gauge. Other info on this screen is 'cruise control active but speed not set' upper left and above fuel 'lane markings detected'.

A 'polar' graph showing cumulative levels of acceleration, constant speed and 'coasting' (deceleration?), and how many 'bonus' miles you have earned by driving economically!

'Seat belt not fastened' in red centre left, below that lane lines detected by Active Lane Keeping. The black 'P' in a blue (not white as it appears here) square at top-right seems to be connected to Park Assist which is available below 22mph. But it comes on below that speed irrespective of whether you have pushed the button or not. Didn't know what it was at first and pictures elsewhere show it as a white P on a blue background with a white border i.e. like the road sign. One outlandish suggestion has been that it's your car telling Mercedes Me and hence other MB cars that your car has found a parking space for them!

Average consumption, distance and time since the last start. Numbers big enough here but I have to squint to read them, nowhere near as clear as the Golf. As per the Golf the figures seem to be from when you have started a journey, including short breaks such as shopping:

Ditto from the last trip reset. Based on the total mileage on the main speedo screen it was last reset just 14 miles from new! To reset the miles, time, and average consumption and speed, press the swipe button, select Yes, then press the swipe button again. Or press and hold the swipe button to reset without further ado.

Other than the conventional speedo the only one of any real use is the analogue consumption screen which can be 'read' at a glance, the digital ones needing more time.

Six options, but again no indication of how many or where you are in the list:

Warning messages (none to display)

Tyre pressures, display and swipe down to reset. Apparently you need the Mercedes Me app in Apple or Android to see the pressures in PSI instead of kPa. My phone is an ancient Windows but my Android tablet which is only a few months old is apparently not compatible!:

Additional info: Yellow 'A' with line through is 'Auto Start/Stop not available - usually battery not fully charged. '30' speed limit sign is the last speed limit detected by the camera. Below that cruise control is active and a speed of 35mph (naughty-naughty) has been selected. 'HOLD' in a white rectangle is HOLD function active.

'Assyst' (sic) Plus (next service due):

Yee-hah! Coolant temperature!

Engine oil level:

Consumption info is Since Start and Since Reset as found elsewhere.

Top level displayed by pressing the Home button on the left-hand or central control panels. Three of eight items displayed at any one time, the line of grey dots centrally near the bottom depicts eight items are available with the white ones showing which are displayed (the first three here) and the red dot which of those is 'active', in this case Navigation. Two icons below each item for common functions. Across the top first left is clicked to show any warning messages, then time display, mobile signal strength, mobile battery level, mobile signal type e.g. 4G, SOS system status, audio muted. Centre top allow you to search for items in the online manual. Top right 'Profile' allows you to create and save different screen layouts etc. for different occupants. Bottom left shows climate control temperature setting, with air direction bottom right. 'Themes' in the centre allows you to display a set of info and driving screens according to the type of journey you are on with one click rather than having to set the two displays up separately:

The navigation system takes the full postcode. En route you can use voice control to select a pre-saved destination, otherwise it will take you to a city, town, village etc. but not a final destination (unless you are lucky!) and heading to Silverstone circuit it was taking me to Silverstone village. I tried speaking the postcode but that didn't work, you can also 'write' the postcode on the central trackpad but with my left hand would be too distracting so had to stop to enter it manually.

Second group of three top-level menu options displayed with 'Info' selected, they can be dragged and dropped into any order i.e. your most frequently used displayed first when the Home button is pressed:

The right-hand group of three displayed with 'Store' selected:

Settings, System, shows the the more sophisticated display system with two 10.25" screens even when the car has the 'lesser' 7" driving data screen.

Radio/Media:

'Info' screens:

Vehicle: Accelerator and brake pedal pressure on the right, steering angle under the front wheel. Top left as before, top right seems to be time and distance to home, both of which can be removed by going to 'full screen' i.e. the button lower centre:

Engine: Battery voltage lower left, oil temp right-hand side, but no coolant temp. Who needs output, torque and charge-air pressure?

Consumption: Instantaneous over a period of time selectable in steps from 5 mins upwards, 30 mins selected. The left-hand scale i.e. is fixed i.e. displays a maximum of 80mpg which is easily exceeded driving at 30 and 40mph for more than a few minutes:

Experimenting on a quiet A road 30, 40 and 50 all seem to achieve over 60 mpg. and that's in 4th and 5th gear.

'Owner's Manual' is self-explanatory.

Updates: 'Over the air' updates are performed, automatically if selected in Settings, System and scroll down, but there seem to be various types. The first one I was aware of was being done automatically in the background and I only came across it by chance. That one only happens when the engine is running, possibly to avoid tipping a marginal battery over the edge as it seemed to be taking a very long time. Even an hours drive only saw it 50% (by MB, not %) done, it did eventually get up to 90%, then after not using the car for several days it seems to go back to zero. Then a couple of weeks later a different one appeared, this time taking over the MBUX display and saying I had to scroll through and accept the Ts&Cs ... but it would only do that if I switched off, but as I had only got in the car to go somewhere that was hardly convenient so had to select 'install later'. When eventually I did accept the Ts&Cs the MBUX went completely blank and no information on progress was available. Eventually I could see from it had completed, and MBUX was available again, but the app was showing that another one was waiting to be installed. Back to Settings, System, and this time it was showing a spiral going round and round and '50%' as if it was in progress (engine not running), but not getting any higher. Eventually the app showed that one had completed as well. During them the app says 'some facilities may not be available', and to 'check settings when complete', but given the number of screens and settings that could take some time!

Camera and Parking:

November 2023: The reversing camera view suddenly looked different one morning, after more than a year of ownership and always reversing off my drive. I hadn't taken any pictures earlier so I can't be certain it has actually changed, but there was something new in the driver' display at the same time saying 'SOS not available'. I've always been aware that 'SOS NOT READY comes up top left of MBUX before starting the engine and after switching off but thought that changed to 'SOS' with the engine running, however I can't find any pictures showing it. I'd been aware for a couple of weeks that that SOS wasn't available after reading somewhere that it only continues to be available if you have the car serviced at an MB dealership, which I didn't in September, so I'm not surprised it isn't available. But since I've not had it available in any other car over more than 50 years I can live without it. At that time I tried to use voice commands to phone someone (not used that before) and got the message 'Online services not available' or similar, not looked into that since. As a result of what seemed to be the camera change, and the definite change in the driver's display regarding SOS, after using the car I checked 'Mercedes me' and discovered there has been a software update installed that very day for the communications module to do with Mercedes me, although there had been no notification when starting the car that morning that there was one, which there has been in the past. Anyway, back to the reversing camera.

This is similar to what I had remembered except I don't recall the white area at the bottom, nor the red line above it and they were the first things I noticed, neither do I remember the three icons on the left:

I tapped the middle icon and got this wide-angle view. Without the guide lines it's not much use for reversing into a space, but I suppose in a car park when reversing out of a space it will show vehicles approaching from the sides - the visibility through the rear quarters on this car is very poor:

Tapping the top icon does what it says at the top i.e. press the park assist button on the centre console so the car looks for spaces when driving forwards - should you need it!

Should you then tap the icon top-right on the above screen it turns Park Assist off as indicated in the driver's display top-right between the time and the speed:

Speed Limits:

Active Lane Keeping:

Whilst I get the green symbol of a car between two lines on the screen when there are white lines on the road, nothing seems to happen if I go over them without indicating. Reading elsewhere it seems it only works over 50mph, and reacts differently between broken white lines and solid. All very confusing as with similar features. It comes in for even more scorn than brake assist, one poster saying he had to swerve onto a hard shoulder to avoid a truck pulling into his lane and about to side-swipe him, the system tried to push him back into the lane by braking just one wheel and he had to use significant force to override it. Another poster I'm having a private conversation with said his did exactly the same thing under similar circumstances, I've asked him what happens if he just drifts out of the lane.

However it was only when on the relatively smooth surface of a motorway that I could just detect three faint vibrations of the wheel changing lanes without indicating (I habitually don't when pulling back in after overtaking) which at first I put down to nothing more than the road studs. However it was only when I noticed it didn't happen when indicating to pull out, only when pulling back when not indicating, that I realised what it was, and it was nowhere near trying to steer me back. At the current settings it is pretty useless, the rumble strips at the edges of the carriageway are far more noticeable as are the cats-eyes between the lanes. The 'Warning' setting is simply on or off, not how aggressive (or otherwise) the sensitivity is.

November 2022: Someone on the A-Class UK forum said that if you go over a broken white line you only get the wheel shake, it's if you go over a solid white line that you get the steering input. Possibly so, but the manual has another section - Active Steering Assist (illogically under 'Quick Access' rather than 'Assistance') which involves a graphic of a steering wheel with two hands, and that says 'Active Steering Assist has a limited steering torque for lateral guidance. In some cases, the steering intervention is not sufficient to keep the vehicle in the lane or drive through exits' so that's going to be the bit that steers the car, not Lane Assist, and that's not shown in my MBUX so another optional extra along with adaptive cruise control.

August 23: Twice now I've been driving along a dual carriageway at less than 50, changed lanes without indicating and there has been an audible and physical sensation in terms of a marked deceleration very similar to driving through a deep puddle, no other warning sounds or symbols (that I noticed). The road was wet with a longitudinal puddle where the central white broken line was so I wondered if the system had interpreted that as a continuous white line. Then some weeks later exactly the same thing happened, on the same road but in the opposite direction, and this time the road was bone-dry. Very disconcerting not to say distracting.

January 23: Keeps happening, so not distracting now, but under varying conditions none of which have actually been crossing a continuous white line (still not found anywhere suitable to try that). It's more like moderate braking than any steering input, and always with the same sound like splashing through a puddle, with a plan-view of the car on the driver's screen with a red flashing bar down the side it thinks has the problem.

Active Brake Assist:

It has Active Brake Assist in as far as I can set the level in the MBUX display, but even on 'early' it still allows me to slowly get too close to the car in front without anything happening for my comfort. On the Golf 'early' detection of vehicles in front left gaps big enough that encouraged other vehicles to pull out in front of me on dual carriageways and motorways, slowing me down to extend the gap ... so another one pulls out! However that was with adaptive cruise control. Fora opinion is that Active Brake Assist slams on the brakes when inappropriate like a bird flying in front of the car or a grass bank metres away, yet it's not possible to 'test' it on public roads without getting far too close for comfort. I didn't get braking but I did get a high pitched tone and a red triangle when a van in front of me practically came to a halt to turn when for me there was still a comfortable gap, but later on it ignored a car slowing to a halt in front of me which was much closer. It's as if suddenly 'seeing' something it reacts suddenly, but if you creep up on something it's asleep. Or it could be that if you are still driving/not braking when it sees the hazard it warns you, but not when you are already slowing down, which has a certain amount of logic. Another time it starts squawking is on a narrow winding single-carriageway when it sees a moderate bend as an obstruction.

'Early' was too intrusive with frequent sound and flashing screens so I turned it down to medium, and now I just get a red triangle when it thinks I'm too close. However on one occasion - I think I had just looked up at the rear-view mirror when the car in front braked sharply, and as well as the sound and triangle I felt the brakes apply. It's very confusing as to just what each car has by way of 'assistance', and impossible to test without a test track.

Attention Assist:

When picking up the car with the ignition on but engine not started for a while a battery warning came on which the salesman said was because it had been unused for a some time, and it would charge back up. No long journeys done but whilst that didn't happen again in the first couple of weeks I then got it again a couple of times in quick succession, then each time I got in the car. I'm wondering whether this is going to be like the ZS 180 in that it needed the lithium battery pack from time to time, the Golf showed no signs of that in two years with very similar usage. Checking my two MGBs (both recent batteries with cut-off switches when garaged, as had the ZS 180) they are 12.7v ignition off and 12.2 ignition on. Not directly comparable but having unlocked it and opened the door to open the bonnet (which wakes various circuits up) this one is 11.9v. I'm going to borrow a pal's recovery charger and see what that shows, and does. Low voltage may be why Auto Stop hasn't cut in yet - although the Golf only did that in consistently heavy traffic even after a long motorway journey - but the journey home from the dealer in this A-Class was quite congested. Quite a long thread here with some interesting comments, including some people getting warning to stop the car but leave the engine running, repeated trips to MB service (all they did was charge the battery) not resolving it until they replaced the battery.

What a nightmare that will be! There are three finger scallops and an arrow at the front of the battery cover, it has to be slid forwards a couple of centimetres then lifted off. But mine is very tight and I have to push first one side forwards from the back whilst pushing the lower plastic part (with the hole and cable coming out) back, then the other side, before it will slide forwards enough to be lifted up:

Somewhere under all that is the battery! What on earth all those bits and cables are for I have no idea, the days of undoing two connectors and a clamp bolt and lifting the battery out are long gone!

But for charging and boost starting there is a red sliding cover on the main battery cover, pushed back here to reveal the connection:

The -ve boost starting/charging contact is in the bonnet drain channel nearby:

September 2022:

Pal's charger is a CTEK MXS 5.0 with multiple programs for bikes, cars, conventional lead-acid batteries, Absorbent (erroneously called 'absorbed' or 'advanced') Glass Mat (AGM) batteries and an optional 'Recond' mode for each: First question is what type of battery do I have? Conventional lead-acid are filled with liquid electrolyte and the cells have caps and/or an electrolyte level indicator, AGM are flat-topped with no removable caps or indicator (as this one), the electrolyte is soaked into a thin fibreglass mat between each pair of plates so no liquid to audibly slosh around. 'Recond' uses a higher voltage to cause the electrolyte to gas which encourages mixing to get an even specific gravity throughout which improves capacity. So under the circumstances car, AGM, and Recond selected. The stage indicators moved through 1 and 2 to 3 very quickly, so presumably sulphation not detected. From an initial pre-charge voltage of 11.4v it went up to 12.4v at the beginning of stage 3 ... and stuck there for the next two hours. Another hour saw 14.4v, and an hour after that it had moved to stage 4 - I had visions of stage 3 taking more of the 20 hours indicated! I'd hoped that it would get to Recond in about another hour but six hours later it was still in stage 4, after being on charge for 11 hours in total. Parked on the drive I had to disconnect for the night. Next morning showed 12.3v (not the true resting voltage as it had been 'woken up' by unlocking to open the bonnet) before connecting the charger, up from 11.4v yesterday morning. Rapidly went through stages 1 and 2 to 3, then less than an hour later was on stage 4 showing 14.8v, then two hours later (having passed through stage 5) on stage 6 (Recond) showing about 14.8v. In the end it took at least 10 hours that day if not 11, plus 11 the previous day, before it got through Recond to Float i.e. supposedly fully charged. Used two days later the first time we came to a halt in traffic sitting there with the clutch down I noticed the gear indicator was telling me to select N, which I did, and Auto Stop cut in for the first time. It'll be interesting to see how long before that stops working, or I start getting battery warnings again, or maybe now that the battery is fully charged I never will.

A week later after unlocking, opening the bonnet then locking again and waiting about an hour (but not running the engine) it showed 12.6v so close to the 'ideal' resting voltage after having been run. Next test will be after having been used, bonnet opened, locked, then left at least half an hour before testing. That also came out at 12.6v after a short trip, the day after a longer trip of 50 miles each way.

November 2022:

December 2022:

February 2023:

March 2023:

November 2023:

December 2023:

March 2024:

Protecting the battery while parked up for an extended period: Subsequently looking into why the handbrake jams on after being parked overnight or longer and looking in the manual, I come across the following strange information under 'Notes on parking up the vehicle':

Auxiliary battery:
Yes, another small lead-acid battery that apparently keeps certain things working like SOS if the main starter battery should fail. Sounds logical, some say it is needed for Auto Start/Stop which doesn't. Only 1.2AH but £75 from MB and seemingly little choice. Under the centre console in the 177 (it was above the passenger footwell in the 176) a pretty good guide on how to get to it if needed can be found here. It has its own warning message, and if it fails the MBUX screen can be blank. It's apparently kept charged by the alternator (but to what voltage? ...) and is also charged if you use an external charger such as the CTEK on the main battery.

Wheel Cleaning: Advised by the sales chappie not to use the same brush for cleaning the body as I use for cleaning the wheels (which is something I've been doing for 50+ years ...), I could immediately see the sense in keeping brake dust off the paintwork, so bought a second hose brush. The one I've been using since my then fiancee (now wife of 52 years) bought me for our first car has proved to be remarkably robust ... but then I've never been one for cleaning my cars weekly! Bought a Hilka, which poured water out of all sorts of places as well as the brush head initially, but once that was sorted it's pretty good. The bristles are stiffer than my old one, and even with that it still took quite a bit of effort to clean the lower front corners aft of the wheels (see sill protection). Anyway, back to the wheels. My old brush does a good enough job of cleaning the outer face of the wheels, which leaves the side of the spokes and the rim between them. I've also got a wheel cleaning implement from Halfords which is a like a soft scourer on a hard backing and that is effective for the sides of the spokes and the outer part of the rim, and that is how I left it the first time I washed it. The Navigator was not impressed is it left the inner part of the rim untouched. So this time I used the face of the 'scourer' to clean the main part of the inner rim, and the edge to clean the bit behind the spokes. But that still left a triangle of dirt behind each spoke, so there was nothing for it but to use a Mk1 digit on that, which left them looking as good as when we picked up the car. Shades of MGB chrome wire wheel cleaning, but not quite as long with three stages as opposed to four on the MGB for the full job which takes an hour per wheel.

Tyre Pressures: Listed for your particular car inside the fuel filler flap, shown in-car on the Service, Tyres screen, and shown in Mercedes me, Tyre pressure. For mine 260kPa/38psi front and either 230kPa/33psi rear with 'normal' loading or 260kPa/38psi (i.e. same as fronts) fully loaded.

Punctures: No spare, jack or wheel change kit with the car, just a 'TIREFIT kit' consisting of a tyre sealant bottle and inflater. OK for nails and the like in the tread but no good for anything more serious like a cut or sidewall damage. Some markets apparently do carry a spare and changing kit, and they are listed by 'the Wheel shop' as an accessory, with a cover (not big enough for the removed wheel), with or without jack and wheel-nut 'brace'. Some on the forum have asked about modifying the boot floor to store them under the cover, but when I asked how often you carry so many people and so much stuff that there isn't enough room above the cover, there was no response.

Jacking: A pal asked me about jacking and I remembered seeing something on the forum about this, and needing a jack that fitted into a socket at the jacking point. The manual shows a scissors jack being used in those markets that get one, I have one and that does have a rectangular pad that would appear to fit into a socket. Searching the forum I found several threads that got more and more confusing, as fitted to the car is something variously described as a 'jacking pad', or 'jacking point cover', or 'jack support pad', at each 'corner'. Also mentioned is a rubber block that fits inside the factory bit when a jack is used. All very confusing.

Rather than being part of a chassis member there is a rectangular moulded 'rubber' receptacle that is screwed to the chassis with a plastic screw, with a rectangular recess for a jack saddle. Several people have found them missing, possibly having been ripped off by water blasting from a puddle as the front ones are directly behind the wheels, or having been caught on something on or in the road surface - these cars have a very low ground clearance for a family saloon, lower than some sports cars, and traffic calming measures can be a particular problem. However unless you use a jack with a matching rectangular business end that fits in the recess there is going to be more of a risk of slipping than with a typical trolley jack under a dedicated chassis lifting point. Someone on the A-Class forum has stated that they haven't changed for years, but the W177 from 2018 on has a different shape (pictured) to the previous W176, part number 0005833403.

There are jack adapters that fit inside the recess, and have a cylindrical base. But again, unless your jack saddle encompasses the cylinder in some way, there is a significant risk of slippage as the angle of that corner of the car changes while being raised. There are also two types for the A-Class - one for cars up to the W176, and another for the W177, and whilst the W176 ones (rubber) are about £7 the W177 (polyurethane) are £25! Looking at ads for the two types I didn't initially spot the difference, but decided to buy the poly one just in case, and it was only after receiving that and looking at ads for the cheap ones again I noticed the W177 ones have semi-circular protrusions that engage with cut-outs on the car part and the cheap ones don't. Fair enough, but the cheap one are shown being offered up to a jack point with the semi-circular cut-outs.

And whilst the top of the adapter fits the recess on the car snugly, the cylindrical base is quite a bit wider than either of my trolley jack saddles which have four tabs sticking up designed to encompass suspension and other chassis components to prevent slipping. These saddles fit into a cylindrical recessed part of the jack, but again the adapter cylinder is too wide to fit in that. Not only that but even sitting on the cylindrical part of my jack it will not go under the car, let alone sitting on the jack lifting pad. The only time I have a problem with that jack (without adapters) is lifting the front of the V8 as although it fits under the front valance and engages with the rear edge of the front cross-member, the valance is the 'splitter' type which projects forwards a couple of inches, and does not allow the handle to be raised for jacking. So I jack under one corner at the wheel, slide a block under the tyre, and that gives me just enough room.

I have bottle and scissors jacks as well, but for different reasons I won't use those directly on the cars' jack point, and I definitely wouldn't use them under the adapter because of the same risk of slipping. Trimming the base of the adapter to fit is a possibility but would need quite a bit cutting off, and I don't want to jump in and do that to the expensive poly one straight away, so I order one of the cheap ones as well.

That has a slightly smaller rectangular block to engage with the recess on the car but I can't see that being a problem. The cylindrical section is smaller by a bigger margin and just a little shaving of the lower edge allows it so it in my big jack saddle snugly. But that's nowhere near fitting under the car, and even removing the saddle altogether and with no adapter the end of the jack arm only just fits under the rear jack point and doesn't even go under the sill at the front. Just the other night we were walking back to the car, unusually had a distant view of the side and The Navigator commented how low it was, particularly at the front. Out of interest I measured and although there is 150mm clearance under the rear jack point there is only 118mm under the front, and that's probably not the lowest point of the car. I have various wood ramps which I can drive the car onto but care needs to be taken not to drive off the ends especially at the front where I need to drive on further, and trying to stop the car at the right place is a lot more fiddly with the electric handbrake button that it would be with a 'proper' handbrake.

I know there are 'low-profile' jacks, and some have wide saddles where the larger adapter can drop into a recess, so I could replace my jack with one of those when I need to ... but that type are about four times the price of 'ordinary' trolley jacks. There are cheaper low-profile, but they have a much smaller saddle, and in any event saddle plus adapter would still need to be lower than 118mm.

Subsequently had the idea of cutting a circular channel so the smaller jack-pad will fit the larger, correct adapter, and that turned out well.

Despite the postal disruption over Christmas they arrive in a couple of days. As well as the guards and tools there are a pair of sealed wipes, instructions, and a packet of sweets! Installation needs more care than expected due to an adhesive strip down the thinner edge which attaches to the wing flange above the clips and sill. The surfaces need to be clean (hence the wipes for the wing flange), dry, heated until quite warm with a heat gun, and once fitted the glued section needs to be held in place for ideally 24 hours, adhesive tape is suggested for this, all in an ambient temperature of 10C minimum, so winter not the ideal time to fit! However the wing flange is curved of course, and although the guards are only thin and flex easily they will be trying to straighten all the time and lift the central section away from the flange, and it seemed to me adhesive tape would not resist that very well. It would need to be stuck to the outer face of the wing, so the tape you use needs to come away without leaving residue behind which would need cleaning and risk of marking the paint, but it needs to stick to the arch liner as well so that has to be clean and dry as well. It seemed to me that some kind of clamp would be better. Spring clamps was my first thought, and there is enough room to fit them as the liner is recessed immediately inboard of the wing flange where the centre of the adhesive section will be. They do fit and hold the guards in place, but they ping off quite easily as the surface of the guards is very slippy, the flange is only narrow which means the rear 'foot' is only partially on and pivots to an angle instead of lying flat. Thought about clothes pegs, but the ends would need to be trimmed back for the same reason, and the spring isn't very strong. I dismantled a couple and bent the springs to give more tension, but had another idea. As said the spring clamps have pivoting feet to accommodate non-parallel surfaces, which isn't required in this case. The feet are held on with pins and it was a moments work to push the pin out and remove the foot on one side - the side that will go behind the wing flange, the foot on the guard side can stay. It now clamps 'square', and that prevents them pinging off. With one of those in the middle (I only have a pair) modified clothes pegs above and below should clamp the rest.

As said the arch liner is held on with two trim clips at the bottom and it is a moments work with a forked trim tool to pull back the centre pin, it needs to come back a good 1/2" before the body of the clip will come away. That done the guard is slid behind the lower part of the arch liner by the sill, and the trim clips refitted. Don't push the centre-pin back in just yet. There is a fair bit of scope to pivot and position the guards so the adhesive strip is in line with the wing flange, and once you are happy with the positioning you can remove the guard, clean and dry the wing flange, heat the guards then fit and clamp for several hours and preferably overnight.

Salesman offered to talk me through installing it on my phone when I picked up the car but I knew that was pointless being a Nokia Microsoft. Had an Android tablet bought recently and it wouldn't install on that saying the operating system was too old. It was supposed to be up to date but Mercedes told me they could be 'spoofed' to show a later version but were actually an earlier version. Subsequently bought another one (for a different reason) of a different make and that was the same. Then later still I bought a reconditioned Android phone (again for a different reason) and it installed on that and connected using what I had set up previously.

More screens than you can shake a stick at, this is the home screen. Hover over an area for a description, click it for more detailed information. Scroll your phone screen to get to the lower sections:

Warnings will be displayed below the 'Range' message, tap to go to the 'Warnings' screen:

Critical messages such as for battery, brake fluid, coolant and washer fluid will take you to the Service screen: