Here's a picture of a Euro C230 Coupe, and if you look closely, you'll see it has the more advanced digital climate control on the other Mercedes'. Must have taken it out as a cost cutting measure when it crossed the pond!

 

That little system right there is called thermotronic (in Europe). Here in the US we received the thermatic manual controlled unit. I think over there thermotronic was only available on top of the line models.

Andrew

 

A pity that they didn't include thermotronic in the American coupes. We do have the top of the line coupe anyway, in Europe they offer 4 engines for the car, our supercharged 192HP being the top model.

 

The digital climate control is used on the C320/C32 AMG. I think someone said you can upgrade the C230/C240 to this unit in Europe or Canada - not sure.

But, ours is a fully automatic system, so I'm happy with it -- it seems to work very well, I hardly ever adjust it.

 

...Yep, that climate control looks just like the one in my C320... BUT, what are the switches on the console to the right of the shifter?

 

That's a sequentronic 6 speed clutchless manual See my other post to learn more about it, and for a closer picture. It's only available in Europe. I SO want that! That is the ULTIMATE manual, 6 speed and clutchless. It's not gimmicky like the supposedly manual mode in automatic.

 

That unit is standard on UK C class coupes, but is an option on German coupes. (Option 581, Thermotronic)

Here is a link to the German price list
www.mercedes-benz.de/mbd/pdf/C-203-cp.pdf
take about 10% off the Euro values to convert to Dollars

I think the switch is parktronic

 

bluec230, the other picture of the sequentronic shows a much shorter shifter stalk than this photo. This looks like a standard shift in 1st or 3rd gear position. Toggle between the two to see.

My question is about the toggle switches sitting on the console itself, which are shown in the other post better.

 

Oops, I got both this pictures from the same euro web page, so I assumed it was the same. Maybe not! I still want sequentronic tho! NOW!!

 

You're not seeing things, bluec230. The pics DO look like they were taken from the same photo session by the same photographer. But if you look closely, I think they're from different cars. The sequentronic shifter appears much shorter and upright in it's mount (makes sense to sit upright, given its function).

 

MB-Bob, That switch is for a feature called "Lane Detection" - which I didnt know ever existed on the W203 range, and is apparently no longer an option. Im not quite sure what Lane detection is, but I imagine it warns you if you drift over the white lines

Other switches that could go there are the distronic "intelligent cruise control" stuff (again I didnt know that was ever there on the W203 range) and some taxi and police related stuff (MB's are used a lot as taxis/police in Germany, particular C/E/S class have taxi packages), and the winter heater package that is only available in very cold countries (remote/timer based independant heater to make your car warm before U get in)(btw, it is retrofittable to LHD cars).

(I happened to have a print out from that page of the electronic parts catalog, long story - I *hate* blank switches on cars, and the new SL has those similarly positioned blank switches)

 

Here's another picture of a C230K with the digital climate control...

 

Now that picture looks like the switch is for the "independant heating" [see my previous post a couple higher in this thread]