C Class (W205) C 180 BlueTec,C 200 BlueTec,C 220 BlueTec,C 220 BlueTec BlueEfficiency,C 250 BlueTec,C 300 BlueTec Hybridplus,C 180,C 180 BlueEfficiency,C 200,C 250,C 300,C 400 Plug-in Hybrid,C 400

Distronic and Lightining packages experience

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Rate Thread
 
Old May 27, 2015 | 01:12 AM
  #1  
Sarmun's Avatar
Thread Starter
Junior Member
 
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 15
Likes: 2
C300 4Matic 2015
Distronic and Lightining packages experience

I've been on a first road trip, and had a chance to play much more with autonomous driving features of the car, and here are some thoughts after the trip:

- adaptive cruise control is awesome. When turned on, I was able to completely rely on cruise control on the highway - no matter how much traffic there is, and not touch the gas/break for extended periods, while just steering, making it much more enjoyable to go through LA traffic. It takes some time to get used to it and trust it enough (suggest trying with higher distance first, and then decreasing as you like), but it made the trip much more enjoyable. Following distance can be tweaked from car not being able to get in between (unless other guy is crazy), to being quite a while behind for it to break before you start stressing. There is something to be desired though - first it seems to be targeting to match the distance, not speed of the car in front - if car in front is going much slower, it will go fast until it is around the set distance, and then break aggressively. It would've been much better if it was programmed with much more concern for the smoothness of the ride. Also, if there is suddenly a full stop on the highway - I am not sure if it would be able to break on it's own - every time I gave it few seconds more then when I would start breaking, but I didn't have ***** to let it completely - and I braked before it every single time. Overall, only thing you need to worry about is bikers, keeping eye for people switching lanes, and abrupt full stops.

- lane keeping assist performs much worse - tried to let it control the vehicle on the open road without much traffic, and sometimes it steers nicely, sometimes it lets the car step over the lane markings. Sometimes it seems like it turns off temporarily by itself (on the dashboard wheel goes from green to white). Additionally, in stop&go traffic, if the car in front starts switching lanes, it will try to follow it, getting to the edge of the lane. Overall, it might be useful as an aid, so you don't do anything stupid, but you basically have to steer for yourself.

- from safety - steering wheel vibrates (most of the time) when you step on the line without turn signals. Couple of times, when a car in front abruptly started stopping and turning, without previously giving a turn signal, it beeped right when I was about to hit the break, and it never got a chance to break on it's own

- I am not sure what active LED and adaptive high-beams should be doing. When turned on, if there is no car in front (I suppose no external light cameras can see), it turns on high-beams, in all other situations it puts low beams. As soon as any car appears, it turns off high beams, hopefully not affecting them at all. And that was the only difference I was clearly able to see. Steering might be changing the angles of the lights, but nothing drastically that is obviously visible. Not sure if it should even do that, but I was expecting it to have intermediary states between low-beams and high-beams, depending on how far the other cars are. Anyways, high-beams lit everything extremely well, I am not sure I am really satisfied with the how much low-beams light up the road.
Reply
Old May 27, 2015 | 06:11 AM
  #2  
Merlin1's Avatar
Member
 
Joined: Jul 2014
Posts: 228
Likes: 1
From: UK
W205 C200 Sport Premium Plus. October 2018. 1497cc with 48 volt battery eq
From MB Guides










Reply
Old May 27, 2015 | 06:47 AM
  #3  
ManiacGT's Avatar
MBWorld Fanatic!
 
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 2,075
Likes: 59
From: Manchester, UK
BMW e89 Z4 sDrive 35i & MB S205 C200 AMG Premium Plus
What I'd like to know more about, as per the OP's subject line, is the lightning package. Now that sounds like a package worth having!
Reply
Old May 27, 2015 | 10:03 AM
  #4  
miketc's Avatar
Super Member
10 Year Member
Liked
 
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 500
Likes: 15
W205
Lighting fuctionality is different between US and EU due to regulations. The States do not have functions such as active light, cornering light, Motorway mode, Extended range foglamps. Don't know if we have the Adaptive Highbeam Assist Plus in the States or not. The only thing I could tell is the highbeams will come on when there are no cars in front of you. Others may have better insights to the States' features.
Reply
Old May 27, 2015 | 01:01 PM
  #5  
Sarmun's Avatar
Thread Starter
Junior Member
 
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 15
Likes: 2
C300 4Matic 2015
@ManiacGT - anything concrete you would like to know?

Lightening package definitely looks great - it really improves how front looks on the car.

In the US, package contains:
Active full-LED headlamps and LED taillamps
Adaptive Highbeam Assist
Active Curve Illumination

It says: "Active Curve Illumination and Adaptive Highbeam Assist continuously vary the beam pattern of the 50 LEDs in each headlamp to help maximize the illumination of corners and straightaways, without creating glare for other drivers"

As I said - the only thing they were actively doing that I was able to notice from about an hour driving on a night curvy road, is that if there is any source of light in front (no matter how small), lights would be in low beam. If it is fully dark in front, they would go into high beam. It takes them less then a second to turn off when a car appears, and are pretty fast to turn back on (few seconds), after the car passes.
Note that we don't get "Adaptive Highbeam Assist Plus" - which partially covers the other car.
As shown on the pictures, low beams are shorter on the driver side, then they are on the passenger side.
Reply
Old May 27, 2015 | 01:08 PM
  #6  
ManiacGT's Avatar
MBWorld Fanatic!
 
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 2,075
Likes: 59
From: Manchester, UK
BMW e89 Z4 sDrive 35i & MB S205 C200 AMG Premium Plus
Sorry it's a play on words... I was being sarcastic ;(

Lighting package (ie lights)
And
Lightining/lightening package (aka similar spelling to lightning as in from a storm)

Sadly the joke has passed lol
Reply
Old May 27, 2015 | 02:19 PM
  #7  
Sarmun's Avatar
Thread Starter
Junior Member
 
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 15
Likes: 2
C300 4Matic 2015
Ah - missed that - english is not my first language, as you can see. That would really be a cool package
Reply
Old May 27, 2015 | 03:31 PM
  #8  
jolt8631's Avatar
Super Member
 
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 561
Likes: 4
From: UK (South West)
2015 C220 AMG Line Bluetech.
Originally Posted by Sarmun
Ah - missed that - english is not my first language, as you can see. That would really be a cool package
Sarmun - don't worry,.... English IS my first language and I had to read it 3 times before I Spotted it!
Reply
MB World Stories

The Best of Mercedes & AMG

story-0

Six Gift Ideas Your AMG Loving Dad or Grad Will Cherish

 
story-1

7 Craziest Things AMG Gas Ever Built

 Verdad Gallardo
story-2

New Electric Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe Unveiled: 10 Things You Need to Know

 Verdad Gallardo
story-3

6 Mercedes Models That Did NOT Age Well (But Are Somehow Still Cool)

 Verdad Gallardo
story-4

Manual Mercedes? 6 Times Sindelfingen Let Drivers Have All The Fun

 Verdad Gallardo
story-5

Mercedes SLR McLaren 722 S Is Extremely Rare Example Modified by McLaren

 Verdad Gallardo
story-6

8 Classic Boxy Mercedes Designs That Have Aged Like Fine Wine

 Verdad Gallardo
story-7

Flawlessly Restored Mercedes 190E Evo II Heads to Auction

 Verdad Gallardo
story-8

Electric Mercedes C-Class Unveiled: 11 Things You Need to Know

 Verdad Gallardo
story-9

Mercedes EQS Gets A Major Update: Everything You Need to Know

 Verdad Gallardo

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 


You have already rated this thread Rating: Thread Rating: 0 votes,  average.


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 09:53 PM.

story-0
Six Gift Ideas Your AMG Loving Dad or Grad Will Cherish

Slideshow: Six gift ideas your AMG loving dad or grad will cherish.

By | 2026-06-03 17:26:18


VIEW MORE
story-1
7 Craziest Things AMG Gas Ever Built

Slideshow: Sometimes AMG builds fast sedans. Other times, it builds twin-turbo V12 land missiles and six-wheeled off-road monsters.

By Verdad Gallardo | 2026-05-26 17:59:58


VIEW MORE
story-2
New Electric Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe Unveiled: 10 Things You Need to Know

Slideshow: Mercedes-AMG's new electric GT 4-Door Coupe trades combustion for software, synthetic noise, and more than 1,100 horsepower.

By Verdad Gallardo | 2026-05-20 20:08:15


VIEW MORE
story-3
6 Mercedes Models That Did NOT Age Well (But Are Somehow Still Cool)

Slideshow: Not every Mercedes design becomes timeless, some feel stuck in the era they came from.

By Verdad Gallardo | 2026-05-12 18:09:07


VIEW MORE
story-4
Manual Mercedes? 6 Times Sindelfingen Let Drivers Have All The Fun

Slideshow: Yes, Mercedes built manual cars, and some of them are far more interesting than you'd expect.

By Verdad Gallardo | 2026-05-02 12:36:58


VIEW MORE
story-5
Mercedes SLR McLaren 722 S Is Extremely Rare Example Modified by McLaren

Slideshow: A one-of-one U.S.-spec Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster became even rarer after a factory-backed transformation at McLaren's headquarters.

By Verdad Gallardo | 2026-04-29 11:19:28


VIEW MORE
story-6
8 Classic Boxy Mercedes Designs That Have Aged Like Fine Wine

Slideshow: Before curves took over, Mercedes mastered the art of the straight line, and some of those shapes still look right today.

By Verdad Gallardo | 2026-04-25 12:05:49


VIEW MORE
story-7
Flawlessly Restored Mercedes 190E Evo II Heads to Auction

Slideshow: The 190E Evolution II shows how a homologation necessity became a six-figure collector icon.

By Verdad Gallardo | 2026-04-22 17:53:47


VIEW MORE
story-8
Electric Mercedes C-Class Unveiled: 11 Things You Need to Know

Slideshow: Mercedes is turning one of its core nameplates electric, and the details show just how serious this shift is.

By Verdad Gallardo | 2026-04-21 13:58:06


VIEW MORE
story-9
Mercedes EQS Gets A Major Update: Everything You Need to Know

Slideshow: Faster charging, longer range, and a controversial steer-by-wire system define the latest evolution of Mercedes-Benz EQS.

By Verdad Gallardo | 2026-04-15 10:35:34


VIEW MORE