ElDiabloJoe

Ok,

I know you all have mentioned this before, but now that I've had my new E-500 for a few days, I cannot rant and rave enough about how incredibly *****ty the cup holders are!!! OMG!! Unless it's as thin as those teeny freebie water bottles, your coffee mug WILL NOT fit into the lower holder or the upper holder!

And that upper holder! It's so damned high that if I hit a bump and spill some coffee, I initially think some roof-mounted fire sprinkler went off! And a medium sized (grande) Starbucks or wherever fits, but not the sleeve used to keep from burning your hands. You have take special concern to make sure the sleeve doesn't prevent the cup from sitting properly in the weak-a$$ holder.

And that stupid little flange in the upper cup holder! WTF is that? I know, it's supposed to keep your cup secure, but you either have to use two hands to put your cup in the $%@ thing, or you have to angle the cup into it and push open the flange chingas and then angle the cup back straight up and down. And when you do that, surprise, you pour some of your drink out on the nice black bird's eye wood and the leather (-ette?) top of the center compartments.

With Germany's beer quaffing reputation, I hesitate to ask this, but do they not drink in Europe? Hello?

I almost would rather have my pick up truck back with it's two super generous sized cup holder wells with slip in adapters (just right for soda cans and 7-11 sized coffee mugs!

Jeeeezuz!

What they shoulda done, instead of trying to over-engineer the issue, is get rid of that folding Karate Kid crane move upper cup holder, and just make that whole lower area a nice 3 inch wide, 4 inch deep cup holder. Let there be a little plastic adapter approximately 2 inches high with an outer diameter of 3 inches (to fit in the cup holder) and an inner diameter of 2inches (or whatever snugly holds a standard soda-pop can). Perfect, simpler, cheaper, more reliable, more useful, less engineered, fewer parts, same space allocation.

EDJ
<still fuming, and ranting and raving! Expecting those guys in white jackets anytime now...>

rayscar

Well put ElDiabloJoe. I couldn't agree more. The cup holders are terrible. As i said in a previous post, Europeans just don't seem to get the cup holder thing. Too bad for us! My Jeep had two holes for cup holders as you describe in your post. They worked very weel and could hold any size cup. Very simple design, one that was probably much cheaper than MB's and it worked. MB could just design a sliding cover to hide the holes too.

mwillems

As I have mentioned before, this is a cultural thing. Drinking in cars is frowned upon in Europe and elsewhere - it's a typical American/Canadian thing. In Australia, drinking in the car is illegal, as is phoning on your cellphone. In some European countries it'll be the same I am sure.

So no wonder it does not get the attention GM gives it.

<Michael>

etenn

I disagree that "drinking in cars is frowned on in Europe"

We just returned from six months of driving around Europe. We leased a peugeot 406 and were in and out of about 15 countries.
You see people with soda, coffee and water bottles all over Europe. The cup holders all seem to be inadequate but the people seem to have a need for them.

I am disappointed to hear this from everyone. I don't even have my car yet and I am unhappy as EDJ

Does MB have a site for owners to make suggestions? Maybe MBUSA should take a more active interest in this forum.

pocholin

I knew the E500 had to have a defect, sorry it is the cup holder, it could've been the radio, the seats or something less important, right?

jhb

Has anyone tried to figure out if you can simply remove the mechanism below the pop up door and use the space as a large cupholder? Also, I think MB makes insulated cups/mugs with small diameter bottoms to fit the holders. I think we may have gotten them with our '03 SL.

Here is a link to one on the MB accessories page that indicates that it fits in all MB cupholders:

http://www.thecollection.mbusa.com/A...Attribute=true

You can see that it is smaller at the bottom. Here is another that is indicated to be for the M class but that it fits all others:

http://www.thecollection.mbusa.com/A...Attribute=true

If these suggestions do not work, I will gladly accept all donations of new E320s and E500s that anyone doesn't want anymore (for free, of course!!)

Hope this helps.

Jeff

rayscar

Jeff I remember reading in the manual that the front cup holders can be removed. It tells you how but I can't remember without reading it again. I don't know what the space underneath looks like though.

Ray

jim256

The cup holder design has persisted virtually unchanged since I had my '98 E (probably goes back to the '96 start of the W210), then my '01 C, and now my '03 E. They all are "critically acclaimed". Very critically. I have a hunch the powers that be like them just fine, our comments notwithstanding. The small spring-loaded arm on the new car actually requires a little more "tilt" of the cup to slide the arm out of the way. Hard to understand the thinking, but I believe there were no cupholders at all until the W210. We should be thankful for small favors. At least there's enough headroom for one of those hats with the straw and soda can!

ElDiabloJoe

Sayyyy, that's a niiiiice photo. Izzat yer seester? Can I meet her? Boy, she shore do got a purty mouf.

J/K, I know it's that model. Just wanted to fire back at ya for belittling my pet peeve.

EDJ

mwillems

Well, as a European who spent the best part of 35 years there I can assure you it IS frowned upon. That does not mean it is not done: like speeding, illicit sex, underage drinking, and drugs, MANY things that happen all the time are frowned upon or illegal. Point is of course that MB cannot be seen to be to active in condoning what is viewed as a bad habit.

Havinf said all that, I like the holder. It holds my Tim Hortons coffee very well. (that's Canada).

Michael

pocholin

LOL not my sis, but I can hook you up!

karl k

GM?

Check out the cupholder in the latest generation Corvettes: Adequate for a Cuban coffee = 8 cc of concentrate in a thimble!!

A feeble attempt to incorporate a cup-holder - for the FIRST time resulted in a chinzy pop-out ring from the dash for holding a cup - very poorly: The 2002 911 Porsche!

It's time to stop guzzling and learn to sip beverages from a thimble and behave very civilized.

An option for incurable guzzlers:
Go to AUTOZONE and buy a 75 cent plastic cup holder device, it looks like a muzzle and attaches to the the door/window recess crevice.

pocholin

Well, my wife's vette had a cup holder that was OK, but my 96 Impala SS which was huge only had a whimpy little cup holder that if used it would cover half of the radio, worst of all it would only accept a soda can, nothing wider not even at the top because then it would hit the radio and tilt! So GMs are not exclusive of ****ty cup holders.

MadManAboutTown

Guys,

Almost every car owner complains about the cup holders: too many, not big/deep enough, not sturdy enough, etc. Do a If that's the major complaint here, I ain't complaining!

Do this Google search on "crummy cup holders" and see what I mean!

Super Em

If E Class customers are only complaining about the cup holders, then I would say that MB engineers did a good job building this car.

pocholin

Good point of view too.

Mustard

Out of interest, MB have added a Bottle Holder option to the 2003 SL's. Atttached to the left of the passenger seat and can hold bottles of up to 1.5 litres, with a diameter of 95mm.

In response to demand, apparently.....

pocholin

ohh, how thoughtfull

ElDiabloJoe

Yeah, but I find it to be a quality of experience issue.

Let's say you're a HUGE sports fan. Spend all weekend watching em on you're big screen, flat-panel, super plasma HDTV screen with umpteen speaker surround sound and TiVo. Your wife is a sports widow .

But you just bought this new, really nice, really costly house. Wayy out in the gorgeous mountains of Colorado/Idaho/Montana/somewhere remote but beautiful. 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 4000 sq feet on multiple acres with an 6 car garage.

After you're moved in you realize, by some weird quirk of fate, it wasn't pre-wired for cable and due to your remote location, you can't get satellite services where your new estate is located.

No complaints about the new McMansion, but the minor thing, wellllll, for you, it's a quality of experience issue.

See what I mean?

EDJ

Mustard

ermm, pocholin, the point was perhaps legitimate complaints might have a quick response, as it has with the SL, thats all.....

karl k

QUOTE:

"...Colorado/Idaho/Montana/somewhere remote ...?" UNQUOTE

Forget about flat plasma hdtv.

Start shovelling snow! Enjoy the view.

rayscar

You've changed the picture. Is this the same woman? No problem with those cup holders.

mwillems

Actually, I like them too!

pocholin

nope, two different. Face was Adamari Lopez, new (body) is Patricia Manterola

pocholin

Me too, but I had people complaining about the other half of the face.