glojo

Someone on a completely different forum has read a long term report in a motoring magazine on the S211 Avantgarde Estate.

The only complaint was about the seats:

****around 38ccm are devoted to a "fundamental flaw" which Mel Nichols reckons is a bad seating position: " Trips of about 100 miles were about as much as I could tolerate".

This is said to be caused by offset steering wheels and pedals caused by a too -wide transmission tunnel, and stated to be shared by 6 out of 8 Autocar staff writers and a couple of readers.****

Has this been noticed by members on this forum?

Regards,
John

A mild misty morning in Torquay

glojo

First to vote

I am more than pleased with our seats, although they have all the options.

Regards to you all,
John

HELL ONA HARLEY

My seats are wonderful.... and all my passengers agree.

Barry45RPM

I find all I have to do is watch the "depth" adjustment (The forwardmost portion of the seat edge which is adjustable toward or away from the back of the knees), and the pitch of the seat cushion. If I have it raised too much in front & the depth is not right, after an hour in the car I feel as if the blood circulation to my lower legs has been cut back & my legs/feet ache.

khaug

Love my seats (multi-contour w/ heat). Did just under 600 miles this past Sunday with only minimal discomfort. The only better seats I've had were Porsche Recaro-built seats.

BudC

I have the standard seats and they're the best I've ever had on any Mercedes or BMW. We drove 4,800 miles on vacation and never had the slightest problem with the seats. I thought they'd be too firm but they were perfect.

BTW, I'm used to firm seats since I've been driving Mercedes since 1983. I think the worst seats I've discovered in the last year or so were in a rented Town Car. What a piece of crap.

Silver_Lana

I didn't vote since i do not own a W211. I have drived then quite a bit but the seats seem quite comfortable to me.
By the way, these were the optional seats with the massaging feature.

glojo

Hi Silver_Lana
Thank you very much for your honesty. I do not suppose this journalist actually owned the car that he reviewed.

If you have driven an E-class 211 on a single journey that was in access of 100 miles or perhaps 160 kilometres?? (hope that's right) then in my opinion you are entitled to vote (and it is after all, my poll )

Thanks again,
John

JimPurdy

Both my wife and I are very pleased with the firm support of the standard seats in our '03 E320. These are more comfortable than the W202 seats were.

Jim

ATS

I would like it if there was more support under my knees..

DWP

You're talking about the comfort of the seats over long periods (like, > one hour), right? Any seat can be comfortable for 10 minutes, even the broken-down seats in my '73 Datsun. The seats in my W211 are very comfortable for the first hour. After about one hour, I start to get a bit of low-back numbness that causes me to fiddle with the lumbar adjustment and the power settings or (a better idea) to stop and take a stretch break. I mention that because I didn't get even that minor low-back sensation with my previous '97 BMW 528i; my driving time in that car was limited only by gas tank and bladder capacity. But then, I'm getting older and that, rather than better seats on the BMW, might explain the change.

glojo

Hi DWP,
Thank you very much for the constructive question.

Yes is the short answer. (How I wish our Politicians could answer questions so readily )

From your description, you are definitely an 'uncomfortable' person. I say that in the nicest of ways and am pleased that we are at least getting views both for, and against.

Thanks again for taking part,
John

Silver_Lana

My longest stint was in the driver's seat for about an hour and 15 minutes. In that period, I found the seats to be quite comfortable especially the massaging feature which I wish could be set to a longer interval.

P.S. I voted.

ruykava

hmm, i've driven my W211 E240 for almost 3 hours continuously (going from Sibu to Bintulu, if anyone knows where these two places are, good for you! ) mine has pretty basic part-leather, part-electric seats. after a long while, began feeling that the back-rest was not quite supportive enough, but electrically 'raising' it a little solved that problem. some time later i felt it was TOO restraining, and let it down slightly again--nothing major and i certainly do not feel the pedals are offset in any way, even though mine is RHD.

glojo

Hi Ruykava,
You certainly come from a very beautiful country, certainly warmer than Torquay.

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond and I look forward to hearing from you again.

Bye for now,
John

jprescott

It's all relative. My S430 had much more comfortable seats. Now a year later I like mine because I can't remember what I missed.

CALBenzo

For the most part, the driving dynamic seats are comfortable. I have only taken one relatively long drive of about 3 hours, and the seat did get a little uncomfortable at times. It may be due in-part to break-in. For shorter drives, they are very comfortable and supportive.

glojo

Hi,
I understand what you are saying, but the person reviewing this vehicle is stating they could only endure one hour of actually sitting in the drivers seat before they HAD to have a break. They were not comparing it with any other vehicle.

Thanks for participating,
John

cte430

John, Do you need to be a current owner to vote? I will say that when I had my E500 I thought the seats were very comfortable. Took a few drives of 3-6 hrs. and was always comfortable. The seats in my E55 are even better

glojo

Hi Chris,
Yes please, I suppose we could allow a lowly E55 AMG to vote

Nice car

Regards,
John

Fastbuck

...said the actress to the bishop!

glojo

Evening Bishop!!

John

Fastbuck

Regards Glojo.


Re the seats. There is definately an offset but it does not cause me any problems.

I read the autoexpress article tonight (browsing in WH Smith whilst the other half was buying even more clothes!!!). It was a fairly lengthy rant that they had about the seats. One more comment of interest though was that this is one of their long term test cars. They've knocked up 10,000 miles on it.

W211 Ryda

I think the back middle seat sucks! Killer on the lower back and on the azz. Oh well, I hardly pack more than 4 people in my car.

Barry45RPM

Yeah, people really don't believe me that it really isnt a "real" seat. It LOOKS like one though!