I'm about to go try it. I'm armed with two keys and a positive attitude. What confuses me is that I have never seen how this is supposed to work documented in the manual. I know the manual is lousy but....

 

I would recommend you only take one key.

You are leaving yourself wide open to making mistakes.

Program the memory with one key.

Make sure it works.

Put a seperate key ring on it (No doubt you already have)

Then program the second

Remember Position 1 for main driver

Position 2 for secondary driver (That's how we have done it)

Good luck.

John

 

After you insert the key, press one of the memory seat buttons on the door panel. When all the positioning are done. The Smartkey will remember this as the position for next time.

To use a different Smartkey, repeat the same as above, except press a different memory button than the first key. This Smartkey will remember this as the position for next time. If you change any position manually, the Smartkey will remember the position that you adjusted, not the position from the memory seating button on the door panel.

Good luck

 

OK, this works

Unfortunately, in the process of setting things up I lost all my settings and now I have to tweak it to get back to where it should be. I recommend using Memory position 3 for testing so you don't lose your original settings.

I'll have to get my wife back in the car to set her positions up as well.

Thanks to everybody for being patient with me.

 

It is all so easy to blame the dealer or the manual, but the bottom line is you have it working.

We never use the memory buttons on the door because they are really duplicates of the key and you will end up confusing not only the system, but yourself. If you keep it simple it works.

I would like to see the seat move when the car is unlocked, but...........


John

 

 

I guess I spoke too soon. I just went out to the garage, opened the car door, moved the seat back with the switch, sat down, inserted my key and the seat never moved. I pressed the memory button and the seat went to where it should have gone.

I think it's time to have the dealer look at it. It's not something I'm going to worry about because I'm happy using the memory button and so I'll wait until the next time I have to go to the dealer.

I just set position 3 to my settings in case my normal settings get lost again.

 

This is a quote from my previous post

By doing what you did, you simply mucked evewrything up!!!!!!

I'm off to bed now, but you have certainly bought a grin to my face.

Goodnight,
John

 

John's right. If I keep my cotton picken fingers off the memory button, it works.

What someone needs to do is write a supplement for the manual (at least for dumb Yankees) that explains these things.

 

Agreed... But I do use the memory buttons on occasion when traveling on long trips.... I have a Hi-way setting and a "stretch your legs out" setting... I'll hit these buttons from time to time while driving to keep the blood flowing, Then return to my original setting...Works great

B.T.W.......L.O.L, Your real cute there John.... (5-1) Don't think for a minute I read over that wise crack.

 

Morning Harley,
You can indeed use the memory buttons, BUT..... it can lead to problems.

The secret to success is to remember.

Close the door before putting the key in. (BudC, make sure you get in before closing the door )

If you do play with any adjustment buttons, the seat 'should' go back to its correct position if you take the key out and re-insert it

I think a lot of stress is being put on dealerships to keep up with all this modern electronic gadgetry and I feel we ought to accept that they might not have ALL the answers. Who remembers the saga of active headlights and the pre-check routines?

Good luck with your seat and I expect to hear from you tonight

Take care and have a nice day,
John

A cool wintery morning in Torquay (without any snow though)

 

I can tell you all 1 thing. This easy exit/seat memory/key dependancy feature CAN be set to be key dependent with different settings for times when you use the smart key and times you use keyless go. The option otherwise DOES not operate as it should. (It may or may not be operating as designed, but that is the German programming arrogance once again rearing its head.) As the feature exists, it does NOT work well, nor does it work like any other Luxury car's easy exit feature. The option is missing the ability to have a pre memorized exiting seat position, to which the seat will move when you shut down & re3move the key. (Just like you must memorize the "look down parking mirror when in reverse" position, so should you have to memorize a seat exit position. If there is additional seat travel distance in back of your normal driving position, then it is the driver who should determine that the seat should move back to exit, not the programmer who feels the seat is back far enough already. We are generally taller & fatter than the rest of the world.

Removing the option instead of correcting the poor design/programming of the option is absolutely rediculous on MB's part. The option has been poorly executed by the engineers & a 5 minute conversation with me or almost anyone who is used to an option such as this would solve the problem. Its almost like they go out of their way to design the most complicated design they can come up with, & cram it down our throats while sneering we are not sophisticated enough to understand such "elegant nuances". The option as installed in the car is crap. Period. If the steering wheel can move up & down perfectly, so should the seat. It aint brain surgery!

 

Hi Barry,
We always seem to be having this same repetitive conversation on this thorny topic. I come from Great Britain, so no way can I be accused of favouring German programming against any other 'foreign countries' programming. Their programming is certainly not 'arrogant' and hopefully you did not mean that remark in the way I have read it, but it certainly does not come over too well.

I am 6' 7" tall and have great difficulty 'folding' to get out of the car. The seat however is programmed to go right back against its stop whenever the key is extracted. I have explained how this is acheived countless times. The clever Germans have catered for us cheeky chappies that are vertically well endowed. It is simply down to us lazy folks to request that this setting be activated.

When the seat is at its furthest rear setting there is no way you can reach the pedals and drive the vehicle.

This last recommendation must surely be getting repeated nearly as much as the 3 - 5 - 1 code!!!

Bye for now,
John

 

"Arrogant" engineering simply refers to designing a product to work a given way, and not changing it despite countless requests by users to correct an obvious flaw. There are many times when a "User" will discover that someting is not "User Friendly" even though it "works as designed". Sometimes the designer is not a user, and the result is something like our seats.

Here in the US, the service departments are very reluctant to say the least about whipping out the old laptop to modify settings. What results is a 1 of a kind car, with a built in excuse for a lawsuit down the road. (Here in the USA, nothing you do that causes ain injury is your own fault. [An injury is defined as half of your out of court settlement before expenses] Lawyers will always get a jury to blame the person with the deeper pockets.) MBUSA would not assist a dealer being sued who had performed an "unauthrized modification" to a vehicle at a customer's request.

Just look at the number of complaints about the EZ exit feature on this board alone. We are not idiots. It does NOT work well, if it is even working as designed. There is nothing about it that has to be "understood". The number of complaints should have someone looking into it to FIX it, not eliminate it... No one with a Cadillac is unhappy with their "Memory Seat" operation. If GM can do it ANYONE can!

 

Morning Barry,
*****to work a given way, and not changing it despite countless requests by users to correct an obvious flaw********

Mercedes-Benz have very kindly installed a seat setting that can be activated by the dealer at the request of the owner!!!!

This setting is not an unofficial, 'tip the technician $20 to carry out' It is a setting done at the request of the owner who MUST then sign an authorization note before the modification.

Now............. Your rant is aimed straight at 'Germans' yet in your post you go on about American litigation problems????? I am in no position to pass comment on this and would not dream of doing so. You however are blaming Germans for not installing, or failing to alter their product, yet it is on the car, if it is not on US imported models then the blame for that does not rest with Germany. The 'arrogance' comes from elsewhere?

There have been countless threads blaming your ligation motivated society?? for not having options that are offered elsewhere. That might be the case, and it might not. I simply do not know, but what possible problem could there be with not importing the 320CDI estate car?

I was told that 4-zone climate control was not available when the 320CDI was first imported, but it has always been an option. Has this now been corrected?

I just feel it is grossly unfair to blame someone else for the decisions that are made by MBUSA. Perhaps your use of 'arrogant' is aimed in completely the wrong direction? We are all blessed with a freedom of choice, if we do not like a particular type of car, then we simply choose not to buy it.

Sorry for going on about this, but I respectfully feel that you are aiming your post at the wrong target,

Take care,
John
A windy, sunny but very cool morning in Torquay

 

Bear in mind, as uncomfortable as it may sound, that a lot of what happens in the word , happens because the USA requests it. I'm not saying it is right, or fair, or anything like that, but for instance, most of Audi's world wide auto production ends up being sold in the USA just between Washington DC and the State of Main. ...all of their world wide car production, just in a few of our crummy Northeast Coast states... That makes "us" big customers. In ANY nusines from the smallest to the largest, busines, big, cash paying, customers affect important decisions & get their way. (When's the last time you saw a big Pop Star/Actor wait to be seated at a table behind the likes of us?)

Yes, the lawyers here screw things up. Yes it affects the way a company does business, and yes, MBUSA can and does dictate to MB in Germany the way certain things are going to have to be done. ...and yes, there are certain things in these cars that should be changed because they would work better for ALL OF US owners worldwide if they were, but they won't be, because. Just because. That is the arrogance.

Speaking of having to meet customers demands, Do you thing MB's would have "parking assist radar" & Distance sensing cruise control if it werent available on the Japanese Luxury cars? They would never have been included in an MB since they are not considered needed to "drive". But they are there. How about cup holders? ...and the USA only console?

They should have fixed the damn Easy exit feature so that it works correctly, once they saw that you needed it. Take a poll. See how many owners seats don't move back for them to exit, and feel that it SHOULD have moved back from their driving position so they could get out more easily. You'll see. If it IS working as designed, it is a poor design, because it does NOT provide easy exit/entry. However, I don't think it is working as designed.
Regards.

 

My problem is not that the seat doesn't move back, it does but when I insert the key the seat only moves up to memory position 1 - highway driving - and not memory 3 closer to the wheel for round town driving. I have to push memory 3 to move the seat forward. Here's the real problem. The seat will not go forward enough for my wife to drive. It use to go much closer to the wheel. Her memory position 2 moves the seat and mirrors to the correct position except the seat forward/aft position is too far aft. Any idea on how to correct this?
Thanks