Although I haven't seen the color LCD display in person, I think I prefer the b&w version based on the photos above. I think it looks a little busy. What's with the box around the MPH display? And the white characters on that gold background look washed out but that could be just the photo.

The pics dont do it justice... I had the black and white in my c class prior.. I love the color... Thats just me... Im loving it...

The Blue and White (to me the background is blue, not black?) is nice due to it being simple, clean, and easy to read. Obviously the new gold display is a lot more tech-y and stylized. Both have their merits I guess one could say, but I sure wouldn't mind the new one.

Maybe it is blue -- do you keep your dash lights turned up? Not me, I keep them as dim as possible, so the background looks black to me.

I test drove a SAAB years ago that had a "night flying" button or something like that. When pushed, it killed all interior lights except for the speedo. I loved it -- just didn't love the rest of the car. I can't think of a car I've owned in the last ten or fifteen years where you could kill the dash lights completely. What a shame that decisions like that are removed from the driver's hand.

white instrument lighting in the photos seems very bright. in my car it doesnt seem to be that bright even though the knob is turned to the max.

That's what I was saying earlier. In person, the new LCD is surprisingly subtle, and it doesn't really say "look at me!". When I sat in the new CLS, I didn't immediately connect to the fact that I was looking at the new LCD.

If I had only known. I picked up my new W212 on 6/4. Maybe I can talk my wife into taking my car next year and letting me get new W212 E550. Love the E350 but could like a bit more HP...

What I like about the new color screen is it looks up to date. The previous screen looked dated to me since it hasn't changed hardly at all in something like 8 or 9 years. Audi started using color screens in 2008 I believe.