GregTR

I don't think that disables AHBA. Why would it? All that does is turns on the headlight regardless of the ambient light situation.

Arrie

The automatic adaptive head lights can be disabled in two ways. If you turn the light switch to lights ON position the high beams work just like on any car, i.e. stalk forward for HI-beam.

But this means that you have to manually turn the lights ON and OFF.

The other way is to disable the adaptive head lights in the cluster menu. This way you can leave the light switch on Auto and lights will come ON as needed in dark. With this the HI-beam again works as in any car from the stalk.

Dema

Second way seems preferable since here is a risk to forget to turn light off after driving. I am pretty sure that modern car can prevent draining battery, but here is still a risk.

fintail

I don't think there's a real risk of battery drain - the headlights just turn on all the time with the running lights when the car is on. When the car is off, the lights switch off. I've ran my car on a few dreary days where I wanted headlights for the highway - I just left the lights in the "on" position, no problems.

Dema

I was under impression you can turn on lights with stopped engine just to illuminate something.

Al benzo

Thanks guys the car is here I didn't get lighting I just got pano :0/ but I'm looking to get high power led h7 for high beam. I'm driving in the city as well so I should be fine.

Dema

2014 E350 in white was parked next to me in a movie theater parking lot last night, it was around 10pm, so I could compare lighting package with a car without it. It looks much less impressive in person than on pictures. No more light for low beam for sure, and looks awkward, so I am glad I didn't take it.

Al benzo

So you mean you didn't take lighting ?

GregTR

This is all correct. Now that I finally have my car I can confirm that this is indeed how it works.

That's one way to rationalize it . Seriously though, I got the lighting package and so far I'm kind of a mixed bag on it. The turning feature works like it did on my BMW bi-xenon which I like a lot. The corner lighting works fantastic and illuminates really well when I'm turning at an intersection. The DRLs look fantastic and I love how the DRL shuts off when you put the blinker on then it gradually builds back to fully lit once the blinker is shut off. My wife's A4 just goes off and turns back on without the gradual build-up, it looks very cool and nice.

As for the actual adaptive high beam, so far I'm not too impressed. I leave the stalk in the high beam mode but it seldom actually provides me with high beam but I don't really drive anywhere other than congested highways where I couldn't use high-beam anyway. I might go for a ride on a country road just to see how the system works.

All in all I'd still order the package for all the features in the first paragraph but so far the adaptive high beam is not that impressive. Maybe I'll change my opinion once I have more than 300 miles on the car.

BTW the only option I didn't get was the panoramic roof and I'm perfectly happy without it. No regrets.

Arrie

The main point is not the Automatic High/Low beam switching. It is the Low beam lighting distance adaptation to the car in front of you. There is no dark area between you and the other car.

You can test this while driving behind a car at some distance by pulling the stalk to disable the adaptation. The low beam will jump to the shortest distance as it would be without the adaptive lights. Now you will also see the dark area between the cars.

You can also experience the lights go to shorter distance based on the on-coming traffic.

This feature is valuable and a strong sign for this is insurance companies giving discounts against it.

ghstudio

I wouldn't buy any MB without the lane change/track feature (for safety)...and having had the keyless go package, it's a great feature which includes push button trunk closing which sounds ridiculous, but is actually very nice to have.

Dema

New power trunk closer works also with foot kicking which generally makes it less ridiculous and actually helping, especially if you carry in or out something really heavy and do not want an extra trip just to trunk close.