Greetings,

It is time to 'upgrade' my 2006 C230 (W203) to a modern ride with all the 'bells & whistles'. I've been armchair shopping the CPO E-class (post facelift W212) models. Not a fan of the W213 body style. . .

Since I keep my cars for 10+ years, I'd like to get one that has the most tech gadgets within the 2014-2016 model years. Understanding the options has been confusing. In layman's terms I'd like a 4matic sedan that has. . .

Cruise control that slows/speeds up according to traffic
Keeps itself in the lanes on the highway/freeway
Actively warns/prevents lane changes when a car is in the blind spot.
Keyless entry, automatic trunk opening/closing
Can park itself
Has 360 overhead view in addition to a regular backup camera.
Can stop itself if a collision is imminent
Fold-down rear seat

Reading through the brochure, it is not clear to me what comes standard with the vehicle and what options would amount to the rest.

There is the Premium 1 package, which it looks like all the cars get
There is the sport & luxury options for the front-end styling
There is the Keyless-go pakage
There is a Lane Tracking package, which warns, but does not act
There is a Lighting package
There is a Parking assist package, which has Parktronic active parking assist and 360 view of the car
There is a Driver Assistance package, which has Distronic Plus and adds active feature to the lane tracking and adds 'Plus' to some of the basic safety features.
There is an mBrace package, which seem like GM's OnStar.

What is unclear to me . . .

Is Distronic the same as adaptive/assistive cruise control? Does that come with the base car?
Distronic Plus seems to add lane keeping steering to Distronic
Distronic Plus does not seem to have parking assistance features.
Does the base car stop itself if a collision is imminent? . . . or do you need the 'Plus' version of the safety features?

It seems like I need to find a car that has. . .

Premium 1
Keyless Go
Parking Assistance Package
Driver Assistance Package

Is that correct?

So far, I have found only 1-2 CPO cars with the Driver Assistance package. (USA - Boston, MA area + 100 miles )
Everything has Premium 1. Many cars have merely the Lane Tracking package, but not the more 'active' packages. Few, if any have Driver Assistance or Parking Assistance packages. Maybe it is more of an S-class thing to have them in combination.

Any insight on the optioning of the E-class W212 (2014-2016) would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

 

Enter some of the VIN numbers into the site datamb dot com. Look for the corresponding option code number associated with what you want and then you can cross shop other cars. Yes, you want Distronic Plus and the Drivers Assisstance package plus the 360 surround view. My car has all of the options you are looking for but I’m not able to post my data card at the moment.
Distronic Plus will drive your car autonomously, but at high speed it will only warn and brake assist. It will not take control and stop your car.

 

Here is my datacard attached. You can review the option codes as appropriate and look for cars with what you want by running their VIN. I highly recommend the 360 view and the FULL LED lighting package.

 

Parktronic (235 ACTIVE PARK ASSIST) works great on my car, but it will not "park itself" in ALL situations. It will back into parallel parking spaces, if I ever have that opportunity (seldom), It will also back into perpendicular (90°) parking spaces in regular parking lots. I use this much more often than parallel parking, and it works great when there is a normal space between two already parked cars. It will not self park when the space is too wide between cars, or when there are two empty spaces. This makes sense to me.

However, Parktronic will not pull the car -- head-on -- into any parking spot (90° or angle-in), nor will it automatically park my car as I drive into my garage. Parktronic does NOT include the 360 camera, either. That is part of some other package.

Lane keeping assist is useful in alerting you when you start to cross lines between lanes, or the edges of the highway. The steering wheel vibrates. But, it works only above a certain speed (40mph, I think). And it does not take over the steering wheel if you drift across lines, which I like.

I do not have Distronic. To the good, I like the idea of it maintaining speed and vehicle spacing in traffic. However, the idea of it taking the wheel from my hands in any situation (active lane assist) creeps me out... I'll drive my car myself, thank you very much.

I think the description of these features is way too complicated for us to understand completely... There are several threads here on how 258 - COLLIS.WARN.SYS. W/ACTIVE BRAKE INTERV. FCW STOP works. It's still not clear to me how it works (with or without Distronic).

 

Thanks Guys,

It looks like I need to find a vehicle that has the following codes. . .

233
235
237
238
23P
253
266
268
271
300
501

I think most of these come in 'packages', but the codes are helpful to confirm.

I found a C-class that had 'everything', but still searching for a CPO E-class.

 

Keep in mind that the W205 is built in Alabama and the first couple of years had tons of problems. I won't buy a MB built outside of Germany unless it's an ML or something that I simply use for utility.