Seat questions...
 

We're new to MB and have a few questions. We recently replaced my wife's 5 series with a low mile E300 CPO and are trying to figure out the car. She's had BMW's for almost 20 years and was a little hesitant to change "ecosystems", but decided to mix things up this time around. On her first commute into work this morning, she had a couple observations which have led to the following questions:

1) Heated seat step down - Can you control the time interval before the seat heaters lower themselves. She wasn't pleased that this happened on its own as bimmers don't do this. Wondering if we have any control over the timing. I guess same question for steering wheel.

2) Do the massage seats cancel by themselves? She noticed that it turned off on her way in. If so, can you control the timing?

Through my research it seems that MB is a lot more cautious than BMW with the way they handle certain features. No one-touch memory seats, no easy exit seats, they limit the seat heaters, you can't turn off Start/Stop permanently and probably a couple more I can't remember. It poses a small inconvenience when you're not used to these limitations but in the whole scheme of things, they're all first world problems.

As to #1, you cannot control when it steps down (but this was the case on a BMW we had).

As to #2, we don't have massage seats so I can't tell.

"you can't turn off Start/Stop permanently" You can't in a BMW either as of July 2017. You can turn it off permanently if you buy the module I bought (see thread under "Eco On-Off").

Ok, thanks Long Islander. My wife's 2014 535xi allowed permanent disable of Start/Stop. The '18 530i loaner she had last month did as well; button under the ignition. Her older cars did not allow disable. If this becomes a problem, I'll just buy the OBD device.

Also, the BMW heated seats don't step down; at least not in the last 4 or 5 cars that she's had. Set it to max and burn your underside...

Just shows that a Mercedes seat is more intelligent. It doesn't want to cook your rump! Just how cold a climate do you live in that once the car is warmed and the seat is warmed that more seat heating is needed?

The 2018 loaner must have been built before 7/2017. See post #19 onward on the attached thread:

https://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sh....php?t=1080593


The 325i that we had years ago had a step down feature on the heated seats. I don't recall the whether our 5 series had that.

Looks like you're right. Interesting...

Yeah, it actually costs more to engineer a button that slowly turns off a feature than to just leave it on one setting. Plus less likely to have a short in the wiring and to burn up your seat.

Not sure what you mean about one touch memory seats, I suppose you're referring to having to hold the button in order for it to go to the memory setting? That's probably safer than a setting where the seats are all forward and you may end up getting crunched if it was just one button press.

As for massage seats, I doubt it, I have them on my W212 and they also shut off on their own after a while. I only notice it on long drives though. I suppose it's also the same on the W213.

You are incorrect. I have a 2018 X5 diesel and there is a button next the to 'START' button that enables permanent disconnection of the Start/Stop feature. My car has a Nov 17 build date.