I am looking at purchasing a new E53

When I use the automatic seat positioning, it positions the seat and steering wheel so that the wheel blocks the turn signal indicators and the engine cooling malfunction lights on the driver display. If I lower the seat all the way, lean the seat back and raise the steering wheel to the top position, I can see the turn signal indicators, but the engine cooling malfunction light is still blocked by the steering wheel if my head is not reclining. I am six feet tall, so I'm not super tall. If the steering wheel could go up another inch, it would work, or if the display panel would keep all the indicator lights more centered, it could work. But the way the screen space on the rectangular display is fully used in combination with the steering wheel position makes it hard to see all the driver display indicators.

It seems like the seating engineers; the steering wheel engineers and the driver display engineers each optimized their respective systems without considering that a six-foot-tall driver would be sitting in the seat with a steering wheel in front of the driver display. The driver display would look great if there was no steering wheel blocking it. In other cars I can easily adjust the seat and steering wheel to my preferred position and still see the entire driver display. I think I had some issues with loaner GLA's in the past but still managed to be able to see the turn signal indicators in the driver display.

After taking high performance driving classes years ago, I adopted a straight up seat back position as recommended by the instructors. The driving instructors felt that by being vertical you could feel the car yaw. I'm not sure that you can feel rotation better in a vertical position, Seating positing continues to be a debate with race car drivers. My view is that a vertical seating position has more positives than negatives. After years of using a vertical seat position, it just feels better to me. If I get an E53, I will have to adjust to an inclined driving position, and then seeing the full display of indicators is borderline.

For people who are over six feet tall with an 2024/2025 E-Class, do you lean the seat back so that you can see the lights in the driver display or do you drive without having visibility to all the indicator lights? The E53 is super impressive and pretty much what I am looking for as a performance car that has daily utility. The situation with the driver display is making me think I should lean towards a BMW, Porsche or Audi where it is easy to see the driver display through the steering wheel, but otherwise, I prefer the new E53.

I haven't seen any similar posts. It seems strange that I am the only person with this issue, but maybe six footers just recline the seat way back. I do find it odd that when I use the Mercedes automatic seating and steering adjustment, it sets the position so that I can't see key indicators on the display. Since I can't see the turn signal indicators in the seating position recommended by Mercedes, it seems like something is off.

 

I'm 6'1" and cannot see the blinkers in the driver display. I had a 2012 E350 and had similar issues of parts of the driver display cluster being blocked. I learned to live with it. I too like my seat somewhat vertical and close enough so my elbows are bent roughly 45° when grabbing the steering wheel. I've tried the auto seat position and didn't like it. I lower the whole seat a bit closer to the floor and add a slight recline. Even with my adjacent, I cannot see the blinkers unless I adjust the steering wheel further up which I don't like. So, I live with it and don't worry about it. I have the 3D driver display so some things are in a slightly different place from the non 3D. For example, the warning lights at the top center are about 1/2" lower on the 3D screen. I can see those fine.

I whish the blinkers were in the HUD which would eliminate the issue of seeing those. Still not a big deal since you don't really need to see them unless you forget to turn them off. An edge case in my opinion. As with any complex machine, there has to be tradeoffs and not everything can line up perfectly for every size driver and seat position.

 

At 5'11" I'm an inch shorter than you and I've driven almost all AMG models plus a bunch of regular MB loaners over the last 6 years. In all of them the steering wheel blocks part of the instrument cluster. I also drive with an upright seat position and a general driving position that is recommended by high performance drivers. I haven't been in the new E Class, but I've driven the previous generation. I've used the automatic seat adjustment in some of the loaners and I don't know what recommendation it's based on, but the seating position is terrible. Way too high up for starters. I feel like I'm driving a bus. I prefer to sit low and be part of the car and not sit on top of the car. Regardless, though, as said there's a part of the instrument cluster that's blocked by the steering wheel. I had an '13 Audi RS5 before my current '19 C63S Coupe and even there part of the instrument cluster was blocked. Frankly, I can't remember a car where the steering wheel didn't block something. Never really bothered me too much, though. In my current car it blocks the exterior temperature indicator, so if I wanna know how warm or cold it is outside I have to kind duck and peak under the steering wheel. It does kind block the turn signal indicators as well, but I don't really need to see them. I can hear that the indicator is on, and I'm not in the habit of confusing left and right. I have it adjust so that it kinda cuts off the top part of the instrument cluster, but I see everything else that matters to me, so I don't really have an issue with it. I definitely don't sit reclined. I'm also a trained performance driver and drive spirited, so I'm sitting close to the steering wheel with the arms properly bent to have full control of the car during a slide and such. I do like to take corners a bit sideways sometimes :-). Full control is more important to me than seeing the turn signal indicators, which don't really tell me anything I don't already know.

 

I am 6'4" and in the W214 wagon I need to lower and recline the seat and raise the steering wheel to see the turn signals. With my current seat settings, I can see about half of the turn signal arrows. On the bright side, I have plenty of head room which is more critical to me.

One thing I wish I could do is have the seat move backward when I enter/exit the car... it would be easier to swing my legs out if the seat was back a bit more. I am a lightweight at 160 lbs so this is all about getting those long legs out! I had hoped that the easy entry/exit function would do what I need, but it does the opposite(!) and instead moves the seat forward making ingress/egress even harder. I tried writing a "routine" to do what I want but you can't control the seat position, so no joy there.

 

Use the seat memory and save your preferred ingress/egress position in slot 2 and then press it before getting out and then once you are in press the driving position memory slot to adjust the seat back to your driving position. The easy entry/exit function has a different objective. It moves the seat from behind the b-pillar, so you can easily clear it getting in and out. The short doors of sedans and wagons means that the seat ends up fairly far forward in order to not bang into the b-pillar as you are getting out. 2-door coupes have longer doors and the b-pillar is much farther back. It's partly why I don't like 4-doors. Even while driving, the b-pillar blocks my peripheral vision. I have much better visibility and awareness of my surroundings in my coupe compared to any 4-door. The pillarless E coupe took this to another level.

 

I used to be 6’ but gravity has reduced me to 5’ 11”. I can’t see the indicators either but just duck my head a little and look under the wheel whenever I want to see one. I’m moving my head around all the time while driving anyway so it’s not a big deal to me.

 

Thanks for the replies.

It would be a quick software update for Mercedes to locate all the indicator lights on the driver display to not be blocked by the steering wheel. The competitive manufacturers keep all the indicators within a visible arc through the steering wheel and use the edges of the driver display for start-up and shutdown graphics only.

 

I started at 6'2" but with age I am now down to 6".

I raise the seat so that I have about 2/3 inches of headroom. This permits me an excellent view of the front of the car. I drive with arms almost straight not with 45 degree bend. I adjust the seat so that my right knee has room between itself and the dash. I recline the seat a little bit and tend to sit up very straight - many cars because I sit so straight the headrest hits the back of the head/neck - no so with my E450. I have the lumbar support at max. In this position, I am able to see all of the dash.

Maybe this will help.