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Since the weather is cold again... REMEMBER that your vehicle has a wonderfully engineered feature called REST! It makes running errands in winter almost enjoyable Just turn it on before going into Home Depot, and the car is still warm when you come back!
A few things that I've learned from previous Mercedes with REST (not mentioned in the manual):
1- If you activate REST concurrently both front and rear (4-Zone Climate), then REST will shut off after 15 minutes, rather than 30 minutes.
2- You can reactivate REST, after it switches itself off, by pressing the button again. It will run for another timed cycle. Useful when you're waiting for your wife to reemerge from Target, and she's taking longer than she promised...
3- REST will automatically switch off if battery voltage drops below a certain threshold, or if coolant temperature drops below a certain threshold (i.e. no more heat available). The Germans won't let you deplete the battery so much that you can't start the vehicle.
4- While REST is most useful for heating in cold weather, it is also usable in warm weather, in which case it draws in exterior air and ventilates the cabin. It won't cool, since the A/C is not running, but better than nothing.
It was somewhat confusing to me that the button was combined with AC and if you toggle it "off", the AC won't work. It's somewhat different from other cars where "AC" disables "AUTO" and wise versa. Thanks for more detailed notes on how "REST" works.
I had and thoroughly enjoyed using this feature on my '05 E320 CDI. Imagine my disappointment when I found it not to be present on my '13 E350 or on my '13 ML350. Seems the removal of premium features from vehicles - and turning them into options - became a way for the bean counters to extract more money from their customer.