New Distronic Plus rocks (?)!
02-19-2006, 02:55 PM
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New Distronic Plus rocks (?)!
Perusing engadget.com (great blog for gadgets and tech), they had an article about Distronic Plus...
http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/18/m...ruise-control/
What was really interesting is that they provided a link to a German website, that apparently shows Distronic Plus failing and crashing the S! I haven't watched the entire video, but if you want to cut to the chase, here's the video link: http://www.stern.de/tv/sterntv/549835.html?nv=cp_L2_
I'm sure it works great, but for what they want for it, coupled with the fact that I'm not in traffic often enough to justify it, I'm passing on Distronic Plus. And Night View Assist.
Have fun!
http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/18/m...ruise-control/
What was really interesting is that they provided a link to a German website, that apparently shows Distronic Plus failing and crashing the S! I haven't watched the entire video, but if you want to cut to the chase, here's the video link: http://www.stern.de/tv/sterntv/549835.html?nv=cp_L2_
I'm sure it works great, but for what they want for it, coupled with the fact that I'm not in traffic often enough to justify it, I'm passing on Distronic Plus. And Night View Assist.
Have fun!
02-19-2006, 02:58 PM
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2007 E63
That was a hoax supposedly. I've heard many different reason as to why it crashed.
The most credible reason was that the engineers knew that the enclosed steel building would mess up the radar, so they placed a piece of wood in the path to let the driver know when to hit the brakes. Well they said that the S550 went right over the wood and the driver never felt a thing and crashed.
Well that's what I heard.
The most credible reason was that the engineers knew that the enclosed steel building would mess up the radar, so they placed a piece of wood in the path to let the driver know when to hit the brakes. Well they said that the S550 went right over the wood and the driver never felt a thing and crashed.
Well that's what I heard.
02-19-2006, 03:16 PM
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2011 E350 Cabriolet..White and Almond Mocha
Originally Posted by JAdmiral
Perusing engadget.com (great blog for gadgets and tech), they had an article about Distronic Plus...
http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/18/m...ruise-control/
What was really interesting is that they provided a link to a German website, that apparently shows Distronic Plus failing and crashing the S! I haven't watched the entire video, but if you want to cut to the chase, here's the video link: http://www.stern.de/tv/sterntv/549835.html?nv=cp_L2_
I'm sure it works great, but for what they want for it, coupled with the fact that I'm not in traffic often enough to justify it, I'm passing on Distronic Plus. And Night View Assist.
Have fun!
http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/18/m...ruise-control/
What was really interesting is that they provided a link to a German website, that apparently shows Distronic Plus failing and crashing the S! I haven't watched the entire video, but if you want to cut to the chase, here's the video link: http://www.stern.de/tv/sterntv/549835.html?nv=cp_L2_
I'm sure it works great, but for what they want for it, coupled with the fact that I'm not in traffic often enough to justify it, I'm passing on Distronic Plus. And Night View Assist.
Have fun!
Enjoy...:-)
Last edited by Nevada Jack; 02-19-2006 at 03:19 PM.
02-19-2006, 03:20 PM
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Originally Posted by JAdmiral
Perusing engadget.com (great blog for gadgets and tech), they had an article about Distronic Plus...
http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/18/m...ruise-control/
What was really interesting is that they provided a link to a German website, that apparently shows Distronic Plus failing and crashing the S! I haven't watched the entire video, but if you want to cut to the chase, here's the video link: http://www.stern.de/tv/sterntv/549835.html?nv=cp_L2_
I'm sure it works great, but for what they want for it, coupled with the fact that I'm not in traffic often enough to justify it, I'm passing on Distronic Plus. And Night View Assist.
Have fun!
http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/18/m...ruise-control/
What was really interesting is that they provided a link to a German website, that apparently shows Distronic Plus failing and crashing the S! I haven't watched the entire video, but if you want to cut to the chase, here's the video link: http://www.stern.de/tv/sterntv/549835.html?nv=cp_L2_
I'm sure it works great, but for what they want for it, coupled with the fact that I'm not in traffic often enough to justify it, I'm passing on Distronic Plus. And Night View Assist.
Have fun!
02-19-2006, 04:03 PM
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'07 S550, '03 FXDWG
Originally Posted by Nevada Jack
Are you dealing with FJ on Sahara?
I'm dealing with Caliber Motors on this one. I've bought from FJ in Newport Beach, but Caliber is closer, and gets better reviews from www.dealerrater.com. And since I know the price will be the same, shouldn't make much diff. Tho FJ in N.B. DOES have a sweet dealership!
...not to mention lots of "enhanced" eye candy walking around... hehe.
02-19-2006, 04:33 PM
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2011 E350 Cabriolet..White and Almond Mocha
Originally Posted by JAdmiral
No, I'm a So. California boy. I just love Vegas!
I'm dealing with Caliber Motors on this one. I've bought from FJ in Newport Beach, but Caliber is closer, and gets better reviews from www.dealerrater.com. And since I know the price will be the same, shouldn't make much diff. Tho FJ in N.B. DOES have a sweet dealership!
...not to mention lots of "enhanced" eye candy walking around... hehe.
I'm dealing with Caliber Motors on this one. I've bought from FJ in Newport Beach, but Caliber is closer, and gets better reviews from www.dealerrater.com. And since I know the price will be the same, shouldn't make much diff. Tho FJ in N.B. DOES have a sweet dealership!
...not to mention lots of "enhanced" eye candy walking around... hehe.
Apprarently all the FJ stores hire from the same "enhanced" eye candy pool...the Sales Assistants, Delivery Specialists and others are very easy on the eyes...:-)
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02-19-2006, 04:45 PM
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02-20-2006, 08:05 AM
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The article with the distronic-crash was a big show in Germany. A german car magazine ("Bild" is a primitive and cheap but powerful magazine) made a demonstration in German TV (also a crappy format). The system failed because it was not even turned on, the driver (from "Bild") had to brake himself and pretend the function of Distronic Plus, but he braked too late and crashed.
This whole show became public and the chief-journalist of this magazine got fired - it is still unclear who was really responsible, MB says the metal hall made the distronic useless and therefore they had to make a quick decission.
Later they repeated the test outside for the press and everything worked fine. I've tried this system myself many times (especially the basically identical "normal" Distronic) and never had a problem.
But this whole thing shows a pretty typical german mentality, thats maybe important to understand when you discuss about german brands:
The S-Class is a german product and everybody knows about it's reputation as best car in the world, so every time the opportunity occures (especially with a new-generation) the public, the press tries to find a way to show that something gone wrong, that "Made in Germany" failed again. Maybe that's difficult to understand for an American (and even harder for me to explain in english ;-), but germans usually don't have this patriotic thing, we don't use the flag, we don't sing the national anthem and we find ourselves pretty comfortable when something proves that we failed again!? Sure those people are existing in every country, but in Germany they are the majority.
In 20% of the cases this is maybe true and important because it protects us from being lazy and arrogant, but in the other 80% it is just a product of imagination and sometimes leads to wrong decissions ("I don't buy german products" = "Why do I loose my job at a german company because we don't sell enough?").
It's exactly the same you will notice when you study the reputation of Mercedes, BMW, Porsche etc. in Germany, most people will tell you that this WAS something great a long time ago - but not anymore (but 30 years ago "today" was also not so great anymore...).
MB made the new S-class and everybody had to prove that they failed, therefore nobody talked about the demonstration that worked, everbody talks about the way it failed...
So don't worry about it, DISTRONIC PLUS is a great thing and when you use it right (you still have the responsibilty and have to use your brain while driving) you won't get in trouble.
This whole show became public and the chief-journalist of this magazine got fired - it is still unclear who was really responsible, MB says the metal hall made the distronic useless and therefore they had to make a quick decission.
Later they repeated the test outside for the press and everything worked fine. I've tried this system myself many times (especially the basically identical "normal" Distronic) and never had a problem.
But this whole thing shows a pretty typical german mentality, thats maybe important to understand when you discuss about german brands:
The S-Class is a german product and everybody knows about it's reputation as best car in the world, so every time the opportunity occures (especially with a new-generation) the public, the press tries to find a way to show that something gone wrong, that "Made in Germany" failed again. Maybe that's difficult to understand for an American (and even harder for me to explain in english ;-), but germans usually don't have this patriotic thing, we don't use the flag, we don't sing the national anthem and we find ourselves pretty comfortable when something proves that we failed again!? Sure those people are existing in every country, but in Germany they are the majority.
In 20% of the cases this is maybe true and important because it protects us from being lazy and arrogant, but in the other 80% it is just a product of imagination and sometimes leads to wrong decissions ("I don't buy german products" = "Why do I loose my job at a german company because we don't sell enough?").
It's exactly the same you will notice when you study the reputation of Mercedes, BMW, Porsche etc. in Germany, most people will tell you that this WAS something great a long time ago - but not anymore (but 30 years ago "today" was also not so great anymore...).
MB made the new S-class and everybody had to prove that they failed, therefore nobody talked about the demonstration that worked, everbody talks about the way it failed...
So don't worry about it, DISTRONIC PLUS is a great thing and when you use it right (you still have the responsibilty and have to use your brain while driving) you won't get in trouble.
Last edited by georgl; 02-20-2006 at 08:08 AM.
02-20-2006, 09:29 AM
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Originally Posted by georgl
The article with the distronic-crash was a big show in Germany. A german car magazine ("Bild" is a primitive and cheap but powerful magazine) made a demonstration in German TV (also a crappy format). The system failed because it was not even turned on, the driver (from "Bild") had to brake himself and pretend the function of Distronic Plus, but he braked too late and crashed.
This whole show became public and the chief-journalist of this magazine got fired - it is still unclear who was really responsible, MB says the metal hall made the distronic useless and therefore they had to make a quick decission.
Later they repeated the test outside for the press and everything worked fine. I've tried this system myself many times (especially the basically identical "normal" Distronic) and never had a problem.
But this whole thing shows a pretty typical german mentality, thats maybe important to understand when you discuss about german brands:
The S-Class is a german product and everybody knows about it's reputation as best car in the world, so every time the opportunity occures (especially with a new-generation) the public, the press tries to find a way to show that something gone wrong, that "Made in Germany" failed again. Maybe that's difficult to understand for an American (and even harder for me to explain in english ;-), but germans usually don't have this patriotic thing, we don't use the flag, we don't sing the national anthem and we find ourselves pretty comfortable when something proves that we failed again!? Sure those people are existing in every country, but in Germany they are the majority.
In 20% of the cases this is maybe true and important because it protects us from being lazy and arrogant, but in the other 80% it is just a product of imagination and sometimes leads to wrong decissions ("I don't buy german products" = "Why do I loose my job at a german company because we don't sell enough?").
It's exactly the same you will notice when you study the reputation of Mercedes, BMW, Porsche etc. in Germany, most people will tell you that this WAS something great a long time ago - but not anymore (but 30 years ago "today" was also not so great anymore...).
MB made the new S-class and everybody had to prove that they failed, therefore nobody talked about the demonstration that worked, everbody talks about the way it failed...
So don't worry about it, DISTRONIC PLUS is a great thing and when you use it right (you still have the responsibilty and have to use your brain while driving) you won't get in trouble.
This whole show became public and the chief-journalist of this magazine got fired - it is still unclear who was really responsible, MB says the metal hall made the distronic useless and therefore they had to make a quick decission.
Later they repeated the test outside for the press and everything worked fine. I've tried this system myself many times (especially the basically identical "normal" Distronic) and never had a problem.
But this whole thing shows a pretty typical german mentality, thats maybe important to understand when you discuss about german brands:
The S-Class is a german product and everybody knows about it's reputation as best car in the world, so every time the opportunity occures (especially with a new-generation) the public, the press tries to find a way to show that something gone wrong, that "Made in Germany" failed again. Maybe that's difficult to understand for an American (and even harder for me to explain in english ;-), but germans usually don't have this patriotic thing, we don't use the flag, we don't sing the national anthem and we find ourselves pretty comfortable when something proves that we failed again!? Sure those people are existing in every country, but in Germany they are the majority.
In 20% of the cases this is maybe true and important because it protects us from being lazy and arrogant, but in the other 80% it is just a product of imagination and sometimes leads to wrong decissions ("I don't buy german products" = "Why do I loose my job at a german company because we don't sell enough?").
It's exactly the same you will notice when you study the reputation of Mercedes, BMW, Porsche etc. in Germany, most people will tell you that this WAS something great a long time ago - but not anymore (but 30 years ago "today" was also not so great anymore...).
MB made the new S-class and everybody had to prove that they failed, therefore nobody talked about the demonstration that worked, everbody talks about the way it failed...
So don't worry about it, DISTRONIC PLUS is a great thing and when you use it right (you still have the responsibilty and have to use your brain while driving) you won't get in trouble.
