What year did the S550 start with ambient lighting?

 

The same year the car was released? If you are talking about W223? It is optional though.

 

Ambient lighting is standard, not optional. ACTIVE ambient lighting is optional but even without it the car has a lot of ambient lighting.

Ambient lighting like we have now started in the W222 in 2014.

 

The active ambient lighting is the ones that does the dance? Are there less light strips on the none active one?

 

There is only one strip that the car doesn't have if it doesn't have active ambient lighting, the thick one above the wood panel.

This car does not have the active ambient lighting:



Nor does this one:



This one does:

 

Thanks for the comparison, the light strip also looks wider and I guess the technology is somewhat different? Unless my eyes are deceiving me?

 

Yes, the active ambient lighting strip is much thicker. Really, it is more of a 'light bar'. It is also more complex, being able to 'respond' to inputs from the car.

 

I wish people would stop buying floor mats like this. Such a cheap look. Really ruins the ambience of the car.

Either do it properly, or not at all.

 

I see so I guess the technology is different in the active ambient lighting, kind of make sense otherwise it wouldn't be able to do that dance... I wonder if it is a mini screen really?

 

Certainly not enough pixels to display any text. So it still is a light strip, just a thicker one that is controlled by a chipset somewhere.

 

I see, explained why it got deleted citing chip shortage on many cars here.

 

Completely agree, they look so cheap and crappy.

 

You spend 130k or more, then buy the pleather mats? Lol Seems like an odd place to draw the line on your spending.

 

I guess it was just a random image from a seller's site? The source of the image including the watermarks links back to a seller page, I sure hope no W223 owners here bought these.

 

Well... Were they posting here, and in possession of those mats, they're probably not going to admit it now!

 

I just pulled the picture off Google

 

I see. That explains it, I really doubt we have forum members with those in their W223, would be interesting if I am proven wrong in that case.

 

You'll be amazed how common these monstrosities are in China. You see them on 5 out of 10 W223s here.

To illustrate, below are some random pictures I dug up from a local car owner's review site...

 

Ouch, you weren’t kidding. This tacky crap explains a lot about why MB is taking the direction they have been recently with their cars.

 

Yep, I'm 99% certain this is where MB sourced their design inspiration for those giant golden mercedes stars on MY23 headrest pillows. It's the same brand of cheap and tacky.

 

I assume "the direction" you were referring to was the taillights on the new W214 E-Class? If so I agree, something that still haven't grew on me but overall it is a nice sleek elegant car, just the taillights is... well... you get the idea.

 

Thanks for the images, tacky for sure but I do like the owner's taste (when configuring the car) the spec is nice (imo) the wood choice will also be what I would go with if I were to get a W223, I just hope facelift will allow us to add wood to the centre console replacing the piano gloss.

 

Those are more like 10 individual owners... They just have very similarly-specced cars.

This is how things are done in China - MB's headquarter distributes pre-specced, standardised cars to dealers, and dealers sell these standard spec cars to customers. So everyone ends up with the same thing.

Custom orders are rare, and impractical. Dealers will quote you inflated prices, and 18-24 month turnover for a custom spec. By the time your 'special' W223 arrives, everyone else will be driving a facelift

This is one of the reasons I had to import mine, rather than going through the local dealer network. I work very hard to maintain my illusion of individualism, in this land of uniformity.

 

I was thinking of posting a picture of a U-haul truck but I've probably worn that joke out. Still... I don't know how you do it; I'd have a hard time walking in your shoes.

 

I see, never mind then.