StephenK

Looking for opinions on Distronic, I am getting this option, and am curioius what those of you who already have it think of it? Any feedback appreciated.

trin

I must admit that I actually love it.

On the freeway driving with cruisecontrol it is very effective, safe and relaxing to drive with.

The only minus as I see it is the ugly looking emblem on the front of my SL55... The emblem with out Distronic looks so much nicer

NeilC123

Dear oh dear...You buy a sexy car and then let a computer drive it...I have to say I have only ever used cruise control once and I didn't like it as I didn't feel as if I was in control. I mean here you can be cruising along and some idiot suddenly comes out or someone has left some debris on the motorway...and sure when you press brake the cruise control stops but I was forever turning it on and off that i wasn't really comfortable with it. Plus surely when you buy such a sexy car like that YOU would want to drive it and not let some computer drive it for free

v8plus4

Maintains a set distance between you and the car you're following.

In an SL600, YOU should be the one being followed

lkirchner

Lukewarm at best.

WIldcat465

I love it. I've got it on my CL and the SL. It one more option that makes the car safer. Face it, sometimes you get distracted (e.g., when reading while driving) and even the the Distronic is off, the system will warn you if there is a risk of hitting a car in front of you.

NeilC123

Wildcat - u read whilst you drive? God I hope u aren't reading War and Peace!

vraa

I love it. Our LS430 has a similair feature (I use it more because I'm more accustomed to the Lexus' controls).

blueSL

I've always been against it but recently, they've started enforcing the speed limit on one of the major motorways in the UK - the M4 - it just is not worth going faster than 70 - 74 mph. So now, for interest, I try to max the gas mileage and cruise control is the best way of doing that - who would believe you can get 31.4 mpg out of a Porsche 911? For the SL, Distronic would improve the driving experience in this sort of situation. You need to save a lot of gas to pay for it though...

NeilC123

God bluesl - that motorway sounds terrible. I was travelling v fast on the M6 today to get to somewhere (speed will not be mentioned). If that is the future what would be the point of getting fast cars i wonder...

Scruffyone

I was playing with distronic yesterday, with cruise control set at 80. I was in the high speed lane, and everything was working perfectly, even as the car in front of me slowed to 65. He and I both saw a trooper rapidly approaching and the front drivers action slowed me down also. The trooper was right on my *** and the blue lights started flashing. The guy in front of me pulls over into the middle lane and the distronic saw the road clear and started to accelerate back to 80! I caught it and pulled over one lane and the trooper sped past. I think I need to play with a little bit more to get the hang of it. Well worth it in my opinion.

blueSL

Well the ultimate nightmare is satellite tracking where every journey is monitored for tax and congestion charging and where every speeding transgression is known. Real Big Brother... and it's in every truck from 2006...

Tishers

Yea, sooner or later they will do that. Telematics is a much bigger project than we see right now.

In it's eventual scope it will include your car sending telemetry data on your driving habits to roadside data collectors. It will allow a dispatch center to track a vehicle throughout it's entire trip. Speeds, lane changing habits and if your vehicle is in compliance with safety and emissions standards will all be reported back.

RadSteve

I am very fond of the distronic feature, and in the Fog we have in California in the winter, it could save your life. I see no big difference in operation between the Mercedes system and the on in my BMW...aside from an extra $1K that MB requires for the option.

vraa

Does fog hinder the operation of Distronic? I'm just wondering if the water molecules would bounce the signal back incorrectly.

RadSteve

drove through clouds in the mountains a couple weekends ago (essentially fog) and no problem.

wings

Car came with it. Would never have ordered it. A waste of money IMHO!

tandan

i thought the ad for distronic was 3000. if i could do an aftermarket for 1k, i would do it in a minute. li8ke i said, it's the wife's car, and she doesn'[t use the feature on our lexus ls430. i use it all the time. it is solid, and gives you relief from a certain amount of tenswion while driving. i hadn't considered the fog example, but that makes great sense.

StephenK

I used it the other afternoon while on the interstate. I thought it was a pretty neat feature helping keep distance between you and the person in front of you. Hey it's just another little twist on the ole cruise control.

tiggerfink

I think it would be great during heavy down pour and fog.

RadSteve

Unlike the trunk....

What's up with that, any news?

vraa

Low blow! Hahah.