I saw this on an M3 forum back in the day and I thought I'd try it here. Maybe some of us can learn some new things about our cars. Most of these things will be in the manual for sure, but who reads them cover to cover?

Anyways here are a couple to get us started

1. Double visors! Just noticed this yesterday. Driver and passenger actually have two visors, so it's possible to rotate one toward the window and still have some shade on the windscreen.

2. The ski-bag between the rear seats actually comes right out. So if you need to transport something bigger and you don't want to fold down the seats you can take the whole ski-bag right out and pass right through the armrest in the rear. Also handy if you want to be able to reach back to get something in the trunk and you have passengers with you.

Curious to see what other owners have discovered?

 

Counting down the time it will take for someone to complain about how the US doesn't get a Skibag, or the option to buy a skibag...

3...
2...
1...






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I just realized that we have a sensor in the rear to wave your foot in front of it real fast, it opens the trunk, without touching the car. Found out while washing the car and couldn't understand why my trunk kept opening every time I hit a certain spot near the diffuser..lol

 

I did not know that. I coulda sworn that at some point the trunk randomly opened, but couldn't put two and two together.

Unfortunately, I am having an issue with my trunk closer. It has a mind of its own. Press the close button, and sometimes it locks to car. Other times it doesn't close. Sometimes it behaves as told. Same for the Close and Lock button.


This has been posted before, but I find myself using it quite a bit:

The 360 camera (if so equipped) may be switched on by press/hold the "SYS" button on the dash.

 

I had thought this was exclusive to the wagon all along... just went and tried it and it works on the sedan too!

 

LOL, yeah, I thought the same thing. While washing my car, every time I bent down to wash the rear of the car, the trunk would open. I figured I hit the button on the fob in my pocket so I put my keys in my garage(not far enough away) and it did it again. Pretty cool.

 

If your front wipers are on and you put the car in reverse, the rear wiper will do a sweep as you start moving. Wagon only of course.

 

So I guess that stuff must be new for the 2014 because I don't think my 2012 wagon has that sensor under the bumper to open the tailgate, I wish it did to close it as you have to hit the button on the hatch as the fob will not close it and that button is up kind of high as I'm in a wheelchair.

 

Is the liftgate programmable for height? My old ML could be set so that it would not open to its full extension.

 

yes you can program the lift height. The "kick" also closes the hatch.

 

Hmmm, my 2012 Wagon must not have that feature, I just tried waving a stick around under the bumper and the hatch did not close. But a while back I did program the hatch so it does not open as far making it easier to access the close button. I really wish these cars would close the hatch by pressing the FOB button like my Cadillac wagon did. I asked the dealer about this and they said there is no way to change it. Some kind of safety feature so people don't close the hatch on their kids or dogs I guess.

 

You want this module: https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w...nk-closer.html
For whatever reason the MB SUVs will allow you to close the trunk with the remote (my R included) but their sedan/wagon cars will not.

The foot opening trunk feature was added for the MY2014 cars. It's also on some other cars such as the 222 S-Class.

 

The kick feature for the trunk is awesome -- I find it very handy when I'm carrying stuff. While it is not "little known", I find the "hold" function very handy and neat.

 

be sure with the trunk opening 'kick' that it is a precise quick kick in/out, not hold the foot under the boot/trunk, and not a side to side swipe.

 

Thanks for the info, I wonder how hard these are to install?

 

The optional feature that will automatically parallel park the car for you is pretty cool technology.

I don't know if its "lesser known", but the blending of 4 cameras to create one "helicopter" view of the car and its surroundings is neat.

I love the Hold feature that was mentioned, where a hard depress of the brake pedal will allow you to remove your foot from the brake at a red light.

 

This thread should be retitled: "Feature listing for people too lazy to read the owners manual."

 

Did you read the first post

 

lol, yeah I guess I'm one of those rare birds who reads their owners manual. Actually a lot of interesting stuff in there. I found the ride-height thing the most memorable: in Comfort mode it rides about 0.8" higher than sport suspension mode, but after parking the car will lower itself to sport-look. Pretty clever.

 

I already read it twice in PDF and I dont even have the car yet... Loco in the brain!

 

Same here. I also read it cover to cover once. It actually doesn't take that long especially if you have the car in front of you to practice on. There are tons of repetitions on safety, i.e. how many feet a car travels in a second at a certain speed.

 

I'm not sure. I think the module plugs into the trunk control unit under a panel in the cargo area. Shouldn't be too bad of an install.

 

It will close the trunk, as well

 

Those are some pretty useful features that were added to the 2014 over my 2012. I may have to consider a newer car sooner than I thought, I love the 2012 so much I thought I'd keep it for ten years or so, but now I don't know. If they add extra power for 2015 or 2016 it's gonna make it really tempting. I guess on my car my most liked feature is the twin turbo engine, I just feel like I'm in command of the road with it. My most least liked feature is the airbag spring setup on the rear end, I just know sooner or later I'll have issues with it. I use to own car repair places and I use to see nothing but trouble with those setups on Lincolns and some other cars. At least our cars are not like the older Lincolns where if you put the car on a lift and take the tires off the ground you had to hit a kill switch in the trunk, if you did not do this you would damage the suspension and those air bags where about $1200 bucks each and that was back in the 1980's. I would prefer just to have regular coil springs or something like the Magnetic ride shocks the Cadillac CTS'V's have. That is one advantage I feel the CTS'V's do have over our cars. Plus that setup is better for handling and ride control too. I notice Mercedes on their newer models does offer something called "Magic Body Control" which is said to eliminate the Air bag spring system. Might be offered only in Europe on the 2015 S series but then again not really sure, it does work I guess and is not overly expensive @ around 4 grand extra. I priced out a S sedan with this and other goodies like Distronic custom amg wheels and the sport package and it came to a msrp of around 113 grand, not too bad, but its over 100 less hp than my car and does not look very sporty on the interior with the stalk mounted shifter and 2 spoke steering wheel and the car is heavy plus no wagon, nope I think I'll be keeping my car. Heres a video advertisement of the Magic ride for your amusement. It uses hydraulics rather than air which I like, but who knows it is even more complex than the air system so more to go wrong I'd think. Scopes out the road with the cameras and makes adjustments as to what's coming up for bumps and road imperfections.

 

Magic Body Control is an option on the new 2014+ S Class sedan and 2015+ S Class Coupe. It's a smarter version of their previous ABC suspension setup which is all hydraullic- those systems have even more problems than MB's Airmatics but it sure as heck works well when it works.