A Luta Continua - My Merc E class

Bloody hell, I get uncomfortable when my wife goes over 50mph. She has the focus of a goldfish. I would be crying over 100.

In my case with her driving at 100mph, "suitably refreshed" would include being comatose.

Recently*, the missus and I got driven home from a party by her Spanish friend in her 1.4Tsi Scirocco.   Mad Anna they call her.   Her husband had his hands over his eyes, and I only noticed our considerable velocity when the flash of a speed camera bored its way into my brain. 

* it was over 14 days ago now, and I dont think a NIP has landed on her mat. 

Probably, if you have access to the Stars system that controls almost everything. I find it works well enough, except in very fine drizzle, when it needs some help from the button on the end. The rest of the time one of the two Auto settings is fine.

My beef with the wipers is with that button on the end. In dusty weather as we've been having lately, light pulls on the BMW's separate wipers lever allow me to almost flood the screen with water before a firm pull sets the wipers in motion. That doesn't work with the E's button, as getting wash requires pushing the button through the 'one wipe' position, so the wipers smear the dry muck all over the screen and any bigger clumps get stuck to the blades. I know the all-in-one stalk is a Mercedes tradition, but it's one overdue for the museum.

On the other hand (well, on the same hand really) the cruise control lever is brilliantly simple. Push the end to switch between Less Than (speed limiter, with an orange indicator light) and More Than (regular CC) modes, then pull to activate and push away to suspend. The rim of the speedometer dial lights up to show the speed range selected. Easy.
Contrast with BMW's, which moves in any direction but the obvious one, and which I have to think through from first principles every time, so that I seldom use it at all. I still sometimes miss the Volvo, which could do the wet screen thing and had easy CC controls - but no limiter.

The other crappy thing about the washers/wipers on my E is that there are only 2 jets on each side. Our Mazda 6 has 3. The bottom right corner of the screen on the E remains steadfastly untroubled by the washer fluid and the wipers just create a big smeary arc down there. I shall get to work with a pin and try to point it down a bit, bit that's a faff I shouldn't need to contemplate on a luxury car when my Jap-crap cooking spec tincan next to it has three per side.

And thats one of the things I love about the Lancer.   The wipers. It has large blades, that cover the screen, but because the screen is flat they sit perfectly and wipe it all.  It has two speeds, both right, and 6 - count them - 6 intermittent  settings, one of them is a intermittent at rest or very slow speed,  but slow wipe when above 10 mph.  The washers are pull back to deposit as much as much water on the screen as you want, (only two jets but voluminous) and then you select the wipe.   None of this "dribble" delayed wipe  crap either. 

Love em. 


Rear wiper is useless tho. 

Ich fahre heute die Mazda. Gott in Himmel. Wo sind die Torquen? I habe viel Revven aber keine Torquen.

Die Wiperen sind gut.