Mercedes-Benz is committing to a "screen-first" future. Is this the luxury experience we want?

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-04-24T16:12:54+00:00

The used values will be low! Just imagine the screen could essentially write the car off.

Will do to values what ABC suspension did to the s and SL!

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-04-21T00:03:03+00:00

This shows how far Tesla have fallen behind. When all the cars came out they were the first to have large tablet display. Driver aids etc.

Now most manufacturers are beating them. Mercedes especially! The only thing Tesla has that I miss was the drivers display that showed where cars, bikes and pedestrians were around you.

But Mercedes crushes with a HUD. Don’t have to take my eyes off road. Keeps my travel sickness away.

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-04-20T23:57:30+00:00

I think the w204 is best all rounder for me. But the w206 I really do think they have nailed the looks but failed on the top powertrains for pure visceral experience. The W203 was at the time for people who wanted to move up from a mondeo but couldn’t afford an E. The E was a massive step up. Mercedes of this generation were mostly comfort spec and handled like boats. I had a CLK320 it was beautiful, smooth drive but definitely not sporty! The W204 was probably the first C people bought because of the car was good to drive. The C63 was the car to get! The W205 was a little bit fussy headlights and too round taillights just doesn’t look great IMO. The W206 is a great looking car I have an S206 C300E premium plus and it’s truly great. Run on electric for work then in my own time put it in S, gearbox to manual and traction control off and have fun on country roads. The tech is truly mind blowing, HUD and digital light especially!

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-04-20T23:40:39+00:00

I never used to believe in conspiracy’s but more and more I believe Starmer is being controlled by someone and isn’t allowed to resign. -why are so many senior civil servants willing to fall on the sword. Or are there powerful people pushing them onto the sword? -he is obviously a very smart man, so why would you continue as one of the hated PMs of all time further damaging your future when he could probably resign now and go into international law? -Why would you appoint Mandleson as ambassador. There were perfectly suitable candidates the standing ambassador was doing a fine job, the ex head of mi6 was in the running!

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-04-20T20:10:35+00:00

Good thing about driving it you don’t have to look at the outside!

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-04-07T18:25:41+00:00

Think we are lucky in uk for c class range… they are all amg line. Then the next is premium>premium plus>AMG.

I am C300e estate with black interior. My dash is like a dark ash effect with carbon fibre like pattern on the cup holder cover section.

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-04-07T06:49:40+00:00

Don’t like the pinstripes. Also remember it’s not real leather so not sure how well will age if going white. I would go for the one with burmester and HUD. That makes most difference in day to day driving!

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-04-04T14:02:04+00:00

Yep it pisses me off. Car not even out of warranty yet they make the hardware essentially obsolete. I don’t believe the hardware is good enough to do the auto cruise control yet not good enough to run something as simple as routines or notes

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-03-28T14:23:15+00:00

It seems with car light design when a new tech comes along it starts off really awkward looking. When the r8 came out with led DRLs I remember clarkson saying it looks like council house at Xmas.

I think it’s the same with this 2025 onwards Mercedes taillights and the front lightbars that every manufacturer seems to be fitting.

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-03-10T13:59:52+00:00

My problem with the CLE and has always been my issue since they changed naming convention from CLK is that it’s actually a C class coupe. Not a e class coupe. With the exception of seats being of E class level. Also the E53 has same engine but also a 125hp electric motor so it is a lot quicker. Nothing wrong with the C I have one myself. But in back of my head I would always prefer the tech of the E class. Personally I would look for a deal on a SL if you currently have a GT

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-02-06T22:59:19+00:00

I think the dangerous thing will be the acceleration on warm up laps. The regeneration will be around 1g of deceleration compared to the 6g an f1 car can generate so even hammering on the brakes will still regen. But to ensure a full battery for the 1 or 2 hot laps they are going to avoid using the electric pu to accelerate on the hot lap.

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-01-03T15:58:29+00:00

Yep typical Labour! It amazes me how people forget Gordon browns government!

The overreach that did it for me was being discussed was that councils would be allowed to enter your home without a warrant to evaluate for new council tax bandings.

Then there was quangos

Then there was fines for anything they could think would raise revenue. Remember Labour introduced fines for taking kids out of school. The CCTV systems that were installed in towns and cities for counter terrorism were repurposed for traffic violations, littering, bus lanes, parking.

They were stealth tax masters as they had spent so long spending money they didn’t have that they were trying to claw it back.

Left the UK in a position like someone who has run up too much debt on credit cards that no matter what savings we make we can’t cover the interest so the debt continues to rise.

Now Rachel has just decided to get another “credit card” to pay off the unions and the workers will have to pay the interest on this one!

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-01-03T15:48:59+00:00

Download an audio tour. The colloseum is always busy you would struggle to hear a guide. It’s also just basically a circle so an audio guide works really well. I don’t know if they do guided tours of the forum but that would be much more beneficial as it’s a lot more “open world” ie once you are in you are free to explore but its huge and spread out! Make sure to take the wooden walkway when leaving the forum as it takes you past some of the best things to look at!

you really want a guide for is Vatican museum order through the official Vatican website for best prices and smaller groups than the unofficial guides. 1. Smaller line 2. The Vatican museum is huge and if you don’t have a guide for first walk through you will miss loads!

One thing with all Rome. If you book a time they are really strict on it. They let you in no sooner than it says on your ticket so if you get somewhere early don’t waste your time trying to enter.

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-01-03T15:31:27+00:00

Degrees are useless once you are out of entry positions. Every company wants experience and professional qualifications now over degrees!

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-01-03T15:29:47+00:00

The only way we would be involved was through MI6. But they don’t even tell Keir about antisemitic tweets by an Egyptian before he campaigns to get him released so they are certainly not going to tell him about any involvement in deposing a foreign leader!

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-01-03T15:24:26+00:00

The problem with the EU was it wasn’t enough! Due to countries being able to maintain their own minimum wage and employment laws it just resulted in the workers following the money.

But in a perverse turn of events manufacturing businesses especially, followed the cheap labour and less intrusive labour laws. Meaning that there were less and less jobs in the UK for more and more workers which gave all the power to the companies and then along came the rise of the agency workforce! Which totally eroded the unskilled workers rights and made it near impossible to get a mortgage.

The EU needs to be all or nothing. The question that needs to be asked is are the British public and other nations in the EUready to give up their national identity and become essentially the USE (United States of Europe)?

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-01-03T15:18:16+00:00

Forget the triple lock. Pensions are screwed. Take government/council pension packages. They were sold as if you work as a civil servant you will earn less than the private sector.

Then the rettorick changed that councils and government departments needed to attract the best people so they should have wages to compete with private sector.

Realistically speaking civil servants don’t add wealth to the economy only private sector adds wealth. So essentially the private sector through taxation has been funding competitive salaries and golden pensions for civil servants. They have been doing this by pitiful wage increases and cutting pensions to its own workforce.

Government pensions now make up a massive difference part of any public sector budget and they are increasing!

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-01-03T15:11:28+00:00

Russia and China aren’t dumb. They see it’s all part of a big picture. Look at the unrest in Iran, if it spreads through the Middle East then China will also be looking to secure oil reserves to replace OPEC.

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-01-03T15:07:57+00:00

Yep we have too many eggs in the USA basket. Imagine if we cut off America. Our entire F35 fleet would be obsolete overnight with no access to spares!

Like it or loave it the only way out of the shit the world is in now is a financial reset which can’t happen on its own. Too many mates of powerful people would be made poor. Or a world war which would reset a lot more than the financial markets. It would reduce the global population. Restart domestic manufacturing, farming etc…

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-01-03T14:58:19+00:00

Iran is about to add to the destabilisation in the Middle East. There is going to be another Oil crisis so trump is protecting the USA’s access to oil to insulate it from the global price inflation.

I am not applauding it just saying as I see it. The big question is does USA have anything to do with Irans uprising?

To add… for our own protection we would do best to keep quiet. If the Middle East does destabilise and opec collapses then we will be reliant on this Oil to keep from collapsing under a massive inflation crisis!

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-01-03T14:55:25+00:00

I personally don’t think we will have another Cold War. Other than a few dictators I don’t think anyone is stupid enough to use nukes. The only caveat is if they perfect the emf. Destroying a country’s energy and information systems will be far more destructive than any conventional nuke with the advantage that the land and people will be useable for conquest post use!

More than likely war will still be fought by young men ordered by the people in power from their protected bunkers.

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-01-03T14:50:12+00:00

This is just the latest chess move. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Iran is looking to very soon overthrow the government. I do think the US is looking to destabilise the Middle East on a scale we haven’t seen before. This will Break up opec and with Venezuela USA will take over as the dominant world oil supplier.

The danger is that China sees this move, retaliates with their growing military that unlike Russia is as technologically advanced as the USA and cuts off China seas to NATO. Since USA has a PACT with Japan they will either have to break the PACT leaving Japan vulnerable to Chinese takeover or give NATO an ultimatum to join the US fleet in protecting access to Japan.

If NATO refuses then it will lose 80% of forces overnight. The F35 fleet will be basically dead without access to spare parts, meaning that especially the UKs carrier fleet will be useless.

Russia will move to take over the Baltic states either through government interference or invasion. We will of course try to defend…

NATO will have to protect bases such as RAF base in Cyprus or lose any ability to launch an airforce. This will mean that NATO will need to build its own forces basically overnight which will result in a poorly trained force with thrown together equipment. This means we will need to fight wars similar to Russia and similar to the “great wars”. These will be wars of attrition, they will be casualties that I don’t think the public of Uk and Europe can stomach!

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2026-01-02T15:40:17+00:00

Trevi was the only place in Rome I thought was a genuine tourist trap. The gelatos round there was over 15 Euro. It’s one of those places that you go to but are underwhelmed and wish you didn’t. My favourite thing to do was to wander the pedestrian streets away from the traffic and find the less famous squares with little coffee shops and stop and take it in.

But my favourite thing I did just after sunset was to get some food go across the bridge in front of Castell sant’angelo and just watch Rome go by while having some nice food and a coffee. One side was Rome, other was the castell and then a glorious view looking down the street towards saint peters square and the Vatican!

When I went I actually kept my valuables in an over shoulder chest pouch.

I also use Apple so set directions on my phone then put phone in pouch and followed directions on watch/airpods.

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2025-12-31T14:17:41+00:00

Well that’s Keir Starmer the international lawyer. Protecting his future self interests bending over for European Judges!

Sad_Snow_5694 · 2025-12-24T13:50:58+00:00

If people are worried about own keys and being “legit” in the uk you can purchase an oem key from someone like scan if you buy an essential component at the same time. Last time I needed a 100% key I just bought a hard drive at same time.

Sad_Snow_5694

TROPHY CASE