Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Lift the hatch and see if there is a panel line.

Shame saab still aren't around, seats in their 'hot' cars were great, backs had massive wings on them, very supportive for road use, but the seat pad was just a giant soft square with good under thigh support. Decent soft leather than didn't harden up over time like a lot of modern seat materials do.
Keep looking at 2010-2014 E class estates, just the diesel one! A 350, seats are nothing special, look like they are from the 90s, very square and very hard. Pretty sure they weren't the 'sports' version, but still hard and short, like there isn't much thigh support. BMW comfort and 'm' seats are way better in that regard (still hard though).

The seat I find lost comfortable is a Recaro SPG- not the softest you will find. The important thing is it’s the right shape for me and the E63 (currently) isn’t.

Is there no possibility of getting a seat to suit you which can be interchanged between cars?

I’m stood in the Mercedes dealers as I type this, ostensibly for the auxiliary battery malfunction but I shall also ask them to check that the seat is performing as it should (and no doubt pay £500 for this).

I’ve not read “worst seats in any road car ever” in any of the (glowing) reviews in the motoring press, so maybe mine are in some way buggered.

Or they’re designed for people rather more powerfully built than I am, who have their own lumbar support.

Could you get the guys who have done your 911 to do you some custom leather lumbar support?

The seats are extremely complex- heated, cooled, ventilated, massaging, and provide “dynamic cornering support”, so they have a thousand bladders, sensors and fans in.

Just no decent lumbar support.

@Dramatic_Hammer I've just shown your first pic to our assessor. He reckons a couple of grand. Not a write off.🙂

Aux battery cooked, £445.

Maybe it powers the lumbar support - double win?

Hah- that would be awesome but, I fear, unlikely. The service guy seemed taken aback that I didn’t find the car comfortable

Uber wagon seats are designed for fat German execs, not lean cyclists. That's definitely the case with my parents' C5 RS6

Dan is very fat it is true.

LOL just realised how that came across. I'm sure Dan's RS6 isn't the same

It's not, but I am fat.

John Lewis for one of those brightly patterned cushions, £11*

*It might have the unintended intention of making it look like your car belongs to an old lady, so anyone thinking of maybe keying it or removing the windows with bricks might think twice if they see a Orla Kierly back cushion Velcro to the seat.

maybe mine are in some way buggered

Not sure how you'd test this - same issue with your passenger seat?

What happens if I want to put winter tyres on my car for... winter?

If you just swap the tyres it would not be counted as a modification for insurance purposes. What if I put the winter tyres on another set of wheels and then swap the wheels over? That is a modification? Unless they are identical, stock wheels?

Does that mean people who use winter tyres are taking their cars into a garage to have them changed twice a year?

My car is on winters right now, I have a set of four identical wheels with summer/performance tyres on in the garage which I’ll put on when I believe that it’s stopped raining all the time.

It’s not a modification.

Please find attached your health check.

1. AUX battery has ben replaced

2. O/S/F seat fault : we have found the lumber support air bag is faulty cost to replace air cushion is £894.72 inc vat (parts to ordered in from Germany 3-5 working days)

Please respond to approve any of the work listed. If you require any further information please respond to this message.
Yours sincerely,
Mercedes-Benz West Bromley (After Sales)

The cause of back issues?
Rather expensive to fix.

Wow. £900 for part of a seat. That makes the battery look semi reasonable.

Yeah, I saw your posts in the thread. Are they stock wheels? I've read any non-standard wheels could be considered a modification - even fitting e.g. the wheels off high spec version to low spec version of the same model... Other insurers seem to say that it's not a modification as long as the wheel size is the same

Winter tyres (alone) should definitely not be considered a modification according the ABI.

I’ve got two sets of the same OEM wheels that the car came with.