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Aye, the only time I've driven anything with ACC was a rental Passat, and I hated it - felt it was forcing me to pay more attention to my speed than if there wasn't cruise control at all, and actively working against a smooth drive.
It was a few years ago, and I didn't have the car long enough to be arsed working out the settings (my principal whinge was that it matched the speed of slower vehicles in my lane far, far further back than I would have done given I wanted to approach them, then overtake matching a gap in the lane to my right).
ACC's probably better now - or I might be better at using it
jsabine-
it matched the speed of slower vehicles in my lane far, far further back than I would have done given I wanted to approach them
i.e. it prevents tailgating which is a good safety feature however doesn't quite adapt to the dickhead driving style of many which means the space left in front becomes an opportunity for another driver to move into.
on the overtaking thing - i can't see the problem with that, just press the accelerator, complete the manoeuvre and then take your foot off the gas and ACC resumes doing its thing. it takes a small amount of time to get used to and then becomes second nature.
lane assist is one thing i've not got my head around yet. had it on a hire car (Suzuki something or other) and it was really odd, particularly when avoiding oncoming vehicles on narrow roads in Orkney. probably not the kind of environment it was designed for.
ChasnotRobert
After my wife drove it back from Bordeaux, I had my first proper drive in the new Mercedes SLK yesterday. Very different driving experience from my other cars. Quite a stiff throttle, so you can't accidentally go hooning, and it feels faster than the Citroën C5 even when it's not actually going as fast. Very nice chassis, and really easy to place on the road. The Harmon Kardon stereo sounds great.
On the subject of gadgets, I have no problem with automatic wipers or lights. I have them on the Citroën and just leave them on all the time. They are great. In France you must put your lights on in tunnels and when it's raining. So when the wipers come on so do the lights. I can concentrate on actual driving. The Citroën also has an electric handbrake. Lesser models have a manual one, but they switched to an electric on the models with hydropneumatic suspension so there was room to put the height adjustment buttons. It's an auto handbrake, so it comes on when you switch off the ignition, and releases when you start moving. It also has hill hold. Basically they did it right. My car is an automatic as well, so you could just never touch it. Actually I usually disengage it like a manual so I get a nice gentle take-off with a bit of creep. Cruise control is also an essential in a long-distance car. European motorways are often empty enough that you can just set 130kph and you don't have to touch the pedals for miles. I once drove from Calais to Le Mans without seeing a single other car (obviously not this time of year!) My Citroën (and the Mercedes) also have speed limiters which I set to 50kph for towns and cities; super useful.
I rented a Passat once that had adaptive cruise control and lane assist. Both of those can absolutely get fucked. "I'd like to overtake this slow moving truck" "No you can't. I will slow you down to the truck's speed and physically fight you when you try and change lanes."