The trouble is that many of the things you claim are not borne out by the facts. I drove the SWB model. Long as an S class and I would not want any bigger with UK parking.
1. The legroom in the front is less than an A class and inadequate for longer legged people like me. It is not height of occupant that matters but leg length that matters. It has room for, say, a 31 inch inside leg. I'm 33 inch and could not get seat back enough to get thigh supported.
2. Raising the front seat to try to support the thigh does not help because some fool designed the seat so it swings forward (reducing lewgroom) as you raise it.
3. No tilt adjustment on the squab on a £40-50 k car is absurd. Even cheap superminis have that.
4. Boot space is about like a mini and totally ludicrous for 2 or 3 people on holiday let alone for the six it was designed for.
5. Could have been a really good crossover, a big estate car with luxury seats (not the ones it has), lots of room for a wide range of people sizes, a bench seat behind the two front seats, option of childrens' seats in the back and a major sized boot. Like an ML but looking like, and set out like, a big E class estate. At the moment ML's have more legroom in the front, in the middle and a far bigger boot.
The long wheelbase has enough legroom in the front but still has a pathetic boot to get 6 seats that few people want.
The residuals are lousy because Mercedes are letting dealers sell brand new ones at £9k off list, thus wrecking their customers residual values.
