S213 Disappointment

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BoristheBounce

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Joined
Mar 8, 2017
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592
Location
Yorkshire Dales-Wensleydale-Gromit
Car
EQC 400 4Matic AMG in Brilliant Blue SL400 AMG Sport in Polar White
Over the Remembrance weekend I had the car over to France for the first time.

I was very disappointed that the digital speedo didn't change form MPH to KPH automatically.

The car obviously knows it's in France so why cant they make a simple thing like this happen, you cant even do it manually as far as I can tell.

The other thing which kept us totally amused the whole time was the pronunciation of French place names, they were just said in English; Phonetically, so what a mess it is lol
 
Yes, you can change it to KPH, and indeed change the sat nav to talk in French. But, I wouldn't really know how fast I was going in KPH as I'm of that age when decimalisation came in when I was at school so don't really know my miles from my metres, and my French is pretty poor. So when driving abroad, I keep to miles and sat nav in English!
 
It's remarkable, when you think how driving has evolved. I never considered when I took my test in 1971 that I would get the chance to be pissed off at the way my car spoke foreign words to me!
 
Yes, you can change it to KPH, and indeed change the sat nav to talk in French. But, I wouldn't really know how fast I was going in KPH as I'm of that age when decimalisation came in when I was at school so don't really know my miles from my metres, and my French is pretty poor. So when driving abroad, I keep to miles and sat nav in English!

So, when it says the limit is 100 kph...what speed do you drive at?
 
Over the Remembrance weekend I had the car over to France for the first time.

I was very disappointed that the digital speedo didn't change form MPH to KPH automatically.

The car obviously knows it's in France so why cant they make a simple thing like this happen, you cant even do it manually as far as I can tell.

The other thing which kept us totally amused the whole time was the pronunciation of French place names, they were just said in English; Phonetically, so what a mess it is lol

Seriously? Not only are you disappointed it doesn't do something 99.999% of the world doesn't need...you didn't even find out how to do it yourself? I'm disappointed.
 
All UK cars must show Kph and MPH...all the time. Does your 213 not do this?
 
So, when it says the limit is 100 kph...what speed do you drive at?

Well on mine, the KPH is shown as numerics next to the dial anyway. Now, if someone could tell me how to change that, I'd do it tomorrow (it can't be done :()
 
It's a bit like the time I was driving along listening to the radio and a Taylor Swift track came on and yet my in-car entertainment system didn't recognise it as a pile of old sh1t and I ended up having to change the channel all by myself.

Modern cars are rubbish.
 
All I'm saying is... that with all the tech in these new cars I would have thought both to get it to change to KPH and French would be an obvious thing for it to do, when it does so may other things I'm not interested in.

I'll ignore the sarcasm as one always should :)

I'm now told it can but I couldn't find how, maybe cos I'm an old git!

Tim.... any pointer I spent ages trying to work out how.

Cheers

Nev
 
I'm sure it will be if it can be done, but my many attempts at finding it have proven to be fruitless, the trouble is they don't come with a good old fashioned handbook, everything is now online or, maybe I'm just thick.
 
I'm sure it will be if it can be done, but my many attempts at finding it have proven to be fruitless, the trouble is they don't come with a good old fashioned handbook, everything is now online or, maybe I'm just thick.
FWIW, I downloaded the manual as a PDF and keep a copy on my iPad and iPhone. There's also a version on the COMAND system (if one has that of course).
 
I'm sure it will be if it can be done, but my many attempts at finding it have proven to be fruitless, the trouble is they don't come with a good old fashioned handbook, everything is now online or, maybe I'm just thick.

You are not alone.

I bought a new A5 over the summer and for the life of me can’t fathom how to reliably turn the ignition off. Give me an old fashioned key any day rather than the daft ‘intelligent’ Start stop button which has a mind of its own.

And, the other day I had to check the ad blue level which required me to turn the ignition on but not the engine. What a fuss. Press starter button without foot on break. Simple enough but required a look through the manual.

Same when I wanted to check if the (awesome) matrix auto LED lights needed switching over when on the continent. Couldn’t fathom it out. Nothing in the manual and finally found out online that slot beams don’t need any adjustment, immaterial of what side of the road you drive on. Should have known that right?
 
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Do you have wide screen display which gives you the electronic instruments? If you do, you change that in "settings".
 
Nev, you think you are an old git? I'll tell you the definition of an old git:

I wish my car did less. I can't buy a modern day car because they have too much fancy technology and I can't find all the switches to turn them off. First thing I do when I get in my car is turn the EC mode off (stop/start) then switch to sport mode.. and that's where it stays!
 
To be in authentic French mode the car should have been tailgating on the autoroute and bumping other cars out of the way when street parking.
 
You are not alone.

Same when I wanted to check if the (awesome) matrix auto LED lights needed switching over when on the continent. Couldn’t fathom it out. Nothing in the manual and finally found out online that slot beams don’t need any adjustment, immaterial of what side of the road you drive on. Should have known that right?

Strangely enough I did find that in the "manual".
 

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