Well the E320 cdi Estate is going.. I will truly miss her.

[developer]

That's cost cutting by MB, then. My 2005 211 estate does have a button to drop the headrests. The auto-release is also triggered automatically if a rear seat is released to be folded down.

My pre facelift had one and this facelift disney.

 

[Dieselman]

A button to drop the headrest...

Pretty sure I have it and in 8 yrs doubt its been pressed....surely one of the most useless buttons / gadgets. I would rather have a cup holder

Useful if reversing and all headrests are up.

 

[A210AMG]

^ ?

Never have I found that an issue? also if people in the back its not going to help much?

Even worse... even if you do press the button. You then have to manually pick them all back up...

I just leave the middle one out as very rarely have 5 people in the car.

Still a silly button imho

 

[prprandall51]

Each person is different, I guess. I rarely have people in the rear and am always very thankful that the button is there to quickly lower the headrests, substantially improving my rear vision, if I have put them up previously for a passenger.

Looks like MB didn't think that the function was worth retaining, anyway.

 

[WillDeBeest]

Bit of a guess but could there have been a reliability issue with wiring to head restraint motors in folding seats? The S211s I've looked at have been late ones, 2008-09, and no feature-happy salesman has been keen to show off electric folding, so I presume it hasn't been there.

I'm guessing the saloon has the motor in the shelf rather than the seat itself.

 

[Dieselman]

Bit of a guess but could there have been a reliability issue with wiring to head restraint motors in folding seats?

It will be down to cost cutting on facelift cars, it always happens.

 

[TDE1]

Useful if reversing and all headrests are up.

Concur - mine has Parktronic, but that doesn't warn you about wayward kids / shuffling oldies / freewheeling shopping trolleys etc. Aesthetically, I do prefer it when they are in the upright position, but it's very useful to gain that extra bit of visibility at the flick of a switch when in doubt.