What's that in my rear view mirror? Quite literally!

[ForestAthlete]

Is it a bird?
Is it a 'plane?
It's superman!

A dull orange light eminates from the small bulb just behind the driver's side reading lamp and the reading lamp has an orange glow too. Only appears at night.
No info in my handbook. The Digital Owner's Manual (USA edition) mentions a compass!?

 

[richard]

It illuminates the dashboard below (i.e ambient lighting)

 

[rf065]

My CLK has the same orange bulb, it is the ambient lighting in mine.

Russ

 

[KillerHERTZ]

I retro-fitted one to my W209 CLK with an Orange LED which I sanded to defuse the light:

 

[ForestAthlete]

This car is full of hidden surprises. That's the beauty of Mercedes.

Thanks

 

[Alex225]

As said it's basically am ambient light so when it's dark and you look down you can see the dashboard and interior just enough. A few cars have them, I think with some of the VAG models it's a red glow instead.

Very handy when you're on a long drive as you don't need to put on a full light to be able to see what's where.

 

[PobodY]

Believe it or not, I'd never noticed that before. - Last night I had a look, and there is was; an amber light shining down from the bottom of my rear vision mirror.

I suppose I always thought the available light in the cabin was through the windscreen, and the orange tint was from soda lamps.

 

[RTR1879]

BMW have them too. My 63 plate 320d Touring ED Plus had orange ones and my missus's 118d MSport has them in selectable orange (classic) or white (sport)

 

[b1g1an]

BMW have them too. My 63 plate 320d Touring ED Plus had orange ones and my missus's 118d MSport has them in selectable orange (classic) or white (sport)

BMW have been doing it since the E39 5 series came out in 95 and it was a lot better than these even then.

On the 211, 219 and probably many others of the era, it's those huge panels in the front and rear roof consoles that achieve the same thing but are quite distracting until you get used to them.

 

[WOODYTHEWISE]

I think that's rather clever

I retro-fitted one to my W209 CLK with an Orange LED which I sanded to defuse the light:

 

[Petrol Pete]

Believe it or not, I'd never noticed that before. - Last night I had a look, and there is was; an amber light shining down from the bottom of my rear vision mirror.

I suppose I always thought the available light in the cabin was through the windscreen, and the orange tint was from soda lamps.

Your car has soda lamps !? talk about hidden features in Mercedes Benz cars

 

[Petrol Pete]

Some cars have all sorts of colours available these days, and you can choose what you want illuminated (footwells etc) and how bright you want them.

 

[p2djx]

My CLA has them in the mirror, in the door handles, on the door cards, in the front headrest area, in the rear headrest area, under the front seats, under the dash - everywhere and I love them.