German Car Zone

You're absolutely right, that's the reverse side - as I already mentioned, I can't estimate the "Night Panel", because I've never seen one in reality!

But I have to admit, that I really like the Ambient Light in our E-Class! It is relaxing, especially for the passengers, and also the driver can profit a lot. It adds a lot to the interior and broadcast a relaxing atmosphere (warning: I don't mean, that you fall asleep while driving )!

You have to understand the idea of the Night Panel is brought from Saab's aeronautics department. Inside the cockpit of a fighter aircraft there are hundreds of different switches and beacons but only the things that need the pilot's immediate attention are lighted. This is an ingenious way of preventing the pilot to be unnecessarily distracted as he obviously can't afford to do mistakes flying with amazing speeds and making decisions in fraction of a second. Also the green background lighting is inspired by Saab's aeronautic roots.

Most often used functions can operated through the buttons on the steering wheel. So this system does work in the same way as in the aircraft cockpits, it helps you to concentrate on the essential parts of driving and also prevents you being distracted by interior light reflections on the windscreen (and other windows).

This is one aspect of our X5 I really can't stand. The interior lighting is soo poor, even on the buttons. You literally are stabbing in the dark on many occasions. My lowly A3 does a better job of lighting. Our previous E-class and S-class were superb in this respect.

Has anyone seen Lexus night lighting? on the IS and GS they've used white LD's which looks very very cheap. It's also very poorly executed to the point of being useless.

So my experience tells me Mercedes is ahead of the game in the respect?

Yep, inspired by aeronautics...Not really the same focuses than ion a car. In your car you want to feel good, have a warm and lovely ambient, feel good. In a chaser you need to be operative, discreet, efficient.

Also, some studies proved that you are less inclined to asleep if the car is not dark but has some light in it (not just the buttons, but an ambient lighting), and that you react better because your eyes do not need to go from the hard lights of the frontlights in the dark interior of the car.

And I would not like it to drive in the dark, honestly. At least I think so, I never tried it. But in the E-Class, I spent a lot of time and a lot of kms, the ambient lighting is just brilliant.

Like I already mentioned the basic principle works in cars as well. Still I think the intensity of the interior lighting is a matter of taste but too bright lights are distracting. Red lights are recommendable in the interior as red light in itself is least intensive. As a result it takes less time for human eyes to get used to complete darkness than with any other colored light. That's why they use it inside submarines and in the rear lights of basically all vehicles.

Any pictures of the "waterfall" affect on the BMW 7 series (E65).. Its quite cool actually not as striking as the S class more subdued and i really like it

Are you sure it is because red is less intensive? I thought the contrary.

I know that the red light is the colour that human eyes can recognize the most quickly, this is why rear/stop lights are red: the response time is smaller with red than with other colours.

My bro has an e46, I have to say I don't like the red lightning. I feel it as too harsh, not relaxing at all. The blue in a VW is wonderful, but also quite aggressive. The green is quite cool, but my taste is more white/beige for the speedo, looks more natural and it does not annoy me, like the red does. More soft, natural, and easier to oversee.

Anyway, in the E like in the S you can regulate the lightning brightness of course. It can be very soft.

I think the Lexus interior lighting with white LEDs is really nice. They even use white LED bulbs to light up the rear registration plate which looks nice and different. Personal preference I suppose though.

Thats the first time I've heard of that. Would quite like to see it if anyone has pictures!

There are far more important reasons why the rear lights are red (psychological reasons, nature's warning color etc.) but I used it as an example to show where the benefit can be noticed.

Again it's a matter of taste which color you like the interior lighting should be. Personally I like red, orange and blue best.
I think the color BMW uses is same for all models, can't remember the name though. It was something like magma/lava orange.

I've read about Saab's Night Panel thing. Pretty novel, but I doubt I would be ever using it because I think I will fall asleep getting too comfortable cruising.

Yes, I would think MB is ahead of the others (just slightly) in this respect Mr. Mercedes - I remember in our W220, there was already some basic ambient lighting. But I think BMW has caught up pretty quickly as well - for instance, its 3er coupe now has the same waterfall lights on the doors as the E65 7er. I don't remember seeing anything like that on the 5er though.

As for Audi - I still haven't taken those pictures! Tomorrow, I promise!

coolraoul has brought an interesting perspective to the discussion - colour. I think I like blue, white or even orange/yellow... I dislike green (so 90's) and basically most other colours.

Good discussion guys, keep it going.