73 Safety and Security
Occupant safety
If the 75 indicator lamp is illu-
minated, the front passenger front air bag is
deactivated and will not be deployed.
If the 75 indicator lamp is not
illuminated, the front passenger front air
bag is activated and will be deployed:
in the event of certain frontal impacts
if impact exceeds a preset deployment
threshold
independently of the side impact
air bags
If the front passenger front air bag is
deployed, the rate of inflation will be
influenced by:
the rate of relevant vehicle deceleration
as assessed by the air bag control unit
front passenger’s weight category as
identified by the Occupant Classification
System (OCS)
Warning!
G
According to accident statistics, children
are safer when properly restrained in the
rear seating positions than in the front seat-
ing position. Thus, we strongly recommend
that children be placed in the rear seats
whenever possible. Regardless of seating
position, children 12 years old and under
must be seated and properly secured in an
appropriate infant or child restraint recom-
mended for the size and weight of the child.
The infant or child restraint must be properly
secured with the vehicle’s seat belt, the seat
belt and top tether strap, or lower anchors
and top tether strap, fully in accordance
with the child seat manufacturer’s instruc-
tions.
Always sit nearly upright, properly use the
seat belts and for children 12 years old and
under, use an appropriately sized infant re-
straint, toddler restraint, or booster seat
recommended for the size and weight of the
child.
Children can be killed or seriously injured by
an inflating air bag. Note the following im-
portant information when circumstances re-
quire you to place a child in the front
passenger seat:
Your vehicle is equipped with air bag
technology designed to turn off the front
passenger front air bag in your vehicle
when the system senses the weight of a
typical 12-month-old child or less along
with the weight of a standard appropri-
ate child restraint on the front passen-
ger seat.
A child in a rear-facing child restraint on
the front passenger seat will be serious-
ly injured or even killed if the front pas-
senger front air bag inflates in a collision
which could occur under some circum-
stances, even with the air bag technolo-
gy installed in your vehicle. The only
means to completely eliminate this risk
is to never place a child in a rear-facing
child restraint in the front seat. We
therefore strongly recommend that you
always place a child in a rear-facing
child restraint in the back seat.
80 Safety and SecurityOccupant safety
When the engine is started, the seat belt
telltale< will always illuminate
for 6 seconds to remind you and your pas-
sengers to fasten your seat belts.
If the driver’s seat belt is not fastened
when the engine is started, an additional
warning chime will also sound for a maxi-
mum of 6 seconds or until the driver’ s
seat belt is fastened.
The system is designed to enhance the
protection offered to properly belted oc-
cupants in certain frontal (front air bags,
driver-side knee bag and ETD) and side
(side impact and window curtain air
bags and ETD) impacts which exceed
preset deployment thresholds and in
certain rollovers (window curtain air
bags and ETD).
Never wear the shoulder belt under your
arm, against your neck or off your shoul-
der. In a frontal crash, your body would
move too far forward. That would in-
crease the chance of head and neck in-
juries. The seat belt would also apply too
much force to the ribs or abdomen,
which could severely injure internal or-
gans such as your liver or spleen.
Never wear seat belts over rigid or
breakable objects in or on your clothing,
such as eyeglasses, pens, SmartKeys
etc., as these might cause injuries.
Position the lap belt as low as possible
on your hips and not across the abdo-
men. If the seat belt is positioned across
your abdomen, it could cause serious in-
juries in a crash.
Never use a seat belt for more than one
person at a time. Do not fasten a seat
belt around a person and another per-
son or other objects.
Seat belts should not be worn twisted.
In a crash, you wouldn’t have the full
width of the seat belt to distribute im-
pact forces. The twisted seat belt
against your body could cause injuries.
Pregnant women should also always use
a lap-shoulder seat belt. The lap belt
portion should be positioned as low as
possible on the hips to avoid any possi-
ble pressure on the abdomen.
Never place your feet on the instrument
panel, dashboard, or on the seat. Always
keep both feet on the floor in front of the
seat.
When using a seat belt to secure infant
or toddler restraints or children in boost-
er seats, always follow the child seat
manufacturer’s instructions.
83 Safety and Security
Occupant safety
Active head restraints
The active head restraints offer the driver’s
and front passenger increased protection
from whiplash type injuries. In the event of
a rear-end collision, the active head re-
straints on the driver’s and front passen-
ger’s seats are designed to move forward
in the direction of travel, providing the
head with increased support earlier on in
the collision sequence. The active head re-
straints move forward whether the seat is
occupied or not.For information on resetting the activated
active head restraints, see “Resetting acti-
vated head restraints” (
page 401).
You cannot remove the active head
restraint on the driver’s and front passen-
ger’s seat.
For removal of the active head restraints
we recommend that you contact an
authorized Mercedes-Benz Center.
For information on head restraint adjust-
ment, see “Seats” (
page 41).
Warning!
G
Do not attach any objects (e.g. hangers) to
the head restraint posts. Otherwise, the ac-
tive head restraints may not be able to func-
tion properly or offer the intended degree of
protection in the event of a collision.
Warning!
G
Only use seat or head restraint covers which
have been tested and approved by
Mercedes-Benz for your vehicle model.
Using other seat or head restraint covers
may interfere with or prevent the activation
of active head restraint. Contact your autho-
rized Mercedes-Benz Center for availability.
Warning!
G
For your protection, drive only with properly
positioned head restraints.
Adjust head restraints so that it is as close
to the head as possible and the center of the
head restraint supports the back of the head
at eye level. This will reduce the potential for
injury to the head and neck in the event of
an accident or similar situation.
Do not drive the vehicle without the seat
head restraints. Head restraints are intend-
ed to help reduce injuries during an acci-
dent.
118 Controls in detailLocking and unlocking
Close the trunk (
page 113).
Remove the mechanical key from the
SmartKey (
page 396).
Insert the mechanical key in the trunk
lid lock.
Turn the mechanical key clockwise to
position2 to lock the trunk.
The trunk remains locked even when the
vehicle is centrally unlocked.
Insert the mechanical key in the trunk
lid lock.
Turn the mechanical key counterclock-
wise to neutral position1 to unlock the
trunk.
You can now open the trunk
(page 112).
Automatic central locking
The doors and the trunk automatically lock
when the ignition is switched on and the
wheels are turning at vehicle speeds of ap-
proximately 9 mph (15 km / h) or more.
The locking knobs in the doors move down.
You can open a locked door from the in-
side. Open door only when conditions are
safe to do so.
You can deactivate the automatic locking
mode using the control system
(page 165).
Locking and unlocking from the inside
You can lock or unlock the doors and the
trunk from inside using the central locking
switch. This can be useful, for example, if
you want to lock the vehicle before starting
to drive.
The fuel filler flap cannot be locked or un-
locked with the central locking switch.
i
You can only cancel the separate trunk lock-
ing mode by means of the mechanical key.
i
The doors are designed to unlock automati-
cally after an accident if the force of the impact
exceeds a preset threshold. The vehicle locks au-
tomatically when the ignition is switched on and
the wheels are turning at vehicle speeds of ap-
proximately 9 mph (15 km/h) or more. You could
therefore lock yourself out when the vehicle
is pushed or towed
is on a test stand
Warning!
G
When leaving the vehicle, always remove the
SmartKey or SmartKey with KEYLESS-GO*
from the starter switch, take it with you, and
lock the vehicle. Do not leave children unat-
tended in the vehicle, or with access to an
unlocked vehicle. A child’s unsupervised ac-
cess to a vehicle could result in an accident
and/or serious personal injury.
133 Controls in detail
Lighting
Driving forward
Switching on corner-illuminating front
fog lamps
Switch on the left or right turn signal
(page 55), depending on whether
you are turning left or right.
The respective front fog lamp comes on
and illuminates the area in the direc-
tion into which you are turning.
or
Turn steering wheel in desired direc-
tion.
The front fog lamp on the side of your
steering direction comes on.Switching off corner-illuminating front
fog lamps
The combination switch for the turn signal
resets automatically after major steering
wheel movements. This will switch off the
corner-illuminating front fog lamps if they
where activated by switching on the left or
right turn signal.
If the turn signal should stay on after mak-
ing the turn, the turn signal and corner-illu-
minating front fog lamps can be switched
off by returning the combination switch to
its original position.
i
If you are driving faster than 25 mph
(40 km/h) or have the front fog lamps switched
on, the corner-illuminating function is not avail-
able.
i
If you have switched on the turn signal for
one side but turn the steering wheel in the other
direction, the corner-illuminating lamp lights up
on the side of the turn signal.
The corner-illuminating front fog lamp remains lit
for a maximum of three minutes. Afterward, it
goes out even if the turn signal is still switched
on.
i
The corner-illuminating front fog lamps tem-
porarily come on on both sides of the vehicle if
you turn the steering wheel in one direction and
then in the other direction shortly thereafter.
i
The corner-illuminating front fog lamps will
come on automatically depending on the steer-
ing angle, even if you did not switch on either
turn signal. If the corner-illuminating front fog
lamps came on automatically, they will also go
out automatically depending on the steering
angle.
i
There may be a brief delay before the cor-
ner-illuminating front fog lamps switch off.
135 Controls in detail
Lighting
Interior lighting in the front
The controls are located in the overhead
control panel.1Left front reading lamp on/off
2Rear interior lighting on/off
3Automatic control on/off
4Front interior lighting on/off
5Right front reading lamp on/off
6Interior lighting
7Ambient lighting
8Front reading lamps
Deactivating automatic control
Press switch3.
The interior lighting remains switched
off in darkness, even when you:
unlock the vehicle
remove the SmartKey from the
starter switch
open a door
open the trunk
Activating automatic control
Press switch3.
The interior lighting switches on in
darkness, when you:
unlock the vehicle
remove the SmartKey from the
starter switch
open a door
open the trunk
The interior lighting switches off after a
preset time (
page 164).
!
An interior lamp switched on manually does
not go out automatically.
Leaving an interior lamp switch in the ON posi-
tion for extended periods of time with the engine
turned off could result in a discharged battery.
i
The interior lighting is factory-set to auto-
matic mode.
i
If a door remains open, the interior lamps
switch off automatically after approximately
5minutes.
138 Controls in detailInstrument clusterFor a full view illustration of the instrument
cluster, see “At a glance” (
page 26).
1Reset button
The instrument cluster is activated when
you
open a door
switch on the ignition
press the reset button1
switch on the exterior lamps
You can modify the instrument cluster set-
tings in the instrument cluster submenu of
the control system (
page 157).Adjusting instrument cluster
illumination
Use the reset button (
page 138) to ad-
just the illumination brightness for the in-
strument cluster.To brighten illumination
Turn the reset button (
page 138)
clockwise.
The instrument cluster illumination will
brighten.
To dim illumination
Turn the reset button (
page 138)
counterclockwise.
The instrument cluster illumination will
dim.
Warning!
G
No messages will be displayed if either the
instrument cluster or the multifunction dis-
play is inoperative.
As a result, you will not be able to see infor-
mation about your driving conditions, such
as speed or outside temperature, warn-
ing/indicator lamps, malfunction/warning
messages or the failure of any systems.
Driving characteristics may be impaired.
If you must continue to drive, please do so
with added caution. Visit an authorized
Mercedes-Benz Center as soon as possible.
i
The instrument cluster illumination is
dimmed or brightened automatically to suit am-
bient light conditions.
The instrument cluster illumination will also be
adjusted automatically when you switch on the
vehicle’s exterior lamps.
139 Controls in detail
Instrument cluster
Coolant temperature indicator
Resetting trip odometer
Make sure you are viewing the trip odome-
ter display (
page 141).
If it is not displayed, press the è or
ÿ repeatedly until the trip odome-
ter appears.
Press and hold the reset button
(page 138) until the trip odometer is
reset.
Tachometer
The red marking on the tachometer de-
notes excessive engine speed.
To help protect the engine, the fuel supply
is interrupted if the engine is operated
within the red marking.
Warning!
G
Driving when your engine is overheated
can cause some fluids which may have
leaked into the engine compartment to
catch fire. You could be seriously
burned.
Steam from an overheated engine can
cause serious burns and can occur just
by opening the hood. Stay away from
the engine if you see or hear steam com-
ing from it.
Stop the vehicle in a safe location away from
other traffic. Turn off the engine, get out of
the vehicle and do not stand near the vehicle
until the engine has cooled down.
!
Excessive coolant temperature triggers the
coolant temperature warning lamp (
page 347)
and a warning in the multifunction display
(
page 374).
The engine should not be operated with the cool-
ant temperature above 248°F (120°C). Doing so
may cause serious engine damage which is not
covered by the Mercedes-Benz Limited Warran-
ty.
i
During severe operating conditions, e.g.
stop-and-go traffic, the coolant temperature may
rise close to 248°F (120°C).
!
Avoid driving at excessive engine speeds, as
it may result in serious engine damage that is not
covered by the Mercedes-Benz Limited Warran-
ty.