I had a 2000 reg Merc CL . For a piece of technology designed in 1999 , it never , ever failed to keep astounding me . If a blinker light burned out , the car would blink the fog light instead . It had brake fill aka Brake Assist . I walked into a Toyota dealership in 2007 and this was being marketed as ' new technology ' for them . The infotainment console could display text messages , manage an address book , and would dim the stereo in and out whilst issuing sat nav commands . My car didn ' t have it , but radar adjusted cruise control ' Distronic Plus ' was an option . Even today , people think this is new and amazing technology . What really amazed me about the Merc ' s design was the unobtrusive nature of all these features . Your 80 year old grandad could get in the car , ignore it all , drive off , and still have a great time . Too many new cars are adding too many lookatme features that get very annoying very quickly .