Maybe kinda unrelated... but I got to drive a 2017 E-Class sedan earlier this week... we had a bit of an employee function to go to, and my boss's boss wanted someone to drive him in his car... it fell to me.
Driving that car was like a goddamn UFO. THERE WERE FIVE STALKS COMING OUT OF THE STEERING COLUMN. I felt like I had to unlearn everything I knew about operating a vehicle. Even starting the damn thing confused me. Ok, push the start button... ok, the AC and dash lighting came on... push the start button again... ok, the needles moved back and forth... ok... push the start button again, ok, the engine just started up, but then shut off... Oh, right, start/stop eco mode... disable...
#1, Reminds me of two things that happened earlier this week. One, a customer of our dry cleaning service just bought a new Mercedes-Maybach S600. He was leaving on a trip and needed his shirts right away so he asked me to take them out of my van and put them in his car. The car kept shutting off on him and turning back on while he was waiting in the middle of the street and I didn't know where the hooks would be for hanging clothes so he told me to just lay them down on the back seat. I was thinking Oh God, that's the last thing I need is to poke a hole in or scratch the leather seat of a 2017 Maybach with a clothes hanger.
#2, Also had a very interesting ride with a friend last night who drove my other friend's EcoBoost Fiesta. Said friend says "I love driving stick!" and takes the wheel, struggles to start it, nearly backs into his own Mustang and at one point fills that poor Fiesta with clutch smell at the top of a hill. He said it was a lot different from driving his vintage Beetle which was the last manual car he had driven regularly. Having driven that Fiesta several times myself, it is the easiest manual car I've ever driven. I think my friend was, shall we say, somewhat impaired at the time. To his credit though, he never stalled the car.