One Owner’s Wish List: Full-Screen CarPlay, a New Wheel, and No Chrome

For some car enthusiasts, keeping a vehicle as a second car means making it exactly the way they want it. One 2017 E-Class owner recently shared his list of upgrades—and the results are worth noting.

The biggest change? The steering wheel. The owner says he couldn’t stand the haptic controls on the standard automatic transmission wheel. After driving an E53 and finding those controls more intuitive, he ordered a replacement wheel from Accessories International in Florida. The process took longer than expected due to new import tariffs, but the company was helpful with configuring the dip switches.

The final cost: about $1,100. “I like the look better and everything works better,” he said.

Next came full-screen Apple CarPlay. The owner paid roughly $900 to have Max at Elebest install the upgrade, which uses the entire center display for navigation and apps. “It is a lot better. More real estate for the map,” he noted, adding that Mercedes-Benz should have done this from the factory.

Max also reprogrammed the car’s default drive mode to “Individual” and set the auto start/stop system to default “off”—an extra $100 well spent.

Finally, the chrome delete. After his wife pointed out how clean a black S-Class looked, he paid $700 to a shop in Brooklyn to black out all the exterior chrome. “It’s cosmetic, but I like the look. It’s a little like a different car,” he said.

With roughly 45,000 miles on the odometer, this owner plans to keep the E-Class as his daily driver for years to come. The upgrades—especially the steering wheel and full-screen CarPlay—have made the car feel more modern and personal. “I really like the 213 controls better than the 214 controls,” he added.