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[Roadieman]

I've been trawling the car web sites looking for a 44 and am slowly narrowing down must have items and would like items in the spec. I have a few questions though.

(1) Are there different types of arm rest for the front seats? I've seen a few cars with the large wide arm rest. If an arm rest is present does it mean it has the lounge concept seats, etc?
(2) Looking at the glass panorama roof in photos there appears to be a sliding glass? screen. Does this only cover the front or back of the roof and not both at the same time? How hot does the cabin get from direct sun shining onto the glass? Is it worse than not having the glass roof?
(3) I've read that the ride is quite hard. I've seen a couple of cars with 17" Brabus wheels. Will this be too extreme? What size are the standard four arm wheels?
(4) Can the engine temp and clock pods be retro fitted?
(5) Is the radio with sat nav (the one with the large map screen) worth having? Are maps still available for it? I've seen a car with it but if the maps are out of date and it doesn't really offer anything else worthwhile over the more standard radios then I won't consider it as significant feature. Unless of course you are able to wire a camera into it to display on the screen - then that would be cool.

[Alex]

1.Just one original armrest. It comes with the comfort pack: armrest+rear electric windows. Lounge seats have gray plastic hardbacks.
2.Optional panoramic roof has the option (yeah...i know) of opening front half. All 44s get very hot inside, perhaps the panoramic roofed ones a bit more.
3.Ride is firm, 17 brabus wheels very soft. 195/50R15 is the best standard size, but you can also go for 205/50R15.
4.Yes. You need the pods+ Tan code.
5.Not worth it. Sat nav only works with the original DVD inside the unit. Looks very cool though.

[CrazyG]

Also available, though quite rare were 16" dia Moveline wheels. (That's the big blockie four spoke ones)
I know of at least 1 Passion that has those fitted.  It could well be the better option than 17" dia wheels,
although finding 'decent' tyres to fit may be the only real problem.

17" dia with the standard springs is ok...firmer, but nowhere near as hard a ride as when coupled
with lowered and uprated springs......but it handles like a go kart (or an old style Mini) at that point.

Really, it's a case of whatever suits....horses for courses..... 

[Ferrina]

My silver/red cdi passion is the perfect model for you!

16's
glass roof
Brabus rear box
Roof bars
ITG filter
iPod lead
LED side lights
True 51 mpg
Dash pods but no arm rests

[CrazyG]

Selling your's then Ferrina ?

PS...did you get my PM's by the way ?

[Roadieman]

Thanks for the replies.
The cars I've seen (on German auto trader sites) have various combinations of arm rest with or without the lounge front seat or electric rear windows; or lounge front seats without the arm rest. It seems you could spec things separately, at least in Germany. Also the arm rests don't have the cup holders like I've seen in the brochure pics.

I think i've decided that I would like a passion due to the extras that come standard but the glass roof worries me. Here in Portugal during August when the temp is at 38C it may get very uncomfortable. How powerful is the A/C? Does it cool the cabin quickly? I guess I could look into putting a reflective film on the glass to keep some of the heat out.

I think I'll stick with the 15" or 16" wheels as the roads here can be a little rough in places. I have the 17" Brabus monoblock wheels on my roadster and it's hard plus I don't want to be worried about buckling another set of wheels. Virtually all the cars I've looked at have the Moveline wheels - which I quite like.

I'll scratch the radio 6 from my must have / would be nice list then as it offers no real benefit other than eye candy.

Thanks Ferrina, but I'm after the LHD.

[Problemchild]

Radio 6 is essential as it comes with the subwoofer under the passenger seat, tweeters in the front doors and speakers in the rear!!

Plus it looks soooo much better and I'd the standard head unit from the merc slk so it is a really decent system!!

The glass roof isn't an issue.... The blinds are quite good at keeping out the sun!

And the arm rest does have the cup holders - it flips front to back by 180 degrees so both can use it and it"swivels" on it's other axis by pulling and twisting - it's really ingenious!!

JJ

[Alex]

The AC is very powerfull. Set on max it can kill you . Mine is stuck at 15*C and after 30 mins all the pipes freeze over and the fan is blocked by ice

[Roadieman]

Radio 6 is essential as it comes with the subwoofer under the passenger seat, tweeters in the front doors and speakers in the rear!!

Plus it looks soooo much better and I'd the standard head unit from the merc slk so it is a really decent system!!

The glass roof isn't an issue.... The blinds are quite good at keeping out the sun!

And the arm rest does have the cup holders - it flips front to back by 180 degrees so both can use it and it"swivels" on it's other axis by pulling and twisting - it's really ingenious!!

JJ

Sorry, I got the radio 6 mixed up with the satnav with map screen version. I see your point about radio 6 so will add it to my list.  Good to hear about the arm rest. All the photos I saw showed it without the cup holders so it was obviously flipped over in the photos.

The AC is very powerfull. Set on max it can kill you . Mine is stuck at 15*C and after 30 mins all the pipes freeze over and the fan is blocked by ice

Glad to hear that the AC is powerful. Really need it here - especially after the car has been in the sun for an hour.

[Unknown]

The Radio 5 is fine, I think there are some out there with the sound pack fitted. And all the HUs come from the Merc parts bin, just with a different fascia and mounting points. The R5 also has the very useful cubby hole too.

The air con is good and doesn't feel like it saps any of the engine power, had mine set to max the other day. Best thing to remember with any air con system is to try to rid the cabin of as much hot air as possible, opening the windows and have the fans on first.

The twin face arm rest should have cup holders, as JJ says flip it round the arm rotates to serve the front and rear.

[Alex]

In city driving i feel mine killing the power. Especially when setting off with little throttle. And it ruins fuel economy, i get at least 1L/100kms.

But on longer drives I don't notice it, doesn't feel like it's putting a big load on the engine, and also fuel economy doesn't seem to suffer.

[Roadieman]

In city driving i feel mine killing the power. Especially when setting off with little throttle. And it ruins fuel economy, i get at least 1L/100kms.

But on longer drives I don't notice it, doesn't feel like it's putting a big load on the engine, and also fuel economy doesn't seem to suffer.

I experience the same thing in my roadster although it's a smaller engine and I assume smaller AC compressor.  But it does kill the economy in town with AC on. I wonder if the diesels with their better low down torque don't feel it as much?

[basilbrush]

It's possible that a lot of us are not using our air conditioning with optimum settings or maybe aren't doing enough to purge the car of hot air before we actually set off. I got the information below off the net

"A common mistake of air conditioning users in summer is to turn the temperature setting right down on their climate control system. This will require a great deal of effort to cool the air and when you finally get out of the car and step into the warm air you will notice the heat a great deal more and this can often be quite uncomfortable. We recommend that you set the air conditioning climate control to only be 1 or 2 degrees cooler than the outside air as this is more economical, will not take as much power out of the engine, will help the air conditioning system to last longer and will not make you feel like you are stepping into an oven when you get out of your car."

Also around town windows can be opened or the system can be set to recirculate. I think most of us tend to switch it on to maximum and have it blowing on our faces then complain about the drag on the engine. It's not really designed for that it's for conditioning the whole interior to a more comfortable level and that includes passengers at the rear.

[CrazyG]

I agree with basilbrush...
Never have the air-con on full blast....fan or temp setting....comfortable is the word I'd use.
Mine never appears to reduce the power...I guess cos I don't have it on full blast.

One very very very important thing for peops with air-con....
Whatever the weather, use your air-con at least once a fortnight for the whole days driving.
It'll stop the seals hardening and loss of coolant.

Roof blinds inside the panoramic DO cut the heat level....and the polycabonate/glass is tinted as well.

I have a radio5 with the full 6 speaker n sub premium sound pack.....But have changed all 4 door speakers
for more efficient n better sounding ones. The sub can boom...and distort when wound up...so I'm looking
for a replacement for that.
My daughters' ForFour Passion has a radio5 and only the 2 front door speakers ! (At the moment).
I've got 4 new speakers and a sub to fit into it at some stage.

[Razvan.M]

Well since mine is a 1.1 it really sucks the power out of motor for the times I take of. Most of the time the whole car starts to shiver for a couple a seconds. I usually us the A/C fan at the level 2.
Ok there might be another explanaition for the shivers stated above. When I bought the car the belt was a little bit loose and squeeked from time to time. After about 2 weeks i did the usual maintenance: oil, oil filter etc and asked to tighten the belt. I'm pretty much at the 60k mark so I guess it needs replacement as the manufacturer recomends to change it after 60k. 
Btw. the car gets pretty hot since it's painted in black.