Heck, Mercedes can't even get steering column stalks right. For decades, they've insisted on an asinine arrangement that combines way too much (turn signals, wipers, mist, clean, high-beams) into one stalk that is positioned so poorly low that you always hit the adjacent (not opposite side!) cruise control stalk when you try to signal a turn or lane change. Truly one of the most horrific physical UI experiences ever....
I will say that my wife had a Pacifica (the crossover, not the minivan) that is one of the best thought-out cars I have ever driven - not the best built (though it was tolerable), but definitely the best thought-out. (And we've owned dozens of cars from America, Italy, Japan, Germany, and Korea) Absolutely everything about that car oozed the thought and consideration of the designers thinking about how the car would be used. We'd still have it if it hadn't been totalled by a careless wench shoving her Jeep's winch deep enough into the Pacifica to total it.
> into one stalk that is positioned so poorly low that you always hit the adjacent (not opposite side!) cruise control stalk when you try to signal a turn or lane change.
I have never ever activated the cruise control when trying to signal in a Mercedes-Benz, and I find the mono-stalk to work well. Really the only difference is that it has wiper controls (since most cars have signal and high beams in one stalk).
I find the BMW way more confusing, since I can never remember which direction does a single wipe and which direction actually turns them on (one of them is up on the stalk, one is down, don't ask me which one was which). And you can't actually know by feel which wiper setting you are in since the BMW stalks are fixed. The Mercedes has completely different actions for single wipe (push button) and activating wipers (rotate the knob) and since the knob rotates, you have tactile feedback of which setting you are in.
I will say that my wife had a Pacifica (the crossover, not the minivan) that is one of the best thought-out cars I have ever driven - not the best built (though it was tolerable), but definitely the best thought-out. (And we've owned dozens of cars from America, Italy, Japan, Germany, and Korea) Absolutely everything about that car oozed the thought and consideration of the designers thinking about how the car would be used. We'd still have it if it hadn't been totalled by a careless wench shoving her Jeep's winch deep enough into the Pacifica to total it.