The Next Generation of Mouse Pad Touch Controllers?
Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2026 6:51 pm
Six months ago, my beloved 2012 E350d cabriolet was written off by some moron, so I purchased a 2018 E220d Class Convertible. I really enjoy it (albeit I still mostly stick with my old car).
Even though it's a Premium Plus model, my NTG 5.5 (which does not have Command) only has one screen, physical rev counters, and a speedometer. Merc had disabling Android Auto on a car that cost £50,000+ when new, and I discovered out that someone had activated it for £150. Really? That's ridiculous.
My inability to change the radio station without using the on-screen or wheel-mounted menu is one of my complaints. (I was old enough to recall when a radio cassette had six buttons—you pushed one to choose, and then you pulled them out to choose the station—to play a specific song or artist). This is still an issue, though; I had to make each station a favourite so that I could choose it with a little more ease.
After six months of complaining, I reread the instructions and discovered that the touchpad next to the rotary controller should let me scroll between the radio stations by clicking the center button and swiping up and down. It comes close, but it has a few hitches, saves the station as a preset, and is generally unreliable. I had previously disregarded the tiny 4 mm crack on the touchpad, so I'm assuming that's the cause. It seems like there are two choices when you look at the web:
1. get a new touchpad (which all look worse than my current one), 2. remove the rotator and replace it with a single large touchpad (which costs £112; see Large Touch Pad Conversion), or 3. buy a new Chinese version from AliExpress (which costs £65 but is a pain to unstick and then requires regluing)
It seems like everyone on the forum uses the rotary knob instead of the touchpad. If that's the case, then how can one quickly switch the radio station? on the media player to find the correct spot in lengthy podcasts? Do I have this minor crack all wrong, or is that always the case when they're bad?
The big touchpad "upgrade" that our Chinese friends recommended has nobody put it in yet. If so, how? According to several reviews on YouTube, it doesn't play nice with the Android Auto interface—which is already annoying enough—but I have to use it for Maps since Merc wants to charge me £125 a month for live traffic updates, even though Google gives me probably more accurate ones for free. On my old A207, they were free but looked awful.
I would greatly appreciate some advice before I go ahead and charge it all to the car, ruining countless clips and screws in the process of removing parts that appear to be straightforward in the tutorials on YouTube.
Even though it's a Premium Plus model, my NTG 5.5 (which does not have Command) only has one screen, physical rev counters, and a speedometer. Merc had disabling Android Auto on a car that cost £50,000+ when new, and I discovered out that someone had activated it for £150. Really? That's ridiculous.
My inability to change the radio station without using the on-screen or wheel-mounted menu is one of my complaints. (I was old enough to recall when a radio cassette had six buttons—you pushed one to choose, and then you pulled them out to choose the station—to play a specific song or artist). This is still an issue, though; I had to make each station a favourite so that I could choose it with a little more ease.
After six months of complaining, I reread the instructions and discovered that the touchpad next to the rotary controller should let me scroll between the radio stations by clicking the center button and swiping up and down. It comes close, but it has a few hitches, saves the station as a preset, and is generally unreliable. I had previously disregarded the tiny 4 mm crack on the touchpad, so I'm assuming that's the cause. It seems like there are two choices when you look at the web:
1. get a new touchpad (which all look worse than my current one), 2. remove the rotator and replace it with a single large touchpad (which costs £112; see Large Touch Pad Conversion), or 3. buy a new Chinese version from AliExpress (which costs £65 but is a pain to unstick and then requires regluing)
It seems like everyone on the forum uses the rotary knob instead of the touchpad. If that's the case, then how can one quickly switch the radio station? on the media player to find the correct spot in lengthy podcasts? Do I have this minor crack all wrong, or is that always the case when they're bad?
The big touchpad "upgrade" that our Chinese friends recommended has nobody put it in yet. If so, how? According to several reviews on YouTube, it doesn't play nice with the Android Auto interface—which is already annoying enough—but I have to use it for Maps since Merc wants to charge me £125 a month for live traffic updates, even though Google gives me probably more accurate ones for free. On my old A207, they were free but looked awful.
I would greatly appreciate some advice before I go ahead and charge it all to the car, ruining countless clips and screws in the process of removing parts that appear to be straightforward in the tutorials on YouTube.