At 6'1" I can fit in the backseat of my 450SE, but not with much room left over. Other guys around my height have said the same thing. Then when sitting in the back of an SEL there's room for days. Almost more than it seems necessary even for someone 6 plus feet tall.
Knowing that MBZ has to take many more considerations in mind when producing a car, but I'm wondering, why didn't they just make the SE chassis a couple inches longer and call it a day? Why the need for two different lengths when one could have conceivably done it?
Is this another example of the vaunted 'MBZ over-engineering'?
1. upscale marketing.
2. longer cars are a bit harder to park in tight spots.
3. garage space.
4. a lot of people dont even use the back seat.
5. probably more reasons.
It's not a vintage thing neither. Volvo offers stretched sedan's for the Asian market. There's BMW 7 IL's and MB SE/SEL's. There's luxury vans/people carriers in different lengths. The Yanks have been custom-stretching their cars ever since the beginning.
I think the more interesting question is why only in Europe, stretching cars was always culturally frowned upon, where as the rest of the planet, black, white or yellow, thinks more back leg-space is automatically welcome. Asians especially demand that a luxury sedan offers more than ample room in the back, even though they are mathematically the shortest ones among us.
I'm with them! :D. A sedan is not a complete car unless you have equal leg room in the front and in the back.
If you are over 6 foot and your height is in the torso rather than just long legs, you will find even the sel has limited headroom in the back.