I'll buck the trend here and say the steering wheel doesn't pain me. My car had one of these wheels when I first got it. (Yes, ok, I'm not a good car buyer, for that and many other reasons.) For "correctness" sake, I replaced it with the stock type, but size-wise that later wheel is quite a nice fit, and in a black interior doesn't look terribly out of place. Gauges are easier to see, too. It doesn't have an air bag, it's just an easy swap-in to get a smaller wheel, or to cheaply replace a cracked original wheel.
But the bumper over-riders, THOSE pain me.
George Davis
'69 280 SL Euro manual