stealth.pilot

I've had my EQS580 for about 3 weeks now and thought I now have enough seat time to post a review. As context, I took delivery of an EQS580 Premium Trim with only one option - the heated steering wheel. While I have a more loaded EQS580 scheduled for production in about 10 weeks, I have been very impressed with the equipment level of the base model, and even in this configuration I find it stands up very well against the competition.

Overall NPS Score: 10 - I would buy this car again and I plan to in 120 days. Nonetheless there is some room for improvement - Mercedes please take notice.

Things I love:
1) Mercedes build quality and attention to detail. This car has incredible attention to detail throughout. Hundreds of neat touches which make the car extremely livable and convenient. A few of my favorites are the AR navigation, the touch-id and face recognition driver profiles, the traffic light in the hyperscreen, the thought put into where to use physical buttons, the detail and design of the door handles. Also the fact that they didn't skimp on a roof blind which is something I have been using a lot and enjoying after driving a Tesla which was often flooded with too much sunlight on a bright day.
2) Hyperscreen and Zero-Layer MBUX. The Hyperscreen is amazing. I generally hate the proliferation of touch screens in cars, and generally preferred the scroll wheel like in iDrive - until now. The Hyperscreen version of MBUX with its zero-layer design is the best car UI I have ever used. I am amazed how intuitive and easy to navigate it is. Also the sheer size of the screen and the giant icons makes it easy to see and touch things without much distraction. The features you need are always within single click reach as shown in photos below.
3) Power delivery. Like all EVs the power delivery is excellent. The car feels fast, sporty, and incredibly responsive. While it is not as fast as my 680hp Panamera Turbo S e-Hybrid, in day to day driving (non launch control) the EQS580 feels faster. Because the power band is instantly accessible at any time. The car also feels really planted. I was driving in 20 degrees using summer tires over the weekend's winter blast, and the car always felt totally planted.
4) Design. The car is beautiful. I am not saying that some aspects of the design couldn't be better, however the car gets noticed and draws excitement. I was at the St Regis in Atlanta for dinner a couple of weeks ago, and people were coming up to the car and taking photos. An older French guy called his son over and was raving about the amazing design. I've had some of my colleagues at work do the same. I even have people come over and talk about how they love the front end (which is not the forte of this design). The Interior design is a true work of art. So are the wheels, the exterior and interior lighting, etc. There is so much design excellence here and more than in any other EV.
5) Handling, steering and ride quality. The ride quality is amazing, and the handling is pretty good. The last time I drove an S-Class for an extended period of time was a W221 S-Class in Germany which I rented from Hertz. I hated that car. It felt like driving a boat. The EQS has that incredible magic carpet ride, but at the same time it feels alive in the corners. The steering is amazing - responsive, sharp, precise. I have taken this car on a spirited drive on a winding country road, and I enjoyed it. It's not a Porsche, but it in Sport Mode it is as good as a BMW 550i. That is pretty amazing. At the other end of the spectrum, in comfort mode it is so smooth. My 20 month old son sleeps better in the back of the EQS than in any other car. I love that. It's an S-Class in Comfort mode and a BMW 550i in Sport mode. Amazing. The turning radius has been mentioned a lot, but I have to say it is also amazing.
6) Configurability. This is normal for German cars, but since many cross-shop this with Tesla, I have to highlight the ability to configure drive modes is quite special and really amazing.
7) Comfort. The car is very comfortable. I already mentioned the ride quality. I don't even have the best seats on my base model, and yet the seats are still excellent. The rear seat has a higher rise than Tesla S and Lucid Air, and as such it is a much more comfortable rear seat and the best of any EV sedan I have been in. The sense of space is also amazing. I installed a Nuna Revv revolving convertible car seat (takes up a lot of space) and even then there is bags of room. The retractable roof blind is a huge convenience that I open and close every day. I like having the glass roof, but in direct sunlight at midday, it is not so cool. I'm still dumbfounded that Lucid has no way to block out overhead sunlight.
8) Very stable software. The Hyperscreen has never crashed on me after 3 weeks. I couldn't say that about my 2021 Tesla.

Things that could be better:

1) Brakes. I have another post on this. The first couple of days as I learned the car I found myself having to slam the brakes a couple of times due to underbraking. While the brakes are large and capable of rapidly slowing the vehicle (the brakes have better braking distance than the BMW M5), the programming of the brake pedal makes the brakes feel laggy and unresponsive. This is caused by the movement of the pedal during regenerative braking. When you turn off regen the brakes are totally normal. I think Mercedes should have copied Porsche and ensured brake feel is consistent. I have got used to it after a few days, but nonetheless prefer a more normal brake feel like in the EQS AMG.
2) Voice recognition. For some reason MBUX Voice recognition does not work as well as on our 2020 GLE. If anyone has any tips on this please let me know.
3) A few Tesla features like walk-away lock, phone key, gps suspension height, and GPS garage door opener. I am not a Tesla fan - i find their cars so basic and under-equipped that even a Ford has more features. But these specific software features are really well implemented and I would love if Mercedes copied them. The phone key and walk away door lock in particular are things I miss every day. I often find I forget to lock the car, and then lock it from the app later. At least the app reminds you.
4) Laggy UI in some instances. There are two instances where lag is evident and i fear the issue may be a substandard graphics processor. One is the red light camera view, where the cars crossing the screen appear to be choppy. The second is when i stream Disney Plus on the web browser and the video is choppy.
5) Audio System. The Burmester 3D is good, but when you are used to the Burmester 4D, then you find this sounds like a Bose or a Harman Kardon in comparison.
6) Side window shades - or lack thereof. Side window shades are not as important as roof shade, so Mercedes did slightly better than Lucid which has the side shades but no roof shade. But it is nonetheless a surprising omission. My much cheaper 2012 BMW 550i had side window shades. I don't understand why the EQS does not - not even as an option.
7) Multicontour massage seats, heated steering wheel and 4-zone climate should be standard even if it raises base price. These features I think should be standard on a $120k car. Even if that means they need to make the price $121k vs $119k they should have done that.
8) Traditional buttons vs capacitive touch ones for seat memory. For some reason I always find myself struggling with the seat memory button. The capacitive touch buttons on the steering wheel work fine, but the seat memories are so closely spaced, that I often get the wrong response.

Photos
1) The car looks very sleek and almost Panamera-like. Maybe not as beautiful as the 2nd gen Panamera, but definitely close and a lot better than the first gen. I get a lot of complements on the front end and the grille.


2) The rear end looks best when the light bar is on. I wish we could program Rear-DRL so the light bar is always on when driving like on the European spec models.


3) Another beauty shot


4) The Ambient Light with Hyperscreen makes it feel like a Space Ship.


4) The incredible Zero-Layer interface. Navigation, with AR Directions Overlaid. At the same time the controls for the Audible Audio Stream are right there easy to reach. The Phone button is also right there and easy to pull up.

I love the phone menu is so large and easy to click. You don't get too distracted trying to press the right name.

CarPlay is gigantic, and they have used the extra space to fit more stuff on the split screen view.

LGBrandon

Great review! Coming from ICE panamera - do you notice more road noise in comparison to highway/ city driving because of a lack of ICE noise? There is a certain ride quality I have gotten used to with the luxo-barge ICE , I currently drive. Getting excited to take delivery soon.

stealth.pilot

No I don’t notice more road noise. I think it is quieter than the Panamera. The Panamera was also very quiet but you could hear tire noises on rough pavement highway sections. On the EQS you don’t hear much. I don’t even have the acoustic package which I am buying on the next EQS.

AppleFan1

Fantastic review, stealth.pilot. I'm very surprised to find out that there are no side window shades. That's the case even for the pinnacle trim?

Drone_S213

Great review @stealth.pilot Got AMG Wagon from M-B of Atlanta Northeast last May.

How about review of that "mini" Jeep EV in Garage?

​​​Thanks and looking forward to write ups on future EVs for Son who might transfer to Tech after starting Computer Engineering next Fall at KSU...not an ICE fan like his Pops.

stealth.pilot

Yes it is. No window shades in any US configuration. I don’t know if European models offer it.

stealth.pilot

That's great! Sounds like your son is thinking ahead!

That Mini EV Jeep in the garage is actually quite good. Was a gift form his grand parents. It is for driving off-road in the back garden. It can go up hills too. 24V, AWD, Quad 45W motors, top speed of 7mph which is pretty good for one of these kid cars. Also has self centering steering which a lot of these cars don't have. Remote controlled of course.

MBNUT1

Thanks for the credible review. Thanks in particular for the braking comment. That seems to line up perfectly with pro reviewers comments. Also appreciated the handling comparison to the S Class. When one was been tested on the Mercedes track during an early review, they drove a S Coupe beforehand and as you say it was a complete boat in comparison to the EQS. Looks good in black shined up.

StormingHabs

Thanks for the review stealth.pilot. I’ve had mine for about 4 weeks and agree with everything you wrote. Especially the missing “Tesla features”. Until I had my first Tesla I didn’t realize how convenient those features were and I remember wondering why they are not on every car.

I’ve had one MBUX crash and it was while driving. The driver display stayed on but the other two rebooted. Car drove fine so no real issue.

stealth.pilot

I think at least your MBUX crash demonstrates a degree of resiliency and redundancy. With my Tesla Model Y I sometimes couldn’t even start the car until the computer was rebooted. And in other instances, with no screen I had no instrumentation, no parking sensors, etc.

hlothery

The brakes definitely feel different, coming from an M550i, I would agree. However, they do stop well. I have been in a couple of urgent sudden stop situations in traffic, and they performed very well. The feel takes some getting used to. I have no idea if they can be programmed differently to feel differently, but I do know that I have full confidence in them. The review was great, mirroring many of my thoughts. The EQS really is a marvelous car.

Drone_S213

Great Gift from his Grandparents! Your Son has found the way...better hide the keys to your EVs in the near future! From an early age both my Kids were Tesla fans which was perplexing since I always had at least 2 GM Muscle Cars in the Garage since they showed up. Finally lost my Employee Discount 3-years ago when GM kicked all Legacy Hughes Aircraft Folks off the program. Knew I was getting a pay raise when Daughter graduated MIT last June so ordered AMG Wagon for my troubles. My Son is at least reasonable...in addition to his love for anything Tesla his dream car is THAT McLAREN! After wife's 2020 CRV AWD Hybrid kicks the bucket will let the family drive around ICE Pops in their Electric Vehicles...

Awating next installments of your EV experience especially with the next 3 in the pipeline!
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stealth.pilot

Wow. Your kids sound amazing. Huge fan of MIT.

It's interesting how kids develop these tastes. My 20 month old is also a huge fan of Tesla. Over the holidays we were at the rental car place in Fort Lauderdale renting a car and he ran to the Tesla and got inside. And my wife could not get him out. He refused to get into the BMW X3 that we rented. We had to strap him into the car seat kicking and screaming. His other favorite brands are Jeep (he just likes the look), Lamborghini and Porsche. He has just become a Mercedes fan thanks to the EQS, but his favorite Mercedes is the AMG GTR Black Series - he's always trying to get in that one when we visit the dealership. It's great - I can leverage his expensive taste to motivate him when he goes to school.

c4004matic

Try no regen it should be the most normal feel. Let us know.

hlothery

I'll give it a try tomorrow. I have not tried that, because I usually run in normal regen, and toggle to strong regen for one pedal driving in traffic. But, for you, I'll give it a try!

c4004matic

I 6 try that setting since I really liked auto and left it there. In auto its seems prescient. It is since the radar decides the most desirable setting depending on the radar info.

hlothery

Yea, I gave Auto an honest three day trial. Hated it. Don't like the coasting feeling (feels like no control, although I know the radar is active....didn't like it's reaction time), would rather use the normal/strong regen the way I'm doing. To each his own. But I will try the brakes tomorrow in no regen mode, and report back.

c4004matic

Probably because you're EVknowledgeable . Im still ICEified for me, no deceleration is what I expect. ​​

StormingHabs

Stupid question but how do you put it in Auto? I have Strong, Normal and No Regen. Is Normal = Auto?

c4004matic

Hold any of the paddles for a few secs. The display will show D auto.

stealth.pilot

Normal is where you have nothing next to the D. It is normal regen. There are 4 settings for regen: Strong, Normal, No Regen, and Auto.

I would say brake feel is best in normal or no Regen. However even in those modes it is too weak for my taste. Also in those modes you lose range. I tend to drive in Auto which is probably the worst for brake feel, but it is also the best overall driving mode once you understand how it works. I have learned to live with the brake programming, I just wish it was better.

js_cls

Great review. I'm glad to see your able to at least enjoy an EQS of any kind as I know you have been waiting extremely patiently anticipating your custom order.

c4004matic

​​​​​​ regen is the Actually, no regen is the thriftiest mode for highway driving (or so Ive heard). The car is so aerodynamic it can simply coast ridiculously long distances with zero power needed regen interferes with the coasting savings. In fact, that's why auto uses no regen when there is no traffic. Take it as you see it. I do not know how true that is.

c4004matic

BTW, Im getting pretty darned jealous I can't be figuring this stuff myself.😡

stealth.pilot

You don’t have long to wait now! Hopefully!

Most of my driving is city rather than highway which is why I prefer Auto. The coasting is amazing, but the regen is needed at times too.

The intelligent Auto mode is actually pretty amazing.

My sense is the reason they made the brakes this way is the same as why some cars have a soft throttle pedal. It leads to more efficient driving behaviors. It ultimately helps the Range by motivating you to use regen by braking more lightly and earlier. In my Tesla I tended to brake later and use less regen because the brake pedal felt normal, and so I used braking in a normal way.