Steve Maislin

And, in regard to lower and raising. On mine, to lower I just press the button and push easily down on the headrest. Nothing more than that, no side to side or anything silly. It only has one stop point and this is in the full up position as that is the only viable place for a useable headrest. And, if I raise it to the stop point, and then push the button and pull up, it comes right off without any problem at all. Nothing fancy here, pull up to stop point and it is set. Pull up past stop point and it comes off. Push down from stop point and it is flush with the seat. Honestly, I never lower them unless I need to fold up the seat for more cargo space.

Mbenz260e

Please let me know what the dealer says once you get the car back. I have easy entry and not being able to remove the headrest is not the best setup with a large convertible car seat mounted. hadn't even considered when the kids are in the in between height...

Mbenz260e

Just checked and with our easy entry we definitely cant get our headrests in that position. I am jealous, would make the car seats fit much better.

b.west1

The dealer removed the headrests for me. There is a plastic clamp on the bottom of one of the poles of each headrest that attaches to the power fold mechanism which had to be taken off. The seats had to be removed from the vehicle to reach the clamps. I now get to keep the clamps and a couple of springs in a bag so I can have the headrests re-attached to the power mechanism at a later date.

After the clamps are removed, the headrests can be put back in the holes in the seat and used manually. The headrest itself obviously is different from the manual version -- the distance between the headrest and the poles is definitely fixed. Even though they are now "manual" they still stick out from the seat when they are installed, pretty much unusable with my kids.

The power fold still works on the seats. You just have to make sure the headrest is lowered manually or not installed before hitting the button or "CRASH"

Mbenz260e

Thanks for the update! I have a pretty good relationship with the guy who does my service so perhaps he will do the same for me. Did it seem like something MBUSA had instructed them to do, or just make shift solution?

For all practical purposes, sounds like with removing the clips, you can still use manually or remove, just loose the auto release functionally? So basically wouldnt need to necessarily have the clips re-installed to just use the seat for an adult?

fabbrisd1

Many thanks for the update.

Hindsight it was kind of a bite that Mercedes was clear on the changes to the 2nd row headrests with Easy Entry.

Fortunately, my customers so far had "pre-teens" so this wasn't a particular issue for them - but I am very happy to know this going forward.

Keep the beat !

rmemory

Is it possible Mercedes figured anyone with a need for carseats wouldn't order the power easy entry anyway since you can't have a carseat installed and fold the seat down at the same time? That would be clever customer research in their part. Probably just an oversight, though.

Mbenz260e

Doubtful, in my situation used the power on the 40% section for the odd times we use the 3rd row, put the car seats on the 60% portion of the seats, so possible you need both use a car seat and easy entry. Plus my kids will grow up eventually and may still have the car...

blittle

There are not many but there are SOME advantages to being OLD..... one is no longer dealing with car child carseats! Been there and did it..... Of course when I was in that situation.... could only afford a Subaru!

Steve Maislin

Well, they clearly did not do a detailed usability study on this feature. They got the manual headrest system perfectly, but they seemed to not notice the differences when they introduced this automatic seat. It is unfortunate. Since I rarely use the third row I went with the manual option and now I am glad I did. Actually, I wonder if I would have even noticed these discrepancies if I went with the power second row option. Probably not. I am glad to see they can provide some relief. I wonder if the manual headrests would fit in these vehicles where they remove the clips. Like I said above, it is the spring loaded action in them that makes them a winner. It really gets them in the right position. Maybe those of you who have the clips removed can request the manual headrests from MB as a gift for your trouble.

sraza

man these headrests are a real issue huh?
even adults sitting in the back hav complained to me about it...
? if MY14 has a change and we can swap em out later?

JoeMa

I'm glad a read this thread because I have GL 550 on order that was to include the Easy Access feature but after reading some comments by those who have this feature now, I called the dealer and told him to delete the Easy Access option on my build. The thing that concerns me most is the fact that the headrests on the Easy Access models do not swivel but stick out about an inch which could be uncomfortable. If anyone who just bought a GL with this feature can confirm that MB has re-engineered the headrests to swivel as with the manual model, please post your comments.

fabbrisd1

MY13 EZ-Entry headrests are NOT removable - and for MY14 EZ-Entry is included in the Premium 1 package - and boy, unless re-designed for MY14 - and right now they are NOT re-designed for MY14 - MY14 that will be a PITA for GL customers..

blittle

SOMEBODY..... Must have the corporate ear! Fix this if you want to sell to folks with kids in a country where the law requires the child seats!

JoeMa

I combined two photos previously posted of GL seats with and without the EASY-ENTRY option to clearly illustrate the issue for child safety seats and second row passengers:

fabbrisd1

Many thanks for the photo post - it is VERY helpful to me.

Trying to explain this situation by email without that key comparative photo has been a frustrating experience for me - I can't blame the people I need to go thru - "visualization" is not a key talent for most people.

Many thanks again for the comparative photo - much appreciated !

Mbenz260e

FAB thanks for tackling this issue through your avenues. While it's too late for me, I really hope this gets resolved especially for customers like me with growing families.

Frustrating part is we have little use for easy entry now but ordered it in anticipation of using it 2-3 years from now, but in the mean time is a major hindrance with child safety seats...

JoeMa

sraza posted the following on another thread: "I got easy entry and my rear headrests go all the way up and swivel back just like the non easy entry option.. sure I cant take them out but I would probably never do that cuz I'll put them some place 'safe' and then never find them!"

I ask him to post a picture of his headrest fully extended to demonstrate that they do in fact swivel back like non EASY-ACCESS models. If they do swivel back, I plan on getting EASY-ACCESS with my 550. But if they do not swivel, I don't want this option as I feel the headrests would be uncomfortable for passengers.

I hope I can get a definitive answer from current owners of this feature about how the headrests work in models with EASY-ACCESS as I'm likely driving my salesman crazy with change requests. So if you have 2013 GL with EASY-ACCESS and your headrests swivel back against the posts when fully extended, please post a picture and explain how the headrest retracts when you press the button to fold the seat for access to the third-row. Does it retract automatically or do you first have to manually retract it?

sraza

so i checked this morning- they do swivel but only forward- they dont swivel back all the way, just very slightly- though this is not an issue at all for any of our car seats.. even the big tall seat..

JoeMa

Thanks for the follow up sraza. I'm not surprised that your headrest do not swivel back when extended. Several other owners have already written that their headrests do not swivel back.

So EASY-ACCESS has a design flaw. The headrests should not be sticking out like that when all the way up. How could that be comfortable for an adult? I would think they engineered the headrests to swivel back in cars without EASY-ACCESS to make them comfortable for the passenger.

I can only think MB decided to make them stationary (no swivel) when combined with EASY-ACCESS so they can be automatically lowered when the button is pressed. The correct solution would have been to allow the headrest to swivel back when extended and engineer a way to automatically swivel it forward when the button is pressed.

I would add that the headrests should be removable as well for customers that have child safety seats that do not fit correctly. Hopefully MB reads these threads as this would be very helpful customer feedback.

This all is a bit disappointing as the EASY-ACCESS feature is something I could actually use from time-to-time but not at the cost of ride comfort for my second row passengers.

JoeMa

After all of this research I just got a call from my salesman that my order when to a manufacturing status which means changes can no longer be made. That means I will be getting the EASY-ACCESS option after all as he could not access their system on Saturday to remove that option.

I hope headrests are not uncomfortable for second row passengers or I may not take delivery. I'll give my honest opinion when the car arrives (likely by May).

bimbocoles

Since you can remove those headrests manually now, did you try to replace them with the headrests that come with the GL's without the EASY-ACCESS system? It would be easy enough to do, just try one from a GL without the system on your dealers lot.
I am having the same issue, my daughter can only sit either in the middle seat or in the 3rd row. I have also 6 months old twins so in 1-2 years it will be a major issue.

JoeMa

In my opinion, MB got the EASY-ENTRY system wrong by including the headrest in the operation when the button is pressed. When they decided to include the headrest in the operation they had little choice but prevent it from swiveling so it could be lowered prior to folding the seat. This decision created two issues for owners; an inability to remove the headrest when using a child safety seat and creating an uncomfortable position for the headrest when an adult is sitting in the seat (it really should swivel back).

A better approach would have been to provide an audible beep when the button is press and the headrest is not fully lowered. A simple sensor could have been used to detect if the headrest has been lowered all the way down or not. Making it the responsibility of a person to first lower the headrest would have allow MB to include the swivel feature and allow the headrest to be removed for a child safety seat.

A more elaborate solution would be keep the system as it is but allow the headrest to swivel in when in the up position and also allow it to be easily removed when needed. This solution would require a redesign of the swivel point so it could be extended prior to auto-lowering the headrest. I would think going down this path would increase the cost of this feature and create more parts that could fail.

Anyone else have a suggestion as to how MB could have be executed this feature?

rmemory

No suggestions on fixing the engineering, but just a report. I have the easy entry option and kids with carseats.

I installed my daughter's car seat today (the tall convertible type). Initially it didn't fit well with the headrest down (wouldn't be able to rest fully against the seat back) or up (car seat was too tall and would not fit under the headrest).

Then I had an idea which I was never able to do with my other cars. I reclined the second row seatback just slightly and that allowed the carseat to fit just underneath the headrest (in the up position) as if it was meant to be that way. I couldn't find anything in the carseat manual that said this was dangerous, and my daughter doesn't seem overly reclined in it.

Of course this doesn't mean that mb shouldn't still address this problem, but at least for the carseat crowd, I think it will work without having the dealer remove the headrests entirely.

bimbocoles

A picture would be more worth than thousand characters!! LOL...
Seriously, please try to send a pic of your setup.