Seanix

I've tried the auto park now about 6 times, four of which worked perfectly. The last two however parked too close to the gutter and ground in
heavily and have now ruined my wheels. :-(
I did also notice that the last few auto parks reversed in quicker than normal and was quite scary to sit in the drivers seat and let it do its thing. Scared to use it again now. Pity because it worked amazingly the first few times....

Anyone else having similar issues with auto Park? Do you think it's a car malfunction and mercedes should provide new wheels?

Tall Paul

I doubt if MB will go good for your tires. Not meaning any disrespect, but of all the ads I've seen, they all have pretty well the same disclaimer: operator must ensure proper clearances before using this system. I hope it is a fault for your sake, then you can get new tires.

CO2010

I doubt MB will pick up the tab on this one. Going to be hard to prove it was a malfunction over user error. I've learned never to rely on technology.

squid23

Go to a professional wheel place and get an opinion about touchup. Curb rash does not equal ruined wheels. Yes it is annoying but fixable. Just drop the car with the wheel place for a couple days when you go travel or something.

vic viper

Dont know if the auto park system works differently in the US, but over here we have to engage throttle and brake by ourselves.

BenzC400

I've found that Active Park Assist does a good job of finding places and parking, both parallel and backing into a perpendicular spot. It will move and brake all by itself, but I find it sometimes moves too fast. You can slow things down by a light application of the brakes while it maneuvers, without disengaging the system. If it looks like you're going to hit a curb, stop, and continue manually. It doesn't detect or stop for curbs or any low objects.

It's important to start the process in the proper position so the system doesn't try to maneuver from a difficult position or angle. With a little practice, the Active Park Assist is convenient and very cool.

Seanix

Cheers Squid !! Good to know......

puzzled

Yes, they will look good as new. I know from experience.

Ah_gl450

Uhh.. I'm not sure if the the pkg you have is different, but it doesn't brake by itself? And it also doesn't go into a perpendicular spot by itself either....

BenzC400

I had some minor road/curb rash fixed on my 19 inch black with polished surface wheels. It looks very good, but not perfect. If you look closely, you can see the repair. It cost $150 for the repair, which my tire and wheel policy covered.

BenzC400

Early versions of Park Assist only gave guidance. The driver had to steer and brake. Steering was then added. The most recent version (in the W205) controls brake and steering. Sometimes the driver has to touch the gas to get it started. The driver only has to manually change from reverse or drive when prompted. It will back into both parallel and perpendicular spots.

gfmohn

Some previous MB models had a feature where, when you shifted into reverse, the passenger side mirror dropped down to show your right rear wheel. The 2007 C350 had this feature, but my 2007 C280 did not. No problem - I adjusted my mirror to the correct dropped down position and then stored that position as memory position #2 of my memory seat. My C300 has a rear view camera, but I still have set up the passenger side mirror the same way on the C300.
If you have a family situation such that you need all three memory positions for separate driving positions, you can't do this. But I think that few of us share our MBs with two other people. The only problem is to remember to activate position #2 as you approach your parking space (because the adjustment is rather slow). Then, you have remember to go back to position #1. It's best to get in the habit of doing this after you have parked, instead of trying to remember to do it after you have returned to your car.

miketc

gfmohn, C300 does drop the passenger side mirror in reverse; no need to store it in another position's memory. I think you need to set it up via seat memory, read the manual.

W124-FTW

If you adjust your nearside mirror position whilst in reverse gear, it will remember that and go to that position when next in R. When driving off it will return to the previous position.

No need to mess about with memory buttons.

puzzled

I had no idea. Thank you for this.

Seanix

The problem I have with the auto park feature is like everything else with the new C Class that it's all a matter of "Trust" If you can't trust the feature to be 100% reliable, then you DON'T trust it. That is where I am at the moment. The feature worked great for the majority, but it only takes one or two incidents like that for you to lose trust in the feature.
Best advice given was to "brake" as the car is reversing in, which at least controls the speed it enters and lets you monitor incidents that might occur, but when you get to that moment when the rear wheel is in you then need to select "D" for it to go forward and straighten up. That's the point it ground into the gutter damaging front AND rear wheel....

Pics of the damaged wheels.













This is probably the worst as it shows how deep the gouges are

BenzC400

I have the same wheels and similar, though less extensive, damage to only one wheel. My damage was in only one spot, along the edge and at only one spoke. It can be repaired. You may be able to notice the repair, but most people won't unless they look very closely.

gfmohn

Got it; it works fine! My thanks to both of you. This is the sort of obscure feature that I might never have gotten to use without the sharing we can do on MBWorld.

There's an old joke that says that if you want to hide something from an American car owner, hide it in his owners manual. Well, I have always read my owners manuals, but I didn't read them cover to cover. Nowadays, no one sits in their car and tries to find all the nested pages of the on-board digital COMAND manual. Nor is this tip in the version of the COMAND manual that I downloaded from the Internet. I looked there and did a digital search. The tip is in the on-board digital COMAND manual only.

gfmohn

At least one wheel refinisher advertises that they will come to your location and do it there in an hour (just like mobile glass repairmen).

"Alloy Wheel Repair Specialists [http://awrswheelrepair.com/index.html] provides a professional alloy wheel refinishing service right at the customer's location. One of our 350+ professionally trained technicians will visit your location and restore the wheels to like-new condition.
Wheels are placed inside our patent pending Mobile Reconditioning Facility where they are repaired, primed, painted and clear-coated ...." There are probably others. I haven't used this service; I only filed away a favorite for them, in case I ever needed their service. Perhaps others can comment on their service or on the service of competitors.

trustoryson

It DOES go(back) into perpendicular spots, in fact. It will detect a 'back-in' parking spot separately from a parallel parking spot. The graphic on the dash even changes to show it will back in and not parallel park. So yes, it does reverse park by itself with me just controlling the brake.

That said I have used it maybe 6 times, and the last time the tire hit the curb. Fortunately the tire took the hit and not my 19" wheels. Just like Driver Assist, I'm still learning the limitations but wouldn't even think of not getting either functionality again. Driver Assist was one of the best choices I made.

Roger Bill

I think with systems like this it helps to have an appreciation of how they work and their limitations in order to know what you need to watch out for.

I guess the system relies mainly on the adjacent cars for manoeuvring into parking spaces. Therefore, in a parallel parking situation if the car behind or in front is parked on the kerb the system wouldn't allow enough clearance to avoid damaging the wheels. Also the manual warns that the system doesn't detect low objects such as plant pots or high objects such as overhanging trees.

My W205 isn't due for delivery until the end of May so I wonder if anyone can confirm whether my guess is correct?

Zakster

I was warned by the dealer that the park assist aligns with the car in front and behind, so if they are against or over the curb, you will be too. Also the wheels pictured (AMG line) are aluminium and - as the dealer warned - difficult to repair.

ManiacGT

If you want the diamond cut finish back 100% then they're costly to repair, not difficult. If you don't mind a non perfect but pretty good finish, then mobile repairs are also fine as they simply buff out the offending scrapes and re-laquer it.

I must admit, I don't like self-doing-anything tech, as many on here will have read, I've not optioned anything in this regard simply because I don't trust it enough. If I ever use this feature, I'll be certain to have learned from the OPs post.

Mr Enigma

Mobile refinishers will not be able to produce a diamond cut finish as far as I know. The wheel needs to be stripped from its laquer and rebuilt up using solder where it is rashed. Then the alloy is repainted to match the original colour and then a thin layer is lathed off the front for the diamond cut finish. This won't be done road-side.

I've had a few alloys refurbished to this level and you cannot tell they have had any damage previously. In the UK it's actually not very expensive, circa £80-100 per wheel depending on the size and finish of the alloy. If anyone is in the London/Essex area and wants details on where I got mine done then please ask.

ManiacGT

Correct. Expensive is a gradient however and I'd say on a £500 wheel, £100 every time you curb it could become very expensive.