ECO mode on CLS63AMG
I wanted to find out you guys opinion on using your ECO mode. We all know when you start the car by default, it always goes to ECO mode. The advantages I found for ECO mode are:
- Its a less aggressive ride
-It saves you gas.
However, the nuissances with ECO mode that I have had are:
- Many times it has almost got me in an accident. Even though it is practical during traffic, it is very dangerous while trying to merge in traffic and taking a turn because the constant braking turns off the engine several times and an on coming car may get to you before the engine starts up and you get up to speed.
- It killed my battery. Even though my battery was maybe kinda weak, it helped kill my battery fast by starting and stopping the car during traffic like a million times. I even got stuck in traffic once and a tow truck had to get me out of highway. I called the dealer and changed the battery and everything was fine again.
- It will kill your starter. There is no way in hell all this starting and stopping is not destroying and wearing out your starter. I do appreciate the fact that ECO mode may save you some gas (who knows? maybe 2mile/gallon), but I am good on that if it will kill my starter in the long run and cost say $800 or more to replace. I will rather drive regularly and safely than have problems down the line.
That said, I make it a habit of turning off ECO mode every time I drive. Because I have been doing that a lot, I get an error of " START/STOP currently inactive" even when ECO mode is on, and goes off when I turn it off. I am actually happy I get that message because I didn't want that function anyways

What do you guys think? What are your inputs to this?
Wormsloe
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My conclusions
1] using ECO for ecology or fuel savings makes no sense
As for the battery/starter reliability I can just say that I replace batteries on all my cars after 4 years maximum for the peace of mind therefore I didn't observe any relation to increased wear on them.
2] Wear may be negligible
And lastly, we have to think of the ECO mode in our W218 as the 1st generation of Start/Stop, the 2nd already has a 5sec city / 30sec hwy delay which finally makes sense.
3] If you can have the "ECO default on" deactivated, do it
Nowadays, I mostly turn the ECO off manually just after the start or I go directly to S. It doesn't bother me but I see it as the 1st gen technology and treat it as such.
ECO is not related to driving modes in any way, so if you drive in Comfort with the ECO off, you are still getting the same non-aggressive ride you are talking about.
For the city I prefer driving in S because it makes the MCT shift faster.
The Best of Mercedes & AMG
My conclusions
1] using ECO for ecology or fuel savings makes no sense
As for the battery/starter reliability I can just say that I replace batteries on all my cars after 4 years maximum for the peace of mind therefore I didn't observe any relation to increased wear on them.
2] Wear may be negligible
And lastly, we have to think of the ECO mode in our W218 as the 1st generation of Start/Stop, the 2nd already has a 5sec city / 30sec hwy delay which finally makes sense.
3] If you can have the "ECO default on" deactivated, do it
Nowadays, I mostly turn the ECO off manually just after the start or I go directly to S. It doesn't bother me but I see it as the 1st gen technology and treat it as such.
ECO is not related to driving modes in any way, so if you drive in Comfort with the ECO off, you are still getting the same non-aggressive ride you are talking about.
For the city I prefer driving in S because it makes the MCT shift faster.
Ideally, access it via the Mercedes Me app.








