JWS3

Curious--I havn't met anyone who actually and genuninely likes the SBC brakes. Fellow owners say they have "gotten used to them--sort of", but thats about it. No raving reviews or anything.
Given the less than stellar reviews, both here and in the automotive press, what can we expect in the future? Might this system die out with the W211, or might it survive in the new S class and/or future E class.
Discusss??

Jakpro1

GONE as of 2009, maybe sooner. The E Class would rank as one of the best vehicles in world if not for those brakes. Every auto mag on the planet hammers the car for almost that reason alone. Just a few more years, and we are done with them. Perhaps in the meantime they will refine them and they will get a lot better, but for now, Benz brake time is near the worst in performance compared to Audi and BMW.

It was a valiant effort and another Benz first, but it just didn't work like we hoped and I will be glad to see them go. I actually have gotten used to them, but my wife hates them with a passion.

JWS3

MB would have dumped them. But, then again, Germans are known for their obstinence. BMW is sticking to its disasterous "iDrive"--which was a significant factor in causing me to switch from BMW to MB.
I wonder if SBC will be seen in the soon to be released new S class.

BudC

Nope. You might see some of the features of SBC but it will have a master cylinder that provides the braking power.

johna1

I think they're great. I love SBC-Hold (which you don't get in the US), i like the technology and I haven't had any of the problems like strange noises etc.

I would be surprised if MB backed away from this because it is in the SL, now the E, I imagine it will be in the new S as well. In order to do some of the things like emergency brake assist and the distance monitoring I would have thought they will have to stick to some kind of brake by wire.

BudC

Brake performance is excellent. What's bad is ergonomics and excessive pad wear.

See this Road and Track Comparo...

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article....&page_number=8

Here's the summary...

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article....page_number=11

BudC

Does anyone know what Auto und Sport have to say about it? I wish that magazine was in English. They are so far ahead of everybody else when it comes to testing.

CE750

I can safely say with 100% certainty that I love the SBC brakes.. I like their predictive nature, and I like the modulated sopping algorithm. If there is anything about this car that I cannot complain about is it's mechanical engineering and safety systems.

HELL ONA HARLEY

I had to ask myself why when I first bought the car. That is until I had to do an emergency stop. Just one word, AWESOME stopping power.

BudC

That pretty much sums up the brakes on the W211. I've had to get on the brakes really hard a few times and it's a non-event. The car simply stops w/o any excitement.

When I first got the car I took a 4,800 mile vacation. There were several 8-10,000 foot passes on the trip and I'll admit that the first few times I came down off those mountains I was worried that I'd see that red warning on the dash. Of course there was nothing to worry about and all I had to do was tap that brake pedal and the car slowed immediately.

Dvinn

I don't really have a problem with SBC except during bumper to bumper traffic where it is hard to come to a complete stop smoothly. The good thing is SBC stops hard and fast without much panic.

ATS

I have had to stop very fast a couple times and the brakes saved the day. Amazing brakes.

mbbodytech

I really like SBC too. Great system. However, it seems that they are managing to achieve the same results with a standard system, and SBC is not on the new S class. However, it has many of the same charisterics - dry braking, things like that.

They will continue to use SBC on the E and SL for sure until there is a complete redesign. The reason for that is it would be impossible to retrofit a standard brake system (read Vacuum Booster) into the existing cars.

by the way, the new ML was supposed to have SBC, but during the development process they stopped and changed back to a standard system. Too bad, though.

BWL

I have no complaints about the brakes. I own an '03 E320 and at the time I purchased the car the brakes where second to none in stopping distance. I concur with others about the stopping power of these brakes in an emergency situation - they are awesome. I'm not sure what car or brake system you are comparing the SBC brakes to - in my book they are one of the strong points of the car.