220S

I never associated a chirp, burp, beep, or honk with either a fancy pants car or a car for the unwashed masses.

But the horn just scares the sh*t out of me when people lock and unlock their cars. Especially when it's in the morning and I'm trying to relax with my breakfast at a sidewalk cafe. I hate it and honking is just pure noise pollution, imho. Doesn't even sound like a goose. Geese honk sweetly.

Or maybe I'm just too skittish. But I've always equated honking with 'honk, danger get out of the way' and not 'honk, my door's locked.'

K-A

Exactly, nothing elegant about a honk, it's an obnoxious "danger" sound, and for good reason.

Chirp is quintessentially fancy pants to me though, ever since the 80's, whenever they're introducing a guys nice ride into the flick, you see him "beep beep" his car. How does that NOT say "Mr. Fancy Pants" to you?

Really though, these little things go a long way for me. I could care less about how it sounds to others (which rest assured, a Honk will sound cheap and obnoxious and startling perhaps), but I always like hearing the chirp after coming out of my "honk" car.

DerekACS

Agreed ! Message has been sent to "Customer Relations".

Substituting a sophisticated "chirp" for a raucous sounding horn blast is inexcusable, IMO. Why would MB want to annoy not only its new owners with this retrograde change, but also all of the neighbours within earshot ???

K-A

This better not be some "software upgrade" they'll give the 2010's when you take it to the Dealership for Service. If I ever get my car back with a honk, they're keeping it until they fix it, lol.

DerekACS

Right on !!!!

petee1997

Why? I see it as an improvement. Now I have a choice of silent or loud. Why do some of you see any change as cost saving?

petee1997

Is anyone listening???? There is a silent mode, there is a silent mode. The only sound you hear are the doors locking. THIS CAR IS AMBIDEXTROUS!!! It goes both ways. You will never hear the horn unless you want to hear the horn.

Now everyone take a pill and relax. This car will have many problems to deal with in the future but this is not one of them. Save your outrage for something real. Besides most of the complaints are coming from the people who have the chirping cars. To all of you I say, when you are ready to trade, there will be cars on the market that chirp. That should satisfy the chirping class.

" The life of a Benz owner is not an easy one."

silberrosa

Agreed - doesn't seem like a big deal and having heard the SLS and the horn it is not very loud and must be a much lower sound than the normal ful volume of the horn. Compared to some of the domestive horn blasts, I dont think you can compare this one. And yes, you can turn it off.

QuadBenz

+1, the horn isn't loud at all, at most the same volume as the chirp, however, IMO, unfitting for the SLS and other MBs. I'm with K-A on this one. The little things do go a long way.

K-A

Well I guess we all have our thoughts.

To me, a Benz without the option of a sophisticated "chirp" is unacceptable. The mere fact that they'd put a low-rent "Horn" option in place of it speaks lowly for a brand that at one time, put attention to the smallest details in keeping itself a sophisticated, Luxury brand.

I mean, c'mon, this is a BENZ, it's one of very few cars that owners should care about the little "pointless" stuff. It's not like BMW even, where they have the whole "driver involvement" schtick. It's Mercedes, where things like the little material strip that your arm lies on must be of a highest soothing grade, where you must have the most classy "chirp" of any car in the parking lot when you lock/unlock your car.

petee1997

I think this thread has lasted too long when we argue over chirps and beeps. Time to shut her down.

OAG

Not sure we are talking about the same car. I have a MY10 (month of manufacture Feb 2010) E350 Luxury Model (that may be where the rub is) and I do not have the "horn" sound; just the lights and a mild clunk when the doors lock or unlock. User manual says if I want to modify it I should go see the dealer. Personally, I would like to get rid of the lights flashing 3 times when I lock it - the sound is fine with me or just one flash.

ipp

Did you know that the "chirp" is a US thing and not present for other markets? I think I will ask my dealer to keep the car after the next service...

petee1997

I hope I am not having a rerun of my 03 & 04 MB's. Saturday my 2011 starts to run rough and check engine light comes on. Car feels like it's runnning on five cyl. Now driving loaner car(Nice B class) and it appears that one of the coils is defective. Not a common problem and car will be ready tomorrow AM.(Part on order)
New Ipod will not charge with new cable. MB looking into what changes Apple has made on product in the last month. Tried two different cables neither works however both cables work fine with my old IPOD. I hope this is only a couple of little glitches and not the beginning of the the horror of 2004.

YYZ-E55

Apple has made 2 changes as of late. First, they changed the connectors from 5v to 12v, thus the charging cable provided with Media Interface doesn't work with new models. Second, Apple changed the software recently and the new software is not compatible with MB/BMW/Audi/etc. telematics systems. Apple is apparently working on an update.

petee1997

Thanks E55, I will pass this on to my service advisor.

K-A

Well it looks like M-B encourages us to indeed be the ones who appreciate and obsess over little things like SOUNDS of components.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d53zB...layer_embedded

My question now is, knowing how they obvious provide such attention to detail to this aspect, what is the method behind their madness when they allow the masses to lock/unlock their cars with raunchy horns?

Sorry to bring that back up.... Just wanted to share the Video.

220S

That was the S Class. With the E Class they just bolt it together and send it on its way.

What they should really do is gather up all the sounds and record them into the computer and let the consumer decide what they want via a setup screen on COMAND.

That way I can choose to have my horn honk when I move my seat back or make the car chirp when I turn on my headlights. Or make the pano sound like a turn signal. Or play music when I open the door and make the turn signals sound like a door shutting.

i7iceguy

Anyone know what the 3d looks like in the navigation or have a link to it?