ECO is absolutely 100% USELESS on the 2014 E350
 

I guess Mercedes will never surpass BMW, Lexus, Infiniti and several others in technology. I've had my 2014 E350 for five days now and ECO has gone green only three times. What a flawed and useless feature. Before anyone responds, yes, I know there are several parameters that have to be met for ECO to work. Therein lies the problem. It's so rare all those parameters are met that the feature never works. I've been on 15 minutes drives around town and 45 minutes drives of both freeway and street, and still ECO sits in the yellow and doesn't engage. I've driven both during the day and at night so the cabin is at a comfortable temp (only one of several requirements in the waterfall).

Hoping Mercedes sees the flaws in their waterfall requirements and can make a programming adjustment across the board that can be resolved on a service visit so that ECO can work on a consistent basis.

VERY DISAPPOINTING!

Mine works just fine and quite often is green. Sorry you are disappointed.

is it supposed to work like my blue effeciency badge? which is by doing nothing....?

I agree a total worthless piece of garbage. All it does is cause the car to hesitate while making a left turn in front of on comming cars. Great feature. Every time I get in the car now I turn it off. I am trying to find a place to disable it permanently Other manufactures of luxury models have a disable feature but MB does not IT might cost them a couple of dollars. I never knew the yellow E was suppose to change colors from the eco button. I know you can get rid of the E by pressing the s button.

I works fine on my E550 too - I think there are too many variables for you to hit the green area. Not that it matters - it makes a bit of a difference but if you wanted great fuel economy you should buy the E250 diesel.

I never knew it had to change color, no wonder it only works half the time. Thought it was messed up. Turning left while the engine is off is pretty scary.

Waiting to turn the Eco light green is like watching paint dry. Just ignore the Eco feature for a while and it'll turn green quicker....:D. My commute is also more or less 15 minutes but it turns green almost all the time. It used to take a bit longer in the winter but now sometimes it works within 2 minutes of starting. Anyway if it works, then I like it, if not I ignore it :y.

MBZ can't be that stupid to offer 100% worthless feature! Mine is not perfect but I have no problems with it. In fact I expect ECO to come on and I like it. Perhaps, you should check with dealer for your dissatisfaction.

Mine works but I turn it off as soon as I get in. I also always push sport. If I wanted to save gas I would get a Prius or a motorcycle.

+1:y

This must be 1st world problem , sorry to hear your disappointment with ECO light though .
Mine works I guess as supposed to considering ECO turns on green quite often and when I open the sunroof along with A/C almost 3/4 way power ,it starts the engine on it's own without my intervention .
I mostly turn it off when coming close to parking lots, home because it stops the engine during park maneuvers that I dislike lol

I had the same problem with my SL550.

not sure if you guys know this but on both my 2014 E250 and 2013 GLK, you can modulate the ECO system when the light is green:


1) brake like you normally do and will kill the engine
2) bring the car to a stop but don't push down further on the brake will keep the engine on for left turns/lights where you know will turn green within 10 seconds
3) kill the engine and a further push will activate HOLD


The system works great if you know how to use it properly and definitely can save some fuel. It's MUCH better than the BMW system which kills the engine regardless of the brake pedal pressure and shakes the entire car when it restarts. lol

I'm confused on the difference between 1 and 2. Do I let go of the break once the cars has stopped in 2?

Seems to work well on my E250.

Do note that weather has a big effect on it. When its really cold or really hot it rarely kicks in. During mild weather it kicks in for me almost al the time.

I do notice when it's really hot and the AC is working hard I can be at a stop - so no ECO mode - and the MPG display starts ticking down minute by minute as it sit there.

no sir, keep on the brake but don't press ir further. It does take awhile to get use to. I rmb when I first got the car I couldn't even activate hold consistently lol

Mine works fine on a 2014 E550. Works so well that I'm constantly annoyed with having to turn it off.

I turn it off as soon as engine turnover.
We should have freedom to make a decision for "ECO" working or not.

I liked it
 

On the occasion that mine did work, it was seamless. No problems making left turns in traffic. as my foot came off the brake, the engine would start before my foot was on the gas. Unfortunately it rarely worked.

I have had my '14 CLS550 for a few months now and after a while of always turning the ECO button off when I got in, it now turns itself off everytime about 10 seconds after startup!

Love my ECO and I am able to easily modulate the brake pedal to engage/disengage at will. Practice makes perfect.

At least we have the option of turning it off ...

You've obviously never spent any length of time with a BMW, Lexus, or Infiniti.

Go drive an Infiniti Q50 and tell me that statement with a straight face. I just put 600+ miles on one last week and couldn't wait to return it as there were so many design/quality flaws.

Just some of the problems I encountered in one week with the Q50:
1) wipers + washers which couldn't clean the windscreen
2) Putting a touchscreen down by the driver's knee
3) Putting tiny little 'buttons' on said touchscreen
4) Putting a second screen up closer to eye level which doesn't do much of anything
5) Putting in computers which flat-out don't work and crashed constantly during the week I had it.
6) Reverse camera guide-lines won't show up until the car has been powered up for 2+ minutes. I guess you're supposed to turn on the car and listen to the radio for 2 minutes before reversing each time BUT....
7) The radio & AC controls also don't work until the computer has booted up....BUT
8) Air con controls didn't work at the dealership because the computer crashed and had to be reset. Similarly, I was told that it was "normal" for the AC controls to be lagged up to 30 seconds.

I'm with Phil -- the BMW start/stop, in particular its roughness and eagerness to engage, bothered me when I had one for a week. The first time it engaged I thought someone had rear-ended me.

If you want a car which shuts the engine off all the time, there's the E400, which benefits from a larger storage battery + electric AC. The latter should make a big difference. On the E350s I've played with, I noticed the ECO icon was green far more often when it was overcast or at night. I'm in Florida and it is summer, YMMV.

I do wish you could permanently enable/disable the feature though. From my limited (week-long) experience, I'd probably leave it enabled. I like the silence and lack of vibration at some of Florida's 5-minute-long red lights. Ironically, the Lexus RX hybrid I had for a few days couldn't make it though an entire red light without firing the engine back up and sometimes it didn't even bother to shut the engine down -- and that's a true hybrid complete with a golf cart (EV) mode.

I always turn in off before it has a chance to go green.

I think the ECO mode is DAG's attempt to force everyone to endure hardships to achieve US CAFE standards so they can sell far more profitable high performance cars.
Would not purchase a car with ECO unless I could permanently disable it.
BTW, are ECO and start/stop the same thing?

When ECO is green (button on and engine up to temp) then Start Stop works.
If Button off Start Stop not active ECO never goes green.