Yikes! You guys now have me worried.
I have 34000 on my 2011 E350 4Matic wagon and it is about to go in for its last service under warranty and I haven't heard a sound out of the tranny- YET!
I guess I will have to push for a detailed inspection of the fluid etc.

 

My C300 was the latest "mini-S". It felt surprisingly nice considering it was a C-class but I missed some of the options from my E-class. Notables were:
It had the following options:
- Premium Package
- Blind Spot assist
- 1,200 miles on the odometer

- The engine is surprisingly peppy, however it is also a 4-cylinder which you can tell right off the bat. It revs a lot higher and feels more strained than the V6 in the E350.

- The ECO turns on a lot more than it does on my E350 but I find it just as unobtrusive as I do in the E350. Best ECO system I've seen.

- I managed to get 29.7 mpg on my 500 mile drive. Very impressive, I could not do that with the E350 short of driving 55mph the whole way (I was doing closer to 75mph with the C300).

- The LED lights are great, not as great as the E350 lighting package but great. It is part of the premium package.

- The interior is nice with good materials, I'm not a fan of the huge LCD screen in the middle, my wife thought it was an aftermarket item that I added to it. The aluminum styling works on this car, I'm not a big wood fan anyway, I chose black ash for my car because I didn't want to look at burl walnut ever. The piano black plastic in the center console is not bad either, I think it looks good and does not cheapen the interior.

- The driver seat had extending seat bottoms much like my old E90 BMW 328xi did. It is much better than the air pumped extension on the E-class. The seat was a bit harder and less supportive than my E-seats with the Dynamic-driver-seat option.

- The MB-Tex is definitely not leather. It feels much colder and much more rubbery. If you want to fool yourself into thinking it feels just like leather, you're delusional.

- I'm not a fan of the circular vents, my wife compared them to pig *****/nipples.

- The new entertainment interface is very similar to the E350 and very intuitive. It is more evolutionary than revolutionary. The touch pad is not bad, the character drawing works as advertised but it's still faster for me to push a couple of buttons on my phone to speed dial someone than try to find them in the phone register on the car. I like that song titles and artists are displayed in the dash on mine it's only the channel name for XM. The favorite menu is a nice addition that you can populate with all your favorites, whatever those might be, channels, preset screens, phone contacts, etc.

- The car has two USB ports, it comes with the new lightning adapter for Apple products and has an SD card slot but it seems like the navigation also would use the SD slot for its data (there was a message on the screen that there was no navigation data in the SD card slot, so no nav).

- With the new interface and the lack of hard buttons there are at least 3 different ways to do anything. Change the temperature in the car? You can use the temp buttons on the dash, you can use the rotary joystick to navigate the menus to get to it, you can use the touch pad to get to it, you can use the favorite menu to get to it....you get the idea.
- The Burmester sound system sounded awesome. I think it is better than the Harman/Kardon system. Also part of the premium package.

- No rearview camera. This was a big let down and I missed it greatly from the E350. You can get it if you order the $2,700 multimedia package or $460 as a stand-alone option.

- The trunk is surprisingly deep and the trunk opening is surprisingly wide. I could fit my son's hockey back longways which is impressive. I couldn't put much else in there but the bag fit. The bag wouldn't fit longways in my wife's A4 Avant.

- The rear legroom is cramped. My kids (10 and 6) didn't say much negative about it but their first comment when they got into the ML350 after the C was "wow, it's huge back here".

I think the new C-class is very nice and looks great inside and out. I'm not a fan of the look of the rear of the car but overall I think it works. Having said all this if I was shopping for a compact luxury car I'd probably go with a 3-series BMW.


Now the ML, I only drove for a mere 50 miles so far so my take on it is going to be much more of a first impression than a review. It has 6,000 miles on it and the following options:

- Aluminum running boards
- Premium Package
- Convenience Package
- Keyless-Go

The first question that came to my mind was "Why the hell would anyone buy this car over an E-wagon?". Other than the $10,000 saving I see zero benefit of driving one of these behemoths around town over the E-wagon.

The vehicle looks huge but the interior is no bigger than an E-wagon. It lacks the 3rd row seats of the E-wagon that work in a pinch when you need to carry 7 on the rare twice a year occurrence but you don't want to drive a GL for the other 363 days of the year. The trunk space is much more shallow than the E-class I don't think it will even fit the hockey bag lengthwise but I will check on that tonight.

I'm not a fan of sitting high with a lot of air above my head. But if that's your thing maybe this vehicle works for you.

- The car definitely feels a bit long in the tooth, especially driving it right after the new C.

- I welcomed the V6 feeling once again, however the dash is estimating 21 mpg for my drive so far and that is probably going to be closer to 20 mpg when I actually do the real math. For what? I can get 25 mpg pretty consistently on my E350 so the mpg hit compared to that is terrible.

- The MB-Tex in this car is also a let down just as it was in the C. But the beige seats at 6k miles are already dirty and I think their rubbery, sticky surface attracts far more dirt than the smooth buttery porcelain leather on my E after 35k miles.

- The halogen headlights are a joke. I haven't had a car with halogen lights in almost 15 years. How they still make their ways into a luxury SUV is not something I can understand. One of the most important things on the road is to be able to see. These fixtures fail at that task in a big way.

- The optional running boards are awkwardly spaced and it's obvious that they're there more for aesthetics and looks than for function. What a waste of money they are.

- I miss the blind spot assist. The C-class had it, so does my E350. On a big SUV like this they would definitely help, especially with the tinted side windows, I'm kind of unhappy with the visibility.

But of all the things I mentioned I miss my Distronic the most! After having driven 35k miles with Distronic I can safely say that I will never buy another car without it. Ever! Unless you have used Distronic you can't even fathom how much less stressful driving is with it. I'm not even 40 years old and I enjoy driving but I absolutely love the convenience of Distronic with the steering assist. Neither of my loaners have it and I miss it dearly. I already know that driving to Houston this weekend is going to be a painful experience without it. But hey, it's most definitely a first world problem.

 

Agreed

Having only driven cars with hid or now, led headlamps... Driving a car with standard halogens is just unnerving and unsafe for me now

 

Lol... Headlight snobs

 

+1000

 

Now you young whippersnapper, listen up!

Back in my day, we didn't even have halogens in the USA. The rest of the world did, but we were stuck with sealed-beam headlamps. Pure incandescent simplicity! No exotic noble gasses, no high performance tungsten filaments, no ballasts, and certainly none of these new-fangled LEDs.

When the bulb blew, you replaced the entire headlamp, lens, reflector, bulb and all! And of course, every single time you'd replace the bulb you'd have to realign it as no two were really the same, but it was simple! Cheap too! $15 for the entire reflector/bulb/lens all in one. Glass lenses at that! No fogging of the lens ever happened. Of course, these bulbs never lasted long enough to get enough road wear to get fogged lenses.

Light output? 35 glorious watts! More than enough light for driving at reasonable speeds.

/Disclosures: I did get the full lighting package on my 2015 E350 and have had Euro headlamps on everything since my 1985 280CE. Even put Euro lamps on my SO's 2006 Passat.

 

Yup, I had the same lamps on my old Chevy 'love-fest' van. Took it cross country and had to replace two. Easy to do and could be purchased almost anywhere. Of course, that was when I walked to school up hill, both ways, in 3 ft of snow, and hot dogs were a nickel,... but that's another story in another life

 

Well! Well!
After reading some posts here re transmission issues at 35000 mi (56000 km) and realizing that the service I have upcoming next week will be the last under warranty because the car's in service date is 1/24/11 I decided a transmission service would be timely so as to get a look at the filter and fluid for signs of metal etc. as I have 52000 km on the odometer.
Well tonight (1/18/2015) coming home I turned a corner and accelerated up the hill and the noise from under my butt was very interesting. I did a couple of things and shut everything down and it remains. On the flat it also grows at me. I thought perhaps an exhaust issue but not so.
If it is tranny and/or transfer case related this would be the second one in E class cars since 1986.
Thanks to all who put the word out.

 

Did you mean "growls"? What type of noise was it exactly? Let us know what they say after diagnosis.

 

Yes. That is a great description. That is why I considered perhaps it was exhaust but of course when stationary and I rev the engine all is normal.
I suspect it is tranny related.
I have to use the car today before taking it to them so it will be interesting to see what happens.

 

Ok so they did determine that both front wheel bearings were not right so they got changed under warranty.
The transmission service showed up nothing in the way of metal in the pan magnets and there was nothing in the oil itself. I have to cut up the filter. In my techs words, this was one of the better transmissions he has seen.
That not withstanding, I can still hear it and the tech and SM went out with me and they are puzzled.
I noted that when I get into 4th gear and up to about 60-70 kph this noise goes away.
I tried standing on the brakes and revved the engine and I can hear it.
What I am wondering is this perhaps a torque converter issue that disappears when the TC locks up? Not enough experience with that issue to say. Any inputs will help.
The SM is keeping the WO open until I tell him to close it so even though my warranty ends in 4 days, we should be able to claim it later.
Thoughts?

 

Best line of this tread by far! Words to live by

 

So I ordered a new 2014 E350 with every conceivable option, ordered it in Nov 2013, delivered to me in January of 2014. Around 18,000 miles I noticed a slight vibration/shudder on slow turns i.e. turning into a driveway. At first I thought I was being overly sensitive to it but then researched these forums and found that MB has had these problems dating back to 2006. At any rate the problem worsened and I brought it in and was told that they worked on the planetary gears and all was well. Drove it for awhile and approximately 1000 miles later the problem returned and worsened. As of this post the car has been in the shop for three weeks, service advisors were having many discussions with MB engineering and twice they thought the problem was resolved but when they road tested it just prior to me picking it up, the problem was still there. So now I wait for a new transmission to be shipped and installed. Just a warning to others. This is my 4th 4matic and this is the first time I have had a problem, but apparently this is a well known defect to MB, frustrating to have spent over 70k for a car that is now being broken down to replace a major component. Any newer models experiencing this?

 

About 3K mi on '15 and haven't noticed anything yet but will be aware.

 

For the benefit of 4matic membership if you experience vibration/shuddering request transmission replacement referencing bulletin LI28.00-P-051499.

 

I had this problem on my '08 E3504M, they replaced all the same stuff, at 40K miles.

I just got a new '15 E3504M… hoping that they solved the problem for this model year.

 

Ok so the latest in my saga as noted is the transmission oil, filter and magnets were clean as a whistle but the growl in the lower gears was still there after they serviced the car.
The tech tells me they usually see transfer case bearings going which I do not have - yet.
I found that if I locked the brakes and bumped the revs it could be heard with the car not moving.
I began to suspect the torque converter as the issue is not there as long as the TC is in lockup.
I returned to the dealer yesterday and we tested a 2012 version of my car. When we went to my car it was normal again. Sounded exactly the same as the 2012.
I came home frustrated and replicated exactly the same conditions that brought on the growl and nothing happened. It was gone.
So it looks like I am dealing with a transient issue in a car that is now 4 yr old and out of warranty. I don't want to change cars and with the new 9G box who is to say it will be any better than the 7G. The 5 speeds seemed bullet proof.
I am considering an extended warranty used by BMW and my dealer to cover my butt. If I buy the right one I can get some routine service e.g. calipers done under that warranty along with other stuff.

 

It seems like my car has the same symptoms as yours but mine is RWD. The humming sound in my car occurs from 0-50 mph with or without foot on gas pedal and it sounds like it's coming from the front right part of the car. I wonder what could be the problem... I have an extended warranty and I think im going to take my car to the dealer as soon as I get a chance so they can diagnose the problem.

 

Yours most likely is a wheel bearing. You do not have a transfer case.

 

Thanks for the input. I hope it's just the wheel bearing though 😄