ClasseMiaMadra

Hello all. New to the S212 board, as I am expecting delivery of a 2016 wagon CPO - W212. I have scoured through the board and collected some pretty good information but I thought I would create a dedicated thread for all vents, rants, gotchas or praises for whatever stands out.
I was really psyched to take delivery last week but making an out of state auto purchase in MA adds quite a bit of time since the state does not issue temp plates. So I am trying to keep my mind busy by creating this thread.
Thanks and have a nice day..

ClasseMiaMadra

Just got my first gripe but I hope it is easily addressable. the car I am getting does not have the storage compartment under the front seats. Dealer said that likely, those are not compatible with the dynamic or ventilated seat options listed below from the car's data card. truth is this is not a deal breaker, as the car is fairly unique in the CPO market in terms of selected options packages, but the storage compartments are definitely under the "nice to have" list. Any feedback from the board members? is this something I can look for and retrofit?

401 - FRONT SEAT CLIMATE CONTROL
432 - DYNAMICS SEAT,FRONT LEFT AND RIGHT

KEY08

Cost cutting measure by MB. My 2014 has heated, ventilated, and massaging seats along with the underseat storage bin. They are compatible; MB just removed them.

SteveE400

2016 must have been the cutoff for them. My 2015 sedan has them.

95Sinned420

My 2014 has the storage compartments under the seat and I absolutely love them. I store 3 pairs of sunglasses under driver seat. Passenger seat I have a bottle of lotion, sunscreen and hand sanitizer.

As for gripes.. I hate how dim the instrumental cluster light is during the day. Can barely see the left and right signal arrows.. and I have limo tints on front door windows too, so ambient lighting is not even bright in the cabin.
Second gripe, lane keep assist works, but isn’t useful. It vibrates the steering wheel as you’re already crossing the line, other vehicles I’ve driven will warn ahead of time. Also the vibrate is weak.
Third gripe, ECO start-stop has to be turned off each time you start the car. It is annoying if you forget to turn it off and you’re performing parking maneuvers.
Fourth gripe, can’t turn off tiny ambient lighting under rear view mirror and rear some light.
That’s really nitpicking..but love the rest of the car!

ClasseMiaMadra

Not discontinued in 2016. Literally, every available car in the cpo website has them except mine. But same for the active dynamic seats. Does anyone have parts catalogue access to confirm if it is in fact a compatibility issue?

ClasseMiaMadra

Does the Eco remain active if you have the transmission in sport mode?
Also, about the lane keep feature, in my test drive I actually thought it was a great warning, subtle compared to what seems annoying to me in the Lexus RX, when I felt compelled to seek the way to disable it.

DFWdude

My 2016 sedan has the under seat storage bins.

Sorry to say I suspect a dealer has removed yours. Unless the sedans have them but the wagons don't.

ClasseMiaMadra

Anyone with access to part numbers and pricing? I am curious if the cost is worth the effort.

LEATHER/NAPPA/SEMI-ANILINE - BEIGE (815A)

EuroDriverSD

I just picked up a MY16 a couple of weeks ago. Coming from a W203 and lately a W211, these are my gripes:
1) Floor mates are super thin and flimsy, no longer have the metal MB badge
2) Mini box left of the glove box is no longer there (it was a perfect place to keep my business cards)
3) Agree on the Eco on persistence (I ordered a software mod to address this)
4) No touchscreen, nav is still very cumbersome (but plus for voice control and also have a software mod coming to enable android auto/carplay)
5) Compartments under the front of the seats are way smaller
6) Annoying "double door" on the center console storage compartment
7) The vent slots on the sunroof shade were moved from the back to the front (makes it feel unnatural when driving with the sunroof tilted up from the rear)

I still love the car though. Here's my favorites pluses:
1) Dipping mirror is back!
2) Much more acceleration power than the W211
3) LED headlights
4) Integrated USB ports in center console

I'm sure I'll find more to love

DFWdude

I agree with those noting the EcoStop Start. It always functions at the most awkward moments when you least want it to. Like parking in the garage, and especially when engaging active parking assist. You come to a stop after seeing the arrow in the MFD, expecting to put the gear in reverse, and the engine stops instead... I don't know what to do next?

Touch screens were not at all widespread when the W212 Facelift was designed (2012-2013). It's OK for me, because new apple tablets STILL don't have touchscreens. For Nav, I use the "Send to Benz" function in Mercedes Me to send route guidance info to the car, and it always works great. No need for manual destination entry, just accept the S2B transmission and start route guidance.

The double door console is odd, but it's something I got accustomed to using quickly.

As for the sunshade vents, I didn't know they were at the rear before, because my 2001 C320 has them at the front. I grew to really like the vents forward, because you can leave the shade closed, open the RR window about 2-3 inches, and then tilt up the sunroof. On days you don't need the AC, this configuration creates a nice NACA duct air circulation that enters the RR window and circulates clockwise inside the car, then out through the tilted-up roof. The vents up front accelerate the air current as it exits the shade and is sucked along the underside of the roof glass. It's quite refreshing. I can't imagine how this would work with vents at the back. Try it you might like it.

KEY08

Navi touchscreens were in wide use by many manufacturers (mainly Asian brands....) by no later than 2006, so MB had plenty of time to right the ship of navigation despair. Their navigation systems have really been terrible for far too long and it was obvious that it was not something their designers cared about. Now hand held portable technology (smart phone) has superseded all comers, so maybe they were right all along. They gave up on me 15 years ago and I have now given up on them. I only use my phone.

crater64

I have a 2016 S212 (E350 4M) in Sport trim that I bought new as a leftover at the end of calendar 2016. It currently has just shy of 32K miles.

First the dislikes:

1. Quality of trim materials. Burl walnut interior trim has faded badly, even with a 45% tint all around except on the windshield. Have brought it to service manager's and MBUSA's attention and intend to have it replaced before the warranty expires. Driver's seat cushion MB-Tex developed a crack; cushion replaced under warranty but replacement had a defective piece of padding so back to the dealer it went. Second replacement still looks a bit lumpy along the leading edge but is comfortable. Anodized trim on the roof rails is starting to fade. I expect this on the Fuchs wheels of my fifty-year-old 911 but not on a three-year-old M-B. Porsche recommended a coat of petroleum jelly on the Fuchs annually; maybe I'll have to do the same to the wagon's roof rails - that or have them wrapped (along with the burl walnut?).

2. Lack of those seat bottom compartments. My console is overflowing and I'm not a fan of storing things in the door pockets where they can be seen. Probably cost-prohibitive to have them retrofitted, plus it'd only give me another place to store crap that might rattle and make me crazy.

3. The discovery that the car cannot be shifted into neutral when the battery is dead. If anyone knows a workaround, please point me in that direction.

4. I wish the roller blind for the pano roof was opaque.

5. I wish the infotainment system had a 6-disc changer instead of the single-disc changer it has. I have hundreds of mp3s on a thumb drive connected to the USB port in the console, but I often find mp3 sound quality to be worse than that of CDs. Maybe a misperception on my part.

Now the likes:

1. Versatility. It's a luxury car that can haul and a hauler with some luxury. I've carried everything in it from antique furniture and architectural elements to firewood and bales of hay (with a blanket down, of course), not to mention being a parts hauler for said 911.

2. Comfort. It's not as isolating and disconnected in terms of ride, handling, and NVH as my late mother's series of Lincolns and Cadillacs were but isolating enough that a long drive isn't as physically wearing as it could be. The wagon has become the family road trip car for that reason, as well as for its...

3. Fuel economy. I average 20-21 mpg city and 27-28 mpg highway. I seldom have a local commute, working out of a home office, but when I do commute it's most often to the airport. The ~32K miles have been in large part racked up on road trips from Vermont to South Carolina where, on some stretches, I can see 30 mpg if I keep the car between 70-75 mph. I expect I'd see a bigger hit if I had the E63 AMG version, plus there'd be very few opportunities to take advantage of the extra power. I often joke that if I had bought the E63, I'd have ended up in jail, most likely in Virginia.

4. Most of the features. It's an oddly optioned car with the pano roof, premium package, adaptive lighting (best. headlights. ever.), multicontour driver's seat only and all the seats in MB-Tex. No Parktronic which would be useful; I'm always paranoid I will scrape the chin on a curb when parking and without a standup hood ornament I'm not always confident I know where the nose and front corners of the car are.

As for some of the things previous posters have hit on:

a. My car doesn't have the front seat storage compartments - a peeve (see above).

b. The dealer kicked in both carpet and all-season floor mats when I bought the car. I've never used the carpet mats as we get snow, dirt and snirt in the winter and we take the car to the beach in the summer.

c. COMAND can be annoying but I've learned to appreciate it. I especially appreciate that it doesn't have a touch screen. There's a lot to be said for being able to navigate a car's infotainment system by feel and muscle memory without having to take your eyes off the road for more than the briefest of glances. I too use the Send2Benz function in mercedes me and find it to work effectively. I do miss the COMAND radio interface of the previous version that was in my C-Class sedan; I kind of liked the display that looked like an old-school Becker radio dial.

Bottom line: I'm planning to keep the car past the four-year mark and will be shopping extended warranties for the peace of mind. I'd love for this to be the last new car I ever buy (I'm a couple months shy of age 57) and to be able to rack up the M-B high mileage awards (though I don't know where they'd attach to the modern Sport grille). At the very least I'd like the wagon to last until I'm able to retire. Given the complexity of the car and the quality of materials, I don't know if that's a realistic expectation.

ClasseMiaMadra

Considering you also have a wagon with some similar options, I could entertain the possibility that some wagons were configured without them but I think that both you and I stumbled on weird, one-off configurations. I also have dynamic / multi contour seat(s) - 432 DYNAMICS SEAT,FRONT LEFT AND RIGHT but also leather, quiet side glass, distronic with break assist and collision avoidance / protection etc - in addition to the pano and the lighting package that yours has. Since mine does not have the under seat compartments either, I decided to crowd source the subject, primarily because every single of the CPOs that appeared in the MB site nationwide seem to have them, even one in Anchorage, AK. With the help of konigstiger on this thread, it looks as if my VIN should have had them installed based on the EPCnet query. So I went back to the dealer and asked for them on good will. First response was "no" but my salesman later emailed me that he is looking into it - thanks again konigstiger for the info and suggestion.
.

ClasseMiaMadra

So I finally got it in my possession, a 2016 E350 wagon 4Matic. my yardsticks are the 2012 S550 that is still with us and the leased 2014 Lexus GS 350 AWD that the wagon replaced. Right after pickup I drove 300 miles to get home after driving there in the Lexus (returned it to a local dealer). My initial observation are listed below.
1. The first observation was again that nobody beats the Lexus customer experience.
2. The first striking difference after switching cars was the size of the infotainment screen as compared to the Lexus, but I concluded very soon that bigger is not better. The comand's usability and great resolution more than make up for the lack of screen size so that is not an issue on any level.
3. I wish I could turn off the screen while comand is still running. This is available in both other cars but I have not seen that option yet in the wagon. I do not expect this to be an issue in the long run though, especially if ACP / AA gets up and running.
4. The car came with the lighted door sills. On my first day driving around in prolonged and heavy rain (just n case it matters) I observed that the driver's side dims and flickers. Not a deal breaker of course, just WTF annoying. I am sure it can be addressed but I dont know if I want anyone to start taking apart and reassembling the trim, causing creaks and rattles. I think this will be the one thing that will remain broken.
5. No rattles, creaks, squeaks or any other kind of noise, not even over a 300-400 foot highway section that resembled the carousel at the 'Ring at 65+ MPH - the car does have 45k miles so I was ready to excuse any noises.
6. The wagon conveys more substance with its presence. This has nothing to do with performance, as the E350 cannot be compared to the S550 and is really on par with the GS - except the sound box on the GS exhaust manifold that begged you to keep the pedal floored. By comparison, the E350 does not have an inspiring sound but I guess that is what the AMG variant is for, among other things...
7. The distronic is really really cool and really useful.
8. The active steering assist is just too vague and seems to be hunting left and right in the lane, seemingly having difficulty determining a center line to follow so highway use is more mentally taxing than actively driving the car IMO. I tried it briefly in stop and go traffic also and I can see it being more useful except in heavy - "competitive" - merging when you need to keep your distances and gaps short and tight.
9. Like the other cars, I always switch to sport right after starting the engine. The E350 left me very impressed with its performance and response in mid to high RPM, especially at highway speeds.
10. My brain cannot yet process the wide angle view from the rear view camera (no 360 in this car). i will need to figure out some practice exercises to get accustomed to this view. I somehow believe that this view is more inclusive and therefore probably safer.
11. This one is more of a question rather than just an observation. The recommended tire pressures for front and rear are quite different from each other, 35 in the front and 48 in the rear. This is not a staggered setup, but the same OEM 245 / 40 R18 Continentals all around. Question: What is the recommendation on the sedans? Even considering the wagon's available cargo space, 48 psi seems high and I wonder what is the feedback from current owners.
12. I was a bit disappointed to discover that there are differences between the installed options / features lists shown in DataMB.com and the VMI sheet provided by the dealer. I was a bit disappointed to find out that only the driver seat is ACTIVE MULTICONTOUR FRONT SEAT (as per VMI) instead of DYNAMICS SEAT,FRONT LEFT AND RIGHT (as per DataMB.com). Worth noting that they both share the same option code 432.
13. The front seats do not have the storage compartments. According to EPCnet (thanks again konigstiger), they should be installed but the dealer was not able to determine anything and not willing to "good will" them on, saying that there is no sign of mounting brackets ever having been attached to the seats. Truth is that I dont think I need them. I also think that they may be somewhat inconvenient if you bring your feet back close to the seat (while on distronic for example), so I dont know if I even want to pursue good will with MBUSA.. QUESTION: are there any instances were the driver or passenger found them annoying or in the way ?

That is it so far after 2 days and about 500 miles.

ClasseMiaMadra

Found it as a choice for the * button, under the "reassign" menu, then "Vehicle", then "screen off". Very happy about that.

rey_winslow

My 2016 wagon has the storage bins.

KEY08

I will say that the passenger storage bin does have issues with popping open when passengers get in or out or bang it with a package, etc. It does not take much to cause it to pop open inadvertently.

rey_winslow

Annoyingly easy to pop open.

LILBENZ230

I'm going to resurrect this to list my dislikes with the 2016 W212 sedan.

Dislikes:

1. Why does the car blip the horn when locking like a Chrysler? I miss the chirp of the older Benzes. I know I can deactivate the horn but I want acoustic feedback. Also why do the mirrors fold out automatically only when you get the doors half open? It's just nitpicking, but lock/fold unlock/unfold would make the most sense to me.
2. I miss the console gear selector. I'm trying to get used of not having one to rest my hand on. I know it was old fashioned, but still there was plenty of room.
3. Why do I have to click to connect last BT audio device? I swear some mornings it plays on its own and other mornings I am forced to click.
4. COMAND interface makes zero sense. In bluetooth audio menu, "devices" means source. To see actual bluetooth devices you go to "options" then select "devices" WTF
5. You can change the color of the LED ambient lighting, but the orange under the door handles and near the COMAND knob stays consistent. Looks strange unless you stick with SOLAR
6. Mirror puddle lamps are not LED but everything else on the exterior is.
7. I wish Benz had not given us combination brake/turn signals and used the amber ones they used in ROW. It would look so much better.
8. Mercedes wiper system has been terrible for many years. There's really no excuse for how literally every Benz has juddering wipers from the W205 to the W222. Every single one I've driven, loaners, test drives, my dealer even made it a point to show me a brand new S-class did it. They're noisy, they skip.. they suck. Nissan makes really crappy cars but they have the best wipers in my experience. Too bad they're not cross compatible or I would slap some Nissan OEMs on my W212 like I put them on a lot of my other non-Benz cars.

DubVBenz

My wipers are just fine...unless they need to be replaced I don't get any of what you describe. It probably comes down to the brand of blades you're using

LILBENZ230

No it doesn’t. These are Mercedes blades and they are 2 months old. Also every loaner I’ve had does this, some with less than 1000 miles, and even the brand new S560 that was just sitting there. My dealer made it a point to demonstrate this cannot be fixed by showing me the new S560 performs the same. If you search for chatter/judder/skipping wipers you’ll find this is a plague and threads in basically every subsection of MBWorld. Many many recommendations on how to fix it, and an equal number of responses about how those fixes don’t work for some and do for others. I’ve been chasing this issue with Benz cars since 2014. So far after spending more time and money than I care to think about the conclusion is that there is no consistent fix that works for everyone. And so far, I’ve yet to drive any Mercedes newer than 2011 that doesn’t have this issue. Again we are talking dozens and dozens of cars.

Sorry if this post came across in any sort of way, but it’s just a long time source of irritation for me - and it is very widespread and not related to wiper brand. I’m glad yours work. Consider yourself the exception.

Edward993

Any way to dim the center screen's illumination? Not the dash, but only the center info screen? In city driving it's perfectly fine. But if on the open hwy outside the city lights at night, I find that screen so bright it's distracting ...so much so I just set one of the center console buttons to turn off the screen so it doesn't bug me.

Edward

LILBENZ230

I believe this is possible - did you check in settings? Seems like I've seen it. Will have to look and report back.

brogan

Both of my '05 E320 CDI had dynamic and ventilated seats with the storage compartments. And massage.