Stephen Lee

I've actually been trying to return it, I started trying three days after taking delivery.

It's been an overall awful experience. This is my fourth MB and I'm extremely disappointed.

shortspark

What don't you like about it?

PeterUbers

Post some details, you'll get a better response

sorry for your experience

Zavato

Hard to Know what you are talking about without you telling us what you're talking about.

Do things not work? Or are you disappointed with the ride/power/handling?

Makes a difference

hyperion667

get rid of it yet?

beejAMG

cant figure out the control buttons?

Stephen Lee

Here's a post that I wrote in another forum to get started.

First, let me say that I'm a very experienced technology consultant. The COMAND system is way too techie. Many features take multiple actions, sometimes 6+ if everything goes right, and it frequently doesn't because of the swipe action. This makes it incredibly distracting to the driver, I hate to say it, but I feel unsafe changing the song in my car while driving.

There are way too many inconsistencies in the rest of the electronics to spell them all out, but I highly encourage any potential buyer to take the car for a minimum of a couple of hours and really test it out, especially the COMAND system.

A few small things to note. There is no CD player. The engine is a turbo charged 2.0, I was told 3.0. Voice control is fair at best, I'd call it poor myself. On three separate occasions, the COMAND system went blank, froze, and was completely blank. The dashboard clock continued to work and the COMAND clock stayed at the same time.

Remote features via MB mbrace, a whole slew of problems, again, too many to list.

The dealership told me that it's not uncommon to have some problems with a new car, but I strongly disagree. I bought a Mercedes Benz. There is an expectation that I have as a customer that they are providing a superior product, in this case, my expectations were not meet; not even close. I've never any problems with my other cars, not even close to this.

Last, but not least, my check engine light came on with less than 100 miles on the car.

I would say buyer beware for sure, and trust me, I hate to have to say that.

UPDATE: The check engine light was the O2 sensor, this has been fixed. The garage door opener was finally fixed with a software update after about 15 rounds with the dealership.

Stephen Lee

A few other challenges:

I feel unsafe driving my 2017 E300. I have had so many problems with the car, hardware and software, that I am not convinced that the safety system will work in an actual emergency. I'm not joking.

If you can't even change the radio station in a fair amount of time (sometimes it takes 4-5 seconds after the swipe on the steering wheel, and not a satellite station) then how can I expect the car to deploy the air bag?

When the car won't shutoff with the car in park, door open, and start / stop is pressed, how do I know that other features will work as advertised. I actually went inside the house to get my wife to witness it.

When the car stops itself when it wasn't necessary (No, it's not up for discussion here, it wasn't even close), how can I trust it? I had already drastically slowed down while approaching a car that is stopped ahead of me. The car had already started to drive forward and the car stopped itself about 1/2 a car length from where the front car was a few seconds prior. And I mean stopped... as in like an emergency.

hyperion667

sheesh, that's a long list, I'd try to return it or sell it, good luck

beejAMG

MB claims its the most intelligent Mercedes Benz to date.
they didnt say the car can sometimes be more intelligent than the driver.

Stephen Lee

Today while listening to a song, a tone came through the stereo system. It was a solid tone lasting multiple seconds, similar to a 1K Hz test tone, maybe slightly lower in frequently. Regardless, it was very concerning, seemed like an electronic malfunction.

No, this wasn't the alert notification or pay attention warning. I was stopped at a red light when it happened. I have never heard this before from any of my other cars, it was new, odd, and concerning.

Stephen Lee

That's fair, again, I'm a techie myself. I own a few different businesses which are centered around technology, so I like to think that I adapt to new technology really well. I've been fortunate to make a good living off of it. But, I know firsthand that technology can over complicate things, and I think that's at least part of the challenge here. Also, for the record, I've had the car for almost two months now, so it's not buyers remorse or an adjustment phase.

I don't mean any offense to anyone, but I'm also curious what "older" drivers might think of the car. I'm in my mid thirties, and again, I adapt well to technology. I could see some older and / or less tech savvy drivers having a whole new set of concerns.

Stephen Lee

MB corporate just told me today that they aren't really able to help me, they try to address customer service and warranty challenges, but not overall dissatisfaction.

The referred me back to the dealership, who referred me back to MB corporate, who referred me back to the dealership with instructions on how to request "unwinding of the deal".

jdawg21

Isn't there an option to return the car for a different model within the first 500 miles? After those problems I'd be returning it as well, for either another model or a different car of the same model.

Good Luck!

beejAMG

i hope you sort it out. i guess its not a "one size fits all" kind of thing. with cars especially, it never is.

LAC300

Did you test drive before buying?

Stephen Lee

I'm not sure, I returned to the dealership three days and roughly 150 miles later. They did seem like they wanted to help, but ultimately, I guess they didn't.

Stephen Lee

So, I guess the short answer is no. And my goal here is to strongly encourage others to thoroughly test drive the car and at least consider some of the points that I'm trying to make.

Here's the short version. I make a conscience choice that i did not want the 2016, so I waited for the 2017. When it came out, I loved everything that I read about it and liked what I saw when I looked in through the window. But, let's be honest, most if not all of the reviews are going to be positive, because, that's what they do.

Fast forward to the time of purchase, I did ask twice to drive the car. They were fairly busy that day and we were also working on the trade-in of my previous car, a 2014 E350. I was given various reasons why it couldn't happen right now, all legit reasons. The idea was to move forward assuming that everything would be fine and drive it as soon as it was available.

Well, after the paperwork was done, they finally pulled the car up and said take it for a spin. At this point, I was so excited to drive it that when I pulled off the lot, I didn't realize that it wasn't a test drive, I had just taken delivery.

Now, I know, this is my fault. And, I should have known better. All true statements. I did ask twice, but I should have held off on completing the paperwork or been more assertive. To be honest, I expected more of the car, more from MB, and more of the dealership.

I'm currently working this angle through the attorney general in my state.

Stephen Lee

Thanks, and you're right. That's the frustrating part. I've been so pleased with my previous cars. This is my fourth MB and my third E class. I absolutely loved the others.

PeterUbers

The w205 c class had a boatload of issues too when it came out

this was bound to happen... and it'll get better by 2019

axhoaxho

Sorry to hear about the OP experience. I hope most of the problems can/will be fixed via software updates in the near future.

PaulE550

Sorry to hear about your truly terrible experience. Clearly completely unacceptable from any car company. Hope your situation gets resolved to your satisfaction. It sounds like when they designed the new 2017, that they forgot about doing user interface testing to see if the processes were both intuitive and easily accomplished while driving. Excessive fiddling with the Command interface while driving in order to accomplish rudimentary tasks is both unsafe and unacceptable.

Zavato

A techie that didn't go for a test drive? A techie that didn't check the specs which clearly notes a 2.0 liter motor? Doesn't pass my sniff test.

By the way- never buy a first year of a new model. Don't care if it's Toyota, Honda or MB

mjsbenz

I would google the lemon law rules in your state. And bring the car into service frequently if similar issues are occurring. Build a history of service attempts to fix recurring issues. And then hire a lemon law attorney to get you out of the car and most of your money returned to you.

In my state, I have up to 2 years to make a lemon law claim.

Mbracer26

I had this car as a loaner and was extremely dissatisfied and disappointed with the radio and tech inside the car. It takes so many different inputs to get one thing done which makes it very distracting. changing a radio station with the swipe jumps 5 stations instead of one so you have to look down and see whats going on or you could use the wheel in the center to get a tactile feedback without looking. I couldn't figure out how to store a radio preset if my life depended on it. The C-Class had a better interface compared to this one. I was glad to get back into my w212. Im a very techie person and in my 20s. The tech is failure as they took out the radio button presets across the whole line.