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Does anyone know/speculate why MB puts on FAKE chrome tailpipes on all MBs?
It has gotten just so bad, that even in its new snazzy super-duper W214, MB blatantly insults its customers with fake chrome exhaust. They are not even trying to hide that design artifact any longer. Do you feel offended, or is it just par for the course of car designs? Do you believe an $80K car should have fake exhaust pipes? BMWs have actual exhaust with actual tips that ain't fake. Why exactly does MB do this? Is it just aesthetics, lazy MB designers, or is it cost-cutting? For the life of me, I cannot fathom...
It has gotten just so bad, that even in its new snazzy super-duper W214, MB blatantly insults its customers with fake chrome exhaust. They are not even trying to hide that design artifact any longer. Do you feel offended, or is it just par for the course of car designs? Do you believe an $80K car should have fake exhaust pipes? BMWs have actual exhaust with actual tips that ain't fake. Why exactly does MB do this? Is it just aesthetics, lazy MB designers, or is it cost-cutting? For the life of me, I cannot fathom...
in my experience your better off with the fake ones. They don’t get all carbon coated and black and stay nice and clean.
It has gotten just so bad, that even in its new snazzy super-duper W214, MB blatantly insults its customers with fake chrome exhaust. They are not even trying to hide that design artifact any longer. Do you feel offended, or is it just par for the course of car designs? Do you believe an $80K car should have fake exhaust pipes? BMWs have actual exhaust with actual tips that ain't fake. Why exactly does MB do this? Is it just aesthetics, lazy MB designers, or is it cost-cutting? For the life of me, I cannot fathom...
Emitting noxious gases isn’t viewed the same way among all of MB’s stakeholders. Fake exhaust tips don’t look like poison emission outlets to the uninformed.
It has gotten just so bad, that even in its new snazzy super-duper W214, MB blatantly insults its customers with fake chrome exhaust. They are not even trying to hide that design artifact any longer. Do you feel offended, or is it just par for the course of car designs? Do you believe an $80K car should have fake exhaust pipes? BMWs have actual exhaust with actual tips that ain't fake. Why exactly does MB do this? Is it just aesthetics, lazy MB designers, or is it cost-cutting? For the life of me, I cannot fathom...
I'm not offended... Most of the $100Kpick-up trucks sold in America have fake exhaust tips, too.
There's an overall trend to making cars quieter. One way to make them quieter is to aim the exhaust downward instead of rearward. This has been common practice for many diesel vehicles for a while, but it's now also being done for regular petrol cars, especially those that are primarily luxury cars, and it avoids the soot slowly turning the rear of the car black. A regular E Class is not meant to be loud. If you want loud that's what AMG is for. BMWs on the other hand are generally more sporty, even the regular models, so BMW still points the exhausts rearwards in most of their models.
AMGs have rearward pointing exhausts, but have sort of fake tips, too. The actual exhaust pipes stop short and are not directly connected to the tips. Partly that's so the tips don't get hot and potentially melt the diffuser and it also is a bit of cheating with the noise regulations. The decibel measurements are taken at a specific distance from the tips, but because the actual exhaust stops before the tips, you get a bit of extra distance and the exhaust can therefore be louder. It also allows the exhaust to expand from the heat w/o sticking out past the bumper.
Last edited by superswiss; Dec 11, 2023 at 01:46 PM.
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Originally Posted by chassis
Emitting noxious gases isn’t viewed the same way among all of MB’s stakeholders. Fake exhaust tips don’t look like poison emission outlets to the uninformed.
It has gotten just so bad, that even in its new snazzy super-duper W214, MB blatantly insults its customers with fake chrome exhaust. They are not even trying to hide that design artifact any longer. Do you feel offended, or is it just par for the course of car designs? Do you believe an $80K car should have fake exhaust pipes? BMWs have actual exhaust with actual tips that ain't fake. Why exactly does MB do this? Is it just aesthetics, lazy MB designers, or is it cost-cutting? For the life of me, I cannot fathom...
Are you talking about tips that are connected to the bumper and not the pipes themselves, but still an exhaust outlet? Or the blatant fake tips that are blanked off and lead to nowhere and are actually on some of the MB electric models as well?
The former is to reduce cost in a rear impact; either the US or EU (maybe both) have regs that require this. The latter is purely a stupid design decision, which I am thrilled to see absent on the W214 AT.
Are you talking about tips that are connected to the bumper and not the pipes themselves, but still an exhaust outlet? Or the blatant fake tips that are blanked off and lead to nowhere and are actually on some of the MB electric models as well?
The former is to reduce cost in a rear impact; either the US or EU (maybe both) have regs that require this. The latter is purely a stupid design decision, which I am thrilled to see absent on the W214 AT.
There's an overall trend to making cars quieter. One way to make them quieter is to aim the exhaust downward instead of rearward. This has been common practice for many diesel vehicles for a while, but it's now also being done for regular petrol cars, especially those that are primarily luxury cars, and it avoids the soot slowly turning the rear of the car black. A regular E Class is not meant to be loud. If you want loud that's what AMG is for. BMWs on the other hand are generally more sporty, even the regular models, so BMW still points the exhausts rearwards in most of their models.
AMGs have rearward pointing exhausts, but have sort of fake tips, too. The actual exhaust pipes stop short and are not directly connected to the tips. Partly that's so the tips don't get hot and potentially melt the diffuser and it also is a bit of cheating with the noise regulations. The decibel measurements are taken at a specific distance from the tips, but because the actual exhaust stops before the tips, you get a bit of extra distance and the exhaust can therefore be louder. It also allows the exhaust to expand from the heat w/o sticking out past the bumper.
Have to disagree with the bolded part of this post. Not quite accurate as MB like other auto manufacturers build millions of cars with proper exhaust pipes and tips passed through diffusers. Millions of cars... Methinks MB is just lazy with these chrome but fake exhausts. I can never understand it. When I bought my R172 350, one of the first mod was full exhaust setup, replacing the stock chrome trapezoids with proper quad-tipped R172 AMG exhaust. Looks sweet and sounds awesome even on a V6. Maybe MB just want us to spend $$ if we want our cars to look like how MB should have built it... dunno.... I see all these late model MBs adorned with fake chrome exhausts and I just shake my head and wonder. Why?
Interesting topic, never gave the fake exhaust tips much thoughts until now. In my opinion, the fake exhaust is much cleaner and lower maintenance and does not seem to affect exhaust note or at least not the fake exhaust note anyways
Having that connection from muffler to tip does nothing for me, one plus might be you can see the tip shaking when the engine is starting or while while it is running but even a Ford Escape’s exhaust does that. Could someone remind me what the disadvantage of the fake exhaust is again?
Interesting topic, never gave the fake exhaust tips much thoughts until now. In my opinion, the fake exhaust is much cleaner and lower maintenance and does not seem to affect exhaust note or at least not the fake exhaust note anyways
Having that connection from muffler to tip does nothing for me, one plus might be you can see the tip shaking when the engine is starting or while while it is running but even a Ford Escape’s exhaust does that. Could someone remind me what the disadvantage of the fake exhaust is again?
Sorry, I still don’t get WHY a fake exhaust is needed ? What if there’s NO such pretence, and just have a clean bumper and that should be “cleaner and NO maintenance” ?
For years, every single reviewer has called out Mercedes for these blanks in the rear that look like dual exhausts, and for whatever reason, they keep coming out with newer models with the same aspect on them. They seem to be tone-deaf or probably unaware of how stupid these blanked out fake exhausts look.
This thread is better with a picture so everybody knows what OP is actually talking about. He's talking about these blatantly fake tips that are purely visual and have zero function. He is not talking about the tips in AMGs that are actually open and function, but just don't have the actual pipes directly connected to them (2nd picture).
This thread is better with a picture so everybody knows what OP is actually talking about. He's talking about these blatantly fake tips that are purely visual and have zero function. He is not talking about the tips in AMGs that are actually open and function, but just don't have the actual pipes directly connected to them (2nd picture).
Thanks for these images @superswiss. Perfectly captures my main gripe with MB and these fake chrome exhausts... The first picture is more abominable IMHO. It is just aestetically off-putting to me and yet MB designers continue to churn new models with same design. What mindset made this an approved design feature in many MB models, including their latest models such as the W214?
Thanks for these images @superswiss. Perfectly captures my main gripe with MB and these fake chrome exhausts... The first picture is more abominable IMHO. It is just aestetically off-putting to me and yet MB designers continue to churn new models with same design. What mindset made this an approved design feature in many MB models, including their latest models such as the W214?
not defending MB at all but audi been doing completely closed out fake exhaust pipes for a while, it is kind of a "trend" like it or not as well as for the reasons forum member superswiss mentioned.
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