As I posted, in the past 20 years, air suspension has not been standard on the base E and S Class. Both the E500 and E55 are not base models. Thank you for confirming.

MB Tex has been standard on the E Class for the past 15 years


As I posted. I agree


Couldn't disagree more: the ability to set dynamic cruise control (not available at any price 15 years ago - another improvement) from the steering wheel instead of a stalk often hit mistakenly instead of the direction stalk, ability to control volume on radio without having to take your eyes off of the road, the ability to change you screen from miles, to range to air pressure in your tires are all improvement. I cannot think any one would think otherwise

Here I agree with you. But for my children and those under 50 years of age who know absolutely nothing about an automobile, changing a tire is a quaint as a rotary phone. You must consider the people buying cars today. People like you and me are no longer the market. Run Flat tires for 90% of the driving public make sense. Throw in the weight savings of not having a spare, jack and tire iron for CAFE and Run Flat are the way to go.


Are they still in business???? I cannot imagine anyone wanting a short wave radio instead of satellite radio and HD radio - both of which, regardless of what you were willing to pay, were not available 15/20 years ago. . Another improvement.


You cannot be serious!!! Today's bumpers are made to collapse and absorb impact in the event of an accident. The old bumpers you are referring to, did the opposite. As a result, crash zones starting with the bumpers, traffic fatalities and serious injuries are a fraction of what they were 20/30 years ago. No one can ague that cars today are much, much safer then 20/30 years ago. Why would you want to go back?.

Even Rolls Royce has done away with "chair height seating". Today's modern cars take fuel economy into consideration, something years ago when gas was $.16 a gallon, yes I remember gas wars, was not a consideration.


Again you can't be serious. Vent windows leaked and were noisy and served no purpose, unless you were a smoker. AC eliminated the need for vent windows.

When cars got 15 mpg in local and 20 mpg on the highway a 20 gallon take was a necessity. You do realize that the weight to carry all that fuel also decreased mpg. Today modern cars get 25 mpg in local and 30 plus mpg on the highway. So a 15 gallon tank today gives you more range than a 20 gallon tank did 20 years ago. FYI, my E450 has a 20 gallon tank.


I do miss my 1966 Mustang GT convertible with the Rallye Pack: 7 gauges in all. As a I wrote above, we are no longer the market. My children in their forties have no idea of and could care less about the volts, oil pressure, oil temperature, etc. You do know of course that most of that information is available in your touch screen.

This is just plain silly. Manual gear box are desired by less than .1% of the driving public and ordered by even less. When was the last E Class in the US available with a manual gearbox? 10, 15 or 20 years ago?

Hope this clarifies

 

you want to go back to the 60’s. No thanks

 

Ah the good old days. When you set the gap on your points with the flap of a paper matchbook cover….

 

Points: What are they??

Now I remember: the mechanism that triggered and timed the firing of the spark plugs!

Timing light and tack dwell!

 

Nostalgia is nice. That's why people buy and maintain/restore classics. You should do the same.

 

+1 just sans the manual...no place in an MB sedan imo.
The older German cars were mostly hand built and like tanks, to build one like it today whether it be an MB sedan or Porsche 911 would double the cost, but it would be nice to have that type of materials/quality again...perhaps that's why they're so highly coveted these days. Just wish I never sold my air-cooled 911/930 turbos from the 80's and a bunch of others from the 70's-80's. Seems like things went downhill from the 90's on...

 

The E500 was the base v8 E class. There were higher level v8 options. I didn't indicate base or entry level cars.
I am referring to the entire interior, not just the seats. MB has had MB Tex plastic seats as standard for decades, but I was referring to available, not standard. This includes door panels and other touch surfaces. I'll stick with leather, fabric, wood and metal.

A multi function steering wheel is your preference. I don't use cruise control. I set the entertainment system and display presentation when I get into the car and don't fiddle with it while moving.

You may like to risk traveling without a spare, but I won't. Within a 100 miles of delivery, I had an unrepairable flat. The RF tire failed and a flat bed tow truck was required. MB gave me a replacement. I purchased a spare and tools after that. http://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w2...lat-tires.html

A satellite radio is useless in a town full of trees. Blaupunkt is thriving. Becker was part of Harmon and Harmon Becker is now part of Samsung. blaupunkt.com

Bumpers and the front portion of cars are too easy to accordion at any speed over 2½ mph. The standard was no damage at speeds up to 5 mph until the standard was cut in half (due to the body shop lobby?) What was once repairable damage must now be replaced due to Federal mandates.

If you believe that, there is a bridge you may wish to purchase. Having 2" higher seats doesn't really impact the car structure. It simply reduces head room. Flat legs out seating in cars is one of the reasons SUVs with chair height seating are so popular.

My E300 is lucky to get 18 mpg in stop and go driving. I have a regular trip to the Flamingo Lodge and the Coastal Prairie Trail in the Everglades where the 66 liter tank is not enough to go between gas stations. I rent a car. It is 160 miles (320 miles round trip) of slow stop and go driving from the last gas station in Naples to the lodge and return. There are no gas stations along the Flamingo Lodge Highway or state highway 9336.

Having to fiddle with a touch screen to obtain essential operating data is very risky by taking your eyes off the road.

Manual gear boxes are still available in over 20 cars and almost all trucks. They offer better control and efficiency. I hate the bad habit of the E class to shift up and down repeatedly at certain speeds.

 

It sounds like all the "high tech Nouveau riche" are really OK with paying a lot more for maintenance every year and for having nearly all serious electronic problems, caused either by HW fails or crash impact, require totaling out of a car. They probably have the money to absorb the loss of getting a new one. Many think "high tech" means talking to their car, which it screws up more than half the time because AI and "untrained" voice recognition is currently so poor. Also, it's really great to take your eyes off the road so you can touch a screen, or find a capacitive pad which requires a perfect finger placement, instead of finding a solid reliable button, toggle, or wheel to activate by just feeling around. No wonder the reported cause of so many accidents is attributed to cell phone use, and likely this. Also, the decontenting annoyance listed above should include lack of CD players. It's a total pain in the A** to get the USB-c cables/adequateThumbDrives (Small and C rather than A) and huge amounts of time to copy stuff onto it unless you have servants to do it for you.

Some decontenting can cause serious annoyance. The lack of an onboard spare is great fun if you have a family onboard and get a bad flat with no open Mercedes dealer near. You can cram your family into a tow truck and hope you find a motel without cockroaches to enjoy the wait until you can get going again, or maybe buy a tire (or 2) which almosts fits and might damage your 4Matic mechanics before you can pay the added cost to replace it with a real fit, or maybe get an Uber to drive you hundreds of miles to your destination. Then the fun of arranging a tow to wherever awaits you.

The only reason I buy new and Mercedes is Safety and it's worth the price and inconvenience and annoyance. Most of the improved safety is from mechanical improvements, improved seat belt design, more and better airbags, improved crash cages. But some safety improvements, like active cruise control, front and rear AEB, lane keeping ... are digital tech and required for improved safety. Safety research shows an increase in accidents due to taking your eyes off the road from cell phone usage and likely touch screens. These improvements should wait until AI and voice is far more reliable. I just pull over when needed.

But, the trend is toward excessive tech which generally takes away more convenience, adds a lot of unneeded and function and complexity, costs more, is extremely expensive to repair, and fails more often than good old analog (with the exception of the safety tech.). There are so many software option combinations to test running on chips which need to comunicate and coordinate even as procurement tries to get better deals and vendors make (supposedly upward compatible) improvements which sometimes make undetected minor changes to opcode timing and minor new, previously unused, status bit settings, that the problem is enormous. (I did and oversaw this kind of work for 50 years).

Unfortunately, I'm hooked on the safety because I'd rather be annoyed than dead or disabled and Mercedes is among (and perhaps) the best, plus my dealer is AA+++. (Bobby Rahal).

I'm also hoping that the AI and voice recognition and other deficiencies are better in the newer W214 than in my 2021 E350 W213. The early blog results here show that the software guys are trying very hard (maybe too hard) to fix major bugs. In the meantime I'll wait for the 2026 because the reported SW problem reports in this W214 blog for the 2025's are far from encouraging.

 

Voice recognition is light years ahead of what they had for my W213. I did not use voice in my W213 and I use it all of the time now in my W214. One can use normal sentences and one can avoid "problems" with using touch screens because so many commands can be done via voice. There's your safety - voice works; eyes stay on the road.

 

Thanks for the update. I've driven some newer Mercedes models now, and the capacitive pads work far better than on my 2021 E350.

So between the improved controls and other improved safety, I'm starting to budget now toward a 2026-7 450, and if software problems get addressed, I'll be doing some serious test driving. Hope the stock market holds.. I'm also hoping they keep the "improvements" in check. Thanks again for the update.

 

What software problems are you referring to?

 

You are dreaming. The quality and performance of modern cars far exceeds what was built in the 70’s and 80’s. Robots are more precise and computer managed engines do a better.job. The cars you mentioned were better than the competition of the times but would be unacceptable today.
i have an inkling about what I am talking about . My wife’s E class is our 28th Mercedes since 1983. In that same period of time I have owned 8 911’s, selling my, last one, a 2017 C2S in 2020.

 

Heavier steel yes. But on the other side:

• I remember driving home with my family in the 50's going across the GW bridge on a hot summer day, my father racing the engine to get the fan blowing to prevent overheating. Does not happen today
• I remember in the winter having to wear coats, gloves and hats in the car because the heater was insufficient. Does not happen today
• Tires last 15,000 miles: Today tires last 50,000 miles
• When it rained, would the car start: Does not happen today
• When it was cold cars would not start: Does not happen today
• AC today that regardless of the outside temperature you are comfortable and the car does not overheat.
• ABS, automatic high beams (were available on the Cadillac only),
• Three speed automatic transmissions: today 8,9 and 10 speed
• Oil changes every 2,500 miles and often a quart burned in between. Today common for 10K mile changes
• Changing anti-freeze every three years: Does not happen today
• Change transmission fluid every 20K miles: Does not happen today
• Average MPG 12 - 18. Today more than double that.
• Air bags
• Seat belts
• Air leaks: Do you forget how drafty old cars were? I don't!
• Rear wheel drive: Today AWD
• Change spark plugs every 20K miles: Today every 100K
• Cars that rusted out in 3 years (I had one: a 1966 Mustang in Syracuse): Does not happen today
• Warranty: 12K miles or one year: today 50,000 miles or 4 years and Hyundai/Kia even longer
• Carburetors: Today fuel injection
• points: today electronic ignition

And the list goes on and on and on.
Many today will remember the DC3. One of the finest airplanes of its day. Would anyone take it over a modern jet??


Memories are good but do not let them get in the way of facts!

 

Right back at ya - MB quality has been tanking since the 90's time for you to wake up...
Have you even been following JDP and CR ratings? Near bottom of the barrel and has been trending that way for years. I had far fewer issues with my German vehicle from the 70's-80's period. EOS/EOD.

 

Hell yes...have you seen the B-17 in my avatar?

 

Here are links to threads of SW problems reported in this forum (W214):

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...-problems.html

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...unction-2.html

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...-2-issues.html

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...ux-frozen.html

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...-software.html

I'm guessing the last one is the earliest one and the longest.

 

The more I get use to my new All terrain the more I like it. Reasons are simple for going for a new 214 over an older 213. It’s a new car you can’t still buy a new 213 that I know of lol. Second reason mb cars have more features every year. The 214 does drive more composed than the 213 and has been said is more S class like and refined. My 213 actually felt more sporty driving but in reality the 214 is substantially faster and does handle better. It was sort of an illusion with the 213 with the early throttle tip in and the monster low end torque with the car would get winded pretty quick over 4K rpm’s. The 214 has a much more linear feel to it. At least with the e450 inline 6

 

I think it's reliability being measured here - how often things break - rather that how functional they are. I wish that Mercedes could improve their reliability - it's very likely one of the causes of the huge drop in resale value the cars have.

In my 2021 E350 just bought last year, I've had an occasional, but severe, transmission jerk 2-3-4 (9 speed) during downshift. My dealershop, which is really quite excellent, hasn't yet been able to eliminate it. After the transmission is reset at the dealer, it still continuously "learns" how to shift based on my driving, and the learning can't be stopped. So as my driving changes (due to diff roads or conditions or whatever) the problem comes and goes. Another useless excessive technology feature that can't even be suppressed and causes a quality drop.

I still am hooked on the combination of luxury and safety (and my excellent dealership) so I'm living with it and hoping my next Mercedes has it fixed.

 

It is designed for a consistant driving style. If you are drastically changing your style, setup another profile. One for driving with the wife and children and another for performance driving.

 

In the case of that transmission, you need to ask the dealership to perform a standstill adaptation and/or forced adaptation if the former doesn't help, it takes time and a couple of tries so if the first standstill adaptation doesn't work tell them to try that same adaptation again. Just make sure it is those specific adaptation, normal adaptation won't do anything.

 

1. I am not changing my driving style. I use "Economy" style exclusively.
2. The settable "profiles" do not save your transmission settings. There are 31 instances of the word "profile" in the operator's manual. I've looked at them all. The "profile" settings are for seat positions, mirror, style, MBUX preferences and other "settable" things.. You can't set/change the transmission settings - it's processor/memory "learns" and changes them itself. I've had long discussions with multiple senior Mercedes mechanics about this.
3. No one drives the car but me,
4. There are W213 forum entries about the same problem.
5. The downshift 3-2 harshness is a known attribute of the transmission - it's just that in some transmissions (probably just a few) the harshness is sometimes very extreme.

Thanks for your time in sharing - any ideas like the ones you offer are worth are helpful and appreciated. I'm hoping for a lottery win so I can afford a W214.

 

I have a similar problem: Under very light acceleration at speeds below 15 mph, when the car is coasting, when I slightly hit the accelerator, when the transmission shifts into gear there is a clunking sound. If I take my foot off the accelerator, car is still going very slowly, and then gentle press the accelerator when the transmission engages, there is a clunky sound.

Similarly, when coming to a stop sign, the transmission clunks as it downshifts.

I have bee back to the dealer twice and each time they say it is a software problem. The car is better, not perfect for a few weeks and then the problem reappears. It seem worse in warm weather than cold weather.

What is the "standstill adaptation" vs. normal adaptation?

I am worried because my extended warranty ends and if this problem cannot be corrected I do not want to keep my car.

Thanks!

 

On my 2019 I am able to have a personal setting: Mine is: engine: economy, steering: sport ride: comfort

This is my individual setting. Each time I start the car, the default is comfort. I then toggle through the settings, scrolling through sport, sport+ to my individual setting.

Hope this helps

 

Here is an example, they need to perform it 4 times in some cases: https://mbworld.org/forums/gle-class...ml#post9080386
https://mbworld.org/forums/gle-class...ml#post9026943

 

As per the post in the other forum, my dealer also replaced the fluid in the transmission - again at no charge. One less thing for me to do at 50,000 miles.