It does work in German.

W = wagen, when used to describe the baureihe, or model series designation. W is used mainly for sedans and some SUVs. The S, according to old documentation, was literally stationswagen. Mercedes now calls these T-Modells (T being Touristik), while others (sometimes MB, too) call them kombis for kombinationskraftwagen.

Some others:
C = Coupé
A = Autocabriolet
V = Verlängerte Limousine (long wheel base)
Z = Maybach
R = Roadster

 

Hi all, first view/post on this board - just got a build slot for my wife for the wagon. Our order has most options but wanted to get some thoughts on the Superscreen Package. Has anyone ordered this and used it? Does it work well, or is it gimmicky?

 

I had it in my E450 but not in the new E53. If you do road trips and often have a passenger then it's probably worth it. The good thing is that you can have the second screen connect to a separate audio output device (e.g., AirPods of your passenger) so when they watch videos it doesn't impact whatever the driver is doing (e.g., listening to radio).

 

Statistically speaking 63% of the non Edition 1 E53 wagons have the screen and the total climbs to 70.4% if you take the E1 numbers into account. Now just because most cars have it, it doesn't mean it's a good thing.

Interestingly 55% of the cars have a carbon fiber center console and the superscreen is a paired option for 82.5% of them which is a much higher percentage than for vehicles without carbon fiber center console. If I take out the Edition 1 cars then the choice for super screen is still 73% with the CF center console which is still 10% higher than the average. On the cars without CF center console the superscreen option is selected 55% of the time.

So why would be such discrepancy between cars with and without CF center console in terms of selection? It's very simple: cost. The cost of the superscreen is $1,500 while the cost of carbon fiber in the dashboard is $2,850. So people choose the superscreen not because they want the feature but because it's cheaper than the carbon fiber.

I personally hate the look of that shiny gloss surface door to door on the dash and I optioned my order without it. We went with the grey ash with illuminated AMG logo instead, same reason we didn't got CF as the CF in the E53 is shiny rather than matte. And it's not about cost, I did order the dynamica headliner for $1600 which is a stunning look.

As for usability, I'd say it's a gimmick. When do you see your passenger wanting to watch a movie with headphones while you're driving? The answer for me is: never. Any other use case for the screen is totally useless when you have another screen literally 14 inches to the left of it. My previous W212 wagon had the 6DVD changer and dual LCD screens in the rear seats and my children loved it growing up. They could watch two different things on two different rear monitors and it was amazing for the long drives from Texas to Colorado and New Mexico. But my wife, the front passenger could not have cared less about having a screen in front of her.

 

Here are the stats for option popularity on the E53 wagon in the US after having tabulated 216 of them.

The things I find interesting besides the superscreen to CF pairing is that almost everyone has the Driver Assistance Package which is essentially standard equipment on a current Hyundai or Kia. The fact that it's an "option" is kind of revolting and it's one way to make the starting MSRP seem lower than it really is.

Pinnacle trim is a very popular second option, which makes sense as it's a nice package and I wouldn't want a car of this caliber without HUD.

Soft Close and multicontour seats are also very popular, again it's more about luxury than sportiness for most people which makes sense. The fact that only 6.9% of the non E1 cars have the AMG sport buckets seats is extremely telling, it's literally the lowest uptake of any option offered on this car, those seats are just not comfortable nor make sense for almost anyone.

The fact that less than half (44%) choose the AMG Dynamic Plus option also shows that the E53 wagon is more of a luxury highway cruiser than a track rocket for most buyers. For me the biggest turn-off on that option is the Alcantara steering wheel. My Audi RS has it and it's a total pain to maintain, I will never get another car with it. I'm kind of shocked that 25% of the people choose the carbon fiber/dynamica steering wheel for $1k as an option but to each their own.

And only 1 out of 10 cars will choose the carbon fiber mirror covers for $1,200, that is just a ridiculously priced item and an ultimate want vs need for sure.

 

I have the Superscreen option in my E53, and I would definitely order it again. My wife is in the passenger seat 90% of the time and we clock almost 2000 miles per month, much of the time in unfamiliar areas. Therefore, we use the navigation system a lot. When I did not have the passenger screen in the EQS SUV, my wife would become very annoyed when she was using the navigation app and it was overridden by the backup camera view when I shifted into reverse.

 

I keep going back and forth about the AMG Dynamic Plus package for my order, does anyone have experience with the active vs passive motor mounts and the LSD vs no-LSD AMGs? I’ve never driven a car with them and am not sure if I should care or not. I tend to keep cars a long time (6-10 years on average) so I’d prefer long-term reliability over a small amount of perceived performance & complexity.

Also - can I specify high performance all-season vs summer tires for the 21’s? I forgot to ask about that and would prefer the all seasons in MA over summers just for the temperature changes.

My order is already close to loaded, another $3k won’t really change anything:

(Patagonia, Night Package (not plus), Tonga multi-contour seats, Grey illuminated wood dash & console, Pinnacle, Driver Assist, 21 inch black forged wheels + locks, soft close doors, usb, rear heated seats, rear side airbags)

 

You probably won't care for the motor mounts or the LSD, none are meant for the daily drive, they're more for the track, and lets face it, 99% of these cars will never see the track. From a reliabiltiy standpoint both of the features are more likely to fail than their standard counterparts, another minus for your use case.

You cannot spec all-season tires for the 21" wheels, summer performance only.

 

That's cute that you think your car is already loaded MSRP for this build is $113,260, the median price of an E53 is $113,922 so you're not even in the top 50% of builds, and this is for non E1 stats. If we account for all the E1 cars the Median jumps to $116,092

Here is the price distribution of the ~220 E53 wagons with and without the E1 cars in the mix.

 

Not only are AS tires unavailable as an option for the 21s…there are no really good AS options available for them aftermarket.

 

I have the Superscreen in my 24 E350. This car was an in-stock car and a good deal so i took it. I've had it since last december and noone in the passenger seat has used it for more than initial novelty purposes. On top of it not being used, it adds a massive amount of glare, and collects soooo much dust....and fingerprints. which is funny because ilke i said, noone uses it. I guess they just touch it for funsies. Between the superscreen and the piano black console, this car has been a nightmare to keep clean.

Needles to say, my E53 is coming without both.

 

This. My first E 53 had the Superscreen and carbon fiber. I built my replacement without both.

 

Thanks for the heads up.
Looks like there are good AS / Winter options on the 20's so will likely pick up a set of wheels for the winter and swap them out for the 21's with the summer tires in the spring.

 

I have it and do not find it very useful. I've been on several (5) long road trips of over 1000 miles round trip and my passenger never used it. It has been used, but more because it was new and people wanted to check it out. If my wife were more tech savvy and rode in it as the passenger more often, she likely would find more use for it. Having said that, I believe it looks better with the superscreen than without. It looks more like it was intentional design with one continuous piece of glass, but without it, the middle screen looks like an after thought. It looks good with the compass as the image and if I ever get the ability to put custom images (some already do) you can further make the car uniquely yours. I realize that many do not share my preference and feel the car looks better without it and that's fair. For me, it's my car and I like how it looks more with the superscreen even if it's not used very often.

 

Superscreen - I passed due to glare, lack of utility without savvy passengers, aesthetics (subjective). I got almost every other option, so cost was not a deterrent.

p.s. Almost everyone who has seen the interior at night has made a point to say how cool the illuminated AMG logo is on the passenger side. I guess if they loved screens they might feel that way about the Superscreen instead.

 

Love the illuminated AMG logo especially the strip patten which I initially thought was a projection!

 

Only 7.5% of the cars have the illuminated AMG logo as their choice for the dash.

If I only look at cars that don't have the superscreen package then the dash distribution is as follows:
AMG Carbon Fiber - 32.8%
Natural Grain Black Ash wood - 28.1%
AMG Illuminated Natural Grain Grey Ash wood - 20.3%
Natural Grain Brown Maple wood w/aluminum lines - 9.4%
Silver Metallic Mixed Fabric - 6.3%
MANUFAKTUR Black Piano Lacquer "Flowing Lines" wood - 3.1%

 

Not gonna lie, I'm a little bummed, as i thought at order time that the Black natural ash had the illuminated logo as well. It was too late to change when I realized it didn't.

 

Carbon fiber I understand since it's a sports car; however, what I don't understand is why dealers would prioritize the black ash wood over the illuminated AMG wood trim. Perhaps they want that all black look.

 

The Black Ash is the "default". Also, the illuminated Grey Ash actually costs extra in other markets so I'm sure MBUSA gets the car cheaper with the default trim.

BMUSA pricing is actually kind of weird on many things, items that are no cost here actually are a cost option in Europe like most of the metallic paint options. I'm not complaining, just stating that MBUSA surely figured out the pricing and they figured they can eat the cost of the options in other ways. It could also be that they are legit no price difference for the factory and other countries are charging extras for items that should not be extra. I can't tell from my vantage point which one it is.

Interestingly out of the 13 cars that I have inventoried with the Grey Ash Illuminated trim, 4 are Black Leather, 4 are Neva Grey and 5 are Tonka Brown so they're almost evenly distributed amongst interior colors which means they're actually more likely to be ordered with a non-black interior as the regular distribution of black/brown/grey interiors is closer to 49/22/29.

 

Curious is anyone else has thoughts on this, especially if anyone happens to have done back-to-back test drives both with and without the Dynamic Plus package. Does it just come down to launch control, so if you’re realistically never going to use that then it doesn’t make sense to get the package?

 

I rode in a car with the upgraded headliner and the 21 inch forged wheels earlier this week. To my surprise I liked the headliner more than expected, and actually disliked the ride on the 21’s so modified my order: I swapped the 21 inch wheels for the 20 inch twin 5-spoke, will all-seasons, added the headliner and also got the rear door sunshades.

 

I already have the headliner and side shades spec'd on my order and have the 21" wheels. I am riding on 21" wheels on my current car and I don't mind them but I'm a bit worried about the same for my wife. She really like the all black look for the 21" wheels and that is all she cares about. I'm not so sold that it's the best option for her, I may have a few more days/weeks to make a decision although my order was already accepted by the factory and scheduled build date of 1/28 so I may or may not have an option the change the wheels.

 

Not that i can do anything about it, but is the microfiber headliner noticeably different than the normal one? I've not seen one with it, so no clue how different it is and now I'm curious.

 

I have it in my current car. It's like fake suede, Audi calls it Alcantara, same material you get on the Dynamic package steering wheel. It looks classy and significantly nicer than the regular headliner material but I've had more card without it than with it so it's definitely not a deal breaker.

I'd rather spend the $1,600 on the headliner than $1,200 on the CF mirror covers for sure. I spend way more time on the inside of the car than the outside.