it’s an odd way to spend time. There are essentially two potential outcomes:
1. other people ageee with you, thus validating a consumer decision you made. Congratulations.
2. Other people disagree with you, thus resulting in you thinking they must be wrong.
really no upside either way.

 

LOL. Talk about odd ways!

 

Yup : ) https://www.mercedes-benz.com.hk/en/...ency-unlocking

 

Totally agree. Mercedes has lost it.

 

you left off headlights that project a logo and require an annual fee.

 

Good point.

 

Just touch the retractable handle and swipe toward the front of the car, the the handle will pop out

 

As long as the system works.....Why replace something that was realiable and worked well with something that is less reliable and can be very expensive to repair?

 

Why doesn't matter. They did it. Don't buy a car with them. Problem solved.

 

sometimes it’s just fun to talk about these things. It’s literally the point of groups like this. comments like this are as not helpful as they are annoying.

 

I get that, but this subforum in particular seems to collect a lot of people that don't even own these cars and have no intention of buying one that like to come in and bring up the same complaints about cars they don't own over and over. That's what *I* find annoying.

If that is indeed the point of this forum, rather than folks that own the cars and want to share info and learn more about them.....groovy. Enjoy.

 

You can say that about lots of things in any car. I used to hear it all the time about automatic transmission, power steering, power windows, power seats. The radio in my childhood friend’s VW never broke down because it didn’t have one. No A/C either - just crank open the window. A/C is expensive to buy and to repair. What’s the point of a sunroof to get you from here to there? Solid roofs are more reliable 😯 and don’t eat headroom. We didn’t have wheel insurance before alloy wheels became popular. When introduced, navigation was a $2000 map that was always “recalculating.” Friends used to tell me “you don’t need all wheel drive, it’s stupid.” Now we have rear wheel steering. I could go on and on or transition into talking about a bottomless supply of other technical consumer goods that have followed the same trend. Bazooka bubble gum used to cost a penny. Now we stopped making the penny. 😱.

 

That elmalo guy did the same thing in the W223 S Class forum. Super bizarre. Sometimes people who drive old cars and thats all they can have spend their energy convinving themselves that they're driving that old car because really the new ones are lousy! The fact that its all he can afford is just a happy coincidence lol

As to your door handles, I have these handles on my S580, I have an E350 loaner right now and I can tell you...your handles are superior!

 

Never thought I'd see handle envy from an S Class owner.

 

I guess I wouldn't be surprised because the W223 came out before the W214 so there was time to perfect things on the latter.

 

Well stated. People resisted the first cars because they couldn't go as far as a horse and weren't as reliable as a horse. You could feed a horse hay. Where are you going to get fuel to put in an automobile? Then Bertha Benz drove a long distance of 65 miles and the automobile seemed possible. I do remember people saying that power windows, seats and steering were things that would break and be expensive to fix.

I do miss the days when road hazard insurance for tires and wheels didn't exist. I didn't have problems with alloy wheels in the 90's and 2000's. The problems started for me in the 2010's with large alloy wheels and low-profile tires. If I lived in Texas where the roads are perfect, the change to low profile tires wouldn't matter. In the Northeast, low profile tires don't seem like progress.

My first GPS had a monochrome grey screen that was about two inches by two inches. It couldn't speak. It would beep before a turn. When travelling, I had to upload the maps before leaving. The GPS unit was primitive compared to today, but everyone who saw it was immediately amazed. GPS is one of those technologies that seems like magic. I sold the GPS for $200. It was like a museum of technology piece to the person that bought it because the technology progressed so rapidly. I do remember the $2000 built-in GPS units that were always "recalculating." Having a GPS unit with an antenna built-in to the car was cool. My portable unit couldn't always find a satellites. After flying across the country, the portable unit spent minutes upon minutes just to find satellites. The first version of Apple Maps would get hopelessly confused as the LTE signal was lost. Now Apple Maps picks my destination from the calendar and never gets confused. Technology moves forward with us or without us.

A CEO at one of the companies I worked at would say "Change is inevitable and with change comes opportunity."

 

Yeah. I'm just kidding. But part of what makes it funny to me is that "handle envy" is even possible when the non-extendable handles work just fine. The S-class usually gets the technology first and the technology gets refined over time.

I don't have much experience with the handles on the 2026 E yet, but thus far they seem better at extending than the 2024/2025 handles of the E450's I test drove. Maybe the handle software has been improved. I find it easiest to extend them by touching the "lock" recessed area. But when everyone has their personal favorite "handle technique" and we start talking about software improvements to the door handles, I would be fine with the tried-and-true Mercedes pull handles.

 

That is good news as that means they figured it out. I understand they aren't going anywhere (as in going back to traditional handles) but at least if they made it work most of the time then it is better than doing nothing.

 

I agree. the handles on my 26 are way less wishy-washy about opening/closing than the ones on the previous 24 E350.

 

posting this video again because it’s disingenuous for people to keep telling others the wrong way to use these doorhandles.

Swiping is for dating apps and phones and other LCD screen set ups, but it is not for these door handles. Every single YouTuber is just repeating the same old ignorant unsupported BS with swiping and every single person that hasn’t read the manual keeps repeating this BS ultimately making people have a harder time using this technology.

Follow the directions…

https://www.mercedes-benz-mena.com/i...-door-handles/

 

the “wishy-washy” I’m talking about has nothing to do with touching the handle. I’m talking about when you get into range of the car for the first time of the day…the 24 e350 was very random on whether the handle would come out automatically. The 25 e53 is much more consistent. Both cars work just fine if you touch the handle.

 

The first time I saw the retractable handles was while looking at new MBs in the showroom and my wife was staring at the handles trying to figure out how to get in the car. The floor salesman rushed over and told her to just “swipe” her fingers over the handle.
I guess he hadn’t seen the link above either. 😁

 

If the change results in a worse product than the one it replaced iut will be a disaster. The retractable door handles don't open or close the door any better than the previous version, but are more complicated and less reliable. Just another dumb idea.

The same can be said for low profile tires. Maybe OK on a racetrack (although no longer used by Formula1) but for daily driving? Never. Less comfortable and easily damaged by potholes.

Touch screens is another dumb idea. Much more distracting than texting. I was reading that MB is re-introduciung mechanical switches for critical functions following an EU ruling.

There is more....but so what.

 

Didn’t think it needed to be said, but retractable door handles industry wide are to reduce aerodynamic drag coefficient. They serve a purpose and are not just a gimmick.

I’ve only had the E53 a couple weeks, but no problems at all with them…or on a Porsche we also have with them.

 

I'm an aeronautical engineer. The effect on total drag of door handles is negligible. If drag were an issue then standard mechanical door handles could be redesigned so that they are flush with the door.