Hi everybody.


I'm a Lexus driver, a like to cruise with my car and having great time doing long road trips.


I'm here because I'm considering to purchase a Mercedes EV, EQS or EQS SUV, mainly because the upcoming Lexus EV does have a very poor range, and it doesn't suit my needs.
The EQS have plenty of range, and does have a superb interior and ride quality, but there is a thing that stops me from order the car, and it is the reliability.

Being a Lexus customer, I'm used to not have problems of any type. I do not take my car to repair shop, and meanwhile driving loaner car. Peace of mind.

I was told that I will be probably have a different experience if I purchase a Mercedes car, in my case, as I said, an EQS. Might be away for weeks due to some problems, and not just once. The thought of spending 150k € on a car, and then driving a loaner car and wait weeks for having my car back is a dealbreaker.
I also was told that Mercedes built in Europe are better, and since I live in Europe, it would be great if it is true.

I was also thinking that maybe the EV line-up is even more reliable due to the lack of engine.

I actually hope that is reliable and people are happy with them, that's why I'm here asking your direct experience with Mercedes and EQS. For instance, I do not understand why people still buying Range Rovers, they are at bottom of reliability rankings, perhaps these people have multiple cars.


Looking forward to hearing your experience.

 

This will be my 5th MB. Ive never have been stranded. My fist C class did have some teething issues. Only one required a non scheduled trip to the dealer (a 90 mile trip). The other 3 since have been great. MB has never been renowned for its great reliabilty but the fact is that most vehicles from any brand are pretty reliable now. Electric is an entirely new thing so regardless which brand you choose will be taking a chance. Electric cars require little maintenance but software is very important. Like all computers, most glitches just require a reboot but occasionally a towtruck might be required, like any other car. As others have pointed out this the most important car that MB has produced in decades. They have virtually bet the farm on the EQ platform. I think MB has put a lot of time on this car to get it right (fingers crossed)

 

Mercedes reliability or rather lack thereof is something that is in my opinion way overblown. There are certain models that have dragged them down as they were going more entry level like the A and CLA class. Also some of the SUVs don't seem to be built to the standard of the other models. The quality coming out of the USA plant was in the past certainly lacking, so that mostly affected the SUVs and the C Class sedans. The production of the latter is now in South Africa. I was new to the brand in 2019 and also read all the stories, but my AMG has been the least troublesome performance car I've owned so far. Mostly just regular maintenance. My previous cars had mechanical issues, were burning oil and spent overall weeks at the shop in between the regular services. With the AMG I had a few loose ends from the factory, but they were quickly taken care of. They were all either cosmetic or a software update. Mechanically the car is absolutely solid.

Having said that, as mentioned above, electric is new for everybody and there is no reliability data on the EQS. Just hasn't been around long enough. Pretty sure you can expect the first Lexus EV to not be as reliable, either. It's gonna take time. If you are from Europe, you might wanna watch the CarManiac YouTube channel. His videos are in German, though. He owns an EQS 580 and has had several issues and has shown that the build quality is currently not at the level of what we are used to from Mercedes. So take that for what it is.

His one video where he was kinda ripping Mercedes a new one made quite the rounds among the executives and caused quite a stir inside Mercedes. They seem to have gotten the message that they need to step up their game. His EQS has quite the list of issues. Panel gaps like a Tesla, same for the paint quality. Trim pieces that are too short and don't line up and a number of other issues. He also had to go to the shop several times for issues with the 12 Volt battery. Some of his build issues have been taken care of, and Mercedes actually offered to replace all the panels that don't line up and repaint the car to fix the paint issues, but he'd be out of the car for several weeks and therefore didn't take them up on the offer. So take this for what it is. The EQ models are brand new and the money has gone into the development and the battery technology just like with Tesla, so somewhere costs had to be cut to remain competitive with the ICE S Class in terms of price level.

 

Actually, why don't we just throw MB's pure electric vehicles aside for a moment... and back to ICE vehicles, first model year has a much higher chance to have issues compared to vehicles that have went through facelift or vehicles that are at near the end of that generation. Please don't get me wrong, I am not saying buying first model year vehicles will be guaranteed there will be issues but what I am saying is... there is a greater chance it will. It might take at least one or two model years from the initial release to fix and patch glitches and errors.

Now back to electric, as forum member superswiss and others mentioned, new architecture means more areas/rooms for error. Although there is a great amount of effort that was placed in the development and testing to ensure vehicles are without problems, which includes simulated real world testing, the keyword is simulated... Not until the vehicle is in the customer's hands is when they are able to identify issues that might only pop up when the vehicle is being used in a real world setting. Real word testing can also help MB identify what customers really want or need in their vehicle and as such they can review the positive or constructive feedback and use that to improve on their products. There is a saying that goes like this, "It is hard to understand something unless you actually experience it." Which means there are times when the customers might not really know what they need or want until they are able to experience the vehicle themselves. If they don't know what they need, they wouldn't note that down when responding to MB's surveys which MB will therefore never know that their customers need or wanted that.

Companies nowadays are throwing random things on the wall and see what sticks, to customers that find them useful they consider them as features and to customers that find them pointless they call them gimmicks. I guess everyone is unique after all and have preferences of their own, there is no one size that fits all.

 

The EQS580 with lots of options is the 3rd Merceds I have owned. The previous two were a 2014 S Class and a 2019 S Class. I had absolutely no issues with those 2. They were very reliable, awesome ICE vehicles. I’ve owned the EQS 580 for only 4 days and it’s heavenly. The comfort, technology, and safety features are second to none in my opinion. The range is over 400 miles in the summer months. I very much doubt this vehicle will be unreliable. But I’ll see what happens over the next several months of ownership.

 

This is for 5 y/o vehicles. Not too shabby. New Consumer Reports.

 

Are you sure you even want a BEV for long road trips?

 

Thanks everybody for the answers and feedbacks!

The suggestion of watching carmaniac channel was very useful, I watched all the problems that he had with the EQS, and considering that it is just the begging of the new EV era, this kind of problems are somehow expected. I decided that I will buy the EQE SUV when it will come out. I like it so badly, the top tier EV from mercedes, that I'm willing to give it a try. The comfort, the cozy and luxurious feeling inside the car, the super head up display, rear axle steering, these are the aspects for which I'll buy the car.

Does anybody know the cost for the maximum extended warranty for the EQS?

Yep

 

Don't buy it until your warranty is about to expire. What if you decide not to keep the car?

 

In general an electric car from a German OEM will be more reliable than an equivalent ICE. Even if it is the first attempt. The power train is inherently more simple and less likely to fail. The rest of the stuff is the same as the S Class.

Mine has been flawless. No trips to dealer. No screen blackout. No software crash.

The the perfect experience is very impressive and contrasts with my Tesla where the screen would crash from time to time and leave you without any instrumentation.

 

I would disagree with this. Just ask Audi e-tron owners. Numerous issues, including a recall for issues with moisture build-up in the electrical system that can cause it to short circuit. Things have been getting better in subsequent model years, but they still have a list of unresolved issues.

 

Agree, so does Porsche. I frequented both their forums before deciding to buy. It really boils down to trust. I have had multiple MB cars which have all been rock solid, and I trust the marque. That is why I bought. So far, knock on wood, that trust has been confirmed. However, I only have about 4500 miles on my EQS, so fingers are still crossed. There are warranties, but no guarantees of perfection.

 

7 years/75K is $6200 and 7/100 is $6600, I was told.

 

That is a ton of money. I paid around 3k for the extended warranty on my E43. Beware not all dealer sold extended warraties are through MB, watch out for gouging.

 

Yes, we'd paid the same ballpark for an E350, too.
Apparently, EQS is in the same classification with Maybach, in terms of the cost for extended warranty.

 

Which is ridiculous. The only expensive repair this vehicle might need is battery and that is warranted for 10 years. Again never buy an extended up front wait till the oem warranty is about to expire.

 

Well the battery is the most expensive, not the only expensive repair. I don't think the motors are cheap. I know the Air suspension is not cheap, maybe the price has decreased over the years but I know a few years ago it was quite expensive.

 

Regarding the reliability...
Been driving Tesla for 9 years. Hundreds of issues, but never stranded. Well, until the EQS 580... It failed today right on the highway. Rear wheels locked up while driving it, felt like a hit with the hammer from the back of the car. Luckily traffic was not fast, so car behind managed to escape rear ending me. Multiple tow tracks managed to pull the car on the flatbed dragging it on sleds. It took about 4 hours to get it done. Sucker is heavy.....
Funny that car was thinking that Charger cable was connected to the car
Two hours later the 12V discharged and car literally died. Jumper helped, but for a minute or two. Car consumes significant current from 12V subsystem, so small jumper is good for a very short tasks.
Removing the car from the tow track in the service is another story....
Diagnostic refused to connect, but it was the end of the day for the dealership. I guess it was tired... Will see what happens on Monday.
Error messages were cycling. Ranging from high voltage battery to suspension failures.

 

Sorry to hear about this.
Fortunate no rear-ending occurred.
This is very concerning .Please do post the outcomes.
By the way, I was at the dealership today and had them show me the towing preparation procedure, and it's so damn complicated.

 

I had an issue not as severe as your encounter. My car went into "Turtle Mode" after an EA charging event. After driving the car for 2 hours at 52 mph, I arrived at a dealer and a techie went through and we found the "System Reset" button. He stated it only reset personal settings. After sitting at the dealer for awhile, I tried system reset and I was cured.
Are you aware of "System Reset" and did you try it while waiting for the tow truck rescue?
If not, you might try it at the dealer or suggest it. This is a new car with very few knowledgeable techs since there is no experience background.
This is not an admonishment if you don't know where it is since we are all new and learning along the way on this vehicle.
As previously posted, please let us know the result of your fix.

 

Seems like system reset is a common problem, at least with another luxury brand where people actually have a soft and a hard reset.
When all else fails, I would give this a try. And you're absolutely right that even dealership staff are learning along with the customers, which really shouldn't be the case, given the price tag.

 

BTW in Consumer Reports 5 year reliability list, Mercedes was #5 of 23. It beat all German brands and almost all Japanese brand except Lexus,Totota, Infinity and Acura. A quite good showing indeed. Tesla was #16.

 

I had a conversation regarding the system reset a few weeks prior. While DC fast charging in Colorado (I picked up car in Kelowna BC and drove it to Toronto through USA. 5120km in 5 days) something happened which hanged the charging system. Cable stuck in the charger. I had a lengthy conversation with Mercedes trying to get any info how to reset the car. Like holding the multifunction buttons on the steering wheel in the tesla or home button in the polestar.
They said that "system reset" does not do anything expect erasing the user info. The only way is to connect the Star diagnostics and reset through there.
BTW : the roadside assistance proposed to send a two track and deliver the car to the dealership. I asked to send excavator as well to dig out the charger as well because car was tethered to the station
Long story short we found a solution by remembering a really old joke. What happens when software engineer car fails ? Software engineers exists and enters the car to start again. We are happen to be a software engineers.....
It actually helped. We exited the car, closed all windows and doors and let it go to sleep. 20 minutes later car was like new.
Older MBUX allows to reboot by pressing the star and tel keys. In EQS it is removed !!! I suspect it is done for a reason. They are trying to collect as much as possible bugs by sending car to diagnostics every time errors occur.

 

Excellent info!👍

 

So.... Here is an update. Just got back my car. Nothing was fixed. Issue disappeared after recharging the 12V battery. They tried reproducing it unsuccessfully. The good thing is before battery died service manager actually seen the problem. Dev team in Germany aware of the situation. They provided some updates for the modules that are involved in the circuit just in case. Disaster waiting to happen.......
NO HIGWAY DRIVING for now, I guess....