Hello all...I've been reading the message boards for the last year and finally traded in my '02 C32 for an '08 GL450 (life came at me fast over the last 6 years...w/ wonderful wife and 2 great kids now). I just wanted to thank all the "contributors" for shedding some light on the GL and sharing your experiences. My family and I love our new car!

 

I`m sure you will love it as I do with my new one. What color/ options did you get? Mine is capri blue, rear cam, video monitors, off road pkg. 19" wheel option.

 

Keep going at the same pace OC BENZ. With the new GL the road will smile and safe is allways present.
Enjoy.

 

anmhi...I just have an obsidian blk/blk interior w/ premium II, rear DVD, IPOD, and trailer hitch...std wheels. I used Autoland, through my credit union, to buy my car at invoice...didn't have to go into the dealer and haggle (and get ripped off) for hours. The car was delivered to my credit union too.

 

Congratulations!

Just picked up the ob blk/blk yesterday...550 though. LOVE it. Nice to be back in a sport ute after a brief detour into sport sedan and mini van land.

As far as no haggling, I can't recommend Costco's auto buying program enough. We've bought 3 vehicles this way and it's the easiest ever. Usually unbeatable prices, too!

 

Welcome aboard, OC Benz. Where in OC are you located? And having 2 kids myself, I can tell you that GL makes a great kid hauler especially with the rear DVD.

Post some pics.

 

Welcome to the forum as an "official" Newbie OC Benz. Glad to have you aboard and congrats on your new 450.

Best Wishes!

 

One more thing, I don't know how long you've had your new GL, but I'm wondering how the black interior is doing with your 2 kids?

 

Congratz on your new GL! I used Autoland as well back in April when I bought my GL. I got a great deal as well.

 

oknish,

I live in Northern Orange County. I'm hoping the rear DVD = many quieter trips, especially if they're extended. I'll try to get the car washed and waxed later this week, since there was drizzle yesterday, before taking pics. My wife said the obsidian black on the GL didn't look as metallic as the same obsidian black on my C32...

 

I just p/u my GL yesterday morning...Today, the interior was rather warm after parking the car outside in the sun. Thank goodness for the A/C...I love that too. My older child loves the rear DVD and A/C as well as the interior room (can't really compare the C32's tight quarters).

 

I am assuming you asked me the question but if you didn't, oh well, here is my answer anyways

I have had mine for close to a year now and I have been happy with Black interior. Don't get me wrong Mac and Ash are just gorgeous but, IMO, Black takes the kiddie abuse well. No scuff marks, stains, etc. You do see dirt but it's not that bad. I would recommend black to anyone with kids. It's lower maintenance.

 

Thanks, OC Benz, for sharing your location. We may have to do another So Cal GL meet with all these 550s

You will love the rear DVD especially since two kids can watch 2 independent sources at the same time. Does wonder for your blood pressure on long trips when my young one wants to watch Baby Einstein and older one wants to watch Ninja Turtles.

 

I had black interior on my previous car...just gotta keep cleaning the interior w/ kids but they're both pretty good, so not many problems. My co-workers didn't realize that my previous car was the kids' shuttle since I worked hard at cleaning the inside.

 

Get a good sunshade and you will notice the difference. I am up in Chatsworth and this whole summer not once did I feel the car to be too hot. Here is one link that I have which is custom made for GL. When not in use, it fits in perfectly between the passenger seat and the center console.

 

With black interior, all the cleaning it needs is vaccuming every 2 weeks or so and seat cleaning every 2 months or so.

 

I didn`t know you could have 2 independent sources for the dvd as mine has only one dvd place under the rear seat. I must admit I have not read the huge manual on the rear entertainment, but the remote also looks like a cell phone when you open it up. Any comments appreciated.
John

 

How much was the GL shade? The link requires an order before you get a price.

 

You only have 1 DVD drive under the rear seat but it also has 2 independent inputs which can be used for plugging in any 2 sources of your choice such as another portable DVD Player, game console, etc. Read the manual and you will be amazed at what you can do.

 

The shade is $50. You just have to select Year, Make and Model for it to display the price.

 

Last question on shades: Why the after market rather than the MB UVS-100TM Sunshade? Is it thinner once folded?

 

Thanks for the info I just started reading the manual which should take me into christmas lol
John

 

Didn't knew that MB made a UV filtering shade. Plus I have had really great experiences with Autosportscatalog and their products so just went with them.

 

anmhi - here is what oknish found for me on this site from Danno4x4 on the rear DVD and entire system...very helpful!

Originally Posted by Danno4x4 View Post
A lot of folks are frustrated with the fact that the RSE uses wired headphones instead of wireless... They ask themselved "why on earth would MZB do this, my Caddy/Lincoln/Lexus/Yukon had wireless headphones?

I was also asking this question... Until I got in the back seat and really started playing with the system.

There are effectively up to 4 different entertainment systems in the vehicle... Meaning that 4 people could be listening to different things all at the same time. I think that if the system had wireless headphones instead of wired, there would not be as many options...

Here is the scenario that we tested on our last road trip...

1.) My daughter was in one of the back seats with her headphones plugged into the monitor on the back of the passenger side seat. She was happily watching Finding Nemo which was playing on the RSE DVD player below her feet.

2.) My son was in the other back seat with his headphones plugged into the monitor on the back of the driver's side seat. He was happily watching Cars which was playing on the Portable DVD player which was plugged into the Aux Input ports on the RSE DVD player below the passenger side 2nd row.

3.) There are two additional headphone jacks and volume attenuators located in the back of the center storage console between the driver and passenger (where the Rear Controls are located for the 3 zone Climate Control) Using the Comand system you can pump either the single CD, the Multi Disk CD, the Satellite Radio, or the AM/FM Radio through these headphone jacks. So in our scenario, my wife, who was sitting in the front passenger seat was listening to her Gwen Stefani CD playing on the single CD player behind the Comand Screen through her headphone plugged into the one of these headphone jacks...

4.) Meanwhile, I was driving and I was listening to my iPod plugged into the iPod Integration kit through the main vehicle speakers... I could have listened to any of the unused sources including the CD changer, the Satellite radio and the AM/FM radio.

All this and there was still one unused headphone jack in the center storage console which could have been used to listen to the Gwen Stefani CD that my wife was listening to...

All of the different sources have separate volume controls....

Now I have never used the Entertainment System in the Caddy/Lincoln/Lexus/Yukon, but something tells me that they are not nearly this versatile.

In my mind, this is advantage Mercedes and I don't mind having the headphones wired. If I really need or want wireless headphones, I can get aftermarket transmitters to plug into the headphone jacks...

Just my .02 cents

 

[Many thanks for that helpful information, it really clears it up nicely.
John QUOTE=BJ021;2478504]anmhi - here is what oknish found for me on this site from Danno4x4 on the rear DVD and entire system...very helpful!

Originally Posted by Danno4x4 View Post
A lot of folks are frustrated with the fact that the RSE uses wired headphones instead of wireless... They ask themselved "why on earth would MZB do this, my Caddy/Lincoln/Lexus/Yukon had wireless headphones?

I was also asking this question... Until I got in the back seat and really started playing with the system.

There are effectively up to 4 different entertainment systems in the vehicle... Meaning that 4 people could be listening to different things all at the same time. I think that if the system had wireless headphones instead of wired, there would not be as many options...

Here is the scenario that we tested on our last road trip...

1.) My daughter was in one of the back seats with her headphones plugged into the monitor on the back of the passenger side seat. She was happily watching Finding Nemo which was playing on the RSE DVD player below her feet.

2.) My son was in the other back seat with his headphones plugged into the monitor on the back of the driver's side seat. He was happily watching Cars which was playing on the Portable DVD player which was plugged into the Aux Input ports on the RSE DVD player below the passenger side 2nd row.

3.) There are two additional headphone jacks and volume attenuators located in the back of the center storage console between the driver and passenger (where the Rear Controls are located for the 3 zone Climate Control) Using the Comand system you can pump either the single CD, the Multi Disk CD, the Satellite Radio, or the AM/FM Radio through these headphone jacks. So in our scenario, my wife, who was sitting in the front passenger seat was listening to her Gwen Stefani CD playing on the single CD player behind the Comand Screen through her headphone plugged into the one of these headphone jacks...

4.) Meanwhile, I was driving and I was listening to my iPod plugged into the iPod Integration kit through the main vehicle speakers... I could have listened to any of the unused sources including the CD changer, the Satellite radio and the AM/FM radio.

All this and there was still one unused headphone jack in the center storage console which could have been used to listen to the Gwen Stefani CD that my wife was listening to...

All of the different sources have separate volume controls....

Now I have never used the Entertainment System in the Caddy/Lincoln/Lexus/Yukon, but something tells me that they are not nearly this versatile.

In my mind, this is advantage Mercedes and I don't mind having the headphones wired. If I really need or want wireless headphones, I can get aftermarket transmitters to plug into the headphone jacks...

Just my .02 cents[/QUOTE]