My new GL350 - the good the bad...
04-18-2011, 11:34 PM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
My new GL350 - the good the bad...
Just took delivery last week of a new 2011 GL350 - Paladium Silver w/ Black MB Tex interior.
For the first tank of fuel I averaged about 28 MPG - pretty amazing compared to my old Grand Cherokee which was smaller and average about 16.
The truck rides and handles well, and its smooth and quiet. Not as much power as the 4.7 in my old jeep, but more than adequate. Wife likes both the look and the ride of the truck which are both hugely important. Fit and finish as delivered is solid. Really like the blind spot sensors and they seem to work well. Also like the feel of the wood steering wheel.
On the bad side -
It's already developed a gremlin in which the "parking break on" warning comes on about every five starts. Of course I've never touched the parking break.
The parktronic sensors are not so far very impressive. It's also very difficult to see the display for the rear sensors which is back by the third row on the roof. When you look in the mirror it's very difficult to see the little indicator lights way in the back of the truck.
The comand and entertainment system is by far my least favorite feature. It just feels very 2005. My $200 android phone puts the user interface to shame, the NAV system is really dated compared to Google maps, the live traffic has been wrong about 50% of the time, the fact that it is not a touch screen is pretty lame. I find the icons on the nav system to be annoying and cluttered, and the live traffic feels like a bolt on - for instance the routing doesn't take traffic into account and doesn't reroute when traffic changes. Again fine for 2005 but not for 2011.
A 4GB internal drive is also pretty ridiculous, and I imagine leads to the limitations about how many contacts you can sync with the system - 128 GB of flash memory only costs about $100 and you can get a terabyte laptop hard drive for less than $100 - why the heck would anyone stay with something so small in a unit so expensive.
I've plugged a 32GB SD Card into the SD memory slot - you quickly see the user interface is poorly designed to handle the 10,000 or so songs that will fit on this size of a card.
In terms of phone integration, the unit will only sync up to 1000 contacts. My droid has about three times that many - so I only got up to the L's in terms of which people the system knows about. It also does not seem to sync addresses - just phone numbers - which again says poor integration between the phone subsystem and the nav subsystem.
I've also not figured out how to stream audio to the unit via bluetooth - I assume it doesn't support this and it's another thing that should be built in.
It was almost funny - when I went to pick up the truck the salesman said "bring in some of your favorite CDs to test out the system." - I've not owned or touched a CD in about 10 years. Maybe they are just targeting a different demographic than me.
On the good side, at least the dealer is going to send me the USB cable at no charge - I don't own an iphone so the included cables were not particularly useful. I told him I thought it was a huge ripoff for them not to include a basic $5 cable and then to try to charge $60 for it.
All in all happy and this is a great truck, but boy is Mercedes behind when it comes to the entertainment / nav department.
If I've mischaracterized any of the functionality of the entertainment system please let me know - I've only been exploring it for a week.
For the first tank of fuel I averaged about 28 MPG - pretty amazing compared to my old Grand Cherokee which was smaller and average about 16.
The truck rides and handles well, and its smooth and quiet. Not as much power as the 4.7 in my old jeep, but more than adequate. Wife likes both the look and the ride of the truck which are both hugely important. Fit and finish as delivered is solid. Really like the blind spot sensors and they seem to work well. Also like the feel of the wood steering wheel.
On the bad side -
It's already developed a gremlin in which the "parking break on" warning comes on about every five starts. Of course I've never touched the parking break.
The parktronic sensors are not so far very impressive. It's also very difficult to see the display for the rear sensors which is back by the third row on the roof. When you look in the mirror it's very difficult to see the little indicator lights way in the back of the truck.
The comand and entertainment system is by far my least favorite feature. It just feels very 2005. My $200 android phone puts the user interface to shame, the NAV system is really dated compared to Google maps, the live traffic has been wrong about 50% of the time, the fact that it is not a touch screen is pretty lame. I find the icons on the nav system to be annoying and cluttered, and the live traffic feels like a bolt on - for instance the routing doesn't take traffic into account and doesn't reroute when traffic changes. Again fine for 2005 but not for 2011.
A 4GB internal drive is also pretty ridiculous, and I imagine leads to the limitations about how many contacts you can sync with the system - 128 GB of flash memory only costs about $100 and you can get a terabyte laptop hard drive for less than $100 - why the heck would anyone stay with something so small in a unit so expensive.
I've plugged a 32GB SD Card into the SD memory slot - you quickly see the user interface is poorly designed to handle the 10,000 or so songs that will fit on this size of a card.
In terms of phone integration, the unit will only sync up to 1000 contacts. My droid has about three times that many - so I only got up to the L's in terms of which people the system knows about. It also does not seem to sync addresses - just phone numbers - which again says poor integration between the phone subsystem and the nav subsystem.
I've also not figured out how to stream audio to the unit via bluetooth - I assume it doesn't support this and it's another thing that should be built in.
It was almost funny - when I went to pick up the truck the salesman said "bring in some of your favorite CDs to test out the system." - I've not owned or touched a CD in about 10 years. Maybe they are just targeting a different demographic than me.
On the good side, at least the dealer is going to send me the USB cable at no charge - I don't own an iphone so the included cables were not particularly useful. I told him I thought it was a huge ripoff for them not to include a basic $5 cable and then to try to charge $60 for it.
All in all happy and this is a great truck, but boy is Mercedes behind when it comes to the entertainment / nav department.
If I've mischaracterized any of the functionality of the entertainment system please let me know - I've only been exploring it for a week.
04-19-2011, 01:56 AM
#2
MBWorld Fanatic!
No, you're right the COMAND system is pretty atrocious. I would not pay for the HDD audio system when I can get nearly the same functionality out of plugging in my Ipod.
CD's? What are those?;-)
CD's? What are those?;-)
04-19-2011, 02:31 AM
#3
MBWorld Fanatic!
I'm using 150G IPod for music, but it was never even 50% loaded.
I agree about Parktronic. My X5's parktronic was more understandable for me, but overall I like GL much more.
The average for first 500 miles is about 19mpg and it's 50/50 NYC/highway. The only complain - my wife doesn't let me drive that thing
)
04-19-2011, 09:38 AM
#4
Super Member
Just took delivery last week of a new 2011 GL350 - Paladium Silver w/ Black MB Tex interior.
For the first tank of fuel I averaged about 28 MPG - pretty amazing compared to my old Grand Cherokee which was smaller and average about 16.
The truck rides and handles well, and its smooth and quiet. Not as much power as the 4.7 in my old jeep, but more than adequate. Wife likes both the look and the ride of the truck which are both hugely important. Fit and finish as delivered is solid. Really like the blind spot sensors and they seem to work well. Also like the feel of the wood steering wheel.
On the bad side -
It's already developed a gremlin in which the "parking break on" warning comes on about every five starts. Of course I've never touched the parking break.
The parktronic sensors are not so far very impressive. It's also very difficult to see the display for the rear sensors which is back by the third row on the roof. When you look in the mirror it's very difficult to see the little indicator lights way in the back of the truck.
The comand and entertainment system is by far my least favorite feature. It just feels very 2005. My $200 android phone puts the user interface to shame, the NAV system is really dated compared to Google maps, the live traffic has been wrong about 50% of the time, the fact that it is not a touch screen is pretty lame. I find the icons on the nav system to be annoying and cluttered, and the live traffic feels like a bolt on - for instance the routing doesn't take traffic into account and doesn't reroute when traffic changes. Again fine for 2005 but not for 2011.
A 4GB internal drive is also pretty ridiculous, and I imagine leads to the limitations about how many contacts you can sync with the system - 128 GB of flash memory only costs about $100 and you can get a terabyte laptop hard drive for less than $100 - why the heck would anyone stay with something so small in a unit so expensive.
I've plugged a 32GB SD Card into the SD memory slot - you quickly see the user interface is poorly designed to handle the 10,000 or so songs that will fit on this size of a card.
In terms of phone integration, the unit will only sync up to 1000 contacts. My droid has about three times that many - so I only got up to the L's in terms of which people the system knows about. It also does not seem to sync addresses - just phone numbers - which again says poor integration between the phone subsystem and the nav subsystem.
I've also not figured out how to stream audio to the unit via bluetooth - I assume it doesn't support this and it's another thing that should be built in.
It was almost funny - when I went to pick up the truck the salesman said "bring in some of your favorite CDs to test out the system." - I've not owned or touched a CD in about 10 years. Maybe they are just targeting a different demographic than me.
On the good side, at least the dealer is going to send me the USB cable at no charge - I don't own an iphone so the included cables were not particularly useful. I told him I thought it was a huge ripoff for them not to include a basic $5 cable and then to try to charge $60 for it.
All in all happy and this is a great truck, but boy is Mercedes behind when it comes to the entertainment / nav department.
If I've mischaracterized any of the functionality of the entertainment system please let me know - I've only been exploring it for a week.
For the first tank of fuel I averaged about 28 MPG - pretty amazing compared to my old Grand Cherokee which was smaller and average about 16.
The truck rides and handles well, and its smooth and quiet. Not as much power as the 4.7 in my old jeep, but more than adequate. Wife likes both the look and the ride of the truck which are both hugely important. Fit and finish as delivered is solid. Really like the blind spot sensors and they seem to work well. Also like the feel of the wood steering wheel.
On the bad side -
It's already developed a gremlin in which the "parking break on" warning comes on about every five starts. Of course I've never touched the parking break.
The parktronic sensors are not so far very impressive. It's also very difficult to see the display for the rear sensors which is back by the third row on the roof. When you look in the mirror it's very difficult to see the little indicator lights way in the back of the truck.
The comand and entertainment system is by far my least favorite feature. It just feels very 2005. My $200 android phone puts the user interface to shame, the NAV system is really dated compared to Google maps, the live traffic has been wrong about 50% of the time, the fact that it is not a touch screen is pretty lame. I find the icons on the nav system to be annoying and cluttered, and the live traffic feels like a bolt on - for instance the routing doesn't take traffic into account and doesn't reroute when traffic changes. Again fine for 2005 but not for 2011.
A 4GB internal drive is also pretty ridiculous, and I imagine leads to the limitations about how many contacts you can sync with the system - 128 GB of flash memory only costs about $100 and you can get a terabyte laptop hard drive for less than $100 - why the heck would anyone stay with something so small in a unit so expensive.
I've plugged a 32GB SD Card into the SD memory slot - you quickly see the user interface is poorly designed to handle the 10,000 or so songs that will fit on this size of a card.
In terms of phone integration, the unit will only sync up to 1000 contacts. My droid has about three times that many - so I only got up to the L's in terms of which people the system knows about. It also does not seem to sync addresses - just phone numbers - which again says poor integration between the phone subsystem and the nav subsystem.
I've also not figured out how to stream audio to the unit via bluetooth - I assume it doesn't support this and it's another thing that should be built in.
It was almost funny - when I went to pick up the truck the salesman said "bring in some of your favorite CDs to test out the system." - I've not owned or touched a CD in about 10 years. Maybe they are just targeting a different demographic than me.
On the good side, at least the dealer is going to send me the USB cable at no charge - I don't own an iphone so the included cables were not particularly useful. I told him I thought it was a huge ripoff for them not to include a basic $5 cable and then to try to charge $60 for it.
All in all happy and this is a great truck, but boy is Mercedes behind when it comes to the entertainment / nav department.
If I've mischaracterized any of the functionality of the entertainment system please let me know - I've only been exploring it for a week.
As to Parktronic, i've always used the loud beeps more than the lights in the rear anyway...
For bluetooth streaming, you can purchase the Media Interface Plus for $298. It's almost plug and play, and offers a couple extra features. After all, bluetooth streaming audio is pretty new...
Enjoy the GL, it's an awesome vehicle!
04-19-2011, 02:39 PM
#5
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Where is this slot located ? I know location of that thing in my E-class, but could not find it in GL and have not had time yet to read the book.
I'm using 150G IPod for music, but it was never even 50% loaded.
I agree about Parktronic. My X5's parktronic was more understandable for me, but overall I like GL much more.
The average for first 500 miles is about 19mpg and it's 50/50 NYC/highway. The only complain - my wife doesn't let me drive that thing)
I'm using 150G IPod for music, but it was never even 50% loaded.
I agree about Parktronic. My X5's parktronic was more understandable for me, but overall I like GL much more.
The average for first 500 miles is about 19mpg and it's 50/50 NYC/highway. The only complain - my wife doesn't let me drive that thing
) I had another fairly bad first time owner experience this morning - I pushed the little i button to see what the mbrace system would do for me. It connected me automatically to a woman who tried very hard sell me a $500 subscription. I said why would I want to commit to a multi-year subscription when I've never tried the service out, and why are you trying so hard to sell me something when I just plunked down a whole bunch of money to buy a new truck. She was unwilling to just turn on the trial that was supposed to come with the truck. I called the Mercedes 800 number to ask them to help just turn on the trial so I could see how it works. Another bad customer service - they said sorry it's another company and you have to talk with them. I said - hey wait a minute - it's Mercedes mbrace - your brand is all over it - why is your company except when there is a problem.
What I learned after all of this is that the dealer should have just activated it in the first place. I just don't like all the hands out so quickly after purchase - it's an expensive truck and already sirius wants their piece and hughes telematics (the firm behind mbrace) wants theirs too.
04-19-2011, 02:48 PM
#6
Senior Member
What I learned after all of this is that the dealer should have just activated it in the first place. I just don't like all the hands out so quickly after purchase - it's an expensive truck and already sirius wants their piece and hughes telematics (the firm behind mbrace) wants theirs too.
- Mark
04-19-2011, 03:01 PM
#7
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Yes - but it was much the same story - they are trying to lock you in to their service for the long term - when I called to activate Sirius their rep wanted to sell me a 2 or 3 year subscription. Where that experience was better than mbrace is they didn't require a credit card to activate the initial six months, nor would they charge you for a full year if you forgot to cancel in time if you didn't like it.
I know why they are both trying to do this, I just don't love experiencing such a hard sell as the very first thing that happens as part of my new customer experience. I should love their service and want to subscribe when the trial ends - not be hard sold on a multi-year subscription on the very first contact with them.
I work in a subscription based business (a cloud computing company) so perhaps I'm particularly attuned to this - you have sales lead with multi-year lock-ins when you have a retention / churn problem, which is generally indicative of poor or overpriced service.
I know why they are both trying to do this, I just don't love experiencing such a hard sell as the very first thing that happens as part of my new customer experience. I should love their service and want to subscribe when the trial ends - not be hard sold on a multi-year subscription on the very first contact with them.
I work in a subscription based business (a cloud computing company) so perhaps I'm particularly attuned to this - you have sales lead with multi-year lock-ins when you have a retention / churn problem, which is generally indicative of poor or overpriced service.
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04-19-2011, 03:05 PM
#8
Senior Member
Yes - but it was much the same story - they are trying to lock you in to their service for the long term - when I called to activate Sirius their rep wanted to sell me a 2 or 3 year subscription. Where that experience was better than mbrace is they didn't require a credit card to activate the initial six months, nor would they charge you for a full year if you forgot to cancel in time if you didn't like it.
BTW, as you guessed, your dealer did a crappy job at delivery. All that stuff should have been taken care of.
- Mark
04-19-2011, 03:30 PM
#9
MBWorld Fanatic!
)
04-19-2011, 05:46 PM
#10
That's interesting. I currently have Teleaid and Mbrace is offering a $299 lifetime subscription if I convert ASAP. The problem is, they need about 2.5 hours at the dealership (per my dealership) to do the software upgrade and that is about 2.5 hours longer than I'm willing to give them to do it. I have 5000 miles until my next service and that would be the only time I would be willing to bring my car in.
04-19-2011, 05:57 PM
#11
MBWorld Fanatic!
04-19-2011, 08:00 PM
#12
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2015 Ram 2500, former 2013 GL350, 2007 GL450
Too each his own I guess. When I got my ML the dealer activated Sirius for me. I then saw in these forums that deals are had (sometimes more than half off normal rates) when you activate for the first time, so I told the dealer to let me activate and when I did got a 2 year activation on my GL for cheap.
04-19-2011, 08:24 PM
#13
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Too each his own I guess. When I got my ML the dealer activated Sirius for me. I then saw in these forums that deals are had (sometimes more than half off normal rates) when you activate for the first time, so I told the dealer to let me activate and when I did got a 2 year activation on my GL for cheap.
04-19-2011, 11:19 PM
#14
Senior Member
I was a long time XM customer - for years they have had a deal for a one year subscription for $77 per year per - that you can get for just asking for it / being aware that it exists. You can google for "$77 XM per year" to see the process. I've had the $77 rate for at least 5 years, which seems reasonable to me.
I am guessing that you can now get the same type of deal for the Sirius radio since they are now merged.
- Mark
04-20-2011, 06:30 PM
#15
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2011 GL350 Bluetech, 2000 Porsche 911 C2, 2005 Honda S2000
I have a 2011 GL 350. It's nowhere near perfect (not sure what is) but it does do a lot of things better than my 2007 7-series. The nav system is much more user friendly as are most of the other controls. Steering is actually not bad at all for a car this size. The ride is quiet and there's plenty of space. However, the base sound system is one of the worst I've ever heard (so I changed out all the speakers and now it sounds decent) and I'm surprised there was no option for rear auto sunshades for a car in this price range (although none of the other luxury SUVs seemed to have this either). The SD slot is nice and I agree about the issue when it's loaded up a lot of songs. Folders help but it's still a bit tedious. At the same time, I'm not aware of other cars that have this feature. Hooking up my iPhone when I picked up the car was a pain. Wasn't straightforward and had to download the latest iPhone SW.
Overall, however, very pleased with the truck.
Overall, however, very pleased with the truck.
