amarinsa

Just picked up wifes new gl450 last week. this monday rear door wont close. problem with the drivers side, passenger rear door soft close latch. Car has been at the dealer 5 days and now they tell me part is not available and will get an update next tuesday. The part will have to come with germany so looking at 1 week more possibly 2 weeks. First time MB owner and highly dissapointed with a new car with paper plates still on it to be in service for possibly 3 weeks or more.

2013 Suv of the year!!! no parts available.

is this commun for MB not a good way to start off!!

dealer tells me might be a redesign on the part.

is this common for MB

aeggroup

Do not panic. You got a brand new model, which is on the market for 1 month and of course dealer has no parts in stuck. It can happen with any brand. On top of it - anyone knows - if you getting first model year car you can expect some kind of issues along the way, which will be fixed by dealer.

Mbenz260e

Sorry to hear about that, definitely bad luck. Quirks that come with a new model I suppose.

blittle

Yeah..... I always said I will not buy a new model BUT...bought the first GL in 2007 and here I go again with the 13! I guess its the desire to enjoy the new technology NOW instead of later! Somebody's gotta be first...right?

JimBarnhart

I tend to agree with the others. Having a new model year of a new design (X166 vs X164) will come with being part of the field debug team. Hopefully your dealer will treat you nice with good temporary vehicles, etc.

Sarsharmo

Have mine for 45 days and same thing happened Saturday !!.
There is also a bulltin for the Raditore hose . mine says Check coolent level !!

blittle

Maybe there will be some benefit to not getting mine until MARCH!

Wildwesgl

I got my new GL450 last Oct 18. It has 2K miles accumulated, and so far no problem with it. Please update us with your rear door latch problem.

sti-tom

This just happened to us tonight. The rear passenger side door will not stay shut. The wife was heading out to a dinner party, I had to load her and the 3 kids up in my Subaru and drop her off. We are not happy after dumping close to $90k on this and now having an undriveable vehicle which sounds like it could take weeks to fix, especially the week before Christmas. We also have a very slow window in the same door, plus we keep getting warnings saying the the rear seat is not latched properly even though it clearly is. New model redesign shouldn't be a valid excuse for Mercedes. I got my GTR the first month they came out in Canada (Aug 2008). I've tracked the crap out of the car and the only issue I ever had was a noisy driveshaft that got replaced. I remember having a door latch issue on my C63 aswell, that required the door to be taken apart. At least that issue the door would still stay shut when you closed it.

cookstar

This is not a new problem, it was in the last gen as well and heavily documents by owners, besides this you bought a first year model which is bound to have more issues before the kinks are reduced for 2014 onward. I hope this fix this for you asap as you should not have safety issues like this with a brand new car given the fact that the last gen has the exact same problems!

Mbenz260e

The last generation also had soft close doors?

cookstar

nope, but it is documented in the S-class

taxifornia

Just purchased the GL450 for my wife. She is constantly complaining about the excesive amount of dirt and debris that builds up on the rear hatch/window/bumper after only 20 minutes of driving. I inspected the dirt a little closer and seems to have a fine silver metalic specs in the dirt.. Any one else with this same Issue??. I am thinking is may be from the brake rotors/pads

cookstar

its rail dust, most noticeable on light cars, you will most likely have to have to use a clay bar to get it out.

blittle

What is "rail dust?"

jcbutta

+1

Mbenz260e

Dust accumulated when being shipped by rail...

blittle

ok.... thats a new one for me!

cookstar

this is what it typically looks like, its impossible to get off with soap and water.

fabbrisd1

The OP never reported back if his problem was corected, I hope the 2nd poster chooses to report back..

The current S-Class has been in the market for 7 years (including 2013) and if there was a rampant soft-close issue that would have been pulled years ago..

The GL is intended to be the "new S-Class of SUV's" and as much tech asist that is built into the new design, launch/lift-off has been quite smooth.

"Rail dust" seems to be a Canuck thing, I have never seen it here in Midwest or West Coast.

On the "rear dust" issue for the GL450 - is this with or without appearance package - is rear exhaust tips ? Are you running 19"'s or 20's ? Do you have running boards ? Are you SoCal inland/county suburban ? Inquiring minds would like to know....

cookstar

lol I assure you rail dust is not a Canadian phenomena

Mbenz260e

This seems to be a very extreme example? I have and have had white cars, never seen anything quite like this ever, including white BMWs my family would drive on unpaved roads in Africa lol....

I am not discrediting your photos, just curious what environment that BMW was exposed to?

cookstar

To be honest with you I have no clue, I simply googled rail dust and attached images here.. BUT that being said I have the exact same problem on a white Mazda 3 in Toronto and I live no where near any type of rail... it is impossible to get off with a wash, the only way to get it all off for good is to use a clay bar which removes the clear coat as well unfortunately.

Mbenz260e

Yes definitely looks tough to remove fore sure. Clay bar I guess is always a debate of the clearcoat. Figure I won't do it more than once a year max and should be ok...

sti-tom

Update:
Took it into dealership overnight (was given a GLK for loaner) they disconnected the motorized latch somehow and now it works like a standard latch. The part is of course back ordered. A new issue has started though. When it is cold and the heater fan is on there is an occasional very loud rattling in the center console. It stops as soon as you turn the fan down. I'm sure it will be impossible for the dealer to reproduce as well.

Then on New years eve at the grocery store, some dip**** soccer mom backed her Yukon into my wife who was stopped waiting for a someone else to pull out of a parking stall.