JimBarnhart

People seemed to like my lighting package review, so I'll give my impressions of Distronic on my 2013 GL350. For those that might not know what Distronic is, it's essentially active cruise control that controls speed based upon vehicle speed in front of you.

Again, these are my opinions alone, feel free to formulate your own and provide differing opinions.

This is my first MB with Distronic. I know it's been available for awhile, but I've never experienced it, so consider this a new user's opinion, not a compare and contrast of the 2013 Distronic to previous versions.

I've had a lot of people comment on the MB emblem on the front of my GL350, which holds the Distronic camera. Everyone likes it better than the stock emblem. So I consider that a positive.

For usage, I've only tried the traditional cruise where you set a speed and go. There is an option to track a vehicle at a distance, which I haven't used yet. I have to say it's very good at adjusting speeds without the need to brake, which turns it off. Last week on the way to work I had it set at 72mph. I could see in front of me there was a traffic jam and I decided to trust it. The traffic slowed to 25mph and it slowed me down perfectly. I switched lanes to a moderately faster lane and it sped up nicely, once I cleared the traffic it went back to 72mph. I never used the brake the whole time. But it took some trust and my foot was millimeters from the brake pedal.

If there's one thing I don't like is I find it easy to get slowed behind a vehicle without know it. For example if you are having a conversation with someone in the vehicle it's easy to not notice your MB has slowed down from your desired speed because of a slower vehicle in front of you and you need to switch lanes to get back up to speed. There is a notification on the speedometer but I find myself not noticing. Of course Distronic is doing exactly what it's supposed to do, but I find myself thinking I've lost some time because I got slowed without me knowing it. Also, I tend to have this feeling when the difference between my desired speed and the speed of the car in front it small, having a 10 mph difference is easy to notice.

Overall, I'm happy to have Distronic. There's the cool factor for people new to the car, but I find it well designed and very usable. Plus the solid emblem is an added perk.

xxGenericSNxx

With your Distronic Plus, can you opt to turn off the radar guided cruise control and only use cruise control like the traditional method (no auto braking)?

I've got the older Distronic system on the 07 R which won't brake my car to 0mph unlike your system which does. My complaint is the same as yours, I basically feel like it slows the car down too much and I'd rather just change lanes to get around slower moving traffic. I do, however, find the system extremely useful in slower moving traffic on the freeway, especially on long road trips, as it allows my foot to take a rest and I only need to focus on steering.

I've heard that a lot of people are ignorant when they see the emblem and wonder why MB is cheap and uses a plastic shield. Little do they know that plastic shield is a $3,000 option. hahahaha

JimBarnhart

I'll have to check for sure, but the on-line manual tells me you can go to Speedtronic by pushing in the end of the cruise control stick.

On a different topic, but related... If you had an earlier year GL you are going to have to get used to the signal stick and the cruise stick being reversed. Yes, the cruise stick is on the bottom. The turn stick is a little more centrally located, but it takes some habit modification.

xxGenericSNxx

Hmm that's odd that they changed the stalk convention. MB's used that upper cruise stick since forever... perhaps the 70s or even before.

JimBarnhart

I did confirm this morning you can put the Distronic Plus in 'passive' mode.

xxGenericSNxx

Oh that's nice. BTW thanks for the write up. Distronic (and Night Vision) are some of my favorite options from MB and I always look for it when I see MBs out on the road.

blittle

On my test drive I noticed the stick placement and managed to screw up turning on the turn signal twice!!! It will take some getting used to and I'm not sure why they did that?

JimBarnhart

When I was doing my walkthrough my salesman warned me I'd have trouble with it. He said that many that are new to MB find themselves setting the cruise instead of a blinker.

I guess if the option is having some people accidently hit the blinker by mistake versus having some people accidently hit the cruise by mistake, they will take the former.