scautomag

Just joined the group. My wife and I are proud and happy owners of a 2011 GLK350. We are now looking at a 2016 GL 550 with under 45k miles. Is there anything we should be looking out for before we buy? Thanks in advance!

geniushanbiao

Get as much warranty as you can, unless you are a MB mechanic and do all work by yourself. That's the only thing you should be looking for.
If you are getting a CPO, buy the extended warranty from dealer.

BlownV8

+1. Get CPO and buy a 2 year unlimited extension. Cassandra Castro gave, by far, the best deal on the CPO extension. You can search the forum for her contact info.

hambone1983

yeah ++ on the warranty!!! and make sure its either MB or a solid aftermarket like CNA Platinum. I have a 2015 with under 60k miles and the warranty has already paid for itself and more... almost 35k work of repairs, from entire engine rebuilt, new transmission, radiator, airmatic suspension, etc. these engines bomb out quick for whatever reason, however amazing to drive!

NaviTimer1

It doesn't hurt to have an extended warranty.

The most common issue you will have are the door locks and some air suspension problems but that's on most Mercedes equipped with the air-matic will have some form of problem in the long haul. On rare occasions, some people have experienced issues with the turbos that would require to pull the engine out and cylinder problems would require installing a new engine (depends on the exact issue).

Some people complain about the tire wear but, what do you expect on a low profile tire on a 5,100 pound SUV? Tire vibration at 60+ MPH is another common issue on the 550 but, that's easily resolved by getting the proper tires and having them road force balance (Hunter Elite balancer will fix that problem).

Do expect to top off oil and coolant between maintenance intervals as the 550 runs at higher operating temperatures.

Overal the 550 is a great SUV and reliability is good (way better than a land rover) but not like a Japanese car. It's best to find the parts online and find a reputable indy if you're not good with tools, dealers will just pillage your wallet...

DaveW68

Wow!! My 2013 with 57k miles has been 100% bullet proof. Only tires and front brakes in 2.4 years of ownership. I have a warranty that I paid over $5k for and it hasn't paid out 1 cent.

(knocking hard on wood over here. )

geniushanbiao

By the way, if you are driving a lot (like 20k+ a year), you can also buy the maintenance package.

geniushanbiao

For X166 majority of issues arise around 60-100k miles so you are reaching the zone. The manufacture warranty of 50k miles is mostly useless that only covers some defect due to manufacture issue or defective parts from supplier. Those design issues like timing chain usually arise after the manufacture warranty expires.

scautomag

Thank you all for the prompt replies. This will not be thru a Mercedes Benz dealership, so no CPO. Are there other recommendations for extended warranty besides CNA Platinum? Thanks again!

Hillj4

Just dropped my 2015 off to get heads rebuilt due to valves leaking by, almost $8k bill. The master tech was extremely good and said this is a known issue related to heat coming off the turbo and causing premature failure of the valve guides. Rebuilding with upgraded parts to fix the issue. No real way to check for this prior to failure, just be aware.

Hillj4

During My conversation with master tech, who also owns the same GL550. He stated the trucks are extremely reliable once this head issue is fixed, the only other semi. Common issue is the airmatic suspension

geniushanbiao

He's too optimistic and it has way more issues than he told you, just that a lot of issues don't affect driveability or not quite noticeable. For example the side mirror heaters go bad pretty frequently, the A/C gets odor and require disinfection, etc. Small things but annoying.

SGTzAMG

May you please elaborate on this issue?

thank you

SGTzAMG

Hello and congratulations and the new ride!

Like many of the members on here, definitely consider purchasing extended warranty, its a must!

Expect to go through brake pads / rotor ( i just serviced my GL63s brakes); FCPeuro are great for their lifetime warranty products for these types of wear and tear.

ABC suspension MAY be an issue for theses trucks, but my SA informed me that these has been resolved and of a much better quality / improvement from the previous.1st gen GLs. My SA informed me that he doesnt see many ABC issues going in for service in the 2nd Gen GLs both AMG and non, vs 1st GEN

All in all, its an amazing truck, super comfortable and quiet for long road trips with family; you will not be disappointed!

geniushanbiao

That applies on those with soft-close door feature. Do a search on google of "soft close door X166" you will find tons of complaints.

Basically the biggest issue is that when the soft close feature breaks you can't even close the door manually. You will need to get it towed, or drive it with the door not locked close which can be grave dangerous. Not to mention that the soft close door breaks pretty often.

SGTzAMG

Thank you very much

mtm

Not on my car. When the soft close mechanism breaks, the doors close just fine normally. It's just the pulling the door in if you don't close it fully that doesn't work. You can still close the door as you would on a car without soft close option.

BlownV8

There is no ABC on X166 vehicles.

geniushanbiao

I think he's referring to the ADS. The function is very similar.

BlownV8

Not in my opinion and certainly not from a maintenance standpoint. ABC is a total pain and stupid expense to repair and keep running. As I'm sure you know but for the others, it uses a dual pump for the power steering/ABC, hydraulic lines, accumulators, hydraulic shocks, and sensors. It will keep a big heavy sedan completely flat around curves and in heavy breaking. It also does a good job on minor road imperfections but struggles with large imperfections and makes handling feel artificial.

The X164 & x166 GL's have Airmatic. It's a dream to maintain compared to ABC. They go until a strut fails and you can just install a new strut/airbag/shock. When ABC fails, you can have a domino effect that costs you thousands of dollars to repair and a lifetime of issues if metal particles contaminate the system. I've had a couple ABC equipped MB's. One just about bankrupted me when I was younger while the other still under warranty was not as bad to own. Either way, I'm not a fan of ABC.

geniushanbiao

That's absolutely right from the maintenance point of view. I was talking about the functions as both ABC and ADS are active systems designed to provide better ride. ABC uses oil-filled struts while ADS uses air to adjust the stiffness of the struts.

Airmatic and ABC are not comparable things. Airmatic simply stands for the air suspension system that gives you the ability to adjust ride height, while the ADS is something similar in function to ABC. Biggest difference is that Airmatic is not an active system at all. It's a bit complicated that Airmatic is not compatible with ABC so they don't appear together, but Airmatic can be coupled with ADS for best comfort. Some W220 owners argue that ABC is better than the Airmatic option even in terms of reliability though.

BlownV8

The only way ABC would be more reliable is if the ABC equipped car is driven 100 miles a month vs Airmatic car that is driven 1000 miles a month. I've owned multiples.of each and Airmatic is much more reliable, easier to repair, and cheaper to maintain. It's not even close. Shocks and springs are even cheaper. Anytime you remove complexity, it will typically be easier and cheaper to maintain.

Put it this way. I have over 350k miles on currently owned Airmatic equipped vehicles and they have been cheaper to maintain over that span than 20k miles on my first ABC equipped vehicle.

cincy8

I did have to replace some bad turbo valves and had door lock issues. I just replaced air shocks & block something (I do have ADS). I have 120k miles on a '14 GL550 ..All using my extended warranty that I bought when we bought the car. That said, it's been awesome and very few issues over 7 years. In comparison, my previous X5 was always in the shop. So while I had few issues, they probably weren't cheap to fix and the warranty was worth it.
The wheel/tire insurance on the other hand was money wasted. All they do is repair the wheel anyway and their cost was a fraction of what I paid.

geniushanbiao

For the wheel/tire insurance, I agree that most of us ended up pay more than what we actually need, but wouldn't call it a waste since it's essentially an insurance although they call it "warranty". I used to have a '13 C300 with the low profile 225/45 tires and my wife once hit one on the curb which resulted in the replacement of the tire. They put a completely new one on it with no charge. This insurance is mainly set to protect the rims, which is very useful when you drive in city a lot. The rims are quite expensive.

sloanbj

By German car standards, they aren't the worst but you will want a hefty warranty and plenty of free time to make service call runs.