Jeff Campbell

Hi All - Very appreciative of the posts in this forum. About 100 miles on my 2017 GLC so far and there are a few things the dealer & this forum didn't mention that may be helpful to others - feel free to add others. Many of these are unique to the US (where I am).

1. With a hitch addition, the "kick" open/close of the tailgate doesn't work.

2. The Burmester EQ needs to be set for every input separately (e.g. bluetooth, usb ports, HD radio, sat radio, etc.). Most of mine are set to 5/6/6...interested to see where others have landed (obv varies by personal pref and music type). Sounds sooooo good, btw.

3. 360 camera (front/above views) is only available with Parktronic $1550 upgrade. I thought the P3 package would include it.

4. Parking alerts when you are near (about to hit) something (beeps/warnings) are also only through the Parktronic upgrade. This was very surprising that it's not standard or in P3 package.

5. A start up in D2 (second gear) in E or C drive modes is common. (I hope?)

6. Your key is not connected to your seat/mirror settings...you must press (and hold!) the memory setting # to switch. Boooo.

7. Manual recommends staying in E drive mode for first 1000 miles. (it's well documented in this forum that it reverts to C with every restart)

Great car, overall just very disappointed I didn't pay up for Parktronic for the camera and alerts . Still getting used to that auto shut off when stopped & parking too.

Any other "surprises" you've come across???

blizzard12

1. Hitch unavailable with Trunk Hands Free Access... This is a country specific issue. It is available in some places.

2. Burmester needs to be set separately... I see this as a feature not as a problem especially when the volume of a source (e.g. bluetooth) is different from the rest. If it was "one setting for all" you would have to manually adjust it everytime you switched to bluetooth (and then back). Besides, you only have to set it up once as it memorizes your preferences. Mine is set to 8/-4/8 for all sources.

3. 360 camera is only available with a package... Again, this is country specific. In some places it is available as a standalone option.

4. Parking alerts... No comment.

5. Start up in D2... Yes, it is common with the 9G transmission.

6. Your key is not connected to your seat/mirror... It is on my 11 year old Volvo

7. Manual recommends staying in E drive mode for first 1000 miles... No comment.

Flubadub

IMHO, it is probably a little too much to expect that a salesman is going to know all the possible expectations of a potential customer down to these kinds of details, particularly if a car is being bought off the lot. On a special order, he has a better chance of heading off a disappointment. I also think it is naive to expect that all brands are going to have the same features and feature combinations. Doesn't make one wrong or right, just different. Porsche has the key on the left of the steering wheel. Not wrong, just a difference.
I have owned a bunch of MB models since 1973 and I still researched everything on the MB site including reading the owners manual so I knew as much as possible before ordering my 17GLC.

MercedesTheBest

how does your key remember your seat/memory position? if 3 people drove the car would you need 3 keys and always need to keep your own? that sounds like a pain in the *** "feature" i use 1 key and sometimes i have 3 different people driving the thing. i do wish you didn't need to hold the button, just press it.

mleun481

my bmw remembers seat and mirror position based on which key was used to unlock it. It only has 2 memory settings (only 2 keys). If I grabbed my wife's key by accident, once I unlock and open the door, the settings change to her settings. I just press memory #1 for me and it changes back to mine. Press and hold would be a pain.

Philamg

I had the same on BMW'S 15 years ago, good feature if different people use the car.
Agree with dejongj regarding having to hold the memory buttons, a pain.

zhenyaf

Same on my Acura from 2006. It was easier for me to unlock with my key and have the seat in my position, after my wife drove the car (she's 5'4", I'm 6')

Brew1

Similar size situations for us so it's nice that my Wife's TLX adjusts the seats for my key fob. She just won't be driving my GLC43 that much so not going to be a problem.

I didn't know about the different tone settings for the different media inputs thanks for that.. Nice to be able to set XM different then an SD-card, radio or Ipod. I usually am at 4 -1 5. For some reason I don't like mids that much, sounds like horns blaring in my ears.

bips

Agree that #3 & #4 are country-specific. I'm fairly sure that they're standard in Australia. There seems to be a fair bit of country-to-country difference in the standard features and what options are available. I know that this is a heavily US-oriented site, but still it's helpful if posters are clear on where they are.

Philamg

There is a location slot on your profile which would help if members filled it in, assume you are in Australia bips.

thescrod

The inability to use the hands free lift gate opener with the integrated trailer hitch was evident if you attempted to build a GLC online (in the US)...it would not allow you to select both packages. I like the concept of mating the keys, even if there are only 2, with the 1st 2 memory positions for automatic seat position changing...my 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee offered that. Hoping to have my GLC43 either tomorrow or Monday. I got P3 and opted for the advanced parking over the hitch (which I only wanted for a bike rack) and hope to seek out an aftermarket option that will work with the hands free access.

bips

Fair point. Done.

Under the category of things I wish the dealer had told me, I would add the requirement to maintain the DPF. Given some of the reports that we had heard about the DPF clogging in other makes, we were nervous about buying a diesel given our driving pattern. (As it has turned out, our pattern has changed for a number of reasons and so that hasn't been a problem in practice.) The dealer told us that the BlueTec / AdBlue system did away with these concerns, and we wouldn't have to worry about it. You can imagine my horror upon collecting the vehicle and reading the warning in the printed manual about regular highway drives to keep it clean. I found from a little research that what the BlueTec system does is deal with the issue of the NO2 collector, but not the DPF (although I've also read reports that there are less issues with the DPF under the BlueTec system).

So my initial reaction was YES!, I do wish the dealer had told me about having to regular high-speed sustained driving to keep the DPF clean, rather than misleading me. I felt I had bought the wrong car. Now I'm not so sure. It hasn't been a problem in practice, the economy is better and I love the low-RPM torque. But I'm still a little upset about the misinformation on principle.

In terms of which options are standard and which come via option packs, MBA puts out a detailed PDF that has all that information, and I think it would be hard to make some of the OP's' 'mistakes' from a careful reading of that. Don't MB in other countries supply something similar?

Philamg

In the UK the gesture tailgate is standard and if it you select a towbar it tells you that the gesture tailgate is deleted, this is because it is an electric towbar and stows away under the car and would trigger the gesture tailgate sensor.

mleun481

The hitch for UK is electric? Not for the US. There is an aftermarket hitch (Execuhitch) that's electric and can be stowed. I don't see the GLC listed on their site but doesn't mean they don't have one that fits. I've contacted them in the past with questions and they're pretty responsive. They also carry non stowing hitches which is what I want. Just don't want to have to cut the bumper.

dieseldoc

I think before you buy a car you need to do your own research about options and how things function. I would not depend on the salesman to be the sole source of info. I did extensive research before I ordered my GLC. There were things I knew that the dealer did not. It is always better to be a knowledgeable consumer than to be disappointed after your purchase.

Flubadub

+++

BCRCornet

+1!!!

dieseldoc

I drove diesels for years with DPFs. Drive them like you would a regular petrol car. You do not need to do a high speed drive at regular intervals. I did plenty of in city driving. No issues.

decorily

Clearly that depends on how you 'would a regular petrol car '. DPFs do need a certain amount of 'maintenance '.

George in KG

There would be a lot less whining in posts on this forum if people followed this simple advice.

Brew1

Something I don't care if the dealer told me or not so this is a little off topic.

Driving in ECO mode when suddenly the Eco light turns into a sailboat...then after a bit it went back to the E. Told my wife and she didn't believe me and said it was probably a flag for driving too fast. I said it was a sailboat because I was sailing along so smoothly and was being rewarded lol.

I looked through the manual and found that it can go into a coast mode were the engine is disconnected from the drive-train to save fuel. Of course most of you probably already knew this but I've only had the car for a week so cut me some slack. There is sooo much to learn about on this car, fun.

Jeff Campbell

And this forum was very helpful in that research, which is why i'm listing some of these surprises in order to help other researchers. Much of this information is not online or not obvious (e.g. buried in manuals). Agree with your point though - shouldn't rely on sales folks!

Oliver12

1. That the stock hi if was so poor- worse than any car I've owned- wish I'd spec' d the Burmeister upgrade now!

URBassman

My main problem is that compared to my last C Estate this motor is just a tad complicated. Perhaps too much. The 'manual' is a paper version and also the most complicated and difficult to use online version. So any newbie can be forgiven for not knowing all the answers. I didn't know about running in in E mode. I had mine in comfort all the time but drove very carefully so I'm probably OK. The salesman was an OK sort of bloke but he told me I had run flats, which was useful until I had a puncture at 1700 miles and found out they weren't.

The fact that this forum is full of people asking for advice on all sorts of 'user' matters shows that not all of us are quite up to speed and that perhaps the manual could benefit from a degree of concision, so those that know it all, and they are here, should perhaps not be so ready to select 'smug' mode.

jtmann

My 428 Gran Coupe has this profile feature, and most of the time it's fine. Sometimes however if my wife forgets to lock the car after she finishes using it, it doesn't switch to my profile the next time I get in it. Then when I switch to my settings the car remembers my profile settings for her keyfob and adjusts them to my settings the next time she uses the car. It gets confused easily. If I have to get out and she takes over driving it screws up our profiles every time. I like the system on her car better, just push the damn button.