Ron.s

Its a long shot at this late date but earlier builds had some problems like you describe. If you have a SN around or below 80k it might be that some TSB’s haven’t been updated. Mine did the Rapid Acceleration among several other weird things, improved by an update that fixed the Camera/Radar Sensors that weren’t in Sync. The rapid acceleration was much improved on mine. I also set the follow distance at Max...that also helped.
I bought Distronic again because it does come in handy on the Freeway when you need to take your hand off the wheel for a second or two or if you are distracted and start to wander. It does have some potential safety benefit. I’m hoping that future software Updates will make it even better.
The Lane Keep is a joke and dangerous as others have mentioned. Imagine hitting a patch of black ice about the time it activates. Passengers can be startled as well as an inexperienced driver. The faster you go the more severe the correction. I had to live with turning it off each startup for months until the ability to turn it off permanently became available. The group that decided to use braking instead of a simple lane correction should be aptly rewarded.

chrislk55

My build date was August 26, 2020 so its a pretty recent build. I have the follow distance set to Medium, I'll try the Max setting and see if that helps. Thanks for the info .... I recall driving at night with it on and seeing all the red tail lights ahead and its still accelerating like crazy, I would think the cameras should see the brake lights and adjust accordingly but it would appear it didn't start braking until the radar locked in on the upcoming traffic.

Ron.s

I sold my 450 and hadn’t used Distronic since April so I’m a little hazy on some things. As I recall the acceleration was still a little excessive when the speed was set at 80 and a slow moving vehicle forced me to slow to something much slower like 50. I got in the habit of suspending it when I saw that happening but other vehicles I’ve owned were similar. I might be confusing the timeline with before the TSB. I also had a failing MBUX Control unit so that was a factor with systems at times. Good Luck....

zengshengliu

I have the car wash mode (in US). I think in order to get it, you need either the air suspension or the E-ABC? Since the car will raise during that mode.

mikapen

I have a very early 450 with e-ABC. It doesn't have car wash mode.
The shop said they ran all the tech updates and bulletins, and if they got it all, it's not part of an update.

On the other hand I've never been to a car wash that needed the car to raise. Why would a Car Wash make a facility that couldn't handle regular cars?

chrislk55

I don't have air suspension or E-ABC but car wash mode is there, haven't used it yet though ...

TexAg91

If you do a lot of monotonous interstate travel, the Driver Assistance Package Plus is nice. The ability to set the cruise and have it automatically follow at a safe distance and keep the car centered in the lane reduces fatigue. I use it all the time on highway and it works well. If you primarily drive in the city and rarely take long highway trips over an hour, don't bother. The advanced lighting package is another great option if you drive a lot at night on two lane roads -- the way it lights the sides of the road is phenomenal.

What icon quickly disables the parking sensors like a defacto "cash wash mode"? Anyone know with having to look in the manual? I guess the lawyers think Americans are too stupid to use a "cash wash mode" button...we'd forget to turn it back on and let the car rear end someone.

Ron.s

The very fast acceleration and now your comment about accelerating like crazy at night are not normal. My guess is your Radar is not working as it should. Both of those symptoms were present when my Radar was not calibrated to sync with the Camera.
To help the Dealer you might try to make a short video of each of those events. Normally, they need to be able to duplicate the issue in a test drive unless there is a Bulletin.

Car wash mode in the US-As soon as I get the first warning I just disable it using the icon that appears in the upper left of the Center screen. Touch it and it returns to normal automatically after leaving the CW..

SwagMD

I agree wholeheartedly with what you said about the Driver Assistance Package Plus. Had in my 2017 C43 and the one in my 2020 GLE is remarkably better. Not very good for city driving, but excellent for high way driving and takes off the stress off long monotonous driving. Will not ever buy a car without it.

BACnMercedes

I think the distronic works great. I’ve had it on several previous cars and on my current two. It is one of the reason I’m reluctant to move to any other car. (Even test drove a new Tahoe the other day and at 82k it didn’t have anything near distronic). Our nightmare M550i had it and it swerved in between the lines bad. My biggest grip about it is that it will throw a dirty sensor very easily when driving in any type of bad weather or if the car is very dirty.

zengshengliu

To be honest, I don't know either I think they raise the car so that you can (or the car wash) clean the undercarriage better.

DaveD9

My guess would be that I have the highest milage at 34,000. Mine was delivered in April last year. Overall I'm content but the software glitch last winter in a storm still plays in my mind. Car would not start, assistance took over 3 hours. They had to put skids on to get it out of a parking space to tow. I still hate the several hour software upgrades. This is my 5th Mercedes and may be my last. My dealer has turned from customer service to if I can't make money on you today see you later.

JohninBismarck

As the person who started this thread, I thought I should provide a final (for me) follow up. Although we intended our GLE 450 to be with us for a long time, we didn’t make it to two years of ownership and 16,000 miles. I described our recent problem with the 48 volt system warnings in the long 48 volt thread on this forum. The car was towed to the nearest dealer (200 miles away). They had it for three weeks and were unable to reproduce the problem, or find anything to repair, supposedly after consulting with MB engineers, and they were told to release the vehicle to the owners. That was about three weeks ago, and it’s been functioning fine since then. However, the fact that the car left us stranded (thankfully in town, not on the highway somewhere) coupled with the fact that they were unable to find and repair a specific fault, caused us to lose confidence and consider getting something else. Tomorrow, we will trade it in on a new 2020 Lincoln Nautilus. The current used car market situation made the trade attractive, and we will end up getting some money back out of the deal. The Lincoln can be serviced locally, and there are many more Ford/Lincoln dealers in this part of the country than Mercedes dealers, should problems arise. Best wishes to those of you who own GLE’s. In most respects, it’s an impressive vehicle, and I wish you better experiences than we have had.

Ron.s

Can’t quarrel with your decision but the Nautilus has received very poor quality reviews. Hope you aren’t jumping from the “frying pan into the fire”. All brands have a lot of solid builds and a % of bad so you may get a good one and are happy with the local Dealer...that’s important.

Professor1234

JohninBismark, thank you for supporting Canadian auto manufacturing!

I am coming from years of Lincoln vehicle ownership, my most recent being the disaster that is the Aviator. I previously had two on the platform the Nautilus is built on, although they were called MKX at the time. Build quality isn't the best and be careful if you are getting the 2.7TT. My second one leaked oil from a poorly machined surface where the plastic oil pan met the block. I got tired of the failed attempts to fix it and just put a catch pan under the vehicle for the last year of the lease. Also, some of the electronics were glitchy and others flat out stopped working.

JRTouareg

Umm.... My GLE53 AMG Coupe has car the wash mode and I live in good ole SC, USA. In addition to folding the mirrors in and turning off the sensors, the car wash mode raises the vehicle vehicle 2".

mikapen

You are right, and thanks for the update.
There seemed to be a period when the car wash mode wasn't available.
In fact my AMG53's Car Wash Mode only became active a month or so after I bought it. It was greyed out on the early examples.

digital_b

the problem with technology and the internet is that its far too easy for people who dont know what they are talking about to be adamant about what they are saying. its like smart home tech. it draws the same crowd

Ron.s

The GLE’s built in “about” the first half of 2019 had Lane Keep that would have to be reset to off with each on/off cycle. It’s possible that some may still be that way. After numerous requests my GLE 450 was finally updated to allow it to stay as set...I think this was about Sept.2019 when the update became available.