I have been visiting dealers in my area and none of them have any GLE450's in stock, but lots of 350's
Anyone from a dealer or MB insider know why tis is...
on Cargurus there are only 338 in the whole of the USA ?

Either they are selling like hotcakes or no one is ordering them ?

 

It's the former. You will likely have to try to get a dealer to allocate you one and order it. Although the wait can be long, and you don't have a lot of negotiating room, you can order exactly what you want, not paying for stuff you don't want or missing out on things you do.

 

Yesterday my dealer said, "We aren't getting cars again." He didn't say why.

 

"cars" referring specifically to GLE450 or "cars" in general?

 

There’s always been a shortage of 450’s. I went through this earlier in the year & wound up getting a 350. I suffered from 450 envy until the 350 was mine and I took a road trip. It’s perfectly adequate and I’ve never looked back.

 

He didn't specify.

 

Your location is not shown. My dealer, in Lancaster, PA has several showing on the lot when I checked last night.

 

It may be a regional thing, i see a few in CA, and even less in NV, in AZ only 4 !
The 350 is not bad at all, performance is adequate in most situations, just sometimes when the idiots on the highway decide not to let you in, then a few more horses would be nice !
Maybe that's why no-one use their blinkers !!!!

 

Since sold show as inventory and a lot are in transit...they might have none. My Dealer shows a 450, 3-53’s and 3-63’s that are not on the lot yet and one is mine. They do have one 450 in inventory that they can’t sell because it is upper $70’s and no AMG body. Mercedes offered it to them as an extra they didn’t order. After over a month they now have it discounted.

 

Just been trying to build a 450, no more E-Active Body Control either ? or is it now standard ?

 

The 2021 GLE brochure on MBUSA's site has no mention of E-ABC for any model, a change from the 2020 brochure.

 

For an accurate build you need to go to the Dealer and input into NetStar. There are more options and choices that are accurate vs the online Configurator that is OK but more for marketing and basics. There are several more option choices in NetStar. Also components may become delayed or on constraint today that were available yesterday.

 

GLE 450 has always been limited. Most people have to order one if they can.
Can't remember the last time we had one for stock.

 

no more for 2021. We don’t know exactly why, but it’s likely because getting it pushed it to 53 territory and Merc wanted to push more 53s. Also because they’re having production shortages and want to save it for the new S Class and GLS 580 and Maybach. Also, most likely too few people bought it.

 

Kindof a enthusiastic thread.. a bit of cloudy info..

1. 2020 GLE450's since 2020 Launch have always been severely more limited in Production Qty than 350's - and 2020 580's were more limited over 450's.. on top of all that 2020 Launch delays
2. 2021 GLE450's Launch was mostly misfire with Launch Production blockage a good chunk of May-Aug production getting stopped just short of release due to either "unavailable seats" or a over a mandated Ignition
Programing Update for injectors delivered by one of two injector vendors .
Those bogged down 2021 GLE450's now have been getting finished up steadily since min-November with a effort by Vance to get them all shipped to dealers before end-Dec/end-of-year Frankly availability on
the ground or Dec incoming is "better" for most regions now than what will happen over the Spring
3. 2021 GLE450 production has been Dealer allocated thru 2nd decade April at the moment - "about" every dealer South/Midwest has one/some - West Coast "most" dealers have one but a good # have
none...GLE580's have been allocated thru 1st decade May and those are really/really damn with "most" dealers not having any - and the few dealers with one - 75% of those show as customer pre-order
4. A good point on Internet Search - customer pre-sold units that get shipped by the factory - as they get invoiced/posted to dealer inventory - the 3rd party systems which buy dealer inventory data from MB (not the
dealer) - that data pull will auto-post on those 3rd party systems without distinction if they are pre-sold or will be open-to-sell. It's not a dealer mis-posting, like candy-not-really-available - it's because that 3rd party
data purchase is doesn't give them that pre-sold/open-to-sell inventory data which "belongs" to the dealer - same things happens with all brands
from MB so those 3rd parties don't get pre-sold/open-to-sell data

 

It’s disappointing to see seats causing production delays-still-after almost 2 years. Maybe it’s time s offer a simpler seat between the base and MultiContour.

 

This example - seats - can be expanded to many components in a GLE 450.
Seat component manufacturers have been affected by such things as the Boeing 737 Max grounding, causing layoffs and disruption in that complete supply chain. For just about every auto manufacturer.
Expand that to leather, semiconductors, step motors, trailer hitches and other internals. It's a tough sea to navigate.

I think we'll see more vertical integration in the future, as the "just in time" manufacturing model is now seen as vulnerable to outside events. After mass migration TO "just in time" over the past decades.

I wonder what shortage may affect our current build.
I do agree that M-B has too many options - and too many models, for that matter.

 

So true, but the issue in the past has been more related to suppliers being able to build them at sufficient volume.

The seats seem unnecessarily complicated but that’s just me. I will never use the adjustable headrest and once the other settings are made they will stay that way. My wife will change the seat height and move it foreword if she drives.
Now adding more material choices only complicates the supply chain as they try to deliver on time but need to fill a larger volume. Since it’s been an issue for a long time then Mercedes could have anticipated by funding a small stockpile of at least the most popular material and color options to build a small cushion of completed seats. Like you said though, if base materials don’t arrive as scheduled, they have increased the bottleneck since production isn’t able to ramp up. I’m probably off base but it just seems that these repeat issues could be better managed after all this time.

There’s no way of knowing but I’m assuming a lot of this is production oriented. If they run out of red material they simply notify the dealer that a build for red will be pushed back until July 2021-for example. Actually this has already happened with red. Maybe it’s the TP of the auto business, we can only wonder.

 

I think the fact that Mercedes required the massage seat for the drivers assistant had a big effect on the number of massage seats ordered. Either they expected more massage seats or they expected fewer orders for the drivers assistant package. Of its the latter, I think that’s a dumb assumption in their part. I almost never saw GLEs with Drivers assistant at the dealership, certainly fewer then the number of Es and GLCs I saw (I scroll through my dealers stock a few times a week whenever I’m bored). I think a lot of people special ordered vehicles to get that (and a few other annoyingly rare options like EABC/airmatic, 4 zone climate, Tech package, high end audio, nappa leather and other interior upgrades, and the 450 engine in the first place) and I would bet a significant number of them that waited a long time for seats only had the seats because the customer wanted adaptive cruise. Thankfully, a 2021 can get drivers assist without the massage seat.

 

From what I heard about, it’s a supply issue. My dealer told me their allocation got cut in half and it is getting worse in January. That might be the reason.

 

I hear there's this thing called COVID going around.
My Jeans are on backorder, my storm doors took 8 months, I can't get my favorite vitamins, and my new Danish speakers are delayed. I'm not blaming Mercedes.

 

Maybe. Although the GLE 450's were in very short supply pre-Covid.

 

https://www.ipacket.info/4JGFB5KB2MA384388

We have them in VA

 

That’s a nice build @TexAg91 I’m surprised it’s still sitting there.

 

I can confirm all the above. My dealer advised at least a 3 month wait on a factory order for a 21 GLE450. He was able to locate a '20 at another dealer and did a trade. I guess this was a good move with a lack of inventory I would have waited even longer. But I do believe the 450 is worth the wait, extra horsepower is always appreciated on the highways.