Probably the best tech is the parking cameras and bird's eye camera.

But this stuff is standard on even non-luxury cars.

I can't even say the blind spot warning is great, because Hyundai has blind spot CAMERAS.

 

As technology gets better as well as government mandates, more and more safety tech will be standard equipment. There will always be a manufacturer that leads the pack in something and everyone will follow suit eventually just like Audi's LED headlights.

 

Audi was a couple years behind Mercedes LED tech in Europe. Maybe more.
How are they better in US configuration?

 

I wasn't following the LED light saga but I thought Audi had them first. Maybe it was just commercialized more than Mercedes.

 

The LED Inteligent Light System (once software re-enabled) is amazing - best light output of any car I've ever driven.
Folks here rave about Distronic but don't use cruise control much.
I use Bird eye view all the time when parking.
Augmented Video with arrows and house numbers are great.

 

The birds eye camera is extremely useful. So much so that I never use the parking assist.

 

Buyer's Remorse? Not satisfied. Trade for a Hyundai.

 

I use the 360 view all the time. The cameras are awesome. Runs circles around the ones on our 2022 Lexus.

 

I guess that depends on what you think is useful. In addition to the 360 camera, I find the navigation very useful, because it reliably gets me where I'm going and routes me around traffic events, but YMMV depending on where you live. The phone integration is useful, too. With Bluetooth I can stream music or use Siri Eyes Free to easily send a text message, and I can send destinations to the navigation system from any app on my phone. I also get a notification on the phone if I forgot to lock the car, or for things like low battery, and I can lock it from the app or check how much fuel I have left to know if I need to plan in a stop at the gas station. Then there's CarPlay for when I wanna use Google Maps etc. DISTRONIC and Active Steering is useful in traffic and on long highway journeys. Just did a 250 mile trip on Saturday, and it's nice to chill on the highway letting the car do some of the mundane driving, and take over again when the roads are more fun. I don't care much for blind spot warning. Never saw the point of it. Blind spots are a myth if the mirrors are adjusted properly. Unfortunately, most people adjust the mirrors such that the side mirrors overlap with the rear view mirror, and then the side mirrors have a blind spot. Also, I don't use lane keep assist. The day I can't stay in my lane anymore is the day I need to hang up my driver license. All the safety systems, though, are a nice piece of mind. We are all human and we miss things, plus lots of people pulling shenanigans on the roads, so having an extra pair of eyes in the form of a computer is a good thing.

How to adjust mirrors:
https://www.caranddriver.com/feature...d-blind-spots/

 

Agree on the surround view, really helpful. Had a rental recently for an extended period and really missed it.

 

Although other manufacturers may have the same tech, some manufacturers do it better than others. Sure most cars on the market either have back up/360/birds eye view cameras either as standard or as an option, but some of them are garbage. I like the cameras in the GLE because they are very clear and show a lot detail. A lot of back up cameras are grainy and hard to see out of them. Other manufacturers may offer them, but the quality of their cameras are bad.

Same with the active safety tech in cars now a days, pre-safe, etc. Some of them can detect the pedestrian and some cant.

 

I'd trade the distronic for a decent set of windshield wipers

 

The Rubber? Have you tried changing the blades to other brands?

 

Yeah, once some YouTubers got a hold of Audi's headlight video, it spread around as Truth - no surprises there. Audi's WAS cute, and actually better at describing the virtues of Euro lighting.

But the Firstest and Bestest at the time was the Mercedes system, here shown in a 2014 video.

Read the (lengthy) description in the YouTube link. Among other things, ""The first LED headlamps with all the adaptive functions of the Intelligent Light System have been available to our customers since 2010 in the CLS", says Prof Dr Thomas Weber, Member of the Daimler Board of Management responsible for Group Research and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars Development."

 

If they are skipping, MB has a special windshield cleaner that gets the film off the windshield that causes skipping. With an average of 300 dry days around here, my wiper blades dry out in the sun and pretty much are no good anymore when the rainy season starts, regardless of the car. I get a new set every 10k miles or 12 months as part of the service. I think it's part of the prepaid maintenance package. I have stopped using commercial glass cleaners as well, and now use a 50/50 mix of water and isopropyl alcohol. Gets the grime and stuff off the glass w/o leaving a film of chemicals. I've stolen this trick from a detailer. Also works great on the inside to get off the film that builds up from the gassing out of the plastics.

 

I use the Porsche washer additive in all our cars. Best I’ve found, helps a lot.

 

Its not the wipers.

There is some kind of coating on the glass.

 

Complained about problems with the wipers on my A service, they replaced them under warranty, the new ones are MUCH better. The ones that came with it 'smeared' right in front of the drivers eyes instead of 'wiping', and made 'clunking' noises on the passenger side when in intermittent mode. both problems gone with whatever they did in the service.

 

My favorite technologies on our 2022 GLE 450: Advanced Adaptive Light System, Heads Up Display, Distronic System, MBUX and Soft Door Close.

 

My favorite part is the Cruise control and lane control, Both of them pretty much give you Autopilot like experience.I was so surprised on how good that works.When I am on long journeys that’s my go to.