They called me today with a build date out in October and said it should be delivered sometime in November or early December. How often are these things delayed? I am hoping to have my wife in the car before our second baby is born in January.

Second question ... is MBUX AR for Navigation necessary. We left it off but I am thinking about adding it on. Could it push out the build date if I added it now?

 

AR is pretty useless for navigation honestly.. it only works with MBUX navigation and not google/apple maps, etc. I'm in SoCal where we do have tricky offramps for the freeways here, so maybe you'll find it useful once in a long while.

 

I believe it gives you full screen Nav though?

 

Tricky intersections are where AR is the most confusing.
You have to look away from your driving situation to study the visuals (not just a glance).
IMO, the worse the intersection, the more unsafe.

 

I ordered a gle450 4matic amg Nov 2021, they said the built would be Jan. 2022, then delayed until Apr 2022. when April came, they said no ETA because war or chip shortage. I almost cancel it and went for BMW. but I still like Mercedes interior better.
so I waited. they notified me built started at June. then I got the SUV last week.

they removed intelligent headlight option, and no option to add air balance package. I can live with that but not 100% satisfy.

 

Yes it does give you the full screen navigation in the driver's display. That is the one thing I should have added to my GLE but I thought it was standard because every GLE I test drove could do it at the time.

 

Thanks everyone for the replies. I am looking into whether we can add the MBUX AR for Navi, but I did notice that it says "delayed" in the ordering book. So we may not actually add it in if it causes a delay more than there will already be.

 

My recommendation is add it. There are more benefits as this will also allow for the full screen navigation on the driver screen as others have mentioned. It also uses a better version the MBUX screen in order to support video as well as graphics. In addition, you will have the dash cam included. I regret not having it on my '22 GLE 450 (had it on previous '22 GLE 350). Looked into adding it and it is a nightmare.

 

What about the MBUX Interior assistant? Is it of any use? Does it eliminate the eyeglass storage area in the overhead console?

 

I thought the eyeglass storage was eliminated regardless?

 

Depends on preference. I would personally never order it. Not sure it would ever work right and the gestures are limited. I would spend my money on other things.

 

We have the interior assistant on our GLE and while it’s not necessary, I really like some of the convenience it offers. Gestures are useful - we use them to turn on seat kinetics, which are fantastic on long drives. You can program certain gestures to do whatever you want. It also allows the system to know who is reaching for the screen, so when you are making adjustments in settings that are seat specific, it automatically goes to whoever is reaching. Finally, I love the feature that automatically turns on the interior light at night when I reach over to do something on the driver side (look through the glove compartment, for example).

None of this is a dealbreaker that I couldn’t live without, but the convenience is really nice, especially since we would never use the eyeglasses holder. Had a pair of sunglasses get damaged from heat in our old GLE in there, and never used it again, so it ended up being wasted space.

 

I have that interior assistant. No idea how it works but the light when reaching is nice. I will have to look into what else it can do.

 

So I heard back from the dealership, and he said adding the U19 (MBUX AV for Navi) would indefinitely delay my order and give up the production date. Reason he gave is when he called to checked on it, they told him that the option is currently unavailable and they didn't know when it would be available again.

 

Opt for it in any case and have the dealership contact MBUSA informing to continue production and have the option retrofitted at the dealership after vehicle delivery and once available. many have done this, proactively offered my MBUSA

 

Do you not have a car to use until you get the everything in a car that you want? My wife loves the MBUX AR Nav. I don’t order cars, but if I did, I would not go through all the time, effort and long wait and not get everything I want.

 

I’d give you mine if I could. Like others have said, in areas with a lot of roads that intersect, it’s tricky. It’s cool to see, but that factor is gone and I just use a more reliable Apple Maps. Don’t sweat it if you don’t get it.

 

I turned mine off and use the zoomed-in turn directions instead. It's way more useful.

 

Congrats ! I did a build last Dec and made one change a week later (color) and was told our build would build time would now be reset ... so went from a April delivery to June. In my experience there wasn't a delay in delivery/build time but a few things didn't make it when it was delivered to us ... MBUX AR (not really needed, it just basically over lays the street name on the head-on cam view of the intersection), AMG sport exhaust, and the multi-spoke wheels.

Currently was told they had an allocation for a 450 for dec delivery ... after going through the build/process now being told air-matic suspension is not available .. .unsure if that means air-matic is not available for 450s going forward or currently. Def not impressed and really looking to keeping current 350 GLE or move to BMW or Audi.

 

Thanks for the input. Audi loves their Q8 too much, it's pricing is whacko. Looks like Porsche/Audi did an MSRP increase over the last 18 months or so.

With respect to BMW -- I refuse to do business with any of the BMW dealerships in the Houston area. Great cars, but they have terrible representation in my area.

 

They aren't doing the retrofit anymore.

 

Airmatic not available for OCT/Nov builds

 

hmm weird I got a 2023 gle450 to start building in Oct and Dec delivery and was told it has airmatic.

 

You may be one of the lucky few. Option is still restricted.

 

Got a call from the dealer that they got a "prepare for delivery" for our car! Hoping we'll have it next week or so!