I only have one: The monthly payment. (LOL) We have owned ours almost a year. No problems, averaging 29.8 MPG. The smell of diesel, and dirty hands has disappeared since moving to Oregon.

 

I have two minor dislikes, which are not GLK250 specific:

1) Odometer / trip odometer don't have their own LCD. I don't like that you can't have the trip computer info up without having the ODO go away.

2) Climate control only adjusts in 2 degree increments. I have my house t'stat and my BMW's set at odd temperatures which the GLK won't do.

 

I don't like the panorama sunroof. The old and smaller sunroof had vent slats for air circulation without letting the sunlight in to bother you. You could simply tilt up the back of the sunroof for air circulation when driving or to let hot air out when parked without opening the screen. Not anymore - now you can open the rear of the sunroof with the tilt feature but the roller screen opens all the way whether you want it (or like it) or not. There's no louvers to vent warm air - not possible really in a roller screen.
I would go for the old setup and ditch the panorama and let the people in the rear (if and when) suffer without a glass above them and have the louver feature of the old regular sunroof.

 

You might be able to adjust your driving habits and get far better mileage. Our lifetime average on 34,000 km in our GLK 250 is 6.9 l/100 km, and I'm a way more aggressive driver than my wife so if it was 100% her driving, it'd probably be more like 6.5.

 

it is not the driving habits .. but rather more city driving vs hwy driving.. (Mississauga + Brampton areas...much better than Toronto)
Yesterday I got 6.4 L/100km ... drove about 50km city and 100 km highway also since it was a Sunday, less traffic on the road and highway. Best millage ever

 

1) No 2 speed transfer case with low-range
2) No Rear Locking Diff or Centre Locking x-case
3) No "off road" settings on CAN/US versions (descent control)

I take my boat and trailer up (and down) some very steep slippery inclines and for me, these features would make it an ideal vehicle for my needs. Euro versions of VW have these options but the North American market does not seem to be deserving of them?

 

My 2011 does have both at the same time...

 

Hmm...my 2015 definitely doesn't, so they took this functionality away...

 

We discussed this in another thread, but I get nothing like that on our 2014 GLK250. We are both seniors and do not drive aggressively. Almost never as high as 70mph and no rabbit starts.

We live in a semi-rural area, so no city stop & go driving. In winter, we spend 3 months in South Carolina. Here we do a mix of short shopping type trips plus some highway driving up and down the Grand Strand. Our mileage averages 30mpg or 7.8L/100km. On highway only driving, we might get up to 34mpg (6.9L/100), but usually 32mpg. In summer in Ontario on flat 401 highway we once got about 36mpg (6.5L/100). Car has done about 10k miles (16k km)

Others here quote much better mileage. Why would that be?

The less than expected mileage is one thing I don't like about our GLK250.

Others are:
- poor design of cabin storage areas
- Narrow rear doors and tight seating in rear. Cargo space narrower and smaller than most SUVs of this class - Can't lay a set of golf clubs sideways.
- lack of spare or runflats - had to buy and carry a collapsible spare.
- lack of light at lower console - have to take eyes off road to find climate control buttons (a safety issue)

Other thing, is that although quality seems good, it doesn't have the feel of a Benz! Our older cars still feel like Benzes. This feels no different than our friends Hyundai. In retrospect, we should have just leased an Asian SUV and used it as a utility appliance which is all we need. We have other Benzes that we appreciate more and drive most of time.

 

Only 3? I'm seriously disappointed in this Benz. I've had 3 MB and 2 Porsche's in the past, and this MB is way below par from them. He**, it's below some of the "common" car's I've had like my Dodge, Lincolns (classic), and Ford's. Not the quality (at least, not yet - I've only had it 2 weeks. 2011 GLK350 24,000mi), but the features, amenities, and what I'd normally consider basic equipment;

1. No door open indicator (had to pull to curb when I noticed the air noise wasn't from sunroof since it didn't chime or light a warning indicator, and then had to walk around until I found the partially closed door)
2. No open tailgate warning - two chips in the paint as car is quiet enough that engine noise didn't warn me before backing into the raised garage door) - I know, stupid. But still, not warning chime?
3. Owner's manual index needs to be seriously improved. Impossible to find anything in it without reading the entire section (and then not finding what you needed anyway)
4. Owner's manual won't fit in glove box with iPod cable installed (I mean, really!)
5. 12V only in places driver can't access
6. No 12v in center console
7. No lock on center console
8. No auto zoom on GPS
9. GPS won't take a full address at once - have to go through the same stupid (and slow) voice prompts every time. Seems to take 5 minutes to get one address in.
10. No "Find {POI}" command option
11. No Waypoints in GPS
11. Can't use Command to start guidance destination without switching to nav first
12. Evidently no automatic unlock (still trying to find out) on Park or Drivers Door open
13. Cruise handle in wrong position

That's all I've got on my b*h list right now. If I hadn't traded my Dodge in (and the buggers hadn't sold it that evening), I'd have taken the GLK back.

 

cjmoy, you probably have to click the UP/DOWN steering wheel to get to the ODO/Trip display (in Trip menu). If you're in Start or Reset, there is no ODO - just the trip.

 

I think it is the operator problems in your case half the time. Hell, you created 3 topics in 18 minutes and posted all your 350 problems into a 250 thread.

You just sound like a dodge driver lol

To stay on point, most of your items are just you disliking the design of the vehicle. Not sure why you bought something you do not like...

And everything else actually does exist and does work. For example both tailgate and door open indicators are present and it tells you exactly what door is open. You disliking the owners manual is just that. I find it sufficient enough. On 2014 250 the manual fits fine into the glove box and all the audio cabling is done in the center armrest anyway. There is a 12V in the center console sliding compartment as well in the center back console for the back row which are both reacheable without taking your eyes off the road. Master locks are on doors instead of centre console, which i find to be better spot as you have to open the door regardless lol... The GPS is a struggle, however it works well and auto zoom does not sound like a nessessity. There are both waypoints and POIs on the nav so im not sure what you are talking about. And this just made me laugh:
It is like saying the car wont drive without starting it first, or my phone wont dial without pressing a call button.
There is a full on automatic master lock, unlocks on park and locks on drive, so once again, not sure what kind of strip down made in china version you got sold on... and handle wrong position? Comon, is there really a right position for anything? You are just used to something else.

Oh well, just hate seeing stupid posts that pretty much say "this crap doesnt work". It works, you just need to educate yourself or test what it is you are buying prior to shelling out the money...

 

!!!!!!!!

 

You sound like a lemon, which is to say nothing about the vehicle it's self.

Most of this is trivial stuff, and a lot of it is user error.

 

I only have one gripe about my car...it's so much fun to drive

 

Well, the tone of the replies to posts is definitely not as helpful as it was for Dodge. In that forum, members posted helpful information on resolving problems. As for the 250, my mistake - reading the thread it seemed to cover more on the vehicle features than the engine. Pardonne-moi.

If I didn't like the design of the car, I wouldn't have purchased it. But liking the design of the car, easily noted from looking and test driving, is quite a bit different from purchasing it, and then finding all of the little things that you do while reading the manual the first night.

1. How does it tell you the door or tailgate is open? Mine does not. I tried to duplicate the "red dash" post about open doors while moving, but mine does not do that. It just turns the dome light on - no chime, no dash lights (red or otherwise).

2. 12V - Evidently my issues with the 12V in the 2011 were on point, if they changed in in your year.

3. There is no waypoint capability in the 2011 GPS - there are several threads in this forum on this topic (I have tried to find information on all of my "issues" before posting anything). If there are on yours - my issue is on point again, since they changed it.

4. Guidance - no, it's not the same thing. It's poorly written software. There is absolutely no reason the command system couldn't recognize navigation commands while in disk, radio, or phone mode - none. The fact is that the programmers were too lazy to do it. Every system I've used with voice recognition didn't limit the basic commands (start guidance, call xxx, etc) to only the function it was applicable. It was only within those basic tasks that the options were limited. It complete defeats the purpose of voice control, since you have to manually switch the mode.

5. Handle in wrong position - it's mentioned several places in this tread. Any button, handle, or wand that can be easily mistaken for another is in the wrong position, especially something like Cruise. And, as the post on the wrong position indicated, evidently enough people in Europe agreed since it was evidently mandated that the design be modified.

I posted multiple threads at once so each was in it's own thread.

Thank you for your support

 

The pre-2014 and the 2014 and newer cars are a night-and-day difference. Build quality also seems to favour the cars built in Bremen, Germany vs. those built in Egypt.


No qualms whatsoever about the new 250 Bluetec. I like it a hell of a lot better than the 350 (even the newer ones with the direct injection and the dreadful start-stop technology - the person who invented that shoud IMHO be shot). My only "complaint" is that MB didin't bring the 350 diesel to North America...

 

The 350 diesel in GLK would blow that car apart lol. You might as well start selling that as the GLK AMG. As is with 2.1L i feel that once the turbos are going it can give many cars a run for their money. That single turbo V6 3L on ML class is a wonderful engine. Ran it a few times while on loan from the dealer.

 

Actually - a GLK 350 diesel is available in Europe. It's a 3L, 24V V6 turbo that puts out 261 hp but has 457 lb·ft from 1600 rpm - that's exactly the torque figure that the C63 Black Series puts out once you wind it up to 5200 rpm. And, as most track junkies and racers know, horsepower sells cars but torque wins races. That thing will pull out a tree stump. I really wish we could get it here.

 

It feels fast, but it is unfortunately very slow

 

1) Design/coloring of analog gauges (speedometer, etc.): with white numbers on a silver background, they're very, very hard to read. (Yes, I can turn on the digital display in the center to show how fast I'm going, but I want to use that real estate for other info.)

2) Placement/design of climate control buttons: they're too low, and impossible to read. (Yes, it's simply in auto 95% of the time, but if I want to turn on the rear window defrost while I'm driving at 70mph, it's too damn hard to find that button, and distinguish it from the front defrost.)

3) Placement/design of the interior lighting buttons: illegible icons, and they're too close to too many overhead buttons. (More than once now, I've initiated a call to roadside assistance, when all I wanted to do was turn on the damn map light for my wife.)

4) Small luggage compartment: I wish the vehicle were just a *tiny* bit longer -- maybe 3"? -- with all additional space devoted to a larger cargo area. My 2012 Subaru Forester, which was only 1.2" -- that's inches, not feet -- longer overall than the GLK350, had 30.8 cu. ft. with all seats up, compared to 16.5 cu. ft. in the Benz. It also got better gas mileage, and cost about half as much. But would I go back to the Subie? Not on your life. :-)

 

Yes, the cargo area is definitely too small. My wife wants to have 1 or 2 more kids and I was like sure, but you're getting an E class wagon if we do

 

Oops, my apologies -- I just now noticed that the OP asked about the GLK250, not the GLK350 (which I own). I got carried away (and careless) because I saw other posts in this thread about the 350. Well, maybe some of my 350 gripes also apply to the 250. Dunno. Chalk it up to newbiness.

 

I find the only real drawback is the cruise stalk. My wife's 2010 C300 the stalk is over the top of the turn signal, on my 14GLK it's on the bottom. On my E320's the cruise stalks were on the top as well. Old habits die hard.

 

1) Rock splash paint damage - add MB mudflaps

2) Emergency Brake pedal rubber cover comes off easily when my shoes catch the lip when I get out of the car. Ordered the metal MB aftermarket pedal kit.

2) Run Flat 19" Tires. Low selection and high price. Thinking I will go with good non-run-flats.