Benz Werd

Hello fellow MB lovers!

After just over 4 years in my 2013 ML500 and 55,000kms I took another huge plunge today and ordered a new GLS500 in Iridium Silver which will take approximately 6 months to arrive.

Ideally I wanted to just replace my ML500 with a new GLE500 but unfortunately I missed the boat as MBAuP dropped the GLE500 from the GLE-Class range here last August. So to have a new car with the 4.7l V8 engine I had to spend roughly another $42k for the GLS instead.

I considered a GLE63s this time, and was fortunate to have one overnight on an extended test drive, and then a GLS500 the following day overnight also. The GLE63s was a total beast but I'm not so young anymore and I found the GLS500 to be more suitable, and it was cheaper than the GLE63s by about $15k.

As I did previously when I ordered the ML500 in late 2012 I have ordered the GLS500 with almost every option available as well. The only exceptions are the AMG interior line (chose porcelain/black designo instead), heated steering wheel and Bang & Olufsen sound.

Once again the countdown begins while waiting for delivery.

Look forward to sharing pics etc when she finally arrives!

Cheers folks ...

Alsocute

Hi AussieBenzLover!

Congratulation on your new GLS500.

I also ordered a GLS 350d Sport in Dec 2016, expecting a late May delivery. Finger crossed I have been told that they have allocated a build date for on in mid-March, so hopefully my car has been built by now.

Would love to have a GLS 500, but it is just out of my budget.

By the way, I am also in Australia, but in Sydney

When are you expecting yours?

Benz Werd

Hello Alsocute,

Thanks for your feedback!

Yes, exciting times ahead for both of us.

I expect delivery in August/September 2017. It's a long wait but I know it'll be worth it.

Although when I ordered my current ML500 back in June 2012 they said 4 months, but it took 7 months so I didn't get it til mid January 2013, but it was fine because at least I got 2013 compliance.

Shame you couldn't extend your budget to the GLS500 as it's got so many more features apart from just getting the bigger engine, but the GLS350d is loaded up as well so I'm sure you won't be disappointed. At least your fuel costs will be a lot less than mine!!

Please share pics of your new beast when it arrives!

Have a great day and safe driiving mate ..... cheers

Alsocute

Hello AussieBenzLover,

I would love to have a GLS500 but it's just out of reach. Have to settle with the 350d. I did pay extra $10k for the Sports version which does spec it up a little bit as well (in option wise).

It looks like that Aussie spec seems to have already included a few more options as standard when compare to US spec. (I know our cars based price costed more than the US spec, especially after the LCT)

One option that I personally want but both the Sales and wifey convince me not to get is the read entertainment package. Both of them said better to use the money for that option to get 2 holders and 2 ipads.

I did end up getting the panoramic sunroof and alarm as options. With the Sports kit, it already packed the AMG exterior and interior package plus the active curve system.

Likewise, please share pics...

Cheers mate.

Benz Werd

Thanks again Alsocute.

Sure will share pics when mine arrives.

Look foward to seeing yours hopefully soon. What colour did you select?

Is the GLS replacing your W204 C-Class?

My other half drives our C-Class mostly but I get to zip around in it occassionally, it's a great car as well!!

MB all the way for us!

Alsocute

AussieBenzLover,

We currently have 2 cars, one is the W204 C-class, while the other one is a 7 seat Peugeot 5008 MPV. The GLS will be replacing both cars as my other half hardly ever drive, so 1 car seems to be the better option.

The GLS will be a 775 Iridium Silver.

The C-class basically had been trouble free since the day we got it. It has never let us down.

To be honest, I am kind of worry how reliable the GLS will be after reading a few forum posts (like here, and some Aussie one), people have been complaining about they have experienced different issues with their GLS.

Eg. The AMG 21" wheels seems to have known issues with vibration at around 100km/hr or so.
The Active Curve System failed, and few owners (from Australia) complained that they have to take their GLS back to dealer multiple times to rectify issues and so on, make me a bit nervous whether my one will be the same...

Benz Werd

Ah, good choice of colour ... the same as me!!

I do love some of the other colours available too though. I seriously considered Citrine Brown, Obsidian Black or Cavansite Blue but in the end I chose Iridium Silver again as I believe it's the easiest colour to maintain and keep clean. My current car is Iridium Silver and I usually just have to give it a quick going over with my Gerni pressure washer and then wash the wheels by hand. If I do this every few days it generally stays clean and looks great! In just over 4 years I think I've only fully washed the car with a sponge and soap about half a dozen times, plus it always gets a good clean when it's at the dealer for service or anything else. In fact my previous M-Class & E-Class were Iridium Silver as well, but that was only by chance as I bought both of those second hand.

We've had no major issues with our C250 either so far ... it's coming up 3 years old soon, and just ticked over 30,000kms. Just a few small items which have been rectified quickly under warranty. We think we are lucky as it's one of the very first W205s that came to Australia in 2014 and it was built in Germany, unlike most of them are now out of the East London factory in South Africa. It's that Brilliant Blue colour which looks great when it's clean, but it does require a lot more time and effort to keep it looking nice. We had a 2012 W204 C250 prior to that and had no issues with that car at all, but we only had it for 2 years and sold it with 25,000kms on it.

In relation to what you said about reliability of the GLS I agree with you 100%. In 4 years I've had a range of issues with my ML, 2 of them quite major, one of them being the Active Curve System that you mentioned. During my last service back in June 2016 at 47,000kms and 6 months after my warranty expired I was told the Active Curve System pump was leaking oil and had to be replaced. Fortunately they covered the part under warranty still, but the labour wasn't free and it cost me about $1,500 on top of the service cost. I wasn't too happy about it, but the part was apparently close to $2,000 so it could have been worse if I had to pay for that as well. The other major issue I had was a rattle in the engine which at first I was told was normal, until I found some information on here from other members in the US with the same problem and then somebody posted a service bulletin about it so I was able to print that out and take it to the dealer and they they finally agreed there was a problem and they could fix it. They had my car for 10 days and had to pull half the engine apart but it was finally fixed in the end, and I'm sure they felt a little stupid as I was able to source the information on how to fix it via this forum, but they weren't able to get any information about it from MBUSA. This engine problem won't be an issue for you as it only affected the M278 engine which is the 4.7l V8 petrol, not the diesel.

Apart from that just little things went wrong such as the illumination of the little thumb wheel on the passenger side aircon vent stopped working so they replaced that, and the function to change the direction of the air coming out of the rear vents stopped working so that was replaced as well. All of this was fortunately during the warranty period.

The car has been flawless otherwise, and is a dream to drive and I really love it, but I can't wait to upgrade to the GLS as it's got so many more features as standard and is just a better all round car.

I have opted for the 3 year Agility Finance Program this time around, and that includes free servicing during the 3 year period and hopefully then I'll just be able to swap into a new one, and by then the new shape/model will probably be out.

Owning any car after the warranty has expired, especially prestige cars like MB, can end up being quite expensive if anything major goes wrong so it's always a scary time. My Dad has driven MBs nearly his whole life and he's generally had no major issues with any of them. I also have a huge family and there's a few other Benzes around and we all love them to bits! There's been a range of others like Audi, BMW, Lexus, Range Rover from time to time but all in all the Benzes have been the best by far!

However, it's very annoying that MBAuP doesn't offer any form of extended warranty after the factory warranty expires at 3 years. MBUSA offers it to US buyers, up to 5 years I think, and BMW does it here in Australia up to an additional 2 years I believe (I'm not sure about any of the other prestige brands though) so I wish MBAuP would at least do something about this. I have been asking about this for over 5 years now, but I always get told "we're working on something at the present time and customers will be informed if/when extended warranties become available".

Anyway, for now I'd better get back to work ... hehe

Have a good arvo mate

Alsocute

Yes, Iridium silver is always the colour I would go for. My C class was that colour. In fact, almost all the cars I owned (except the first car which was an Honda Accord) were silver. I did also considered Obsidian Black but at the end the decision was made for silver as it's easier to hide the dirtiness.

Got an email from MB today saying that my car was built on the 22/03 and is currently at port awaiting shipment, on track for delivery in mid May. (At least that's a piece of good news to me)

I do recall when I bought my W204 C, towards the end of the warranty period, they did send me a letter to ask if I would like to purchase extended warranty. So wonder when did they stop providing the extended warranty. I did ask about the extended warranty option, and the Sales mentioned that I can't get that on GLE or GLS (Not too sure if that's a hint about the reliabality :-) )

Searching on the Internet's forum also indicating that other large SUVs owners complaining about the reliability of their newish cars.... (Eg, Q7, Disco 4, X5 etc). Probably it may come down to having so much new technology may not be a good thing.......

I had a look on other large SUVs before getting the GLS. The usual contenders (Q7, XC90, X5, Discovery). The 3rd row of Q7 and the XC90 aren't big enough. Discovery 5 is too far away and after equipped with the options that I would like to have (close to what the GLS has), the price isn't too far away from the GLS. I was quoted about $125k on a Discovery 5. If I have to spend $125k on a Disco 5, I may actually spend extra $20k or so for the GLS. The X5 was never in consideration as it has the smallest 3rd row)

Finally, just a quick question. Not too sure if you have fitted any tow bar on your ML? If so, did you get it fitted at the dealer? And is it one of those that has a removable trailer ball mount (removable when not required) that you can take out the tongue when not in use?

Anyway, have a good weekend.

Cheers :-)

blazing928

Hi, I'm the Aussie with the GLS350 that is arguably the worst ever made!

At nearly $160k one would hope to expect something better... MBA are complete aholes.

My dealer has offered some extra warranty, so perhaps it is available?

We have fitted the Westfalia tow hitch. It's removable, same price as Haman Reece. HR can be height adjustable.

Yes car drives ok. Quiet & smooth, but the weekly fault list is something else!

Would've gone for D5 too, but was too far away, we ordered Feb 2016 delivered Oct 2016.
Even ordering was a debacle. Told it would arrive in May, so I call for update and was told the colour tenoritecgrey had been discontinued. Like where was the call about it.
I still think they flipped our car to someone else....then low range transfer case in short supply, then then then, well eventually the car arrived. Pity it did tbh.

Hope your cars are great, I wouldn't wish our experience on anyone.
I've had RR, still have our Cayenne, GLS is poor in build in comparison. Then again you could buy an X5 and keep it for too long arrrrrrggghhh

Alsocute

Hi AussieBenzLover,

It's been a while since last we chat. Anyway, just found out that the vessel which transporting my car arrive at Port Kembla (NSW) this morning. I guess my car had been unload by now as the vessel already heading to Port Melbourne now. So hopefully another 2 - 3 weeks from now till I will get my car.

Any news about yours?

Benz Werd

Hello again Alsocute,

I am so sorry for not replying sooner. I've had some issues with emails so I wasn't aware that there'd been some further posts, and I simply just haven't had a chance to come back to the forum for some time until now.

Firstly, in relation to your question about tow bars yes I have one on my ML, and it is a genuine MB supplied & fitted one. I had it fitted at MB Melbourne a couple of weeks after my car arrived in early 2013, and they did me a ripper deal of $950 supplied & fitted which was about a 1/3 of the normal price. It took them a good day & a half to fit it though as there's quite a lot involved apparently. It is slightly different to the normal Hayman-Reece towbars with the removable tongue that has the towball attached. This one is removable as well but it has a lock and key so it can't be stolen. I have never taken it off though.

I am hoping I can get a similar deal when my new GLS arrives soon, as I want a tow bar on that as well.

And yes, I have some news on mine ... I have got a build date this month now, and it should be here in July I've been told, so that's better than August/September which they said would be the worst case scenario.

I just sold my ML this week actually, which is a relief. Sold it for $16k more than the dealer offered me as a trade in, which I'm very happy about! And I sold it to the first person who looked at it as well, so it was nice & easy.

Very exciting times for you as it sounds like yours is in Australia now, so it shouldn't be long. I look forward to seeing pics.

One thing I am curious about though is the rear blind that retracts across the cargo/luggage area. My ML has this too, and also has the seperate cargo net that clips into two special holes in the roof, preventing any cargo from entering the cabin in the event of an accident, but all the GLS's I've looked at so far don't have this cargo net. However, according to the new specifications for GLS's built after 1 April this feature is apparently now included so I wonder if yours is going to have it too? This cargo net is important to me as occassionally I load up the back of the car almost to the roof if we're going on a long trip and I'm always confident that nothing is going to enter the main cabin area if we have an accident. Fingers are crossed. The dealer wasn't able to tell me much as they haven't seen a new GLS yet that has been built in early April.

Anyway, as always safe driving and happy motoring .... cheers from down south in cold Melbourne!

Benz Werd

Hello blazing928,

Thank you for all of that information.

Gee, I can understand your frustration. Do you mind telling us which dealer you purchased from? I do hope you're not going to say MB Berwick as that's where my new one is coming from.

I do hope our new GLS's are trouble free. I have never had a brand new car though that is faultless, there always seems to be some minor issues for the first year or so. My ML had numerous visits to the dealer in the first year, but at the time the W166's were a new model so there were some teething problems. Everything was covered under warranty of course, and I was always given a loan car, but it was a major hassle everytime as I'm based in the west and my service dealer is MB Toorak so it's a good hour each way, sometimes more in traffic. Since then the car has been pretty much trouble free though. I sold it this week anyway so it's not my concern anymore.

Anyway, thanks again for sharing your experience. Please let us know if any further issues arise.

I also agree that MBAuP can be total a'holes. I am so pee'd off with them for dropping the GLE500 from the range for no genuine reason. I believe it's to push us V8 lovers into a GLE63s instead to spend the extra money. Last year I was just about to order a new GLE500, and was communicating direct with somebody from Head Office here in Melbourne as I wasn't happy about there only being 21" wheels available, even if I was going to choose the ON & OFF-ROAD Package. I'm sure you would agree that 21" wheels are very impractical for a "proper" 4WD with low range. I eventually got them to agree to make 20" wheels available with a special order, but I had to order the car through the only remaining factory owned dealership (MB Melbourne) which was fine. I did wait for about another month after they agreed that I could do this, but in that month they dropped the 500 from the range and there was no way they would do one last special build for me. It would have been nice if they told me that I needed to order the car soon as it was being discontinued shortly. This was August last year. And there's been some other issues over the years with them that I won't go into now. But yes, they're so damn up themselves and seem to have this attitude that their cars are the best and they just know people will keep buying them anyway so they don't really give a hoot when you contact them with any concerns.

So now I decided to buy a GLS500 instead, but it has cost me heaps more $$$. I still prefer the size of the GLE though, but I'll get used to the GLS in time.

Interesting what you say about the build quality. I have a close friend with 2 Porsche SUVs. Both relatively new. A diesel Cayenne and fairly new Macan S. He used to get in my ML and say "wow, this thing is beautiful" and then when he drove it he was always "this thing is so much better to drive than both of my Porsches and feels like it's built better"! He says he's going to buy MB next time around. Each to their own I guess.

Cheers for now ....

blazing928

Hi ABL

dealer is irrelevant, they are marginal at best, but try hard. Loan cars are delivered when car is picked up, so I don't have to drive anywhere!

I have low range on GLS, great for slopes, our beach block is 23% in places and car is very good here. Better than Cayenne on cross slopes as GLS has more suspension travel.

I still maintain Porsche build quality is a long way ahead of MB, but each to their own.
Porsche Melbourne have been outstanding in any warranty issues.

I'm sure your GKS will be great, the ride& quitenes is great. Surely no other car could be like ours & I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Benz Werd

Hello blazing928

I have finally had a chance to revisit the forum and this post. Once again sorry I am very slow to respond!

I have also looked back and read your OP about your experience and now completely understand your situation.

FFS, your whole experience is disgraceful and I completely feel your pain.

I have been so fortunate over the years because all of my Benzes have been relatively flawless and great cars to own, as with the rest of the family. But from time to time I do hear from friends or other people how bad their Benz ownership has been and like yourself say they'd never own another one. From my perspective I am obviously very biast towards MB. I love the history and what the brand stands for but I am quickly waking up to reality and realising they're not the same company they used to be, sadly!

I also realise after reading back that we're dealing with the same dealer now, so that's creating a little anxiety at my end! Seems like they're doing everything they can to fix your issues though, so that's positive. So far my dealings with them have been excellent, so I hope that continues after delivery and with servicing!

I see that you haven't updated your post for a little while, so I'm guessing that you've either unloaded the car, or the issues have finally been sorted now!? Hopefully the later!

Looking forward to hearing from Alsocute soon also as their GLS350d has probably arrived by now!? Will be interested to see how their experience has been so far.

I am now getting a little excited as I think my car has been built already, or is about to be, but also nervous wondering if it's going to be a lemon!

Thanks for your input and feedback anyway!

Alsocute

Just fyi,

I am picking up my car tomorrow!!!!!!!!!

Less than 24 hours to go now

blazing928

Hi, gear box fixed after 6 weeks, new valve body & other bits.
cant be bothered any more chasing a fixed car, will just put up with the current faults and wait for service in October.

asI 've said before, I think mine is a one off POS, no one else has piped up with many issues....yet!!!

Benz Werd

blazing928 good to hear that things have settled down a bit for you. thanks for the update!

Alsocute that's very exciting! Look forward to seeing some pics if you have time.

Benz Werd

So I've had the car 2 weeks now and driven approx 600kms.

It's a total beast and I am very happy with it so far.

The amount of extra features & creature comforts on top of my 2013 ML500 are incredible.

The new 9-speed transmission seems to be a huge improvement over the 7-speed.

The porcelain designo interior is gorgeous, but I can already see it's going to require a lot more care & cleaning to keep it looking good compared the black designo leather I had in the ML. I would have preferred black again if was still available.

Fingers crossed now it's going to serve me well and not give me any major problems.

I haven't had a chance to take any pics yet, but I will post them when I do.

For now stay safe on the roads fellow Benz lovers ...