Random impressions of 2020 GLS after roughly 2 months and 2,000 miles

Quality: no issues except - Key fob falling and staying asleep too easily. Sometimes (infrequently) a faint ‘squeak’ from a right-side roof pillar, or a rear right shock. Sometimes (infrequently) the profile selection option isn’t presented when first starting vehicle. Remembers last radio station but not if I had left it muted.

Pano roof: nice, adds significant light and openness to the interior (black leather). First car with this option, would order again

EQ Boost: smooth integration on starting, stopping, accelerating

Acoustic/IR comfort package: hard to objectively judge since it can’t be turned off for comparison. Seems like an improvement over previous 2017 model, but not a ‘wow’ change. The car is quiet, easily hear conversations and music. Summer will tell if IR shielding is any benefit. I would select option again

Heated armrests, etc: nice feature, would order again

Rear seat leg room and comfort: very good

E-Active Body Control: road surface dampening is very good but not ‘perfect’. Curve mode is nice around the hills of Pittsburgh (no straight, flat streets). Would order again

MBUX: reasonably intuitive after limited learning curve although some initial confusion activating some grayed out “inaccessible” features

Augmented navigation: helpful around complex routes and intersections in the city

Gesture control: I set it to repeat spoken navigation directions. Helpful in city driving to get an update of upcoming turns etc. without taking eyes off the road. Would order option again

Heads up display: very clear but not as helpful as I expected because same information is provided in many locations already. Toss up if I would get this option again

Soft close doors: first vehicle with this option, prevents discovering rear door was left ajar. Convenient, would get this option again

Magic vision: nice directed focus and frugal dispensing of washer liquid. Second vehicle with this option

Driver Assistant Package: impossible to verify everything is working but seems completely functional. Cross traffic is nice.

Hands free hatch: works consistently unless key fob is asleep
Improvements: make lowering when entering and exiting vehicle a constant option once selected. Improve key fob sleep sensitivity.

 

Thanks for sharing !

 

Thanks and Well written as peeps never say if they like an option or not...and give detail as why...

 

I logged about 2000 miles on my GLS580. here are my thoughts on some of these options you mentioned.

Rear Legroom. I agree that the legroom is plenty. but the seat back angle can recline a bit more. compared to some other competitors, the seat back for the rear seat is just a bit too upright to be comfortable. I wish it adjusts a few more degrees.

e-ABC: I love this expensive option. the curve leaning is super. I wish that they would let autopilot steering enabled under CV mode... it only works under Sport or Comfort mode.

Magic vision: the washer fluid squirt is only on one side. Audi took it to the next level and theirs does both sides and it even changes back and forth depending on which direction the wiper is moving. that works a lot better.

my only BIG wishlist item is that why can't MB link driver profiles to keys? this is not just X167. but across the entire lineup. the competitors automatically change the driver profiles depending on which key starts the vehicle....

lastly, CarPlay. why is CarPlay on GLS not full screen? I don't understand. my 2018 S560 is pre MBUX and that one is full screen. kinda going backwards....

overall, I love this X167 GLS. they really did a good job with this one.


just my 2 cents.

 

I was surprised by the key pairing to profiles. I am 6'1" and my wife is 5'4"...not a fun time getting into the car after she has been driving and I didn't select my profile fast enough (so the seat is moving to crush me). Coming from a competitive vehicle to MB, we did have the different profiles linked to our separate keys and there are some downsides to that working consistently. One big aspect is when you are BOTH in the car together and you approach the car from the same direction before splitting around to your respective doors. Often the car would glitch and just assume you are Driver #1 (which was my wife)...so it would crush me. All in all, it's not a perfect science and it should be something MB could push as a software update to at least fix the profile selection delays to alleviate some of our annoyances with profile selection.

CarPlay. Yeah, I agree. Also, I wish the resolution was as crisp as it is on my phone and MBUX as a whole. It seems like a blown out resolution so I could only imagine stretching it to fit the screen of the MBUX which is far more favored to ultra-wide instead of normal wide-screen would alter the resolution & aspect ratio of the images. Is it the same issue on the Android Auto or do they stretch to fit their apps on the ultra-wide screen?

 

You are able to link driver profiles to specific keys?
Mine does not. regardless of key we pick, the car would pull up the last profile used. and I agree the "choosing profile" screen does not come up fast enough.
I have the same situation, where my wife's profile would crunch me into the steering wheel....

How did you get your keys to remember the profiles? I spoke to my dealership and they told me that it can not be done.
my S560 behaves the same way too. no correlation between keys and profiles.

 

Sorry if I wasn't clear...I was agreeing that it was a missed opportunity to offer that function. However, I have had that function in other competitive cars to MB and it doesn't work very often.

I also think it's possible they COULD offer that to us in the future. The base firmware is available in the car (proximity) and it's knowledge of specific people in the car. What would have to change is the key itself. It would need to be smarter with upgraded firmware to the NFC chip and a simple software upgrade to MBUX. Everything else is there from a hardware perspective built into the car.

 

aha.
crystal clear now. I WAS hoping that you figured something out that I didn't know.
lack of this feature drives me nuts whenever we change drivers.

 

You might want to check yours. Mine squirts both directions.
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oops. you're correct. didn't look closely enough.