Sharing my experience.
just purchased a 2021 GLS 450. Waited nearly 4 months to get delivery.

This my experience
vehicle wireless charger does not work to charge an iPhone 12 promax. Both the dealer and Mercedes refused address and their point other smaller phone work.
They never told me about this before.
Please make sure you check with the dealer before you purchase if transparency matter to you

I configured and purchased multiple options in the build including the Augmented video. This was not added. And no one told me about it. Instead they applied a credit on the invoice without calling to let me know and give me the choice that it was not added.

A very bad experience with the Sevice rep from Mercedes as they refused to honor commitment of the build that was ordered. And to make things worse they did not even tell me about it.

I reached out to Mercedes and no help or explanation

my first experience was a very bad one with a company that suppose to be top of the line.

I bought what I thought was the best vehicle on the market. However lack of transparency in informing me about the missing items and the wireless charging made for a very difficult experience.

check every option that you ordered before you trust the seller and sign the check. I did not expect this with such a brand. You can choose to trust the dealer but verify. Some delays like the one I dealt with not worthy of my trust as they did not let me know and give me the choice.

a bummer. And not very nice experience.

you may have to ditch your new iPhone 12 promax if you want to use the wireless charge option which was suppose to be a good selling feature. By they way this works ok on my other vehicles. Not sure why the GLS 450 charger does not work on supposedly a top of the line car.

worst of all is that they don’t even seem to care and their lack satisfactory response to me was a shocker to say the least. Not my expectation of such a brand

they got me for this one and lost me as a potential repeat customer

 

Same issue was on the GLE 450 forum about the wireless charger. Person said there was an updated part and his IPhone12 plus started charging when part was replaced at dealer.
Find the thread on the GLE section.
Other issues you have…..sorry🤷🏻‍♂️

Here you go
https://mbworld.org/forums/gle-class-v167/810275-iphone-12-intermittent-charging-issue.html

 

Im worry to hear about your two issues. I imagine it’s very frustrating after purchasing an 80k plus vehicle.

Just to add some commentary on the AR Nav thing, unfortunately due to the chip shortage, almost no GLE/GLSs have been built with that or the dashcam. It’s bad in your dealer to not communicate that with you, although I believe they don’t know on each particular car until it reaches the VPC and the final build sheet is made, at which point you’re only days away from delivery. So, not to make excuses, but it’s possible they only had a few days notice that yours was built without functioning AR Nav. The good news in once more chips are available, your dealership should reach out to you so they can add the chip and activate that feature.

As for the phone charging, I hate to be rude, but in retrospect that’s probably something you should have figured out before you purchased the car. The dealership had no responsibility to see that you had an XL phone and tell you the wireless charger was small, especially because that would clearly cost them a sale.

In the grand scheme of things, these are two very minor things that hopefully won’t ruin your ownership experience very much. You still have an amazing luxury SUV and I hope you enjoy it and use it in good health. I understand your desire to let out your frustration and warn others, but I hope you can move past that and enjoy your vehicle! And if this is what for you constitutes a horrible user experience, then I’m jealous of all the other experiences you’ve had!

 

Sorry to hear about the experience. Mercedes dealers are truly bottom of the barrel.

Mercedes products are close to bottom of the barrel in terms of new car delivered quality and medium-long term reliability. Any other carmaker beats Mercedes by miles on these aspects.

But they sure are nice to look at.

 

You're really not missing much with the AR Nav, I have it in my car and I really dont care for it. Not saying that you shouldn't be upset, but really its one of the more gimmick features of the car.

If your dealer isn't willing to diagnose the wireless charging, I would recommend you to go to another local dealership and give it a try. It's not uncommon for us on this forum to try out other dealers if one wouldn't budge on an issue. Just because one dealer isn't willing to look into it doesn't mean another won't. Good luck!

 

There is a fix out now for the charging issue with iPhone 12. A dealer can apply a software update to the wireless charger. The topic number is LI82.70-P-073025.

As for the AR, there's a shortage on that unfortunately. MB doesn't notify dealers when options are removed, so they honestly probably didn't know until the window sticker showed up.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience. that's terrible.

AR is not that useful, so you're not missing much there. I know that's not all the reason that you're pissed. it's the process f-ups.

if you're CarPlay user like me, the wireless charging is stupid anyway. no wireless CarPlay so I have to plug the phone in ANYWAY. which renders wireless charger meaningless.

the MBUSA support is complete garbage. I totally agree with you. I've had terrible experience regarding my AMG delivery earlier this year. both MB-Europe and MB USA executive support teams are insultingly worthless.

in my experience, your local dealership experience largely depends on your rep.
your rep should have stayed on top of tracking your order throughout the process.
MB factory force changes stuff and don't notify the ordering dealerships. that's unfortunately normal and that's not your dealer's fault.
but if your dealer rep is doing his job well, he would have caught that change at some point and should have ran it by you.
the only thing the customer can do is to cancel the order at that point.
even after the vehicle arrived, if you weren't happy with the forced change, you probably should have refused to accept the delivery and walk away.

I'm sorry to hear about your terrible experience. it is truly frustrating to deal with MBUSA.

 

unfortunately, dealers doesn't need to be considerate of anyone's feelings in these times. if you say you don't want the car, they'll just turn around and sell to someone and probably for more.

out of curiosity, had the dealer had contacted you and told you AR nav was no longer available because of chip shortage, what would you have done? not ordered the car? wait until it becomes available? demand that they add it?

i understand that it may have been the courteous thing to do, but they may not have been privy to that info either, and possibly not until the car showed up on their lot.

as for the wireless charging - i'm not sure how you get a 12 max into that slot. i have a pretty slim case and can't dream of having it charge in there. that was just a poor(ish) design choice - that entire compartment with the cupholders and the usb-c slots.

 

I have a ‘21 GLS 450 on build (waiting for VIN / build date was Aug 18th). I had ordered the AR feature. My sales guy called me 2 weeks ago with the bad news that due to Chip shortage AR would be removed. I wasn’t happy but get it. So looks like some reps call and some don’t.

hopefully rest of your ownership is enjoyable.

re: sales and service quality, I was with BMW for a while, then Volvo and now MB. It’s not that different at other places. I have realized that it’s important to find a trustworthy indie shop for service and take the car there for service versus dealership.

 

Exactly! That is why ours has never once seen a MB since the day I drove it home some 30,000 miles and 12 months ago.. it gets serviced by the same folks who service my 7 year old W212, other than any warranty work, which has yet to happen, although preparing for a visit next week for a split seat cover, broken HVAC fan (sounds like lawnmower at anything over 30% speed, and unnatural window movement on drivers side window). So, we’ll see. Last time I had the 212 in was for a recall on bad steering rack bolts, and even though the ticket said a alignment was performed, it was so badly out of alignment after the new bolts were installed, it was obvious. Instead of taking back yet again for free, I just paid my guys to do it right the first time, which they did.

 

My daughter has a GLS450 on order from the same dealer where we got my wife's 2020 GLE450. Her rep called and told her that Augmented Video would not be available. When she asked me about it, I said not to worry since I find it to be a bit of a gimmick that I rarely look at on the GLE. As for the large phone not fitting, it's pretty plain to see that the charging space is only big enough to hold a normal sized phone.

 

So when you:

- test drove, or
- sat inside one, or
- inspected one inside the dealer floor,..

you did not put your phone on the charging bay?
A simple two second inspection would have told you that your phone was too big for the bay.
At least thats what my wife did.

As for the AR Nav feature... you are not missing anything.
I don't even notice this option.

Good luck.

.

 

I hesitate to jump in, but...
Mine is a 2021 GLS63.
I have an iPhone 12 Pro Max.
I use an Apple leather case.
I have no trouble charging the phone in the wireless charging bay.
It is a tight fit! But it works.

If you use a case that is even slightly bigger - it would not fit.

 

Charges my samsung Galaxy note with aplomb. Crappy Apple🤣