Thought I would chime in on our ownership experience so far with our 2020 GLS 450. Overall, we really do enjoy the car! It has turned out to be what I had hoped it would be - a nice place to spend time. We've racked up the mileage so far since picking it up brand new in September 2020 (43k). It will likely see 250k before we decide to replace it.

Ours is the midnight blue with the 21' wheels. MBTex interior (beige). Options are pretty standard, but we do not have the driver's assist where it has laser cruise control, lane keep, etc. We didn't want that option anyway, not for us.

Overall, it's a great cruiser! The seats have softened up and fit us perfectly. It tracks down the highway with ease, and is very quiet and smooth. I do think it has worn in quite well in that regard. It seems to have loosened up a bit and glides along better than it did when it was new. It seems and feels more settled. But that might be due to switching over from the Pirelli tires to the Michelin's. Honestly, I have zero regrets about spending nearly $90k on a car. That's a big chunk of change for us, but we're glad we pulled the trigger. Usually as a car ages with us, I grow tired of it. It loses it's luster, and slides from a gem to an appliance. But one thing about MB that I have learned with my W212 is that age isn't an enemy in the smiles department. They age very well in terms of appearance and placement in the market place. I think this GLS will certainly do the same.

A couple of nits that have annoyed us...

First - the downshifting when coming to a slow/smooth stop. It is not an easy car to stop smoothly sometimes. That kick-down from 3/2/1 is annoying sometimes. I attribute it to the hybrid system though and the regeneration system. Not a deal breaker for us, but it's annoying for the "car guys" out there.

Second - Tires. I'm not a cheapskate here, but it does indeed like to eat tires, especially if you're on the staggered setup like we are with the 21' rims. I'd say 25k before you start getting in that grey area of comfort to the wear bars. Can likely stretch it to 30k miles, but it seems to be the rear's that get eaten up at nearly twice the rate as the fronts. We're on our second set here, and I suspect our third set it coming within 10k miles. We might check out the Continentals next, now that I think they make a set for this car. On the flip side to this part though - no worries about not being able to rotate them. They wear out before that even becomes an issue in general!

Third - a couple of build quality issues have popped up. The seats in the front have now both split on the entry bolster piece (MBTex). Real head scratcher on that one from MB after how many years and countless others. I'd of thought they could have figured that out by now! And we've had an issue with one of the power windows with a defect in assembly of the track. In the grand scheme of things though, neither of these minor issues has done anything but just annoy us a little bit. Nothing major.

Would I buy this car again? Absolutely! Especially when you consider the comp set it competes in. Who would have ever thought a flagship Mercedes Benz SUV would be seen as a viable option in terms of affordability when compared to the domestics of Chevy, Lincoln, and now Jeep (Wagoner). I have 0% regrets with buying it.

 

The GLS does look nice.

Re: transmissions. MB boxes are junk. Poor shift quality is reported across MB vehicle platforms and transmission models. MB should throw in the cards and turn this over to people who know what they are doing: ZF and Aisin.

Re: tires. The GLS has inherited its tire eating habit from the 166 and 164 platforms that preceded it. It's due to MB's design choices related to wheel alignment and tire size, structure and compound. They don't want the vehicle to swap ends when changing lanes on the Autobahn when Karin and kiddos are strapped in. The result is tires go to Heaven pretty quickly.

 

Great review! That's a lot of mileage in a short time. Quite frankly, 25-30k for tires doesn't seem that unreasonable to me. As usual, that means just one change at the mid-point of my lease.

 

Yeah I agree, 25k isn't the worst in the world. But wouldn't mind a little more out of them, and probably could squeeze a few more drives from DC to NC, but I typically don't push it on tires in general. Once they get to about 1/8th from the wear bar, they're replaced, which is around 25k for us on the 21' wheels. So basically once a year give or take for us. I can't really complain though. It ain't a Toyota, and I shouldn't expect some elements of it to perform as such.

Given where prices are and likely to hang for a couple of years here, that lease you have might just be a golden ticket when it comes time to return it or buy it out. Chances are the residual number you've got in the lease is going to be well below market value, assuming no extraordinary circumstances of course. We paid around $86k for ours in 2020 after a 6% haircut (basically the sales tax). I could sell it today for in the $70's with over 40k miles on it. That's insane!

 

Exactly what I've been watching. I've got both a GLE and GLS under lease. If prices stay high, I should do well to buy them out and sell at that point.

 

I saw it on the news just this week of folks with leases coming due sitting pretty now!

we really really love this GLS! Hope to have it for a very long time, even if it costs us a few grand in repairs along the way. I told my wife when we started shopping that she could have whatever she wanted inside of $100k, but it needs to be something that in 5,6,7 years when it needs a $4,000 bill, that you’d rather spend the money to keep it than spend to replace it. Tired of buying cars!

One of the things we really enjoy with Mercedes is that, it’s a Mercedes Benz only. It’s not a “luxified” Toyota, or Nissan, Honda or VW. You’re not going to look under the car and see “VAG” stamped on the control arm of your $80k Audi. A Mercedes’ Benz is just that, and only that. And we like that! BMW is like that too, but we’ve never owned one. Maybe one day, but I’ve not met a lot of folks who still like their BMW after 7 years as I’ve met with the MB crowd. They seem to absolutely love them during the first few years, but replaced them around 5 years. At least the ones I’ve met. My 212 is now 8 years old (only 60k miles), and I’d stroke that $4k check in a heartbeat to keep it. I hope the same with this GLS (although obviously going to have a boat load more miles on it!)

I remember when I went to the dealership to pick up our GLS, a guy was cleaning out his 2012 GL450. I asked him how he liked it, and he adored it! Said he was there to pick up his new GLS450 as well. His 2012 GL had close to 450,000 miles on it!