My gls 450 is now two years old. Got the 6 seat config with center captain's chairs. Noted upon delivery the center armrests seemed flimsy and somewhat wobbly. They became more and more so. Under typical circumstances would have brought this to the dealer's attention, however, enter the pandemic. Let's just say my wobbly armrests literally took a back seat. They eventually came off by summertime. Took it in at that time and service guy(different one than we normally deal with) nonchalantly said "no problem, let me order the parts and we'll get back to you." Of course a few more COVID spikes and lockdowns later, hadn;'t heard anythingFinally had this looked into again, expecting this would be a simple warranty repair. Was shocked to find out from the service guy( with whom we have had a long relationship with) that armrests were evaluated by in house mechanics and by a company which makes determination on warranty issues for MB ( some sort of insurance type thing from my understanding) with the finding that internal damage to the armrest socket was found and that this precluded warranty coverage. Was told that it would be over $2000 for each armrest as repair would require replacement of the whole seat frame. I reiterated that the car came with the armrests loose and that they were subjected to entirely normal use. Yes, I have small children, but none of them used these as parallel bars. Even so, these things should be engineered to essentially be bomb-proof given the likely wear and tear they will see. Took it as far as I could with the dealer as well as MB USA customer service but got nothing. Though I might have some leverage considering this is my fourth GL/GLS. My only avenue would be if the NHTSA issues a recall based on a faulty design or multiple people having the same issue. I truly believe the design is flawed based on lack of durability as well as the difficulty and expense of replacement. Wanted to see if any one else has had issues with the armrests so maybe I can start what seems like an uphill battle.

 

One of the second row armrests in my 6-seater GLS 580 is also not functioning properly. I examined it and there is a plastic part interior to the armrest assembly that broke, causing the armrest to droop down. If you tighten it enough, it will stay up for a while, but I would not say it is functioning properly. I have the vehicle at the dealership for service right now and I asked them to look at this issue as well. They said it "should be covered under warranty unless there is physical damage." I'll update you when I hear back from them.

I share your feelings that the part it not designed properly. We don't use the armrests in any kind of a crazy way, we just use them to rest our arms on. If the part is not able to stand up to that type of usage, obviously the design is faulty since that is the primary purpose of armrests.

 

Just to add some additional thoughts. The 2nd row armrest is shown as $398 in leatherette and $685 in leather on mbparts.mbusa.com:

https://mbparts.mbusa.com/oem-parts/...JjaCBSZXN1bHRz

At one point our armrest fell off and I had to put it back on. It did not appear to me that it would require replacement of the entire seat frame to replace the armrest, even if it were not already broken. However, I could be wrong about that. The fact that they sell it separately and the parts diagram shows how it attaches makes me believe that it is a separate component from the seat frame.

 

The drooping down is how our issue began as well. I contended that if any socket damage existed it was due to the flimsy design which may have led to additional damage. Good luck! Lmk how the repair goes.

 

that is interesting because a few weeks ago i went to look at a CPO 580 and inspected it for flaws and one of things i noticed was that one of the armrests felt extremely loose and wonky. the car had 20k miles, about 18 months old. in general the armrests (even the good one) seemed really cheap and loose. it just felt like a really badly designed afterthought. i agree with you - these things should be able to withstand some level of abuse considering this is a family car and many buyers will have children going back and forth between the captains chairs.

the dealer said they would fix or replace them, but i'm glad i passed on it considering all the trouble they are putting you through now! good luck with the warranty claim . i hope they make it right for you!

 

I picked up my car this morning from the dealer. It sounds like they intend to repair the armrest under warranty. They said that the armrest is backordered and is a "constrained part" though, so they need to send a picture of it to Mercedes before they will send them a replacement. Hopefully, there will not be any issues when they send the pictures to Mercedes. I will definitely not be happy if they try to blame their poorly designed part on us.