I'm not a 'car' guy and have never really cared what I drove. Last year I decided for the first time to splurge and buy a 'nice' car so I configured and ordered a 2022 GLS 450 from Hendrick North Lake in NC. I wish I'd kept my 2010 Lexus with 200,000+ miles on it.

The first thing I noticed was some indentations on the seats of the third row; there are two of them. I figured it was probably from my daughter or one of her friends' clothing pushing in on the seat cover.

But then I started hearing some popping noises throughout the vehicle when driving, stopping, driving, turning, etc. So I made an appointment to have the sound looked into as well as see if something could be done on the damage on the seats done by a passenger. When I dropped the car off, they looked at the seats and said it looked like it was damage from a passenger but they would look around.

They ended up finding that some wires/cables with the plastic screw like anchors were not anchored, and the tips of those were pressing against the seat covering whenever I'd put the back row of seats down. So a manufacturing defect. They had someone fix the seat cover by heating it and smoothing it. They couldn't hear any of the pops I had heard so they asked me to come drive it with them.

When I did they not only heard the pops but also some sort of rattle in the steering column. The pop ended up being a bad pinch weld (no idea what that is) and they ended up replacing the steering column. To fix the pinch weld, they used some screws of some kind after tearing part of the car interior apart. This was all with less than 3,000 miles on the car.

Immediately I heard more pop noises. I called and talked to the service manager who explained to me what a pinch weld was and that a 'paper' had been issued for several models. I said 'so this is a known defect', he said 'no, blah blah blah', I said 'so why did a paper get written?'. No answer.

So I've still got the popping noises; there are at least three different locations.

I've had four instances of the air conditioner not getting cool unless I crank the temperature all the way down; if I then bump it up one degree hot air comes out. They can't reproduce this and treat me like I'm nuts. And usually I can't get heat to come out unless I set it to 75 and if I bump it down to 74 I get cool (not cold) air.

And then today, I'm driving in the rain and the vehicle is all over the place so I swing by the dealer to see if they can go for a ride with me. They look at the vehicle and come back to let me know the tires have no tread. These are $650 / per tire tires and I have 10,100 miles on the car. The service dude I spoke with says 'yep, that's about right; usually they're good for 15,000 miles at the most. So I'll be changing tires more frequently than oil and the Pirelli tires aren't cheap.

This is the worst car I have ever had and I so regret buying it. I feel suckered and stupid. I also cannot believe there are $600 tires that only last 10,000 miles but the friendly Hendrick service guys say that's right. I can't be without transportation and the first date they have where they can get me a loaner to replace my 12 month old tires with 10,000 miles is six weeks from now. So crappy car, crappy service.

I can't imagine this is anything close to normal for Mercedes, but this is my first and will be my last MB purchase.

I know I'm not asking a question and am venting. But has anyone every heard of anything like all of these problems?

 

Your venting is understandable, your comments are spot on and you are not alone in your views. Mercedes-Benz, sadly for all involved, is a low quality manufacturer.

 

Sorry to hear of your experience. 10,000 miles on tires is poor by anyone's standard. Is you tire wear across the entire tread, or, just partial, i.e. inside only? We have two 2016 GL450 that have been good vehicles. One has 110,000 miles and the other is at 55,000. Other than brakes and engine mounts they have been very reliable. We are getting way more miles out of our tires and we drive on very poor road surfaces as well as unpaved roads. Ours initially wore the inside of the front tires prematurely. I eventually took it to someone other than Mercedes to have four wheel alignment and the problem was solved. I have been on the fence for a newer GLS to replace the high mileage GL, but, seeing the issues people are having with the ones being built in Alabama, and very poor service and parts availability from Mercedes has me looking at other options. The company has really gone downhill and I've lost complete confidence in them. I hope you can get your issues resolved.

 

Can't help much with the noise but regarding the tires, my experience was similar: Got the car in Oct 2020 and my tires reached their end of life by Nov 2021 with around 10K miles. I've heard that the factory-installed tires on these cars are meant mostly for a quite ride (which is irrelevant in your case with all other noises) and they don't last long.
You do not have to get their expensive tires and end up with the same short life though. I replaced all 4 tires of my GLS with some cheapo 275/50R-20 Toyo Proxes ST III XL and it came out under $800 total, conveniently installed on my home driveway by Tire Rack. It's been almost a year and half and they are holding up ok. Just shop around.

On a side note, at least my 2020 GLS does not eat through the brake pads as my last 2017 GLS used to do. With the old car, I had brake service more often than oil changes but this one has 29K miles on it and so far no brake service needed. I heard that was also a side effect of smooth ride quality and braking, but I'm guessing the regenerative braking in the new GLS is helping out with prolonging the life of brake pads. Good luck!

 

Just curious as to tire sizes only getting 10k miles? On the W222 forum, the poor tire mileage is with the larger tires, and particularly the staggered sizes (many with the sport option have staggered 20" tires that cannot be rotated). I'm hoping to get much better wear from the 19" wheels on the 20 GLS I bought in November.

 

Sorry to hear about the issues OP, due to the weight of the car (not saying it is normal) the tires do wear quicker, there are better wearing tires you could go aftermarket or like others suggested downsize. Getting rid of run-flats usually helps. Another thing is if things aren't getting solved, execute buyback under lemon law.

 

I'm curious about which tires folks have fitted? I've always stuck with the OEM Pirellis for my GL and GLC, but they do wear quickly (I blame my spirited driving). Coming from Europe, 40000 mile tires are unheard of there, so I never thought much of changing them every 15k miles or so, but if there are ways to double the tire life with different rubber, I won't be upset...

 

Folks, MB vehicles eat tires because MB uses excessive negative camber. This is well known and well documented. It's one of many poor engineering decisions made by MB.

High negative camber is a safety/security/stability increasing choice, for a high center-of-gravity vehicle laden to GVW making an obstacle-avoidance manuever at Vmax on the Autobahn.

Trixi, grandma and kids would be more likely to swap ends at 250kph without high negative camber. But a bad choice for the US market.

 

My wheels are 23 inch and according to the service manager that I spoke with today, this is typical for that size of wheel. My options for decent tires are the Pirelli tires I have, another set of Pirelli's without the foam inserts (for a more quiet ride) and a Michelin tire. They're all within $50 of each other and the Michelin's are more expensive. The service manager said 10,000 is about right, and that all of the tires are similarly rated. I am not sure what the wear pattern is, but both of the rear tires are nearly shot and the front might be ok. The tires can't be rotated either, which voids any sort of treat warranty.

If you're thinking of buying one of these vehicles, my advice is do not and if you do anyway, do not get the 23 inch wheels. Like I said, I completely regret this purchase.

 

They are 23 inch wheels. What type of aftermarket tire could I go with if I don't keep buying the Pirelli's?

 

I mean that is true, also reason why wheels keeps on cracking, vehicle was designed on the smooth pothole-less autobahn.

 

Downsizing to 22s will not look as good though if that matters, obviously going all the way down to 19s will wear the least but you need to find a good balance of aesthetics and tire longevity. I am not sure if you want to go aftermarket entirely, because if you don't and sticking with 23 wheels, you can't downsize the tire size. You could also consider aftermarket camber adjustment kits, I seen some forum sponsors here but I forgot who it was and not sure how good they are and if they are enough to be worth it.

 

Just looked at Tire Rack; interesting site and thanks @rayzam for the reference. All of the options they have for me appear to be 285/40-23 (front) and 325/35-23 (rear) are pretty much in line with what the dealer is going to put on in terms of cost...maybe $30 cheaper per tire. I'm in a bind and need to get the new ones on so I feel safe hauling my family around so I'm not going to try to save $120-$150 right now, but maybe that is an option going forward.

I also thought about downsizing but I'd not go down to 19's. Maybe...just need to solve this problem the first time quickly.

Thanks for all of the information. I really thought was being fed a line of BS by the service rep; apparently not.

 

The 23 inch wheels are your issue. Larger wheels and high performance tires buy you very short tire life, this is true of Lexus vehicles too. Lexus vehicles with low profile tires have the following warning on their windows when delivered to the customer:



If you want longer tire life you should downsize the wheels.

 

True, and doubt any 6,000lb vehicle on low profile sport tires at 23” will survive very long in general.

but that being said, once you do a staggered setup, the rears will go nearly twice as fast. We have the 21’s which are staggered. We use michelin tires. Rears last 25k miles, and Michelin notes that with their warranty. Reads that normally warranty is for 50k, but if staggered, then it’s 25k.

 

Yes I suggest downsizing, I did mention 19 but I realized you might not want to, keeping 23 will just wear tires too fast as others also confirmed, if you do still consider downsizing, you could consider 21s.

 

Apologies for what is likely a dumb question. What is a staggered setup?

 

There are no bad questions. Staggered means the size of the two tires in the front is not the same as the rear, meaning the tires on the rear are usually bigger than the front (staggered), if it was squared it would mean the tires on all four wheels are identical in size makes tire rotation a breeze, staggered you can still rotate but you can't rotate from front to back. If you have directional tires, forget about rotating, directional tires are usually found on winter tires with an arrow showing direction of rotation.