I apologize for the earlier false start on a poll to further help me in my decision. It's clear that quite a few people who don't own a GLS have weighed in on the "is a GLS right for me?" thread, and that's fine. However, here I'm trying to gauge actual ownership experiences. Thanks!

 

Question for clarification: are you that uncertain about owning this vehicle that you will make your decision based on the results of this poll?

Two words: caveat emptor.

 

Based on the 8 votes received so far (I did not vote) 87% of respondents who have owned the vehicle 2 years or more have been without the car for 8 days related to repairs.

Run from this vehicle.

 

Only 8 people have responded to the poll, this is hardly scientific lol

8 days over 2 years is not the end of the world IMO. I never had a perfect Lexus vehicle either.

 

I'm not reading the results that way. 7 people stated that they have been without their car for an average of three days or less per year. There is no option for selecting zero days (the MBWorld poll options are limited), and there is no way to tell how many days those seven people have been without their cars.
I'm also noting that NO ONE said they would not buy their car again if they could do it over, and all still expect to still own their GLS a year from now.

 

 

I bought the extended warranty and prepaid maintenance so I'm not sure how to properly answer this. I bought tires. Does that count?

 

When I left Lexus for Mercedes I anticipated that the car would have to go in a couple times a year for repairs...

 

?? What are you talking about? 0 people have said their car has been in for repairs for 8 or more days per year. 1 Person voted for the 4-7 days per years option and all other 8 voted for 0-3 days per year. I think you're reading the poll results incorrectly.

 

Good question...I hadn't thought of that! To be honest, my initial intent was to get an idea of what uncovered costs resulted from things "breaking," but I know tire life can be an issue with the GLS. Let's NOT include tires, but I'll think about questioning those respondents who had >$1k in costs.

 

I had a horrible ownership experience with a 2021 CPO GLS 580 I bought in December of last year with 7400 miles. Owned it for less than six months, during that time it was at the shop for a total of six weeks.

The main issue was the E-ABC suspension: it was noisy and felt loose in the right rear. Driving over potholes felt different on the left and right side, right side seemed to dip to the right when driving over a pothole. Left front tire started having tread peel off from left to right. Per Mercedes, noise from E-ABC is normal. Peeling tire tread was due to “road surfaces it has been introduced to”. I live in DC suburbs and find it very interesting my other vehicles did not suffer from this phenomenon.

When I bought the vehicle, the passenger seat massage function was inop. Check engine light came on during my first drive from Buffalo to DC. These were minor things, but still not what you would like to see in a 100K purchase.

A little over a week ago I picked up the GLS from service the last time ever and traded it in to a 2024 X7. BMW drives a lot better, finishes are better, tech is light years ahead and the even the 40i is quicker than 580, if only by 0.1s to 60 as measured by Car and Driver. Fuel economy in my driving is around 21 mpg where the 580 returned a dismal 14.7 mpg.

Anyone considering to purchase a GLS, I’m very happy to share more in detail.

 

I think that in part, new cars like this are so complicated and have such short market cycles, that it becomes ever more difficult to keep them reliable. Ask any reliability engineer - the more parts a system has, especially if there's no redundancy, the harder it is to keep the reliability high.

 

i live in the DC burbs as well. I believe you were subject to what I have learned over the last many years about our area - there are no good dealerships here, especially the Penske owned dealerships (Tysons being the worst of the worst). I could bring any of my cars into a MB dealership around here on fire, and they’d either say that’s normal, or they couldn't duplicate the problem.

Because you bought a “CPO” means absolutely nothing. All it means is they washed it, slapped some new tires on it, and parked it on the lot. That. Is. It. When I bought my E350 as a CPO with 21k miles, I had a PPP done on it a few weeks later, and was shown sheered off bolts holding the transmission pan, and two bent rims so obvious that you hardly had to spin the wheel to see the bends. But it looked shiny with a new set of tires. And when I went to have things fixed via the CPO warranty and/or tire/wheel warranty, well, lets just say on more than a FEW occasions they turned one problem into two. That is when I gave up with MB dealerships in my area. I asked an old man in a shiny 1990’s E320 at the gas station who he uses to maintain it, and I’ve been going there ever since. 0% problems. Our GLS has not been serviced at a MB dealership one time since I bought it new. I only use them for warranty claims that my indi can’t handle. And on the one occasion I needed to do that, I picked up a GLS with uninstalled parts and tools in the back seat, and a nasty door ding.

Chances are you bought a damaged car. Either damaged by the previous owner, or damaged by the dealership in an attempted repair. Only vehicles I have ever known in my entire life (50 years old) to throw chunks of tread, are damaged vehicles.

Glad you ditched for the BMW, and wish you many miles of Bavarian Smiles!

in terms of this poll and spending $1k-ish a year - I said yes mainly for the tires alone. But layering in oil changes and major service at 60k recently for all fluids/filters/plugs, jt averages out in excess of $1k. But that’s fine with me. It aint a corolla, but I doubt a corolla could ski down the autobahn on its roof at 90mph and not kill everyone in the car, which is why i spend the money.

 

Have you tried any of the dealers in MD? I have been pretty happy with Euro Motorcars...

 

Penske/MB service dealers in SoCal are also terrible. I avoid them whenever I can.

 

That’s where I bought the E, and had one service there whereby they did not reinstall the back plate on the front rotor correctly and within less than a mile from leaving, it had grooved my new rotor (that I installed months prior myself, so no help there). But, that being said, Ive heard far better stories out of that shop than the VA ones which are Penske. Also heard Arlington is pretty good too, but I don’t trust any of them anymore. Even went to one in Indianapolis after a pothole strike bubbled my tire. They installed another tire that turned out to be defective (after looking at it further, it was obvious that it had far more miles than the 500 I put on it on my return trip).

 

Geez, thats terrible...

I found a really good independent MB specialist in Rockville that was a referral from one of my clients. He has a 2000 S500 thats in incredible shape this guy takes care of for him. He did my brakes, and I'm going to let him handle all the maintenance on it from here on out.

I have had the same experience with them being unwilling to diagnose anything.

 

I would never dream of buying a used Mercedes.

And I wouldn't keep a new one for more than 3 or 4 years. These cars are money pits for repairs.

 

I would buy a used Mercedes no problem, certified ones have great warranties. Some models also are really reliable (my W222 S Class for one), depends on the model.

 

I have, that’s where the GLS spent all the time this year! They’re actually my closest dealership. They were not able to fix the suspension and let them it was on Mercedes, as they had to reach out to them for advice. Also they said per Mercedes suspension was completely normal.

I’d be very interested to drive another GLS with E-ABC, I’m 100% sure the rear is not supposed to make constant squeaking sounds when driving over speed bumps or taking tight corners…

 

Sounds to me like the eABC is just way more trouble than it’s worth

 

I'd second this. I've had a 2015 GL for 6 years and it has been flawless, relatively speaking, and is now at 105k miles. The rear air suspension and front brakes were the most recent work I've done on it, but with a bit of YouTube and the right tools it's easy and, honestly, all the tools I needed were cheaper than letting the dealership swap out just one of the corners' brakes. Still getting annual services at the dealership, but everything else is pretty self-serviceable. Now if I could make my own tires, life would be perfect...

 

I would certainly buy a used MB again as well. But instead of going the CPO route, I would just make sure a trusted Indi did a full PPI (pre-purchase inspection) and then buy an extended warranty if I felt I needed one. I would not trust the "CPO" program on its own to make sure everything is ok.

When we were shopping for the GLS, I initially wanted the previous style in the 550 configuration, but could not find one that wasn't 50k+ on the clock. But I really loved that squared off design with the AMG appearance features. Probably my favorite style of all of them. Also realized my wife and kids will be using it the most, so new was the only avenue to take in that regard.

 

I don't think I would trust a CPO either. It's nice it has an extra one year warranty but there are plenty of stories on these boards of member vehicles, with issues, getting traded in for a newer model MB. Those trades are getting CPO'ed and put back out there. In some ways I trust a non-MB dealer trade in more because they have to make sure they can sell the vehicle without any warranties. Like you said though, a 3rd party indie inspection is definitely the best thing you can do with any used or CPO purchase.

 

That's a good point - off-cycle CPOs may need to be avoided. Our GL was an off-lease CPO, just shy of 3 years old and I would not hesitate to do that again. I'd stay away from a 6/9 month old CPO.