I picked up my new ‘26 GLS 450 on Feb 2 and had a good delivery experience. I had some out of the area travel for about 10 days and was only able to conduct a thorough evaluation of the car on my return. I discovered some interesting technical details that I’m happy to share courtesy of a return visit to the dealership.

1. Digital Key. Despite my sales advisor confirming the availability of this feature on this car, and numerous web searches confirming the feature exists on this car, this new car does not have the digital key feature (https://www.mbusa.com/en/vehicles/mo...alarm%20system). I finally found a MB website that lists, by region, models with the digital key feature. I’ve included it here should anyone be interested: https://moba.i.mercedes-benz.com/bai..._US/index.html

It’s disappointing, of course, that it takes a customer to do the work of a sales organization to simply validate the availability of a feature promoted on the MBUSA website. Would appreciate any additional insight on this feature for this model.

2. 2nd and 3rd row ventilation. There are number of console, pillar and ceiling vents in the 2nd and 3rd row. I did some testing to ensure the vents performed as expected. I found that my understanding of these vents needed some calibration. It’s still cold here in Northern Virginia and I tested the 2nd row and 3rd row ventilation separately. A heat setting of about 75F was set and with the car warmed up, I noticed very little air flow from the pillar and overhead vents, even with noticeable sound coming from the fan set on the highest speed for the 2nd row. The same situation existed for the 3rd row ventilation.

Well, it turns out that an MB design feature only pumps warm air through console or footwell vents. I noticed footwell vents in the 3rd row and under the first row seats for the 2nd row pax performed normally with a high fan setting and warm temperature set. The pillar and overhead vents are for cool air only. As soon as the dealer adjusted the temperature to max cooling, pillar and ceiling vents started pumping out a great supply of cold air. Problem solved. I wish the manuals would have this kind of detail.

3. 2nd row massage seats. Wow, they are nice. Turns out the pneumatic pump for the left seat failed and needs to be replaced. So another visit to the dealership when the part arrives. Hopefully just a day in the shop.

4. Looping dashcam video. I know there are other aftermarket options for this feature, but I went with the MB installed solution. Turns out the looping video recording will only happen if I install a flash drive to store the recorded video. Again, something I didn’t see in the manual. So, I ordered a 256 GB flash drive from Amazon ( ).

The dealership says this gets plugged into the USB-C outlet in the center console under the armrest. More to come after I’ve got things set up.

5. USB-C outlets. I love the abundance of USB-C outlets in this car and that no one will ever have to ask if they can borrow a charging cord. I’ve already installed 2 cords in the 2nd row center armrest for rear seat charging. I tested all of the outlets (3 front row, 4 second row, 4 third row) to see what kind of power they delivered. My unscientific testing (conducted with a rechargeable battery pack that measures incoming power) shows that every outlet, except for 2, provide 18 watts of power. This should suffice for 90% of pax charging needs. For additional power, the two outlets located underneath the second row temperature control unit each provide 100 watts of power. Nice to have this added capacity for a laptop in the backseat, if needed. Disclaimer *: As i was only able to test one outlet at a time, I wouldn’t be surprised if charging multiple devices simultaneously affects the total charging power available to each outlet.

Hoping to spend more time with the car this weekend and can provide additional insights in a future post.

 

On the 2nd and 3rd row ventilation, there is just no way around it. It's physics. The 1st row, or 2nd row central console, vents are closer to the fan and would see less resistance and hence more air velocity. The rear ones and the vents around the pillar area will see more resistance. Even of the fan is larger, you'd still see the same proportional difference between them.

The cooling is VERY decent in the GLS by the way. In fact, out of ALL the cars I've ever owned, I have to rank them based on cooling/heating performance, the GLS and my former W222 are the top two. I think you will be happy with the cabin temp. Make sure that the "manual" ai flaps are also open, not just through the settings but also manual.

Note: The small rotary dial on each vent is NOT mechanical (at least for the B pillars am pretty sure). They feel mechanical, but they have a small circuit, and based on the rotary position they send a signal to an air flap somewhere else to adjust the air flow. Make sure those dials are doing their job (not just rotating, but actually sending signal which you can verify by waiting for the air flow to adjust)

 

Thats actually how you want it to work, hot air rises so hot air delivered up high doesn't do much for you. Best to direct that air down to the floor.

I'm surprised the manual for the GLS doesn't say you need a flash drive, manual for my S Class does. Only thing I wish the dashcam did was record out back also all the time.

 

You and I have pre-refresh X167s so the compressor and its behavior may act differently than models from MY24 and newer. Everyone's looking to save on their bottom line these days so it wouldn't surprise me if the HVAC system was "tweaked".

 

Well that would be unfortunate if they truly made some changes especially for the automatic air flaps. The unique part about them is that they can "dynamically" adjust the flow to each zone, while the fan supporting multiple zones still run at the same speed. Otherwise you'll have to manually calibrate the same way you "tune" your home HVAC on hot days or before road trips which is not great.

I doubt that they cared enough to change that given how subtle the facelift is. Also, I don't think the compressor or tuning is different for pre vs post facelift. There are no mechanical changes that I found any evidences for.

Being around the X167 forum for awhile, I rarely ever see any complains about the AC. Meanwhile, in the X7 this is probably THE #1 complain in fact for both the 40i and M50i/M60i.

 

I too wish that recording both front and rear camera feeds was possible. There’s enough examples on YouTube where rear camera recordings were important. Wonder if the Benz Ninjas have a solution for this.

 

More unscientific testing feedback here…. It seems that each row has its own fan. With the car running, I’m able to control each row individually. I’m able to hear each fan motor when turned on the highest speed. I’m anxious for warmer temps to try out the cooling features.

Appreciate the insight on the vent controls. I wouldn’t have thought to investigate further that the traditional “on/off” dial is actually a sensor dial that’s controlling other system components. Pretty cool and I want to know more. Will have to find more insights from the experts here.

 

If it registers an impact it will use video/pictures from all the cameras, it only records from the front continuously

 

I was thinking what happened to the X7 when I wrote that post. These luxury German car makes are often imitating each other for better or for worse...