aparikh1207

I have an 09 ML550 on order, fully loaded, but then the dealer called, no lighting package until october builds, november delivery. The car right now is coming first week of august. The dealer is willing to install bixenons gratis. He said the only thing I will be missing is corner illuminating fog lamps. Is this true? Are there any other drawbacks to going with aftermarket vs factory? All help/advice is appreciated.

alewifebp

Is the dealer positive about that? I have heard that LED taillights have delayed availability, but I would think lighting should still be available for earlier builds.

I would not take the car. You will miss out on the curve illuminating feature too.

Brian_74

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I got bi-xenons on my '08 and the cornering fog lights. It's part of the P2 package. I don't see how that would be something new or cause delays on the '09. When you say "fully loaded" what do you mean exactly? PIII package, all options, etc?

If what the dealer says is true and you can wait the extra couple months, do it. If it were me, I wouldn't want a brand new car that is "*******ized" by the dealer.

vinceching

wait for the car you want. if you install it after, you won't have self leveling xenons. not really worth it, so wait for your car to come with factory xenons.

baxterdown

Corner illuminating fog lights are great. They really provide that added extra burst of light, especially on dark roads.

Besides, if you don't get them you'll miss on all those people constantly telling you "I think one of your fog lights is not working"

j.

tarponbeach

The headlights are a new design, for the facelift, so 06-08 headlights will not fit.

aparikh1207

hmm...well I talked to my salesman and he said that he will 100% have the self leveling feature, even thought it is aftermarket. So I would be losing the fog lamps and swiveling lights. I'm not quite sure what I'm doing yet, he showed me an aftermarket vs. factory on another merc and it looked identical. Thanks for your quick replies, I am leaning toward just taking delivery of the car minus the lighting package. Also Brian, the packages changes for 09. The biggest package is P2 which now includes keyless go, ipod adapter, parktronic and a couple other things. Adaptive Damping and Air Suspension is now a separate option, as well as Bi-Xenon's a separate option. The lighting package, to my knowledge, now includes Bi-Xenons, fog lamps, head light washers, and maybe LED tail lights. Does anyone know if there is a big difference between LED tails and regular ones, any pics that you could enlighten me with. Are they replaceable aftermarket? Again, thanks. Can't wait to drive it ML550 is very fast for an suv.

Brian_74

Sorry for my ignorance in the earlier posts guys. I didn't realize so much was changing for the '09. Thanks for the info! Again, I can only speak for the '08, but you can get aftermarket LED tail lamps. With design changes, they might not be immediately available for the '09 but I have to think they would be soon to follow in the aftermarket world.
http://www.formymercedes.com/morepic...taillights.jpg
I like the look and maybe they're a tad brighter than bulbs. Otherwise it's mainly aesthetics.

dgiturbo

Don't buy a brand new $60K car with aftermarket parts. A brand new Mercedes must have brand new Mercedes parts.

alewifebp

That's why I think the dealer is confused about the Lighting Package. The LED taillights have a delayed availability, but the full Lighting Package should be available.

I'd wait for a later slot unless you need the car earlier. I would not go aftermarket on the headlights.

vinceching

your salesperson is an idiot and you are too if you are going to trust him that much.

there are leveling sensors that are put on the rear suspension along with all the wiring attached to that.

i doubt they will do the factory wiring for you as it is labor intenstive and makes no economic sense to do it.

do yourself a favor and just wait for what you wanted originally.

rdk

I also have an 09 ML 550 on order that was scheduled for a July 22nd delivery. I called dealer and he checked my order and the vehicle was produced without the lighting package. Dealer is upset that Mercedes never notified him and simply removed the option from my order. He has moved my build to Sept. 1st when he shows the package will be available. He will now be stuck with a fully loaded ML 550 with no xenons. He will take a huge financial hit trying to unload the vehicle.

aparikh1207

Yea, my salesman was notified. MBUSA is not very consistent. My salesman talked to MBUSA for a week and went back and forth and finally he told me that the lighting package will not be available until sometime in october. I think I'll give him a call tomorrow to see if it is either september/october. Hopefully not the latter.

birjuh

If it helps, I bought an 06ML350 when the Lighting Package was hard to come by as well. I modded the xenon headlamps myself. It is true, you will not have the auto-leveling feature (but I don't really think it's that important) or the corner-illuminating foglamps (one lamp turns on when you hit your turn signal so you can see more; I also don't find this feature to be that useful and it just makes the car cooler). I hope that helps. Also, I purchased my xenon bulbs from Apexcone. You will require a visit to the dealer to have them change the system to recognize that it has xenon headlamps but this only takes about 30min. It took me about 2 hours to put the bulbs in (removing the grill and figuring everything out takes some time).