dgrahamr

1. On mbusa.com, if you build an ML550, one of the "accessories" is "Ipod Integration Kit." On the ML350, this is part of "Package 1". Is there any difference between these two, or are these the identical feature, made part of Package 1 on the ML350 and a separate option on the ML550?

2. My wife is very sensitive to ride quality. Her current car is a Lexus (at the far extreme of sacrificing road feel for a smooth ride -- too far for my taste). She greatly dislikes driving the BMW X5, for example, because it feels too rough for her. The ML350 felt pretty good, but she's interested in anything that gets her a smoother ride. She hasn't done a test drive yet on the ML550, because the dealers near us don't have one in stock right now, but the salesman told us the stock suspension on the ML550 is tuned for greater performance, and so will be a harsher ride. This makes some sense as those who choose the 5.5 are likely more performance oriented, but I wanted to confirm that this is true (as the salesman said a number of other things that I know are quite wrong).

3. If we get the ML550 with Airmatic, does that make any meaningful difference in harshness of the ride? Does it bring it back to the ML350? Is it better than the ML350? We test drove an Audi Q7 with the air suspension, and she felt the comfort mode on that suspension meaningfully improved the ride. I think the Airmatic adjusts automatically rather than through settings (maybe that's wrong), but what I'm really interested in is how much of a benefit to ride quality it is. Possible it's focused more on adjusting for uneven car loading or tilting toward greater performance rather than smoother ride.

lkchris

Not only will the suspension be tuned "sporty," so will the tires be low profile and consequently a little rougher riding.

DUTCH

AirMatic can be set to Sport, Normal and Comfort by a switch in the console; and it does make a difference. Not a big difference, but a difference.

Franman

I can tell a HUGE difference in ride comfort on my GL when switching to Comfort from Sport...bumps are extremely noticable in Sport mode but riding in Comfort mode equates to sitting on my sofa...you'll have to test drive to be sure for ML, but I would imagine the difference is the same

DUTCH

Sorry. I should have been more clear. There is a big difference between Sport and Regular and between Sport and Comfort.

There is, however on my ML, very little difference between Regular and Comfort.

roadrutz

There should be no difference at all between Regular and Comfort in most conditions, because they are the same thing. However, in Regular, the suspension automatically adjusts itself for the conditions: cornering, braking, driving straight and level, etc. In Sport mode, the suspension maintains its tightest settings all the time, and in Comfort mode it retains its softest settings all the time. I agree that there is a significant difference between Comfort and Sport; Comfort rides like a limo and Sport rides like an X5!

I have no idea whether the salesman's comment about the stock 550 suspension being stiffer is true or not, but I believe all Airmatic suspensions are identical, with the exception of the AMG in which it is tuned a little tighter across the board.

dgrahamr

Extremely helpful, thank you. One final question: does the Airmatic lower the call at all when it is in Park (or is that an option), to make it easier to load the car? My wife is on the shorter side, and she struggles a bit with putting the kids in their car seats. If the Airmatic lowers the car a bit relative to the spring suspension when loading, that's a huge plus for her.

DUTCH

On my 2007 ML320CDI it does not.

dgrahamr

Reviewing prior posts here, sounds like there have been significant reliability problems with Airmatic. Is that principally limited to Airmatic suspensions that were introduced when it was a newer product, or does there remain concern that current vintage Airmatics will be very unreliable?

DUTCH

If the compressor and relay have been upgraded to the latest iteration, you should be OK. MBUSI has had about 4 upgrades to that compressor; and they feel that they finally have it right with this one.

I've had them upgrade 3X under warranty; and it's working well now.

roadrutz

You say "relative to the spring suspension". I imagine the only way to test that for sure is to park two MLs next to each other, one with Airmatic and one without.

Airmatic has three levels: normal, raised, and lowered. You can only control 'raised'. You do that with a dash-mounted switch that raises the vehicle by 80mm for snow or sand driving. (Also handy if you scrape a concrete parking abutment and want to rise off it before backing off!) Over a certain speed, about 10 mph I think, it lowers itself back to normal regardless of the switch setting. If you have the suspension set to Normal -- also a switch -- it will lower itself automatically at highway speed by about 7mm and the shocks will tighten up in twists and turns. If you set it to Comfort, the same thing happens but the shocks don't tighten up automatically. (In the ML63, Comfort also raises the vehicle by 7mm because its normal setting is lower than on other MLs.) If you set to Sport, the suspension lowers 7mm and the shocks tighten up permanently. Finally, when you switch off the engine and close all the doors and hatch, the suspension 'relaxes' and slowly drops by another 5 - 10 mm. Whenever you subsequently open a door, the whole thing hisses and puffs while it is deciding what to do.

If your wife is vertically challeneged, the answer is running boards. They are actually quite functional for shorter people. For taller ones (eg: yrs trly) they serve to deposit copious amounts of dirt on the back of your pant leg until you have learned the correct technique for exiting the vehicle.