I picked up an ML for the wife. This is our first Mercedes and while I like the SUV it's hard to believe that push start/stop is not standard on a all Mercedes. My 2007 IS250 has it.

 

I'm guessing you mean keyless entry/start/stop. My 2013 ML has it. It's an option.

 

Yes that is what I meant. When I think luxury vehicle keyless entry and stop/ start should be standard not an option.

 

Why didn't you buy one that had that option? Don't you know they want to give you choices? Ha ha

 

None of the 30 or so I looked at online had it. Mercedes should not be making cars that still require a key to be inserted to start it. Especially a car that start at $48K.

 

I know this is a loaded question, so first please understand this is just MY OPINION.

I currently have a 2014 Lexus RX 350 F Sport and it has the keyless system. However, I ordered a new 2015 ML 350 back in mid January that is due to be built this upcoming week and I did NOT order the keyless system on it. For me, here is why. This system is apparently standard on the RX 350 F Sport, because I did not order it, when I ordered the Lexus.

I am the type of person that I don't put my keys in my pocket when I sit in my vehicle. So in the Lexus, I have to find a place to put them and I usually throw them in the cupholder. When my wife and I are in the vehicle, I throw them in the console lockbox, because sometimes both of us have drinks and need both cupholders. Call me old school, but I'm just used to putting a key in the ignition and for me, I just don't see the benefit of the keyless system. As evidence, I have owned the Lexus for over a year. I had never used the keyless system to open the door. One day, I grabbed the door handle, but I had forgotten to hit the unlock button on the key FOB and the door opened. That's when I realized that function existed on the Lexus. But I had this vehicle for over a year, when that one incident happened. I'm just so used to locking and unlocking the vehicle with the key fob, it's engrained in my brain.

So when I ordered the 2015 ML 350 back in mid January, I ordered quite a few options, but I specifically did not order the keyless system option. Again, EVERYONE is entitled to their opinion, this was just my opinion and I ordered my vehicle the way I wanted it.

I guess at this point, there are enough people out there like me that don't really care for the keyless option and that allows MB to just keep it as an option instead of standard. As with everything, it will probably become standard at some point.

 

Sorry Bigdrey, but you don't understand how the pricing model works. All creature comfort improvements are extra cost options until Toyota makes then standard on their entry level cars. At that point, MB may deem them as "standard" equipment. Until then, pay the man.

It's not about giving the customer what he/she wants, it's about profit.

Welcome to MB World.

 

They do not call them "options" for the heck of it.

 

I too prefer the key, which is the configuration I have on my ML 350. I actually despise the keyless start/stop on my wife's Toyota Highlander.

 

Hate the keyless entry systems. Would much rather just use the key to do what I want, instead of trying to guess what the algorithm will do.

And then there are the increasing reports of security concerns and thefts with keyless systems.

 

Things change. I bet someone said the same thing when the keyfob was invented, "I am so used to putting the key in the door to unlock, blah blah blah". Before him was, "I was so used to pushing my brakes down with great force but with power brakes, blah blah. And before him was...

 

I know, like I said in my post, "call me old school" and "As with everything, it will probably become standard at some point". The same thing happened with air bags and ABS brakes, etc., etc. So I am well aware that more than likely this will eventually become standard.

 

I like the keyless, it works very well on my ML as well as another ML in Finland. It also manages to turn on the interior lights of virtually all so equiped Mercs out there. It is quite handy in dark parking lots, and I feel much safer knowing, that with enough Mercs I can light my way to my truck.