clembo

Guys - I picked up my S550 that was ordered in January. I had been driving A8's for my main car for the past number of years. MB did a great job with this car, the interior is beautiful, far better than my Audi's. I ordered Beige/Espresso Nappa Exclusive with Sunburst Myrtle and Exclusive Trim Package (whatever that is). I was hoping that the interior would be special, and it is. Great design plus high quality materials and feel. I bought a '14SL550 a few months ago for my wife, but this is much nicer.

My car has the 20" wheels and tires - they are Goodyear Eagle F1 Rft's which is a bit surprising on a 4Matic car. I was worried reading comments from some of you guys regarding poor ride quality with the run flats but I think the ride is fine. It had been month since my test drive so I was apprehensive about getting the 20's, but now I'm glad that I did.

MB did a great job on this car. It has great power, good road feel, presence, and a lot of nice features. It is what it should be, best in class. I hope the rest of you guys enjoy your cars as much as I like mine.

I have attached a couple Iphone pictures - sorry for the poor quality, hopefully you can see how nice the interior is finished.

LovinMercedes

Congrats on the new car. Looks great and I am sure you will enjoy it.

LETO

Looks great! That is the first car on this forum with the non AMG 20" Very elegant

AppleFan1

Fantastic look! Congratulations! I'm very happy to hear that you are not finding an issue with the 20 inch run flats. If anything I should be even happier with the ride on the standard 18 inch RFT's. The problem is that I am still waiting for mine to arrive in KC from Baltimore.

meldour

Congrats on your new s class!

BenzV12

Congrats, nice to see you are satisfied with your run flat tires .Hopefully it works for you as long as you own your car

DaveVY

Congrats!

hyperion667

very nice!
I ordered that same interior......
the extended trim package is basically more wood trim in places it normally wouldn't have been......
the only thing I don't like are those wheels.......they do the car no justice......
enjoy the ride!

clembo

We know that the 2015 will have a few new features, but my sales rep mentioned that the button to turn off the ECO Mode will be gone in 2015. The government is mandating that ECO mode be used all of the time since the EPA milage rates were based upon it being on.

Tomcat2048

I really hope your sales rep is wrong...I have a MY 2015 S63 AMG on order and I am hoping that I will have an option to turn off that ECO Start/Stop...

nyca

Indeed, that would be a bad development.

MTrauman

Agreed! That would be a bad development.


I would much rather drive my '14 S550 with turning the ECO off even though the gas mileage is not as good. There is a significant difference in performance between it being off or on.

Diesel Benz

Can you explain that performance difference a bit? I guess you are referring to the performance when starting from traffic lights as an example. Or does it affect engine/transmission performance elsewhere, during normal driving too? I'm used to the tranny program button doing that but don't have experience about the eco button (except for some test drives with a demo car).

By the way, I had a look at EPC and did not find any indications about the ECO button disappearing from 2015 or for the US market. Never know though, at the moment one cannot find any 805 car (MY 2015) from EPC.

MTrauman

In the ECO mode, the car does not start in the 1st gear (I believe it starts in 2nd gear--although I did not look at the indicator it sure feels like it starts in second gear). This is very evident and is similar to the feeling my '08 S550 4matic felt like when it was in the comfort mode and not in the sport mode (I do remember that on the '08 it in fact started in 2nd gear when in comfort mode). Additionally, in ECO mode when stopped with the brake applied, the car shuts off. When one takes the foot off the brake and hits the accelerator, there is a slight delay but really very minimal.


So the biggest thing is not starting in 1st gear. With ECO off, the car feels more like a "race car" and with it on it feels very sluggish unless you hit the gas really hard by pushing the pedal to the floor. I always want to shut the ECO off because the car feels more like an AMG car when the ECO is off and I considered the S63 4matic but for me personally I did not want to spend the extra money on the S63 since I would just end up with more traffic tickets.


I would not be surprised in the US if they take away the ECO shut off button since the pressure to increase the gas mileage in the US is real. I believe that is one of the reason MB moved to smaller V-8s with bi turbos and the Ford F150 truck has moved from a V-8 to a V-6 with EcoBoost (turbos). But I hope they do not remove that ECO button since I would not be a happy camper without the button.


Hope this helps abit.

Wolfman

Was surprised to read that too. There should be no impact on performance with ECO other than the slight hesitation from the engine start between taking the foot off the brake and stepping on the gas. All settings remain with ECO on or off.

MTrauman

Just as clarification--The drive program button and the ECO button are tied together. In other words, when the ECO button is on, the transmission drive program is in E. If you switch the drive program to S (sport) the ECO button shuts off and vice versa.

Tomcat2048

My main thing is simply having the ability to turn off that auto start/stop. I do not ever want to use that "feature".

DaveVY

I need to go check our car now... I believe that the car starts in 2nd gear with ECO on or off, it only starts in 1st gear if it is in sport mode.

DaveVY

I totally agree!! And my wife agrees even more. She hates the start/stop so much that when I drive (and she is in the car) I don't have to turn off the ECO mode because she turns it off immediately after I start the car. So for me the ECO mode is turned off "automatically" almost every time.

efathalla

Congratulation Sir, its the best ride ever !!

DBGator

This is a MY 2015 4matic? Any picture of the window sticker or something that would prove to my dealer that MY2015 4matics are in production? They tell me to wait because they are not in production, even though I ordered mine in mid-November.

clembo

I agree with you, it is my wife that hates the ECO mode more than I do since I bought her a SL550 a few months ago. I have gotten into the habit of shutting it off as soon as I start the car. I was driving my S550 yesterday in downtown Boston with heavy traffic and I didn't shut the button off. The car did shut down and restart at a stop light, and I must admit, it was pretty seamless - but I'll still probably shut off the feature each time I use the car.

Other S550 feedback. I dropped my car off yeaterday to get Expel film aplied to protect the front and hood from paint chips. The guys at the custom shop that I use were blown away with the interior of the car. They see all high end cars and were shocked how nice it was for a M-B.

MTrauman

DBGator--Your dealer does not know S550 4matics are in production? What? I am a MB enthusiast and I KNOW they are in production and your dealer does not? Seems like they are giving you a line of BS.


Attached you will find some 2015 MY S550 4matics being shipped from Bremerhaven, Germany to Baltimore, Maryland on the Asian King ship. The 10th digit of the Vin # specifies the model year 2015.


Sorry to tell you I know more about Mercedes production then your dealer and I JUST buy MBs. I don't sell them. You may need to find a different dealer!


The 2015s estimated production start was 3/20/15 and the fact they are shipping to the US is proof they are in production.

MTrauman

Meant production start date of 3/20/14.

meldour

This isn't a surprise. I knew a lot more about the vehicle when I was ordering it than 2 of the salespeople at the dealership. Both of whom had a whole bunch of plaques and awards for great work.

Every question I asked, they had to "get back to me".