Is my s600 suppose to have distronic plus braking standard?
 

I have an 07 s600 designo edition and there is no button or anything indicating that I have the distronic plus braking system. Is my car suppose to come standard with this? How can I tell if I have it?

It should have - yes. S600's should have all options included. You can activate it from the steering wheel control buttons and you will know it is on when you see a small "car with radar coming out the front" icon on the dash display. Check the manual.

Having said that, there are some features in current model years that did not make it into earlier builds (My S600 does not have parking or blind spot assist for example which only came in later in MY08) but Distronics Plus should have been present from the beginning.

Chris

A MY 2007 car can be set from the cluster menu to give alerts if the car feels there is a risk of collision with an object ahead. You would see an indicator at the cluster when this feature is active. A MY 2007 car would not apply brakes on its own in this case (assuming cruise control is not active) while a later MY car first alerts and later on applies brakes autonomously.

Distronic Plus with cruise on is another story, in this case the car does brake when following a car in front, driving at a lower speed.

A pity in my opinion that this was not brought to earlier MYs via SW updates. I sort of understand the blind spot assist where the mirror indicators could not be brought simply via a SW update.

Distronic Plus as such is of course standard in an S600, you can find the plastic cover at the front grill, the main radar is behind that cover.

I have an 07 S600 and it has parking assist and distronic plus cruise, but not blind spot assist.

Mines does apply the brakes with distronic cruise.

You must mean your car has the rear view camera with the dynamic assist lines? The newer models have a parking assist menu at the main instrument cluster display.

All 221 cars use brakes when distronic plus is active, but not when CC is off while later models use brakes at certain scenarios even if CC is not active.

I'm pretty sure I don't have it since I can't activate it from the steering wheel and I'm just confused why I didn't get it. I thought the 600 came with all options, but I guess it might have been one of the earlier builds that didn't get it. Where can I look under the hood to see it, and what does it look like? Is it possible that the car was wrecked (i bought it used) and the distronic was removed?

I've never heard of an S600 without Distronic Plus unless it was for a country where the bumper radars are not allowed. You should not need to open the hood, just have a look at the hood grill, the centre part has a flat plastic shield. If you open the hood, you can see the round radar just behind this shield.

Have you browsed through your manual for the sections describing Distronic Plus?

I don't have the plastic sheild you are talking about. The manual says I have it, but all other indications say I don't. As far as I know this car has been in Southern California its whole life. The car must have been wrecked, ruined the distronic, and didn't get replaced. Carfax says the car was never wrecked but I'm finding indiciations it might have been.

I am looking at an S600 as well Designo that I just put a deposit on - the bumper has the 4 Parktronic sensors but the grill doesnt have that center glass area that most distronic cars have - and I am trying to figure out if that car has distronic as well - I pulled up the NetStar from Mercedes and it doesnt list it on there as an option - kinda strange

Ah that's a give-away. If there is no plastic shield in the central grille there is no radar or distronics plus. It does seem very suspicious as all S600's should have this feature but perhaps some slipped through without it. What indications have you found that the car may have been damaged and repaired? (Seems a dealer could also see clues as to whether Distronics had even been part of the car or not.)

Chris

Would you let us know the car VIN (pm or post here)? Perhaps you are right that some early cars have been sold without Distronic Plus.

Thanks for the assist - Shot you a PM with VIN

DistPlus had periodic parts shortages back in ~'07

I recall seeing at least 3-4 new MY08 CL65s lacking DistPlus (and a credit indicated on sticker) b/c of parts shortages (DistPlus was theoretically std on all CL65s)

Does that mean that they are already setup for it (via harness etc) and that it would be an easier add on?

That is an interesting question, I doubt EPC would show this properly, probably only a few experts at MB (MBUSA) know this (or a very experienced retrofit expert).

The problem with Distronic Plus is that the bumpers (front and back) and the grill at least need to be changed (no holes for parktronic sensors).

I could perhaps take a photo of the main radar wiring harness or the plug if it is easily visible. You could check from the car if it has this plug installed.

Suspect it's a complex process (unlikely to ever be reliably accomplished in a post-factory setting) as DistPlus is networked vs BrakeAssistPlus, ESP, etc etc as part of PreSafe

To illustrate how difficult even simple software updates are: a colleague recently got a new, '10 CL65 (a repeat customer who has gotten new AMG CLs every 6 mos for last ~10yrs from same dealer and salesman); apparently, new mirrors no longer have the rt mirror tilt down function upon engaging reverse....allegedly b/c enough moron customers in US complained that they couldn't figure out how to program function:rolleyes:

And dealer (an excellent dealer that prob sells/svcs as many new, high-end AMGs as any on planet and treats repeat custs very well) can't figure out from MBUSA how to restore this software function...which is immensely useful to those who parallel park along curbs in cities like SF (or many urban suburbs like PaloAlto or Menlo), to make chances of curb scrapes essentially zero

What is the main difference between the regular and the plus?

Regular Distronic can apply the brakes to what I believe is 30%. Distronic Plus will slow the car down to 0mph and accelerate your car automatically when the car in front starts to speed up.

Once it reaches 0, you have to give it gas to get started moving again though.

Huh? That's nuts. Many cars tilt down the right mirror which is highly useful for the reasons you describe. Perhaps some dork thinks that the rear view camera and/or Park Assist is all you need now.

Chris

There were quite a few early build 07 600's that did not have distronic/side shades/ and night view. Mine was missing all these as confirmed on the Netstar. However MB was throwing in such options as designo or sport package to make up for the missing tech. My 07 600 had the sport pkg and as we all know is not an available option. I was skeptical of all this before my purchase but Netstar confirmed the odd options. I really wanted the sport pkg so I didn't care as much about missing the few tech items.

...or use the cruise control lever to resume speed. It could be dangerous if the car had stopped first and then started following the car in front without any permission from the driver.

Right, though WSH is referring to a MY10 vehicle and what is an elementary feature.

Still your point is (to me) a good reason why one should skip the first model year if you want all the tech and bugs worked out.

Chris

One should note that the MY2010 W221 is for a large portion of its electronics "the first year model", just like the 2005 model year 221 in Europe.

The HW for a 2009 is pretty much the same as for the 2007, I consider it more of an inconvenience when early models need SW updates to fix certain issues. The lack of an option is a different thing, but this should be well known for the buyer. I still find it odd that US S600 models did not get Distronic Plus when they had enough parts for my 320CDI at (about) the same time.

There's a wavy line going across the passenger airbag area which I've been told means the airbag has been deployed. Also, the the hood is slighty higher then the side fender and I was told that the crack should be smooth across. Lastly on the front side fender you can feel a small line in the clear coat but can't see it.