sinistersurge

My MB sales guy brought a 2014 S550 over to my house yesterday for a test drive. I am considering a 2014 S63 but still thought I should sample the S550's Magic Ride Control [car was well equipped, sticker was $120k]. Anyway, the car drove very well but no better than my Bentley GT Speed and I did not see or feel the Magic Ride Control do anything special at all. Everyone in the car including the sales guy left feeling that MBC added nothing special. Of course I did not drive it side by side with an S550 without MBC but I feel it should have handled better. A stock RR Ghost has a much smoother ride and I was under the impression the MBC would help get the car to near or even above that level. Instead it just felt like a normal luxury ride to me. The rest of the car was spectacular for the price point.

Anyone else experience this?

Also, does anyone know if the rear entertainment system can display video from iPhone/iPad? I got it to do music but that was it. I also was disappointed by the usual super-weak MB massage functions and weak ventilated seats. Audi can nail this - why can't MB?

LETO

Did you have to keep the car in comfort for MBC? as that feature only works in comfort.

How did you feel regarding ride quality between comfort/sport. Sport having MBC as not operational.

Good insight on your comparisons. Thanks

Wolfman

Can't speak to MBC as I immediately switched to SPORT when driving the car; I realized that I need 4matic anyway where we live and prefer a firmer setting.

I disagree on the massage settings though, definitely better than the A8. The default is the classic massage at a low setting (don't quite remember, but think the setting in strength is from 1-7). I tried the hot stone massage at 5 and it's pretty strong...

Germancar1

It really isn't for handling, it is for a smoother ride over bumps. Were you in Sport or Comfort? Admittedly this tech is in its infancy.

M

skrontz

Mercedes engineers admitted that MRC shares the same camera with a multitude of other features, and this negatively affected their abilities to tune the quality and orientation of the image. This is yet another reason why I would wait a few years before getting into an W222, so these bleeding edge features get more mature. It is ridiculous to pay $4k+ for MRC that does not work in the rain, at night, or on consistently uneven road (due to the limited capacity of the compressed oil reservoirs).

BadMojo

sinistersurge, was that a US dealer demo car? If so, my understanding was that they are all identically equipped and do not have MBC.

I could be mistaken and your test car may very well have been equipped with MBC. If that is the case, it is somewhat disappointing to hear that but it seems about right according to reviews.

Kratos-TM

Same thing germancar1 said......MBC is only for speed bumps, not for how the car rides or handles.

BadMojo

But isn't MBC an enhanced version of ABC? Which means that at the very least, the body roll would be less noticeable. So MBC should make a difference even for the ride and handling.

Kratos-TM

Well educate me then. Cause I didn't think it did anything else but help with speed bumps.....

Kratos-TM

Also, the fact that so many rich guys are comparing it to their Ghost's and Continental's says a lot to me. I never thought of Mercedes as being anywhere near those levels. So that makes me want it even more. I always thought of MB, Audi, and BMW to be middle class cars, while Bentley and RR were for the upper class.

Telling me my middle class car is "slightly" below Bent and Rolls in ride quality, makes me excited!!!!

oswiff

For OP, if you are considering an s63, it won't have MBC as that's not an option for 4matics which all s63 bound for the US will be.

I also think it's difficult to compare a s class to a ghost or bentley. I think a more fair comparison would be the 7 series or the a8L or s8. I haven't driven a 7 series but drove an a8 for a couple weeks and the s class is a much better car.

BadMojo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Body_Control
http://techcenter.mercedes-benz.com/...ol/detail.html

For MBC, if you scroll down on the page, you'll see a video which shows that aside from dealing with bumps, the suspension deals with body roll in various ways.

Anyways, that's why I'm curious the OP didn't feel a difference in ride. Or maybe the OP is comparing to a W221 with ABC?

Kratos-TM

Thanks for the link BadMojo. The tutorial explained exactly what you said....

sinistersurge

It was a dealer demo car but the sticker said it had MBC. Now I am confused. The sales guy thought it had it too.... weird!

LETO

all dealer demos in the US are the same iridium silver/black nappa. Only difference has been sport/sport +1. None have had MBC.

MBC works on in comfort mode. So you should technically have had two different experiences over the same bump with it in Comfort/Sport

sinistersurge

According to the dealer:

"it's both on the window sticker and on the internal equipment list on Netstar, so I have to believe that it is. It's possible, if not probable, that the demonstrators are not all alike.

Since we can pre-sell that car, I'm pretty sure that MB wouldn't send us a car that was mis-labelled."

LETO

did the suspension selection button look like:

1. Sport (top) Comfort (bottom) Suspensionn symbol on the right

2. Sport (top) Comfort (bottom) letters ABC between the two choices.

if it was #2, the car has MBC

interiormagic

None of the U.S demo cars have MBC. The for the MBC to work the car have to be in comfort mode, and we need to remember this time around MB designed this car around the passenger, so comfort level is directed more toward the passenger. For me, as a driver of this powerful car, I would be looking more for road feedback and make sure my passengers are in heaven, this W222, Bentley, RR accomplished that, the only thing those cars don't have is a foot massager, lol, I wonder what I can plug in that 110v outlet in the rear

cracker123

The demo car I drove in Dallas had the MBC.

cookstar

I would hold off on getting the new S-class if you can until at least the 2015 model year which will be released in October-November 2014... that way you get the 9 speed and at least some of the issues will be resolved or tuned.

sam9187

The one at MB Plano also has MBC. I did not test drive the car though. Thinking of going back and test driving. At least I will have some idea before mine comes in - hopefully in 2-3 weeks.

sinistersurge

Whoever says there are no demos with MBC is wrong! Sorry guys, just because I didn't like the MBC doesn't mean you can discredit what I have to say.

Wolfman

First of all, MBC only costs a few hundred bucks as the ABC alone is $4k. Think of MBC as the camera add-on with software to the optional ABC.

ABC is worth every penny IMO.

That said, I have the netstar printout of the demo we drove and the car did NOT have MBC...

The MSRP on that car is $118665. With MBC it would be over $122k

So if all demos are the same, then none have MBC

K-A

I knew it was a gimmick.

interiormagic

According to dealers around here, none of the Demo cars have MBC, yes I went for a test drive also, was very pleased with the car, true it is not up to a RR level, but, I think this car outdone the Bentley, not by a big margin, but, good enough for me.