As most of you know who have these cars the E Brake is automatic and electronic with no activation switch and just has a release and that's it. I'd prefer to have it not be setting every time I put the car in park and open the door as sooner or later one of the electronic solenoids on the rear caliper is gonna stop working and the car will be frozen in place. I'd think chances of this happening would be less if the e brake is only used occasionally like when parked on a hill. I think there is a way from a video I saw of deactivating it by pulling the release as the door is opened, but it's a pia to have to do this every time when exiting the car and even if there was a way of deactivating it, there is no manual switch to activate it and you'd only have too go through the procedure of putting it back in automatic mode when you parked on a hill. I'd much rather have just a good old fashioned pedal, plus with a pedal it could be used in a emergency situation if the regular brakes went out on the car, I always like that concept, for a car that has buttons for everything else in the universe it should just have one button to activate the e brake in my opinion.

First off, you can activate it and disengage it on your own by pushing and pulling the switch. It's not always/only automatic.

Not sure what you are doing, but my 2015 S Class only engages the e brake by itself when you don't put the car in park first. In other words, if you shut off the engine before putting the vehicle in park and then open the door, the car will put itself in park and engage the e brake. This is the ONLY way I have found that the e brake engages on its own.

Try stopping your car, putting it in park and then shutting off the motor. The e brake should not engage by itself. This is exactly what my car does.

Hope this makes sense. Good luck!

When you took delivery didn't the sales person or whoever show you all the features?

First of all, I dislike the automatic emergency brake, as I don't like the hold it puts on my car, even if for only a second. When I start my car, I hit the ECO button to turn off the stop/start, I manually release the parking brake and I put the car in gear.

My 2015 S550 ALWAYS engages the parking brake, when I first put the car in "park" and then turn off the engine. I do believe that this is the way they are ALL supposed to work.

As to the worry of the OP, of this feature wearing out and somehow disabeling the car, I worry about way too many things myself, but this one is not even on my radar. If you want to worry about something, worry about not having a jack & spare in your trunk. That "feature" has the ability to REALLY mess up your life--as soon as TODAY, compared to the possibility that the parking brake will malfunction sometime way down the line.

My 2014 doesn't automatically put the brake on when it put it in park. I have to manually push the brake control and pull t to release when I get in the car.

Wow SocalSteve, thanks so much for the information I did not even realize this parking switch pushed in to activate the parking brake. The guy at the dealer just told me today that it is totally automatic, apparently he did not know either like myself. I'm so use to have just a parking brake release you pull on with the pedal pushing it did not even dawn on me. So I did like you said. For whatever reason when I just got into the car the parking brake was on. I pulled it to release it with the car running and then I turned the car off with the car back in park and even after turning the car off and opening the drivers door the parking brake did not come back on. This is good, I hope it stays this way. If I park on a real steep hill I'll simply push the parking brake switch in to activate it. Now my next question, is there anyway to use this parking brake to stop the car while driving in a emergency situation? I actually drive with hand controls and I've always thought what if the brake linkage broke, I use to always bolt a lever onto the e brake pedals in cars from the past. If you were to push this parking brake button in while driving would it do anything? How about if you put the car in neutral first? Worst case I guess how about if you turned the motor off while still moving if you lost the regular brake? I just always liked having that extra safety mechanism of having a secondary way of stopping if the hydraulic brakes failed.

I believe it was a change on the 2015. 2014 S550 will not auto engage.

I think what would be better and surprised it does not exist is an inclination sensor that will only activate when needed.

Heres the answers in this video and on the 2015 on up the parking brake does automatically apply unless you do one of these three defeats, although it's strange with my car when I went to the garage earlier it was not automatically applying and I did it three times. As one of the people in the comments sections says though maybe this feature is a good thing because of the weight of this car on hills tearing up the trans in time, so the 2014 and below owners might be sorry they don't have this after all.
i still want to try and figure out if there is anyway to stop the car using the E Brake? I guess jamming the car into park would not be a good option, it probably would not happen as the computer would be trying to protect the trans incase someone accidentally did this.

On GM cars, specifically the SRX, if you pull up on the EB Button, it will apply the EB and bring the car to a safe stop. If you keep your foot on the gas, and pull up on the EB, it will limit the RPM's and still apply the brakes. Ask me how I know.....

[QUOTEi still want to try and figure out if there is anyway to stop the car using the E Brake? .[/QUOTE]

Good question. At the end of the day, it is supposed to be an "EMERGENCY" brake, so how do we use it in an emergency? I guess the better question, is what systems does MB have built into the car to deal with a full brake system failure, if any? I've never worried about it, but it would be nice to know.

Manual...

When all else fails, read the instructions. Thanks Konigstiger!

Well I tried it today, nobody behind me, country road. Pushed the parking brake button and the car came to a very fast stop from 55 mph. Good to know I have a backup way of stopping.