UrBusted

SWB W222 S Class is longer than the W213, China have a V213 that's longer than the W222 though

Buddyk

I had a 2015 S550 4-Matic SWB - Short Wheelbase - nicely configured, it was a great car, but it was a big mistake to get the SWB!

I now have a 2018 S63 normal long wheelbase - it's the best car ever. The only mistake I made was that I went for the Burmester High End - which has awesome sound, but it takes up every last bit of storage in the vehicle! The trunk is tiny because it's all subwoofer! Lol!

Anyways - the couple of inches difference in the SWB gains you nothing for drivability. I only have my 6 year old in the back seat usually, but it's way better having the extra space back there - the SWB S Class is reminiscent of my 5 series BMW days - cramped back set. Bigger is better.

Hey Mercedes - make me a new S Class Touring Wagon please. I dislike the S580 dashboard so much I am considering getting a GLS 63 or maybe even a Maybach GLS 600

Buddyk

Oh no - not those crappy pop out handles too?

Porsche 911 2020 models have that and they are horrible. Waving your hand all the time, then reaching to find your damn keys. Terrible. Hopefully the Mercedes version works!

Is everything getting ruined these days?

ColeBlooded

When you approach the car with the key in your pocket, they automatically pop out.

The only time you have to touch the handles for it to pop out is when you leave the car unlocked

Sonic Boom

I’ve had the car for a while now and every time the door handles pop out upon approach. Never had to teach for key fob.

elmalo

Those door handles and some other things, like MBUX, add negative value to the car.

Sonic Boom

There is one thing I don’t like about the handles; they seem to need a bit force to actually open the door. I keep having to pull a bit hard. Never noticed in other types of cars.

Buddyk

i’m glad to hear the Mercedes version seems to be working properly. The Porsche version doesn’t - at least for the 2020 model 911.

and yeah I hear somebody else say that it takes some force even after it pops out to open the door.

The worst is when you have a passenger and they don’t understand what’s going on with the door handle and they just end up pulling on it - with unpredictable results!

One of the best features of the Mercedes S class is that the doors have soft clotse technology so when someone half closes the door latch it sucks it in the rest of the way - and that happens so many times with passengers snd it works 100%. The soft close technology just works and really pleases me.

I haven’t tried Mercedes pop out doorhandles but it just seems like it is the recent trend and if it doesn’t work 100% it could be an annoying thing

Buddyk

here is the thing:

If my wife has to use the touchscreen to change the fan blower speed and temperature control on her side of the vehicle - it’s a no deal on the car most likely.


My 2018 S63 has great features like a volume control button wheel on the front passenger side in the center console. I also have one on the steering wheel of course.

same thing for the temperature controls - easy access for the passenger.

I have not yet looked at the 2021 latest model S class but if it’s all on a iPad screen, I would bet dollars to donuts that Mercedes screwed it up completely and you require tapping through three screens before you can access temperature controls! And that is just plainly unacceptable. Call it German engineering. Great for mechanicals and horrible for electronics. There’s a reason why the iPhone was made in USA And not Germany. We have Meile appliances and we always laugh about German engineering for the microwave. It will beep for eternity after it’s done microwaving, and that’s extremely annoying.

In this world of iPhones I think it’s ludicrous for the automobile companies to try to beat Apple at its own game. Human beings get used to doing things a certain way.

(I’m slightly off-topic here but try to open the garage door using them incredibly daft “home link“ system of the 2020 Porsche 911 - no less than four (super tiny accurately placed) finger taps of the screen to open and close your garage door using their dumb touchscreen).

Buddyk

OK maybe they solved it better than Porsche. Hard to say. I’m left wondering if your key fob battery now lasts three weeks instead of a year or more.

190Efan

MB is trying to appeal to the younger tech savy crowd. BTW, the automobile was invented in Germany. The Germans do everything in mostly orderly, logical, methodical ways. Having been raised by an engineer with German ancestry, I've had a front row seat to how they operate so that helps me navigate what MB is up to and how they do things.

Buddyk

Yah, I get that perspective. I’m not insulting Germans, Not intending to do that at all. And it’s a total stereotype. But I have driven nothing but German cars really since my first car in like 1983.

I think it’s worth discussing because I think that the German perspective on electronics design is thinking that people are logical - and people are definitely not logical. If they walk up to a car they are going to pull that handle whether it has retracted or not - so I’m left wondering if my Porsche 2020 C4S doorhandles are going to get worn out fast by being forced multiple times to get into the damn car while we wait for the logical doorhandle to pop out. I cannot give instructions to my passenger about how to enter the car every single time. it needs to be designed intuitively and work 100% of the time. If it doesn’t we will break it.

190Efan

Based on my own personal experience, the gap isn't between just German engineers and the public, it's between engineers and the public in general because engineers in general are much more in tune with how things work and how they're designed than the general public ever will be so the general public doesn't understand why things get designed the way they do. It can have tragic consequences as in the shifter for the current generation of Jeep Grand Cherokee. Owners thought they had their vehicles in park and they didn't and the vehicles have rolled and killed people.

Buddyk

I think you nailed it.

and yeah you should see the 2020 911 C4S. I have to push a button to put it in park. That took me a couple of days to learn and make into habit and I pray I never forget. I won’t. But yeah it’s a slight change.

I think a 1963 Pontiac Laurentian had push button transmission.


I really love the steering wheel stalk transmission on my S 63. It works awesome and fast and it reminds me of my dad for some reason.

When I see modern cars with paddle shifters and they still put this big *** pretend gear shifter thing in the center console I’m left thinking what is this really for anyways? It’s not needed. Maybe I used to try that plus and minus shifting with a 2010 911 Turbo if it was not convenient to hit the paddle shifters.

2018 Mercedes S63 got it right

I guess everybody does it different. Should the paddle shifters turn with the wheel? Or should they stay static position like lambo or Ferrari?

mbsl550.19

I had a 2015 Porsche Turbo S, I always used the paddle shifters. IMHO they should move with the wheel.
Worked very well with the Porsche.

Sonic Boom

You owe me some donuts
Only ONE tap to access climate control menu. (The climate menu is always fixed at bottom and doesn’t change when with different screens so always accessible).
See pic

Buddyk

I’m happy to be wrong on this

For sure I would like to check out the new S class up close.

emilner

Luckily they didn't- the lower section of the center screen is always climate control so if you want to change temp, fan speed and a few other things you just tap it. Hit the menu button once and you can access all of the other features.

190Efan

You actually missed my point as I wasn't referring to anything quite so obvious. I suggest you google the accident that killed "Star Trek" actor Anton Yelchin and was caused by the gear shift lever in his Jeep Grand Cherokee not really being in park even though the gear shift lever indicated the vehicle was in park. His parents sued Chrysler over it and won a very large judgement. .

SW20S

Having had a Grand Cherokee just like his with the same transmission, and having an S Class with the stalk lever, the two are nothing alike. I can totally understand what happened to Anton having had that vehicle myself.

190Efan

Thanks for getting my point. It certainly was a tragedy for Anton and his family.

Buddyk

whoops. Oh I’m so sorry.

my comments only related to how car design evolves

190Efan

Having had a front row seat to the German engineering mind growing up, everything is based on logic and well established engineering principles. The general public doesn't necessarily see things that way and that's where the disconnect is.

MBNUT1

See post #121


https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w222/800892-why-did-mb-so-obviously-ruin-new-s-class-after-watching-review-never-5.html

W205C43PFL

Thanks for the link
Edit: Hmmm, didn't find it in post #121, do you mean post #126?