places

I think it's clear than MB does not develop cars with the intention of shelf life. Break in periods used to start north of 70K miles, some would argue 100K, remember? No longer the case. Lease, flip and repeat. Reliability not a priority. Priority is to have an MB product in every driveway in the universe thus diluting the brand.

These cars are loaded with tech, overwhelming really. People shouldn't be surprised by these year one failures.

190Efan

Having been raised by an engineer with German ancestry, I have a different perspective. Actual facts and data matter when coming to an overall conclusion. You seem to not recognize the reality that it's the people who are having problems who are the most likely to post about their difficulties. It's not possible to know what the percentage of problems to the total number of owners actually is so on that basis, it's wrong to make such blanket overall statements about MB especially given your forum status. There are just as likely a bigger number of owners who experience no issues with their MBs and are very happy with them and that's why they keep buying/leasing them..

190Efan

I do think there's been a change since the marketing department now runs the company instead of the engineers during the era when 100K was considered break-in mileage but having said that, there are members of this forum who've driven their newer MBs for hundreds of thousands of miles and absolutely love them, Maintenance is more crucial then ever on the newer cars and not everyone is good about keeping up their maintenance and then try to blame the car.

hyperion667

Just curious what you mean by " especially given your forum status".

RJC

Very sobering news, while others improve (even considering any anomalies like with Dodge), MB is well below the industry avg well below most of their direct competitors, and dropping; one can only rest on their laurels for so long...

2021 U.S. Initial Quality Study (IQS) | J.D. Power (jdpower.com)

js_cls

I'm more so surprised that Audi somehow dropped below LR and Alfa.

RJC

My guess would be more electronics, as Audi was one of the first to go full touch screen dashes. I for one like Audi's and our17 Q7 has been solid save for one or two minor items and its awesome tactile switchgear was pre T/S as is the super smooth supercharged V6 vs the newer rough (compd to the supercharged) idling turbo set up.

places

In case you didn't know, his father was an engineer. Only posted on every other thread. Very special.

places

Maintenance and luck. Higher production numbers, more product lines, worldwide factories, and partnerships with other automakers add up to many variables that can easily go wrong. Load in more tech and less "engineering", it gets complicated quick.

konigstiger

IMHO since 2003 MBUSA (even with an engineer at the helm in Stuttgart at that time) shifted from purchase to lease clients for the most part equip & build them to last through the factory warranty period after that, not to worry they’ll (clients) be back to do it all over again.

places

Yes, followed by CPO the lease turn-in, then junk or wholesale them in the third life cycle. It's a treadmill they want you on.

RJC

Components, some of which are considered significant aren’t even making it through the first year

Nonformulaic

I lasted less than 2 weeks with the S580. It became an annoyance.

E55Greasemonkey

Lack of buttons, the door handles?

Socalsteve

What did you do with it after 2 weeks?

Nonformulaic

The slow discovery of items missing, beyond the massage seats; constant reminders to relocate steering column and driver’s seat to an uncomfortable position; doors which took 3.5 seconds to open; center vent reflections on windshield; frequent eyes off road necessary to accomplish digging deep into various screens to access my choices; delayed haptic seat controls….and more.
I truly got to despise this car….such a disappointment, having owned so many S class vehicles….and having waited 10 months for this unit to appear. Dealership unwound me….all funds returned on the proviso that I purchase an in stock Benz at invoice, currently on the lot. Very limited choice. Took a GLC and immediately traded for Cayenne.. Fits me well, works well.

RJC

More JD Power data, previous one I posted was for was initial quality...in this survey MB is still below industry average, with an all time high occurring in dependability for many other brands.

I think this survey is more of an overall accurate representation than the initial quality one.

2021 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS) | J.D. Power (jdpower.com)

hyperion667

Wow. Sorry to hear that. Hopefully the powers that be at MB HQ will see someone returned their precious gem after such a short time and make a note. Man oh man.

RJC

Frustrating indeed, but at least they weren't quality issues or component failures.
Isn't a GLC to replace a Cayenne a bit of a major step down so to speak, what did you replace the S with?

Nonformulaic

RJC….pls reread my posting. As I mentioned, the only way out of the S without losing $$ was to purchase another Benz at Invoice. And I really wanted to bolt. Chose a GLC300, knowing that I’d trade it immediately for the Porsche. Used car market is strong now. I lost the tax, plus $1,000 switching out with a few hundred miles on the GLC. It was a lousy situation that I was able to correct.

Martsman

I am sorry to hear people are having issues. So far I have had mine for 6 weeks and have had no issues. I absolutely love it! I can’t be the only one with no issues. You guys are making it out that Mercedes are junk and that has not been my experience. My wife has had 3 gl / gls with no issues. My father has had several recent S classes with no issues. If I read these posts and didn’t know from my own experience I would be terrified to purchase one.

Yes you can see the reflection of air vents in the windshield. I had the same issue with my 2016 750 except it was the speaker in the center of the dash.

As for the interior, sometimes change is difficult to accept. I have embraced it and find the interior to be a beautiful space. The seats are amazingly comfortable. You can set up favorites which you can access via the steering wheel which makes everything easy to access. For people who don’t like the looks; don’t buy it.

My point is some of us are very happy with these cars.

Germancar1

Yeah in the high tech world we're in I don't ever see any car being perfect. Mercedes (and others) have been rocked by this EV thing and Tesla and until they get a handle on what they're doing, you guys with the bigger wallets are unfortunately going to be their testers as they spit out new models at an alarming pace. Truth be told Mercedes' quality has been going down hill every since the days of them expanding past the 190E, 300-Class, S-Class and SL. The ML onward marked a noticeable difference in quality. They've tried to improve here and there, but overall it's been a big slippage from the old days. You go from 750K cars a year to 2.2M and quality suffers. I really fear for the Mercedes-Benz brand 10-15 years from now, they could become the next Cadillac. Their quality is not consistent anymore. The GLE/GLS are pretty sturdily built as far as build quality, but there are nothing but bugs. It appears the S-Class will be the same, but I remember the W222 having warped windshields, bad brakes, and other glitches that were sorted pretty quickly. I hope that is the case here, but the old Mercedes-Benz would have never put out a car with a windshield glare like the W223's air vents. The old school engineers would have never stood for it. It gets worse, have you see the EQS and EQS. Just ghastly at first, and they may grow to acceptable one day, but not right now. The next 5-7 years will determine Mercedes-Benz's fate. There is a reason why Toyota/Lexus uses the same engines, chassis and other major components for 15+ years with little change or innovation.


M

Germancar1

That's why a car forum in a blessing and a curse. The disgruntled (few) will post here, while the majority of buyers don't visit message boards at all. Mercedes' "junk years were 1998-2006 for sure, with some exceptions in there, but no a Mercedes isn't junk. That said they're trying to do too much too fast and quality always suffers as a result of that.


M

Socalsteve

What else was missing?

Why were there reminders to relocate steering column and drivers seat? Why uncomfortable position? Did you not use the memory feature?

Is 3.5 seconds a long time to open a door? I have no idea as I’ve never timed it. I’m curious why this was an issue and why you thought it took so long?

My 2015 has a very simple “ favorite” button that allows you to access screens of your choice with 1 push of a button? Does the 2021 not offer this feature?

What “more”? please elaborate.

Thank you in advance for enlightening us!

RJC

Sorry missed that, so what did you get to replace the S?