Streamliner

I have a 2022 S580 and I have recently participated in two “owner surveys,” one paid, one not. They don’t tell you who their client is, but in both cases, it seemed pretty evident to me that MB was looking for reactions from W223 owners. The bigger survey involved hours of answering questions online and then an in-person/in my parked car, three hour interview. I have to say that I pretty much UNLOADED on them.

Without getting into all the details, as I went through these surveys, it became even more evident to me than I had originally thought, that the 2021/2022 W222’s were brought to market without really being fully sorted. There are rough edges to these cars that really are unforgivable in a flagship sedan from MB. The exterior door handles are a perfect example, as are the reflections of the a/c vents in the windshield and especially in the passenger side view mirrors. The way some electronic systems work fine sometimes and other times just stop working for no apparent reason—only to work fine again later. The seats for some folks, myself included, are not as comfortable as those in the W222’s. The ridiculously shallow center armrest storage is a joke on whomever gets 4-Zone HVAC. On a personal note, the garage door opener has a distance capability of about TWO FEET! The units in our other two MB’s will open the door from halfway down the block but with my S580, I need to be virtually right in front of the door for it to work.

I believe MB KNOWS that they have many issues with these cars. We, as owners of these very expensive vehicles, NEED to let the dealers and MBUSA know about each and every problem. Frankly, I think MB owes us SOMETHING for all the headaches. At the very least, I feel that every 2021 & 2022 W223 owner should get a $10,000.00 voucher towards the purchase or lease of their next new S Class. We didn’t sign up to be guinea pigs! We thought we were buying the best car in the world.

Anyway, most all said is my humble opinion. Your mileage may vary.

odesskiy

I've only had my car for two weeks and I already agree with you wholeheartedly. I've driven the car less than 300 miles and there's already a small list of things that went wrong.

1. The car initially had no connectivity to the outside world. Couldn't connect the Me system, couldn't activate services, couldn't even connect to the internet through my home Wi-Fi or my phone's hotspot. For several days straight clueless customer support was telling me to just "wait a little longer" finally after insisting that they escalate, their tech support was able to fix it after about 4 more days.
2. Sporadically appearing messages like "brake assistance unavailable" and "blind spot assistance unavailable" with blind spot monitor actually not functioning. Fixed by a restart.
3. Yesterday while at a stop light, the car jerked pretty violently and Check Engine light appeared. Drove home carefully, this morning the light disappeared. The OBD-II reader indicated "Invalid data received from ECM/PCM".

I've bought countless new cars and I've never encountered this many issues right off the bat. Come to think of it almost all cars were completely flawless through three years of their leases. The S580 is the most expensive and is already the most problematic car I've ever bought. I definitely do NOT feel like I bought what was supposed to be the best and most advanced car in the world. Tesla fan boys justify endless issues with their cars, but I actually passed up my Tesla Model X Plaid reservation because the car looked awful inside and out with horrible fit and finish. The Merc was supposed to be the exact opposite but it's not.

My friend has a practically identical '22 S580 with a different color scheme. His car is pretty much a lemon as it has already spent months at the dealer. MB actually gave him about $5k to compensate him for a couple of months worth of loan payments. It has issues with Airmatic suspension and Active Body Control that the dealer has been unable to fix so far. They changed several sensors, a wiring harness and now are awaiting a whole new strut assembly. There were two of them in the US, one showed up with a wrong part in the box, another was damaged in transit. Now ETA for a new part from Germany is September. They keep telling him the car is safe to drive but it keeps giving him a suspension problem message and a warning not to drive over 50MPH. I would definitely sell it back to MB and get all the money back but he still likes the car and doesn't want to give it up. I guess he can still do it somewhere down the road and end up driving it for free for a year.

If this is going to continue all through the life of this car, I will never buy another Mercedes again. I find it difficult to just relax and enjoy driving this car when I have to constantly watch out for error codes, malfunctioning safety systems, etc. Blind spot monitor not working is actually a pretty serious safety issue, I find myself not relying on it anymore and looking over my shoulder to check the blind spot. All of this after spending north of $170k after tax and license. On what planet is this supposed to be normal?

P.S.
I do agree with seats being uncomfortable. I do like the active multi-contour feature and the massage, but I just don't seem to be able to find a comfortable setting for driving. Seats in my wife's Volvo are far, far more comfortable and they have power-extending hip supports, that are truly wonderful.

W223

At what time of ownership did you receive said surveys?

Old Rocker

I had the same problem EXACTLY. My 2021 GLE450 worked at the corner of my street, but my 2021 S580 barely worked at all. Even with the actual remote it was short range. I sometimes had to hold the remote high or even outside the window (while parked in front of the door).

I bought this and installed the antenna above the garage door. It solved the problem, My garage door opener didn't have contacts that "short" to complete the circuit so I had to wire it into the internals of the wall switch inside, but I don't ever think about it anymore as it now works.

Streamliner

I’ve had the car about 13 weeks now and did the surveys about two weeks ago.

E55Greasemonkey

As has been discussed here before, I believe the 223 was relegated to obsolescence before the first one was ever sold. Once MB decided to go electric the 223 was stopped short in final development to focus on the EQS. So what you have now is essentially the pre-production prototype and it is what it is, save for some possible software updates down the road. And we all know MB doesn't really care.

W223

Interesting. I myself am not a fan of the shape/styling of many electric vehicles, the EQS is no exception. I feel that if MB offered a full electric option for their vehicles which have already been in production as gasoline powered models, such as the W223, they'd be able to sell more EV's, chargers etc. This would also ease the imminent transition to electric where at some point, gasoline powered motors would simply be discontinued.

I do however have faith that Mercedes listens and that they're willing to make the appropriate changes via software updates to make the ownership experience that much more enjoyable... 😌

If you make enough noise, somebody's bound to hear you...

Bubba1

Four months in and loving the S580. No issues of concern whatsoever. One of the best vehicles I have ever owned and I’ve owned plenty.

Streamliner, perhaps it’s time to step up to the plate, bite the bullet, get rid of it...and put yourself, not to mention your fellow forum members out of our misery?

odesskiy

He is far from the only one with a slew of issues.

MBS63AMG

I cannot understand why the design language of a car has to be awful just because it is electric, and this goes for all brands.
Has anyone thought about the design language of a motorsports ski boat that is all electric???? Just imagine running out of EV battery in the middle of a late evening pontoon boat ride. Are they going to have 100 boats pulled up at a marina to charge their square shaped Nautique Ski boats at 90 minutes for each charging session? This electric motor non-sense will be a major failure.

MBS63AMG

Based on what I've been reading, you're a blessed soul.

Streamliner

I’m working on it.

js_cls

Same here, six months, zero issues other than the kick tailgate acting up once. Car does exactly what I want it to do, eat up miles in comfort. I do miss the sportiness of my CLS53 as well as some of the interior controls, however its hard to go back down in terms of luxury, features, and engine after having an S.

W223

Streamliner

Like I said, I’m working on it.

crabman

I hear all the problems are fixed for MY23. Also it gets 100 more horsepower and a 25k price reduction. That I have one on order is in no way related to me starting these rumors.

martinlarose

I must be as well because I have zero complaints with mine

W223

Refreshes occur every 4-5 years.

chassis

MB knows all of the problems they have ever had with all of their vehicles. It's a fundamental characteristic of any global consumer product manufacturer. Just like Kia. MB and Kia share that trait in common - full knowledge of their products' problems.

What MB choses to do about the problems falls short of many customers' expectations.

crabman

That was before the famous refresh of 23; you heard about it here first!

W223

Yeah, whatever "crabman". We all have our theories

W223

OP, what seem like such simple problems are actually complex issues to sort out. Unless you're suggesting that someone dropped the ball during development, that's another story...

odesskiy

My friend, who is now intimately familiar with the dealership due to having a lemon tells me that his service advisor says that his car is an exception rather than the rule, that they do not see too many issues with the new S-Class and the ones they do see are all software related rather than mechanical. The problem is that MB seems to be incapable of coming up with a stable software build. Each iteration attempting to fix known issues creates new issues. This is the pattern I’ve seen in software built by Indian IT sweatshops. I am convinced that MB outsourced software development to a subpar company and these are the results we are all experiencing. My advice to those that say their cars have been problem-free is to resist software updates for as long as possible unless something critical comes up that the dealer is absolutely required to flash.

Streamliner

“You’re the ONLY one complaining about this” = THE COMPANY LINE! No authorized dealer of any make, let alone MB, will EVER cop to knowing of widespread issues, especially with their brand new “flagship” vehicle. Of course, there will be an exception here and there, but for the most part, “talking points” are dictated from MB corporate to MBUSA, to dealer management, to your very friendly and “trusted” service advisor.

odesskiy

I'll buy that. My sample size is only two cars - my friend's and mine, so 100% problematic