I agree. Drove the EQS SUV when it first came out and I think its a great product, and feels closer to S-Class levels than the GLS in my opinion. Definitely the best pick of the EQ bunch at the moment.

 

They drive nice, but the GLS is much better looking

 

Agreed, but the SUV isn't nearly as polarizing as the Sedan.

 

True, I agree with that

 

I’m actually thinking the S580 is low enough. I’m seriously tempted to trade it in (when I’m ready in around 18 months) on a crossover/suv. Stream were you able to test drive the new Cayenne yet?

 

I am not an EV fan BUT
I personally know this guy who was a silly youngster and travelled to see many of his brothers football games many years ago... he used to try to average 100mph on 5-10 hour trips ( i couldnt..ummm... i mean, he couldnt even come close..)

However, one of the interesting things is that the silly kid would time his (ICE) vehicle gas stops... off ramp to gas station, back to highway... and because his then girlfriend could NEVER hurry, the stops ranged from 20-30 minutes.
my..umm.. i mean.. his reality was that typical ICE gas stops are really not as short as one might think..

Note... today this guy has matured and actually has and had many very powerful AMG's which nowadays rarely exceeds traffic flow speeds... not "never" but rarely..

 

When I travel by myself I stop quick and hit the road again, but when I travel with my family every stop will take 20-30 minutues, no way around it. I'm amazed by how long a stop at a rest area with just bathrooms and vending machines takes...

 

The way I look at it, MB has royally screwed me now, TWICE! If they want me to give them another shot this time around, I want some guaranteed, sufficiently BIG incentive money, before I even attempt to work with a dealer. And, honestly, even as I write this, I don’t know what model I might go with. The idiotic door handles alone are enough to turn me off of every model that has them. The way the transmission in my S580 is behaving these days is really horrible to me. Do I chance getting another crummy one they won’t fix? I think I need to leave MB for a bit. That said, money talks, B.S. walks, so let’s see if they come up with anything acceptable.

 

To be fair, I think they've stood behind their product for you pretty well, bought them both back etc. If you're not happy with the car though I wouldn't get another one and hope it would be different.

 

Mercedes transmissions have been a hit or miss for as long as I could remember. I remember my dad had a w140 back when they were new and he had the transmission diagnosed. The dealer told him rough shifting was normal when the transmission was cold.

My W223 had a very abrupt downshift sometimes. My GT53 was pretty smooth.

 

Yes and no. They COULD have fixed the transmission in my 2020, but they elected not to. That decision on their part, ended up costing me a lot of money and put me into a car I hate. If they had properly fixed my 2020, I'd be driving it today and probably would not have parted with it for many years.

 

Who's to say they had the ability to fix it? I would imagine they would have fixed it if they could have...

 

I find that impossible to believe. It's a transmission. It's software. Most of the 2020's I imagine are fine. All they needed to do was go the extra mile and they refused.

 

I recall reading in the 222 forum about members who had similar shift issues having them resolved by having a tech in the car and reprogramming shift points or some such thing. I imagine that can get costly, and perhaps complaints are so infrequent they choose not to. I also know that "buyback" can mean different things, in the sense that my Audi was negotiated as a return of funds, but wasn't branded. If similar here, it may just be easier to do the same, resell/wholesale the car and move on.

 

Yes, I remember that as well. I even showed that thread to the shop foreman at Fletcher Jones and he said they were “not allowed” to do that. I feel it has something to do with EPA regulations, but for a company like MB to say they “can’t” fix a brand new car is absolutely insane.

 

It depends on what specifically the shift issue was, the shift issue you had an issue with may be something that they all have that most people don't have an issue with...

 

Believe me. When the shop foreman at Fletcher Jones drove the car with me for the first time, he remarked "OH! That's not right." As we drove on and whenever he approached a stop and it shifted from 3rd to 2nd, he would make other, similar comments. It was bad. Was it horrible? Perhaps not, but it wasn't "RIGHT."

 

I have zero problems with the door handle. Believe it or not i actually like the way they work

 

Very happy for you.

 

Yes that was my thread when I had my previous pre-facelift W222 (S550). My vehicle was out of warranty by the way at that time, but it was still under the mandatory 3-months dealer pre-owned warranty

That's right too. It took a few weeks to a couple of months for me to navigate through all of this, I got MBUSA involved as I was not happy about the situation. They AKNOWLEGED that they as accorporate (and the german engineers) know about the issue but the solution will have to go through re-certification and EPA sort of regulatory type of process. German transmission design engineers where blaming software engineers, and the opposite was true. It was a mess. Being an out of warranty vehicle, The shop technician did a manual forced adaptation and adjustment of the shift points so that the 2nd to 3rd and 3rd to 2nd shifts are smooth again. Not sure if it has changed the vehicle emissions numbers, but all I cared about is to fix that nasty downshifting (as well as upshifting)

Not really. at least based on what I have seen in my previous W222 (S550), if what streamliner has been experiencing is the same, it is truly not just a normal downshift. I am serious when I say that from time to time, I thought I got rear-ended!. I swear that at least once a week, an event would occur once that the downshift is so bad that I would immediately stop and reakout looking at the rear mirror trying to find if someone rear-ended me. It is really that bad. Beside that happening once a week, the downshift is still rough, not sure I would call it fine, but for my wife it was probably just fine... But as someone who knows cars, I know that this is NOT how and S-class in particular should shift. And that rought down-shift that may suddenly happen when cruising around in parking lots and slowing down (aka: 3rd to 2nd gear) was really bad.

My current S560 shifts buttery smooth; but am shocked Mbenz has not fixed the shifting issues until this day as streamliner is not the only who reporting shifting problems. Mbenz engines are known to be the worst anyway.

 

Well, is it time for me to again say how I think MB is trying to do way too many things at the same time? Even though some models have been dropped, many more have been added and I can’t imagine how the dealers can handle the volume of servicing. I believe many—if not most— of the MB dealer service departments are the same size today as they were ten or even fifteen years ago, when there were far fewer models. So, they are constantly under the gun to get cars in and out, with almost no time left for in-depth diagnosis of serious problems, let alone difficult, time consuming repairs.

At the factory level, I believe many of the “old guard” employees who guided MB and built a company obsessed with quality, have retired. The younger generation has fully bought into the idea that vehicles should last for maybe five years and then be recycled, like washing machines. They are trying to be everything to everyone and in the process, are turning off many of their long time, very loyal customers, like ME! My feeling is that MB built the last vehicles that were of interest to me, prior to the 2021 model year.

Of course, as always, this is all my opinion and I certainly understand that others will disagree.

 

To be fair you they have made Mercedes a lot more accessible to more people through the evolution of their approach to the car business. Said another way an S Class would be a lot more expensive than it is today had they maintained their old school approach.

 

Stream it certainly seems that way. Years ago it was the S the E and the C class that were available

 

Have they made Mercedes more accessible, or have they made a car with a Mercedes badge more accessible?

I'm going to be straight up here. I like this car, saying otherwise would be a lie. This is the part where everything after the but is what matters.... BUT... The only reason that I don't like some other car better is because no one is making it. If Porsche made an actual luxury car, no sport, pure luxury, I'm absolutely convinced it would be better in almost every way. We'd have better climate control, better wipers, better headlights, better shifting transmissions, a massive reduction in squeaks, suspension that didn't BANG over anything bigger than a modest bump, and on and on and on. Hell, even the kick to open the trunk works every single time on a Panamera. Every. Single. Time. Everything works. Every. Single. Time.

You don't have to go to a hypothetical though; right now a Toyota I rented recently shifted better than my S Class. Just like almost every car I rent. I adjusted the climate once in it and it didn't need to be touched again. Typical anymore but not in an S Class, you have to fool with it every drive. It's an example and I could go on in the same vein for quite a while but I don't want to bore.

A different hypothetical. If the new 7 didn't look like used toilet paper, I'd be over there.

Bottom line: Is it really a Mercedes experience that has been opened up to more people? Maybe. But only if the Mercedes experience is about being functionally outclassed in many respects by cars a fraction of its cost.

 

The Mercedes of old is long gone, but it's still (for most) a nice car. I personally would love to try a Panamera, but wow the $$$ goes up quickly when optioning. As far as the 7, a wise person once said, you don't drive on the outside...