tx170754

'' They sell 10k+ S-Class' a year, double that of the 7er, and 5 times that of the LS and A/S8, so there's bound to be more issues reported''
I don't know about other S Class forums from another countries but would be interesting to relate the percentage of the S cars sold here to the percentage of this forum complains, assuming this is the only US forum dealing with the S cars....
I may be wrong, but my assumption is that most of the S class owners in this country are not even part of this S class forum !
So, I have a problem buying your statistic.....but, you know, I may be wrong !

Wolfman

Thats actually not the case. There had been quite a few instances where the cars would shut down the engine while driving, requiring the driver to try making it to the shoulder.

Those were typically S63 models, if memory serves.
Here is a video of a disgruntled owner…

js_cls

This may be a US forum but the forum has members from around the world as well as S-Class models not in the US market.

tx170754

Looks sad, but I'm wondering what is this in reality, there are at least two guys with cameras around and they're not there by chance .....

tx170754

Right but you can count them using one....maybe two hands.....

Wolfman

This turned out to be an official recall, so not a minor thing. Might sound familiar…

Mercedes-AMG 222 S 63: engine may stall

In November 2015, a recall was issued for the Mercedes-AMG S 63 vehicles that were available for sale from 1 November 2014 to 30 September 2015. In these vehicles, software in the engine and transmission control units may cause the engine to stall when the vehicle is coasting to a stop – this may pose a hazard to the vehicle occupants and other road users

sorry. Am on the phone, poor copy/paste job from another site

UrBusted

It's even worse in the UK. We get to decide a total of 0 options unless you count colour options. The only choice comes in car variant; do you want Premium, Premium Plus or Premium Plus Executive. None of these variants include Burmester 4d etc

tx170754

Interesting, I was driving a 2015 A8 and a 2013 SL550 by then and I was really happy with both cars.
Im imagine how happy those S63 owners were, but in reality of it was software related that was an easy fix.
I don't know if you guys remember the first" Bangle butt " BMW 7 Series, they used a Microsoft software, which was a disaster in the beginning, BMW issued a recall, fixed the software and that car was one of the best cars cars we ever had, they also extended the bumper to bumper warranty by two years and the Idrive ( mostly hated in the beginning ) became a benchmark in the automotive industry, used even in our cars today.

Martsman

tx170754 No one told you to shut up, I am sorry it came off that way. I feel for you and would be quite upset if in your situation. It's the people on this site that have constantly bashed the car since it came out and that is my frustration. There are people who love there W223 and that was my point.

tx170754

Your are ok, no offense, and I don't think your post was sending that message, it is an open forum and I personally appreciate everybody's comments.
For me in order to understand somebody, let's say "chagrin", I'm trying to be in her/his shoes

SW20S

Yeah, fanboy nonsense.

At the end of the day, there are a lot of unhappy owners in this forum, its not just 5 people. Like I demonstrated the bulk of the threads on the front page are complaints, the W222 forum isn't like that, people seem to be on the whole more frustrated with this car than with the previous generation, and that concerns me. This is far and away the most expensive car in the class, and it would be a considerable jump in cost from my only 3 year old one just to get a comparable W223. For that I want to be really delighted with the car, and I'm concerned I would not be given what I see here. I don't want to be paying more than my first mortgage for a car that frustrates me. I don't think that's unreasonable.

crabman

No 4D? That is harsh.

SW20S

Sorry, looking at both forums the tenor of the postings is completely different. Level of owner satisfaction completely different. Of course there are problems everywhere, but we clearly have more unhappy owners in here than we ever had in the W222 forum. What happened to Stream leaving him stranded isn't the main example of my concern

Streamliner

Well, I’ve only had the car for about 14 months now AND, in the beginning, I actually praised the car, hoping that non-run flats would solve the ride issues and that some software updates would smooth out the rest of the car, but no soap. Nothing had ever gotten better with the car and THEN, it died in the middle of a busy highway. The dealer kept the car for 30 days. I didn’t ask them to do that, they just did it, because the factory in Germany could not provide a fix sooner. So, I guess at that point, you would have gone into the sales department, told them the $153,700.00 car was in their shop, take it as a trade, sell me a new one, where do I sign, right? So you take a $30K+ or so hit, it’s only money, right? Well maybe for you, but not for me.

BMW bought back THREE 750il sedans and an 850i. I know that many folks would have either put up with the defects or traded, taken a big loss and moved on, but that’s not me. I send back overcooked steaks, too!

I’ve bought or leased 17 brand new MB’s. The only one, besides the S580, that I didn’t really care for was my 2014 ML350BT. I didn’t criticize it, as there was nothing wrong with it, I just didn’t care for it. So, I got rid of it and got another S Class. So you see, I don’t always complain, I only do so when something isn’t right.

I believe there is a setting on this site, where you can choose to not even see anything I post. You might want to look into that, because as long as things are wrong with an MB I’m driving, I’m going to continue to voice my displeasure. If you’d like to see some positive posts of mine, go over to R231 where I can’t stop gushing over my SL450 or W213 where I rave about our gorgeous E450 Wagon. In the meantime, enjoy your car.

I love 2 out of 3 MB’s we have. Don’t I get points for that?

Streamliner

Yes, twice now. I first tried to get them to take the car back last year. A very nice woman called from MBUSA and listened to all my complaints and said that my situation would be investigated. About six weeks later, I got a letter, in a hand addressed envelope, saying that my situation did not qualify for a buy-back. About three weeks ago, I got a call from a gentleman at MBUSA, going through the same process. I expect to receive a letter agreeing to a buy-back in another three weeks. My car has been out of service, for non-scheduled maintenance issues for almost 50 days. The threshold in California for Lemon Law eligibility is 30 days, so MBUSA knows what they must do, I’m just waiting for the wheels of justice to turn all the way.

tx170754

Steve,
If I would be you I would not get rid of your great, trouble free, 2020 and jump to a newer W223, unless by pure luck you can get a trouble free one. I still think that Mercedes due to some "circumstances" released a, not totally verified design. I used to work in that kind of business and sometimes we used to take calculated risks in order to do not miss the release date, that's life. I don't know how is in the automotive industry but a lot of our products were already sold, so imagine how happy a customer would be if the product wasn't delivered in time. So what would he do, he would go to the competition to get the product in time !
In terms of payments, since you're leasing, I would not pay more either, unless it make financially sense in terms of deductions...I don't finance and also don't lease, I pay my cars cash, yeah I know cars are a terrible investment, in fact they're not even and investment, they're just money thrown away.... because we like cars !
Just my 0.2

tx170754

Totally agree !
There are two things here, as I see them !
Money and quality, if we pay such price for a car, even if it drives ( unfortunately not in your case ) that doesn't mean it is a quality car the way it should be. My 560 has an incredible drive, smooth and quiet. But for quite some time, since the dealer was clueless, I was chasing interior rattles by myself, after using felt on all the doors, pillars, dash, glove compartment, finally the center console was the culprit, felt it and now inside is it so quiet like in the Toledo cathedral in Spain !

Wolfman

Sorry for bringing up relevant examples
There were situations where the cars died on them at highway speeds. Definitely happened many more times than Streamliners scenario.
But overall there was no impact on reliability because they were rare incidences. The W222, as stated countless times, is a solid car.

Many of your posts appear critical though. I don’t believe anyone is forcing your hand into a W223.
I hope that the forum posts improve to your satisfaction when the time comes you are ready to move to the next car, which sounds like the facelift model.

W205C43PFL

Interesting, what about the two other German luxury brands, is it the same, if it is, what about mainstream German brands or mainstream vehicles from other makes, I am wondering if it is more like a UK thing?

W205C43PFL

The iDrive if I recalled correctly main complaints in the early generations were hard to learn and easy to get distracted when driving?

W205C43PFL

You got me curious actually, I am planning to go to the W222 forum once I find time and go all the way back in time and see what were the first threads about, if there were any complaints from owners. I think you should too, let me know your findings.

UrBusted

Driving 40k miles+ a year in a 130k+ USD car I want a good music experience, the standard Burmester 3D is LACKING compared to the higher end equivalents in my Ranges; maybe I should've mentioned the other issues such as only having 2/11 non-black interior colour choices, missing more than half the interior trim options, not being able to get rid of the gloss piano black on the centre console etc. Maybe those things don't upset you; for me having that variety and those options in my last 5 or 6 or however many S Class' made me happy

SW20S

Yeah I think the smart thing for me to do is hang on until the refresh model. I'll wind up paying more, thats just the nature of inflation but it is what it is.

Stream isn't the only person this has happened to here.

Many of your posts appear to be apologizing for and rationalizing the issues MB is experiencing with this car. I don't own the car, I am just explaining that I see a legitimate issue here with this model.

I read the forum when they were new because I always loved the S Class, the tone was totally different.

crabman

Actually I think the original idrive was hated mostly by journalist. We had the first one of those; the car was an utter reliability disaster due to CANBUS issues and their inability to successfully reprogram the car. The new GUI; we figured out in no time and there was still a lot of switchgear so you didn't get in there too much after the initial setup.

I think for journalist that get the car for a few hours in some cases, it was a lot harder to swallow.

UrBusted

BMW has all the same options available as America, even the m3 has more colour/trim options than any Mercedes you can configure here lol. Audi has never had "any" options here except gimmicky ones and 2/3 leather colour choices, I don't know if it's the same in America. I'm assuming by grouping the packages Mercedes save on economies of scale for RHD vehicles; it's been this way for every vehicle they've offered since they refreshed all their cars in 2018/19. There's also been certain years when they haven't had interior colours on certain cars which is bizarre, when I ordered an E Class cabriolet there was only the standard black available, the year before and after there was 4