Dima

nah, you just enjoy drama

Streamliner

Yeah, you caught me. I’m actually enjoying some right now, but I can’t tell you about it yet.

Bubba1

The S580 is fantastic, quiet, comfortable, beautiful and understated. Unfortunately one factor is missing reliability.

I have owned my 2022 S580 for some 2.5 years. So far this year it’s been in the shop for 30 days (unfortunately no lemon law in Canada). Typically battery problems. Recently HVAC system stopped working. Frustrating indeed. I get the car back and I love it when it’s working.

I was a huge fan of this car and the first couple of years the battery acted up but issues were typically resolved in a few days. I tolerated the stupid door handles, the way the door has no proper hinge to stop it in place, the infuriating haptic controls and the advanced hit and miss technology gone a muck. I even learnt to lock the car twice, keep the key away etc etc. Slide the finger across door handle to open. God forbid I actually travel for more than a day or two and don’t attach it to a trickle charger. It literally would die after a few days if I didn’t drive it. I am now being told that it’s fixed (for the 5th time). I’ve also learned to avoid the slightest potholes (I’ve blown 3 tires 20”).


MB’s response to the car being in the shop for 30 days this year? One year extended limited warranty or 50% of prepaid maintenance 1-2 years. They could care less. I received a short and rude email from MB saying in essence too bad so sad. My dealership offered a buyback price so low I didn’t even respond.

When I trade this car in (in the next year or so), I will not be buying another MB. It’s sad because when it works the S class is a dream. However, one of my main demands is reliability and a manufacturer/dealer who stand behind their product. All of which are lacking in my ownership experience of the S580.

I have now come to realize the old frog in the boiling pot theory. If you put a frog in cold water in a pot and slowly turn up the heat the frog won’t know the difference. That’s what I feel like, I’m constantly making compromises for this car. The pot is boiling and I’ve gotten used to it LOL. And MB couldn’t give a f**k.

Maybe they have fixed the problems in the 24’s or at the refresh? I don’t really care as my relationship with MB has been severely harmed!

Streamliner

Very well said. Too bad there is no Lemon Law in Canada.

Dima

W223 when it just came out, was the first MB introduction into a new technology. But now, the same parts and techs are being used across most models, so the reliability is improving. The Bosch issues with batteries and stuff are being rectified with both CEOs being actively involved.

crabman

You can have a fair bit of little stuff, or a small bit of big stuff, but it eats at you when you have both.

I can still see myself rolling another if they sort these things out, but if not, uhuh.

Bubba1

I intentionally avoided the 2021 and bought the 22. It will be interesting to see what the refresh achieves. However, going forward (not that MB) cares, if they want my business they are really going to have to earn it. MB (unlike in my Dads generation) is NOT the only game in town.

It really is there loss. I change my cars on average every 2-3 years. While I may not matter as an individual combine that with people like Streamliner, the Crabman and multiply that out by countless others who are or have lost faith in MB “Houston we have a problem”.

Streamliner

It's about time!

Bubba1

How do you know this “with both CEOs being actively involved”? If they are involved they should know that the Guinea Pigs they have used need to be compensated and need to be treated with respect by MB and the dealerships they so happily brand with the 3 point star.

SW20S

Believe me, I get it about the unreliability. That’s terrible and that is my main concern. I just hope that what I’ve seen and what I’ve been told by my service guy is right and the 23s and 24s are better.

I will say it just sat for 8 days and no battery issues.

Dima

it was in a German media, Ola was very unhappy with delays and quality, so they had met to fix the situation.

Bubba1

Did you have a trickle charger attached?

SW20S

Nope. I don't even own a trickle charger.

W205C43PFL

Just put the vehicle in standby mode if not driving for more than a week or so.

In normal use, as long as you drive the vehicle for at least 30? minutes before turning off it should had prevented the battery from being discharged too much anyways from frequent engine starts. I forgot when the alternator starts to charge the 48V battery after charging the 12V battery via the voltage converter, so on the safe side, maybe just maybe drive for at least 45? minutes? Unless both batteries gets charged simultaneously?

W205C43PFL

Recommend checking the 48V battery voltage via the vehicle data screen in the workshop (hidden) menu. The same workshop menu (and its sub-menus) that you can reset service interval under ASSYST PLUS, but instead, go to vehicle data. Basically stop at the 0:30 second mark of this video:

crabman

I'm overseas quite often, for days, weeks, sometimes months. I left my car in an airport parking garage for 3 weeks at one point, no charger, no standby, no problems: Started like I had been driving it the whole time. That was unexpected; one of those deals where I wasn't able to sort things out as quickly as expected. For all that I wasn't worried because I had left it several times for a few weeks, also without charge or standby. The only time I put the car on a charger was when I took on a couple jobs that were several months.

I had few problems with my car in terms of reliability. Most of those were software. It's the built-in stupid that they knew about and decided to build anyway that sent me somewhere else; things like the attack doors, having to rigidly follow the fob rules to get consistent handle actuation, etc.

MBNUT1

I think that this thread provides a compelling answer. https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w...580-owner.html

SW20S

Thats again a 22…no question the 21s and 22s have a lot of issues, but it does appear from both what I have seen on here and what I have been told by my dealer that the 23s and 24s are better.

MBNUT1

We'll check back when they have 100k miles....

SW20S

That'll be 50k miles past when I and most buyers won't have them anymore lol

efathalla

I owned a 2016 S63 for 3 years as my daily driver from new. It had no major issues except for a fuel pump failure at 110k miles. I traded it after exactly 3 years with 125k miles, having enjoyed every mile in the car. not so optimistic about the new one !!

Streamliner

With the exception of having a more quiet cabin, the W222 was a much better car than the W223. Congratulations on truly enjoying your 2016 S63.

efathalla

Thank you @Streamliner
The day it was traded with the 19 G63, I don't think I'll ever have an AMG like that one was!! at least in my opinion.

SW20S

Quieter cabin and better ride in the W223 (airmatic to airmatic). Other than technology which either appeals to you or doesn’t and being the new model the W222 still compares very well.

I can tell you that at least for now I do not miss my W222 at all.

crabman

No question in my mind, MBUX is superior to its counterpart at BMW; LCI it's called over there. More logically laid out, has better flow through the menu's, easier to parse at a glance, and the tech within is not as well integrated, each individually to others.

I'd also say after having the 580 that the screen shape is significantly better than the typical long rectangle. Despite the fact that you have to look down further to see some parts of the screen, it is still easier to see specific information on the 580 screen when you look for it, and it reduces the time your eyes are off the road. Lots of reasons for that but the bigger players are that more room allows you to better space the elements on the screen. You can use larger fonts and those better spaced elements can be bigger. In nav the extra space is obviously better, but the shape also factors into that because you can see more around you in all directions instead of just to either side.

Then you have the lack of buttons. This will sound familiar: BMW has put the seat heating, cooling, and wheel into the LCI and removed the buttons for them. This is not always on, in the top layer of the GUI, as it is with MBUX, you have to click a layer in, to access them.

The worst offender of all is that they've removed the ACC distance function from the wheel and put it into the GUI. That blunder is right up there with anything MB has done, because this is one of the most commonly used functions while driving, and yet it's something like 5 presses into a menu tree, that itself isn't easily parsed due to poor layout, and can only be initiated after finding a chicklet which is embedded in a field of many similar looking chicklets the quantity of which requires you scroll said field of chicklets, while driving.

The ride I have now is actually my 3rd all screen car, and MB is easily the best so far in terms of user interaction with the systems. I think when they get back to real buttons on the wheel, and add in a few others, a lot of complaints about the operational paradigms employed, are going to evaporate.

In my mind, they need to go back to basics, and they need to stop saying, it dosn't work right, but we're not fixing it because we don't care, profits are everything. The windshield wipers should work at industry par, you shouldn't have to help your wife get in and out of the car because she's petite, and literally cant reach the door handle without getting back out of the car, etc. That things like this ever made it any garage, happened only because they allowed it to happen.

This profit before customer business model is not without consequences. When people ask, I tell them that not only was I not impressed with many aspects of my Mercedes, just the opposite, I was shocked at how poorly the car faired in many ways when compared to other cars selling at a fraction of it's cost. When I jumped in I had no idea that I would compare it to rental cars costing 30k, that in many respects, functioned better at the basic business of driving. It still surprises me now, without owning one I had always thought they were better, but I can't go back to thinking that after owing one. This reputational loss isn't just in my head alone. Several people have asked me about the car, and I've told them of the pros and cons, and I can tell you just from the look in their eyes; MB has suffered another reputational loss when I described owning the S580. Consequences, and they're multiplied by how many owners?