billving

I took delivery of my new S63 a week ago Friday. Love the car, as quick as my 03 s55 though mabye missing a little of the "head snap". Overall the car thus far feels much more a driver's car then the s55.

With that being said, while my 03 s55 never had any big mechanical issues, it did have a few of the issues docmented by others here: supercharger belt noise; squeeky pulleys at low temp: gremlins in the headrests; rear speaker blew out - when the car was not even running; multiple returns on check engines lights, etc. etc. Overall I would guess that the car was in the shop 40 days or so over the 52 months that I had it (3 yr lease, then extensions +++ waiting for the s63).

I also was with a friend of mine on Thursday with and 04 s55 that has been a nightmare and he just sold for 40k! Mercedes engine job at 35k! In 5 times over suspension collapsing/deflating. He sold it because he just can't take it any more even though it's still under warranty.

Well everything seems great with my new car until I walked by the car the other day and noticed that the passenger side rear window had a different reflection then the front. I thought nothing of it thinking it was just shadows until last Friday when the car went in for medium tint on the windows. Guess what? The passenger front window had a completely differant shade/tint glass installed in error. While all the other windows in the car have Sun-something AE(I forget right now and I am too lazy to go look right now!), the passenger front has SOLARGREEN. All the correct windows are a bluish/grey more mirrored finish while the wrong one is literally green!

Yelled and screamed about BS MB quaility with my dealer, they received a new glass this morning and installed (great, week-old car and the door has to be taken apart!) and all is well.

Well this afternnon my cousin calls me. He received his new cl63 last Wednesday. He listened to me and felt for me, but had a nice chuckle over my windows. Well guess what - two pieces of glass in his brand new CL63 are a maroon shade of glass, again completely different from the others and clearly wrong. He called MB and new glass is en route and the wrong glass in his car is the standard in the European market.

I guess I may be able to understand if ALL of the glass in the car is wrong as I can see how that may happen. How can you get 1 or 2 pieces wrong? What worries me is the that this was the longest and most mis-managed car launch in history (you add an R63 while delaying this ?????), then the complete lack of pricing in advance, then the navigation fiasco, and now the first two cars delivered to the dealer with wrong pieces of glass? I wonder what else is wrong because of the rush to complete these cars after an agonizingly long and mis-guided (In my opinion) launch process.

Time will tell and I am glad that this is a lease so it's their problem if there is no resale $$$ in 3 years, but if I get a few more problems like the last one this will be my last M car at 47, after owning them since my 84 380sl 23 years ago. They definately seem to have lost some magic.

Sorry this was so long, but you better check the glass on your car if you have a new S63 or CL63.

DFW01E55

Quality issues? Glass color?
While I accept that it may be a stupid mistake, don't write the car off just yet.

MY SA tells me that the 221 has been a great launch and the car has been bullet proof.

billving

my issue is that if something as stupid as this slips by who knows what else is wrong. Should 2 $140,000 cars - built 3 weeks apart I might add, have improper glass installed? How is it possilbe that this isn't caught?

As I said I had no "major" mechanical issues the car was still down an average of almost 1 day per month over these minor issues. How is that acceptable? It certainly isn't in a 20-45k car and that's why the Big 3 is losing share like made, and is most definately why BMW & Lexus have both blown by MB in sales.

Quality matters and this is a very suspect beginning with a new vehicle.

Autobahn-Maniac

I agree my 221 has been flawless in everyway. Have had it for 6 months. My only compliant is that I can't drive it enough because I am always out of town.

noxxin

I tinted my windows already and I didn't really look at the glass that close before hand. although you would think me or the tint guy would have noticed if there was anything different on any of the windows. Do you know if there is any other way to check which windows are installed on my car? are they labeled differently?

on the subject of quality so far so good w my S63 (bite my tongue and knock on wood) however I previously had 2 E55's because I made MB buy the first one back since I had to replace the battery 15 times in the first 4 months. Like this car it was one of the first production E55's and it had a tone of electrical issues. Both the second E55 and the CLS55 I had in between the E and S also had battery problems although not anywhere near as bad as the first lemon. I was told that these cars have secondary electrical systems that run when the car is off, thus when I would leave the car off for a couple of days at time I would end up having a dead battery. I finally made them leave a brand new battery with me every time I would need roadside assistance to come out. For this kind of dough I would have expected much better quality. That being said, I LOVED all of those cars and have a lot of affection for the all of the newer AMGs.

sprins

My dealer showed me a new car in his showroom once, I believe it was en E-Class, with Avant Garde line on the one side, and Classic line on the other side. Not only the badging, but also the wheels. Very interesting mash-up.

About the glass color, I agree that it is totally wrong, but as long as this is the only issue, I'd consider myself lucky, taking into account all the things that might go wrong with these rolling Play Stations.

jbondox

you will definitely notice... seen it in the Ohio area also

rslpartners

ah...finally a review from someone that previously owned a supercharged 55.

sorry to hear about your glass problem.
and thanks for the heads up.
i will definitely check that prior to taking delivery.

aside from that...any other gripes?
can you provide more insight comparision of the 63 vs 55 (s-class).

i was hesitant on trading my '05 55 in cause i did like the supercharged engine.
like you...i had a couple of problems too and had it spend some time in the shop.
ie. check engine light (couple of times); they fixed it due to bad sensor.
the passenger rear wheel would rub when i put on some 20s.
it was hard to dispute since they were aftermarket.
however...it shouldn't only rub on one side...i assumed it was the suspension not inflated properly.
the car spent the most time in the shop for the dynamic seats not working properly on both sides....they had to replace the pump, bags,etc...etc...

aside from that...the 55 was quite impressive.
oh...forgot...the voice control navigation sucks! most of the time it doesn't understand the pronunciation of the english language. correct me if i'm wrong...but i test drove the new s65...it didn't get any improvements.
in this spectrum...the japanese got it down.

and last....the system periodically doesn't recognize the telephone although it's been plugged in for days.

hubitubi

nothing wrong with my s63 as of yet.
let me check to see if i got different tint on the windows. i doubt it but ill double check again

billving

glass.

I only have 375 miles or so on the s63 so I really haven't gotten on it for any length of time. I really wanted to get 500-600 miles on it.

But overall impression so far is strong. Brakes bite unbelievably (I just changed the fronts on my s55 6 or 8 weeks ago so it is a realistic comparison. Accelaration wise it feels just as quick as the s55 though it definately doesn't have that head slapping feeling like the s55 had at every RPM.

The S63 just "feels" more drivable so far with a much more usable power band and more solid feeling. Definately notice more gears changes with the 7 speed so we'll see how that goes as I get used to it.

But overall very happy with it - but see part 2 on the glass in the next post.

billving

As I said yesterday, my passenger window was replaced yesterday and life is good again with no MB issues.

BUT, my cousins story gets worse. They ordered the glass for his week old cl63 but the new one doesn't match either. We had a friend of ours that owns a glass company go over to the dealer and the outcome that he, the dealer service manager, and mercedes agree opon: not good.

It seems that the cl63 still has the double pane of a few years ago (I didn't know that!) and they have determined that somewhere along the line either MB or the supplier has supplied different glass and NONE of the 4 windows match. The name and type on the glass agrees but it seems that the either the glazing/glue between the panes is incorrect so all the windows look different in shading and relection.

The remedy is that they are ordering a couple of each of the windows and when in taking them all outside in the sun to "match" them. So they want to replace 2 or 3 of the windows - again opening up the doors and the rear seat panels - on a week old $140K + car.

Needless to say my cousins not too happy but there doesn't appear to be much that he can do about it at this point. I'll let you know how he makes out.

DFW01E55

I'll bet there's an MB supplier having a very difficult time right now.
Your cousin should be tracking his lemon law downtime very carefully.

JimJo

Just picked up my 2015 S63 last week. Love the car but the brakes are squeaking already. Have it into the dealer who first said they would replace the brake pads already; then called back and said there may be another "fix". Anyone with a similar issue?