noxxin

So after using my distronic for a few days in a row i can honestly say it gives me high blood pressure. i used in bumper to bumper freeway traffic and it seems to brake 2-3 seconds later then when i would instinctually brake on my own. even set as far away as possible i find that it speeds up super fast to catch up to the car in front of you and then breaks very heavy right before you think your about to smash into their rear. the other problem is that if you set it for a far following distance people cut you off non stop. i kept feeling like the car behind me was going to rear end me for stopping so abruptly too. the only positive i found is after it breaks hard and almost comes to a stop it then shoots forward a foot or so so you don't get smashed from the back. this system seems very dangerous to me. what are others feelings about this? has anyone been in an accident caused by this feature? I don't plan on using it i just don't trust it.

benzmodz

Forget what the salesman told you. It is not designed for traffic jams. It works much better at 200mph.

MB Fanatic

It works fine for us in the S600 and S550. Both of which are W221. Sure it brakes a little rough at times but most od the times its fairly spot on.

TREZ63

Dude, it's NOT for traffic jams

noxxin

thanks, i figured that out.

my salesman did pitch it to me as a feature to use when in traffic (which we have tons of in so cal) and since i had no previous experience with this technology i had expected it to live up to his explanation. personally i think i would feel even less comfortable at 200mph. I did try it in more fluid traffic and still felt very edgy with the late over breaking. in the end i have learned that i spent 2k for an item that i personally will never use. part of the reason to buy a car like this is because i love to drive and i love the control i have over the vehicle. to me there is something instinctually wrong about allowing a car to brake for itself at any speed. maybe I'll give it another try on a road trip.

just out of curiosity does anyone know if there a way to program this option to function in a non-adaptive and regular cruise control mode? thanks.

benzmodz

When the Distronic is switched off the speed settings should be cruise control.

way2evil

will it actually break for you when switched off and it senses an accident?

ScottCLS55

I was just commenting how good it worked on my 03 SL55. Last week, some idiot let their motorcycle fall off of a trailer while going down the interstate at 80mph. Of course, traffic came to a hault. I was using the active cruise and let it work, with my foot hovering over the brake pedal. It slowed me down with traffic all the way from 80 to 30mph with the correct distance. It did it pretty smooth also, for the situation at hand.

I was happy with my distronic. It works much better than the active cruise on my 760LI..

Scott

hubitubi

the distronic on my s63 is aite. sometimes it alarms me for no reason when there are not any cars in front of me. but it did save my *** one time by braking hard when i had my eyes off the windshield for a couple seconds!

i think the distronic has more positives than negatives.

in bumper to bumper traffic, if it keeps beeping, just leave a greater distance between u and the car in front. i have had no beeping when im in LA rush hour

srice

I find it works pretty well. It's not the smoothest way of driving, but it does work. I find myself using it as a "safety feature." I have it on when I'm in traffic, in case I get distracted, am on the phone, etc. I keeps me from doing something stupid!

noxxin

cool. wondering how you can leave it on as a safety feature, doesn't it disengage every time you press the brake? i thought you had to push the stalk on on the steering wheel to re-engage every time you override it w the brake? thanks.

srice

I set it at a lower speed than I am traveling - say 50 mph. If I get distracted, it notices the car ahead of me braking sooner than I do. I have to disclose that I don't now do things I didn't use to do (read e-mails, etc.), but I have kids and a cell phone, and it starts braking even before I do when I'm looking straight ahead. I just set for maximum distance, and it catches pretty much every change in the traffic ahead. It's pretty amazing. But it DOES take some getting used to, and I still hover my foot over the brake more than I probably need to.

WSH

Biggest advantage of Distronic-Brake Assist link is warning (and brake priming, etc) if approaching any car too quickly....

Personally, have not used cruise ctrl of any car in yrs...simply enjoy hands-on driving too much, even in traffic....fwys on SF Peninsula are perhaps fastest urban fwys in world (even in rush hr)...and even if I'm on slower city streets (of the SiliconValley suburb called SF ), I'd rather modulate throttle/brake myself.....am very conscious of maintaining very generous tailgating distances....and, more importantly, am very aware of what's in my rear-view mirror (and whether they seem like semi-competent/responsible drivers...after all, aggressive use of world's greatest brakes in dense traffic only means one will likely be rear-ended by the obese, uninsured guy in the 10yo SUV following too closely/inattentively).....

cmcjo

For the first couple of weeks I liked it then I hated it and thought it was a gimmick. But now for the last 3 months or so with summer highway driving, I find myself using it all of the time. It would be great if it could see a few cars ahead of the car in front of you and then it would not have to slam the brakes

The setting that works the best for me is just slightly above the greatest distance.

Its really a great safety feature if you are momentarily distracted. And it gives your foot a break in highway traffic as well. When I see traffic comming to an abrupt stop I will hover over the break or sometimes manually apply the brakes.

I think my furthest distance traveled is about 50 miles of mostly NJ highway 15-70 mph traffic without ever touching the brake or gas.

Now for the night vision... that's a gimmick for sure.

Can Drive 55

My only complaint with distronic, and I know mine is the plain vanilla variety, is that when a lot of bugs or other debris get on the plastic protector shield, it quits working. I wish there was a way to used the cruise in a conventional manner when that happens. I don't think there is, at least in the E class.

Btw, cmcjo, nice 67 Chevelle in your sig. I had a white 66. Special ordered it in April or May 1966 and picked it up in July. It had the 375HP 396 and every performance option. Nice car it was, definitely.

cmcjo

I never had that problem with bugs or dirt on the sensor.
Although on 1 occasion my car didnt want to stop and accelerated toward the car in front of me.

Thanks for the comment on the chevelle.
It doesn't get much use these days but it is a frame off rotisserie resto with a 720 hp motor.

marttang

distronic plus is good or my s350 sel but lately its show the DISTRONIC PLUS INOPERATIVE

and all the setting is correct and does any one face this problem i even bring my cal to the workshop and they cannot find out what is the problem

Quadcammer

OP, is there any way you could possibly shrink down that ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE sig picture you have there?

Fwiw, I like my distronic, although I don't use it often.

cheez80

i've used something similar on a friend's 04 infiniti fx35, but when the road curves, the car speeds up. it's scary as hell. i hope the benz setup has a wider "field of view" than the infiniti did, otherwise i won't be using the feature when i get my w220.

sound 8

I love mine,you just got to trust it!!

HaraldC

I have to say I love Distronic in my S63, and it works very well in stop-and-go traffic. Very smooth in following the car ahead of me, very smooth acceleration after a complete stop and pulling the cruise control lever. A little nerving at first to let the car do the braking when approaching a stopped car ahead. However, it is NOT meant to brake for you, as it only applies up to 40% of the braking power. As sound8 said, I love mine, you just have to trust it... and keep your foot ready to intervene when approaching too fast.

mbrocker

I think the first part is to know when to use distronic and when not to. Getting comfortable with it will be key. When I first started using the 2016 C450, I had distronic enabled on inside streets. When the car in front of me turned, my car would speed up relatively fast to a car that's stopped in front of it. That was kind of alarming. When used on the freeway it worked pretty well especially under traffic conditions that aren't a complete stop. With all the distractions that we have to day, I find that I feel safer if I had to make GPS changes or someone called, etc. Granted, the safest is to not mess with the phone. I agree that breaking is someone abrupt if the car in front of you is at a complete stop and you are further than the set distance. Else, when traffic is moving at a normal paste, breaking is pretty smooth.

One thing that bothers me is that if you leave your hands off the wheel after the red hands appear, the car appears to turn off distronic and purposefully swerve into the next lane. This seems to be sucidal, at worse it should keep driving and sound off an alarm or something. Certainly distronic wasn't meant to be autonomous driving but going crossing lanes is just suicidal. Leaving my hands off the wheel beyond the normal time allotted was only for testing.