Hi everyone, I have a 2020 gls580 with the executive rear seat options. I never sat in the back ever until yesterday when my daughter was talking to my wife about how her butt hurts on drives from LA to Vegas. I thought she was kidding until yesterday when I jumped into the 2nd row seats. The seat bottoms are hard like a park bench. This is my 4th gls and I never remember the 2nd row to be uncomfortable. Does anyone else have this problem?

 

Do they have massage seats in the back?
I think I said that before... Massage seats in the benz are the worst I have ever seen in any brand. First, they make cooling function restricted due to the design of the air bladder, 2nd they add a ton of plastic bladders that also makes seats too stiff.. I was shopping for a GLS and I drove a few already back to back with different options. Massage bladders made the seats more stiff (and reduced air circulation for cooling mode).. Honestly, I'd still take rear executive seats if I found one that has all options I wanted but has massage seats (It's not something that would cause me to pass on a car) but surely not an option that I'd pay money to get or exclusively search for either for front or rear seats. Honestly I'd prefer to not have it, but I wouldn't mind it if I found (the one) with that option. Regular seats without massage are noticeable more comfortable, and cooling is much much much more effective.

In summary: what you observed is normal. Massage seats are too stiff, and cooling function sucks .

 

We looked at a couple new GLS versions a year or so ago, 450 and 580, mostly with the optioned rear seats. They all sucked. Way too hard. Can’t imagine a cross country trip, which we do, with a passenger back there. Same with a new Navigator, hard. Recently took an Uber Black for a 45 min trip, Cadillac Escalade and the rear seats were hard too. After that I decided if I had to have a comfortable rear seat in an SUV I’d have look at a Bentayga or Cullinan. Neither are very appealing to me so found a nice, low mileage 2020 S560 with an incredible rear seat. It’s fantastic for CC trips.

The latest Land Rovers look nice, will look at them when ready for something else.

 

We have a 2024 580 with executive rear seats. The seats are on the more firm side, but I do not find them uncomfortable. I personally have not experienced a long trip in the rear seats, so I cannot comment on that. I know many do not like the massage feature of the seats, but we find that it helps a lot to reduce fatigue and extends the time between breaks during long road trips.

 

It's not that some of us don't like the feature itself as a feature, but it's the way that it's imbedded within the seats, making them a bit stiff at least as compared to the seats without the massage bladders' structure. When you immediately move or test drive one with and without, you'll quickly notice how soft the seats without massage seats. One other thing I noticed is cooling seats - air flows much more easily through seats without massage bladders and you can "feel" the cool air. The massage feature itself is nice, but doesn't worth the reduced comfort/softness and the reduced cool air flow? I think that'd be a subjective thing. Some people prefer stiff seats (BMW seats by nature are stiff), but others who came from a Lexus or other luxury brands would agree that BMW seats tend to be more on the stiff side already, and with massagers, it gets even worse "or I should say stiffer" as you all have noticed.

 

Yes the middle row has massage. I just dont understand how the butt cushion can be so hard. I ordered some gel cushion to help the comfort.

 

In our MY24 GLS 580 with the executive seat package, I have not rode a long ways in the second row, and my daughter is still in a booster seat. My wife has not complained about the seats and enjoys the massaging feature back there. She's only about 100 lbs, but we have done many 4 hour stretches w/o complaints. The massaging function seems to help a lot with fatigue on those long trips. I've had other adult passengers use the executive rear seats for 1-1.5 hour drives and they have all had compliments on how comfortable they were. No one has mentioned any hardness.

For ventilated seats, in the front the massage feature does not appear to impact the ventilation at all. I can "feel" the ventilation turn on quite noticeably, much more so than the ventilated seats on my 2019 Chevy Equinox (which are still way better than non-ventilated seats).

I'm not sure if there's any difference between the MY20 and MY24 executive seats.