Thanks a lot for sharing. For those two reasons (super stiff ride and reliability in general) I decided not to rush with purchase.

 

2,000 is a long-*** drive. Sorry to hear you're not pleased. My longest day-trip in my '14 was 400mi to Maine. That car was supremely comfortable, and had the massage seat, so I cannot imagine the W213 is THAT much stiffer, esp in the comfort mode. The GTS is also a pretty stiff suspension. I wonder if your dealer could make a deal on some 19" wheels.
Good luck

 

Picked up the wife’s new E63S late yesterday and promptly drove to San Diego for the weekend. 65 miles down the 5 freeway. Made the same drive last week in my S65, here are my preliminary observations. The car has the optional sound insulation package, it is quiet, even with the exhaust on the loud setting. It has the Burmester 3D, good sound, not quite as good playing the same source as the one in the S65, but still really good. The 9 speed is much better than the 2014 7speed. In C it is totally unobtrusive. In S+ it is also much better integrated.The ride is firm even in C but on the freeway it was smooth and unobtrusive. We did not find it at all harsh. San Diego’s surface streets look like they belong to a 3rd world country. Even then the ride was acceptable. Comparing both cars in C mode the S65 is not a whole lot smoother, even with the MBC of the S65. I noticed the RPM at 80 in 9th gear is identical to the RPM at 80 in 7th gear on the S65 so the 2 extra gears shorten the spacing between gears, first is also shorter in the 9speed.
The Distronic is improved over the one in my S65. At the closest setting the following distance is about one car length shorter at a given speed. Makes a big difference on CoCal freeways. The beam angle is tighter, I can renegade Distronic with the car straddling the lane markers and it ignores the car in the lane I am leaving. In the S65 the car has to be fully in the empty lane for the radar to ignore the car in the other lane.
So far the car has 80 miles on it so there is a lot more to experience. The only thing both my wife and I find objectionable is the doors do not stay open, the detents are so light the slightest tilt to the car and they close on you. Otherwise this car is perfectly executed in our opinion.

 

what tire pressure are you running ? Any intent to adjust to see if the ride will be better still ?

 

I did not have time to check the tire pressures before we left and do not have a gauge with me in SD, it took too long at the dealer’s. Based on past experience with this dealer’s service I am guessing 45 psi all around. When I get back to the house Tuesday I will check them cold and fine tune them. I will start at 45 front and 40 rear and see how it responds and rides.
In my mind there is a difference between firm and harsh. The suspension is firm but not harsh. I need to go to the garage and see what tires are on it, did not even have time yesterday to look.
It took 2 1/2 hours from arrival to departure at the dealer yesterday which I just do not understand. We had an appointment, the car was ready, we just had to sign 10 forms and trade a check for the keys. One would think that could be done in less than an hour.

 

The tires are Michelin Sport 4S. Looking at the right hand display I realized I had the tire pressures in the center of it last night. Hot they were reading 47 and 46 psi. That is likely 42 front 44 rear cold. Unfortunately the pressures will not display until the car is run for a few miles.

 

So cold would be around 44 square then.

thx for update

 

I think the cold would be as I estimated, 42/44. The reason is the fronts carry more load and get hotter. I know on the S65 the fronts increase about 7psi and the rears about 3psi when checked hot after a one hour cool down. I used 5 and 3 as the estimate for the 63 with a V8. I will let you know when I get the gauge on them cold.

 

Why do you need a gauge. Just check the the tire monitor in the service field. It's as accurate as any gauge and you see the tire pressure of all four tires at the same time.

 

I have lowered the tire pressures twice now. The ride comfort is improving. Currently at 40 front 37 rear. Following the recommended pressures as listed on the fuel door.

 

Thanks for the quick feedback on the ride. Just arrived at the hotel in Stuttgart and pick the car up tomorrow. Will get to observe the ride over a couple weeks here and plan to hit France, Switzerland, and Austria too, and maybe Liechtenstein as well just to check the box for my kids

Then the car gets shipped home and will be my daily driver in North County San Diego, so your observations regarding the drive to SD and the roads there were especially interesting. We also get to Laguna Niguel regularly to visit family.

But generally, I think the roads in North County are pretty good. Also looking forward to the first trip out to Mt. Palomar to see how the car does on the twisties there.

 

Good review. I agree about the improved distronic. It holds the center very well. Much better than my 2015 s550. That car wanders a lot. I hope maybe there will be a software update on the distronic for that car at some point.

 

The SD North County roads are much better than the streets in the city. We have a second home in downtown SD.
Sorry about the typo’s in the post above, the iPad spell checking needs to be watched much closer. One other thing I noticed is the car uses 1st gear even in C mode unlike the S and the prior E’s. The highway fuel mileage seems really good but not enough miles to be sure. If this car has the cylinder deactivation feature it is so well done I could not tell when it was on 4 cylinders.

 

It does, the only way to tell is on the dash when the symbol for the 8 cylinders is no longer on and I think it displays 4 with icon instead.

 

Does your E63 have the optional Burrmester Premium 3D surround system or the standard Burrmester system? Are you able to comment on the difference between the two and whether you think the optional system is worth the additional $4,500? Thank you.

 

I can feel it when the car is running on 4 cylinders, it feels just a tad rougher and a little grainy. Now that my car is breaking in it is doing even better on fuel. This cylinder deactivation system reminds me a lot of a Pontiac G8 GT I use to own, it works and sounds fairly similar. When In open exhaust mode the car sounds interesting when in 4 cylinder mode, same as my G8 did with the Corsa exhaust system, brings back memories from 2010, lol.

 

Ours has the optional 3D sound system. We test drove one with the standard Burmester system. We both think the 3D system is better. The biggest difference in sound is with an actual CD in the player. Using my iPhone through the USB Media input as the source is also reasonably good but not as good as the original CD. The Satellite radio fidelity is marginal as an input source so the difference with it is small. Is it worth the price? To us it was, kind of depends in what else you could do with the money, the standard Burmester saystem is pretty good. Adding the 3D upgrade deletes the sunglasses holder in the overhead console (a speaker goes there), and fills in the small space on the left side of the trunk that has a net with a subwoofer. A very minor loss of space. It adds the illuminated speakers in the door “A” pillar that “unscrew” when the system is turned on.

 

Great review... I got the sound insulation too... for the wife, so I'm glad to hear it is worthwhile. I'm a fan of the W212 7spd, so hearing the new 9spd is faster is great. I'm using the kids' Mini S now (and hate it), so I will not have an impartial view of the new wagon when I get it for ride quality. However, I'm liking 6MT and an e-brake!

Awesome! I'm jealous... I cannot wait for my trip.
Looking forward to pics... lots of pics!

 

I though all the E class had no more CD players? I know mine does not. Maybe with the 3d sound? I would have thought about getting the 3D sound but in the wagon it is not offered.

 

That was my understading as well...can you get a factory installed CD/DVD player on the E63S?

The premium 3D system seems awesome, but just not sure my ears are worth it!

 

For tire pressures, would be curious to see from new wagon owners what the sticker on the gas flap states for cold pressures (see below). I was surprised when I got my S212 how high they were. My car is one of the loudest I've owned, both in terms of road noise as well as being generally fairly "boomy" with a lot of low frequency resonance (typical of wagons.) Not surprised to see these comments from S213 owners.

 

Picked my car up today at the factory in Germany and drove to Colmar, France via Baden Baden.

After hearing the various complaints about a harsh ride I was prepared for the worst. It was actually much better than I expected.

I do have four people in it and a trunk full of luggage, so maybe that helps. Have no idea what tire pressure is set to currently. I assume the factory set it right.

Will check tomorrow.

The roads in Germany were pretty nice though - at least the ones we were on. Definite change when we hit France, much rougher pavement with patchwork here and there.

I have the sound insulation package and didn't notice any objectionable tire or road noise. However, my current daily driver for the past few years has been a Jeep Wrangler, so my calibration level may be a bit off

 

What a great trip that will be. Curious what tires your car came with? Part of the issue for me is the Pirellis are pretty noisy compared to comparable Michelin.

 

Yeah I have the Pirellis too. Gonna burn those off at a track day next month and order the Michelins. I am even thinking about putting the Michelin sport cup 2 tires since it does not rain much in LA.

 

I will check tomorrow. With all the information dump going on and then trying to get on the road for the first night's stop I didn't think to look.