First off – many thanks to those who post on this board and help people such as myself with major decision making! It’s been 3 weeks since I took delivery of my 2001 S500 with ABC, Sport Package, Wood Steering/Shifter, Timeport Phone/CD Change, etc. Here are a few observations beyond that its’ a magnificent vehicle:<br>
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The learning curve for the Command System is not as bad as what I had feared. I love technology and once you understand how it works – it’s powerful, easy and a great asset. Using the steering wheel controls is easy and really eliminates having to distract yourself.<br>
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The clock is automatic and reads the Atomic Clock signals – never have to change it.<br>
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The Navigation system is not as good as on my wife’s 2001 ML430. The screen is smaller, and the system (when not guiding you to a destination) always points North – which makes it confusing. The NAVI content is better on the ML430, where you can more easily find major more classification of potential destination categories. Programming a destination is slow – takes longer than my wife’s system.<br>
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So far, only one problem. The “Active Body Control –Drive Carefully� red warning display comes on occasionally when the car is first started in the morning. The car doesn’t leave any malfunction codes in memory. Believe it or not, my MB dealer said a service bulletin came out and requires replacement of the Ignition Switch device (and reprogramming). Bizarre – but they’re confident that once the part comes in, it will do the trick. So the ABC is fine… it’s the ignition switch.<br>
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Active Body Control is AWESOME. You quickly forget it’s a 4500 lb road machine. The handling is tight, crisp and road hugging. The Sport Package probably adds some road hugging due to the 18� tires. The tires are a big noisier than the stock wheels (I negotiated a set of 4 stock wheels and tires at no charge in the purchase price…which was MSRP).<br>
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Fit and finish is superior. I have no objections to the plastic materials used (Black interior). I've read other comments that the plastic is cheap..but i don't see it.<br>
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It’s VERY easy to hit the cruise control activate switch when hitting the turn signal lever. It takes getting used to. My wife says the same thing about her ML.<br>
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Glove box is extremely tight for a luxo cruiser of this size. <br>
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You can’t activate the fog lamps when you’re in Daytime Running Lamp or Auto modes. I’m not happy about this.<br>
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Voice recognition system (with Timeport phone) is amazing, and fairly consistent. You can verbally tell it what AM or FM station (ie. 95.5) you want to listen to, which CD to play, and which track. Very cool.<br>
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Much like the window control lock out switch, MB should have put in a driver controlled lock out switch for the rear heated seats. Kids like to play with it, and heat the seats unnecessarily.<br>
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That’s it for now.. Let’s hope nothing changes and it’s smooth sailing from here on!.
Very nice review !! Post some pictures as well. Anyway back to topic. The foglights can be programmed to turned on when the Daytime runing light is on. Mine took 5 mins. Bring it to your dealer and have them do it for you.<br>
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Ciao !!
I have had the Active Body control go into "red mode" two times on my S55. I find that if you try to start too quickly (put the key in and turn it quickly) its more apt. Probably some boot sequence for the car. Good news is that it only lasts for one ignition cycle, hence turn off the car, and restart slower.
My car actually said Active body Control - Ride Carefully while in transit. I immediatly pressed the "Wrench Button" and they said it was a minor glitch happening in a number of ABC Equipted cars. Also they asked if anything was in my trunk. That day I Was bringing a tremendous amount of Framed Posters and it was weighing heavily on my back tires. The gentleman told me press the Ride height adjustment button twice and immediatly. After I hung up from mercedes, I noticed the warning indicator was not there and I never experianced that problem again.
Linear Mode
