My Comments after driving the S65 - Benzworld.org

love2skiutah · 12-13-2006, 11:53 PM

It's been about a week now and I absolutely love the car. There are quite a few things I like and dislike about the car.

Pros:
1. Dynamic Seating has improved from the last generation Mercedes.
2. Massagers in chairs and ten times better than the old ones.
3. Panaramic Roof
4. Lot's of torque
5. Lot's of room
6. Lot's of Horse Power
7. Command System is very easy to get used to
8. "V12-BiTurbo" badging... I get a lot of attention at stoplights from other guys.
9. Voice Control is fabulous
10. Blue Tooth works awesome with my Blackberry
11. The HUGE front brake Callipers...
12. I love how quickly the car stops
13. Handling of the car is absolutely amazing. The car doesn't drive big at all. It's easy to manuver and dart in and out of lanes.
14. I love the automatic sunshades in the rear side windows
15. VERY VERY quiet
16. Very classy and clean on the interior. No confusion on which button does what.
17. Reclining Seats
18. I love that my brakes don't squeak, like on my friends SLR or my E55.
19. Keyless Go is improved. I love how you just touch the handle to lock and unlock the car. On my E55 I have to push a button or pull gently on the handle.
20. Parktronic

Cons:
1. There are not 2 sun visors (Like on my E55). On the E55 I like how I can put my sun visor down, swing it to the side and still have another small one, so I don't have to flip back and forth.
2. No illuminated door sills. It's retarded it didn't come stock. It adds so much class to the car.
3. There needs to be more short cut buttons for the Command System.
4. When I open the sun roof visor, it opens automatically. It doesn't close automatically... I hate that. I also don't like how the back sun roof for the pano-rama is not automatic either. The back sunroof doesn't open or close automatically, so I'm left holding the button down while I'm driving. It's weird to me that all the windows and sunshades in the back and rear go up and down with the push of the button, but the sunroof visor does not close automatically.
5. There is not enough storage compartments. When I drive, I like to have my cell phone, wallet and other small things up front where I can get to them. After I put all my stuff in the cupholders, there is no place to put other things or drinks.
6. The cup holders suck.
7. I wish the engine sounded like a V12, not a V8. To me it doesn't sound amazing.
8. The nightvision is to hard to use. No one in there right mind could possibly drive and look at that thing at the same time. To me it's completely worthless. The only cool thing about it is showing it off to friends and family.
9. On the Multi-button steering wheel, I like to leave the menu on the "Audio" section so that I can browse through my ipod or radio stations. Every time I re-start the car, it's back on the first menu. If you turn the car off and get in it later, it should stay at the menu you left it at.
10. There needs to be a shortcut for radio pre-sets on the dash, not in the computer menus. It's a pain to use the control knob to browse through pre-sets. What's the point of a pre-set radio station if you have to go through a bunch of menus just to get to them?
11. I'm not a big fan of the rear-back up camera... To me, the camera seems like it's pointing down to low. I know it's a good to have it like that to see if there is anything on the ground, but I still wish it was pointing a tiny bit higher.
12. Mercedes famous brake dust.

In case anyone has not seen the pics, here they are...

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w221...-s65-look.html

dahappybanana · 12-14-2006, 04:45 AM

you know on the MBUSA website under the S65 AMG build your own, in accessories they have "Non-Illuminated Door Sills" I think it comes stock with Illuminated door sills, don't know why you don't have them.

Diesel Benz · 12-14-2006, 11:56 AM

Your "cons" list is actually short and does not have too major issues, that is good (I generally would not accept that a car with zero negative issues would exist, one would just lower the threshold for complaints and then you have some).

3: This is perhaps a compromise, the more buttons, the more difficult it would be to find the one you are after. I think the most important ones that you would most often use are included now. I find this quite OK.

4: I don't have the pano-roof but since the shades are controlled with a single button, wouldn't you lose the option to partially close the shade if it fully closed automatically? Myself I prefer the option for partial closing on the "normal" sun roof (and it is simple to operate on mine because you do it manually :-)

5: I know cup holders are almost more important in the US than anything else in the car. In Europe you can have the car without any cup holders (in the front, I think the back ones still come) if you want to, without extra cost! And no cup holders is my preference. To me the car is not the place for drinking, definitely not for eating. I understand drinking water on long trips in hot climate but I don't need cup holders for that. Otherwise there are quite a few storage compartments. Basically a big one in the centre, a smaller one on top of it, two smaller ones in front of it. A place for sun glasses, one that is closed by the door handle and an open one below it. One in the front part of the driver’s seat (if you don't have a fire distinguisher there). I probably have missed some. I feel there is too much storage space, you get rattle if you keep a lot of stuff in the car, and it does not look nice :-)
8: I quite agree. I take it like a rear view mirror, one should have a short look at the display when it seems needed, not too much more than that. Don't know if the other types that emphasize warm objects could be seen without actually watching the display. Luckily I have not had a chance to test how easily animals can be seen from the display, we have some moose at times and some smaller creatures that need attention. Perhaps a living (warm) object is easier to detect from the display even if not actively following it.

9: My preference is the trip computer display. Anyway I agree it should stay on the selected display, as it does on a W211.

10: I do not change radio station often but there seems to be a non-engineering issue with the preset scanning from the steering wheel. Since this option does not exist, perhaps the telephone keypad could serve a preset selection, when ever the radio is selected from Comand (or when telephone is not selected).

12: I guess brake pad dust is different on other cars in the US, I don't see a big difference with other cars here in Europe. I thought this started when asbestos was not allowed any more (a long time ago).

I left 11 for the last, I'm not used to the rear view camera, I do not need it too often, I'm more used to parktronic aid but I still consider the camera a significant additional safety factor for reversing. While on this topic, can you actually confirm that the rear view camera does not fold "closed" when not in use? I thought it should fold away because it now gets dirty when driving in wet conditions, specifically when driving on dirty roads.

love2skiutah · 12-14-2006, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diesel Benz

Your "cons" list is actually short and does not have too major issues, that is good (I generally would not accept that a car with zero negative issues would exist, one would just lower the threshold for complaints and then you have some).

3: This is perhaps a compromise, the more buttons, the more difficult it would be to find the one you are after. I think the most important ones that you would most often use are included now. I find this quite OK.

4: I don't have the pano-roof but since the shades are controlled with a single button, wouldn't you lose the option to partially close the shade if it fully closed automatically? Myself I prefer the option for partial closing on the "normal" sun roof (and it is simple to operate on mine because you do it manually :-)

5: I know cup holders are almost more important in the US than anything else in the car. In Europe you can have the car without any cup holders (in the front, I think the back ones still come) if you want to, without extra cost! And no cup holders is my preference. To me the car is not the place for drinking, definitely not for eating. I understand drinking water on long trips in hot climate but I don't need cup holders for that. Otherwise there are quite a few storage compartments. Basically a big one in the centre, a smaller one on top of it, two smaller ones in front of it. A place for sun glasses, one that is closed by the door handle and an open one below it. One in the front part of the driver’s seat (if you don't have a fire distinguisher there). I probably have missed some. I feel there is too much storage space, you get rattle if you keep a lot of stuff in the car, and it does not look nice :-)
8: I quite agree. I take it like a rear view mirror, one should have a short look at the display when it seems needed, not too much more than that. Don't know if the other types that emphasize warm objects could be seen without actually watching the display. Luckily I have not had a chance to test how easily animals can be seen from the display, we have some moose at times and some smaller creatures that need attention. Perhaps a living (warm) object is easier to detect from the display even if not actively following it.

9: My preference is the trip computer display. Anyway I agree it should stay on the selected display, as it does on a W211.

10: I do not change radio station often but there seems to be a non-engineering issue with the preset scanning from the steering wheel. Since this option does not exist, perhaps the telephone keypad could serve a preset selection, when ever the radio is selected from Comand (or when telephone is not selected).

12: I guess brake pad dust is different on other cars in the US, I don't see a big difference with other cars here in Europe. I thought this started when asbestos was not allowed any more (a long time ago).

I left 11 for the last, I'm not used to the rear view camera, I do not need it too often, I'm more used to parktronic aid but I still consider the camera a significant additional safety factor for reversing. While on this topic, can you actually confirm that the rear view camera does not fold "closed" when not in use? I thought it should fold away because it now gets dirty when driving in wet conditions, specifically when driving on dirty roads.

The pano roof visor is automatic. You can't manually open and shut it with your hand. It's automatic. I would prefer to have it manuel, cause it's quick and easy. It just takes to long to hold your hand up and close the visor.

On the rear view camera, it is very annoying that it doesn't fold up while driving. I'm always wiping it off from dust and dirt.

I never thought about having the presets to my phone... I'll check into it to see if it works.

love2skiutah · 12-14-2006, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dahappybanana

you know on the MBUSA website under the S65 AMG build your own, in accessories they have "Non-Illuminated Door Sills" I think it comes stock with Illuminated door sills, don't know why you don't have them.

When I ordered the car I thought the same thing... I thought it was standard, so I didn't say anything to the dealer when I ordered it. I did notice it on the website too, that it's an option to add "Non-Illuminated Door Sills". I'm not sure why I didn't get illuminated ones.

asianml · 12-14-2006, 03:17 PM

People often mistake the purpose of Night Vision for something else. You don't use it to drive per se, but it's there as a safety feature. Kind of like the rear view mirror. You just glance at it once in a while.

As for the door sills, demand for the illuminated ones!

CycloneRcr · 12-14-2006, 03:53 PM

The rear view camera does not fold, it is fixed and gets dirty when it is raining or the roads are wet etc.