[Mkultra40]

At last ...... I have a date!!!!! In fact a delivery date ..... 9.12.2022. And that's just fine. I never wanted any special handling, gold card or upgrade just a bloody date. And in fairness now it's here.

So will probably pass on the AMG option now as it goes. That said, still confusion at dealership as to whether it includes 22kw AC port. I'm fairly clear that it does not. They feel it is. But we have time to find out now at least.

Minor concern is that the 'vehicle display' sheet shows an 'Option Freeze Date' of 16.05.2022 which suggests that we cannot add the 22kw port option. About to follow up with dealer on that one right now. But hoping this bit will rattle out during the remainder of the journey.

A date was all I wanted. I got it now so some improvement in demeanour.

Now to decide which wall charger to go with. Can I ask you all posting on this thread what you are going with? I know Borscherlh has sourced one from a Chinese supplier that he's very happy with. I'm thinking to look at something link Zappi (or maybe the MB new 22kw box) .... the Zappi one I don't really like the look of but integrates very well from a battery / invertor / solar panel point of view which I think I may well go with. That said trying to get anyone to show any interest in selling/installing such a system here is not easy right now.

 

[Nicknickster]

Great news! - I am going to chase my dealer for a date. I went for a Rolec commercial charger with two ports so it is compatible with the ones I have at work. And I can also charge visitors who want to charge their cars (!)

 

[Mkultra40]

Great news! - I am going to chase my dealer for a date. I went for a Rolec commercial charger with two ports so it is compatible with the ones I have at work. And I can also charge visitors who want to charge their cars (!)

Cheers Nick. Will take a look at that one. Yeah think my MB sales guy will now slowly stop rocking in his chair when he sees an email from me going forward Keen to get this as right as possible without going through upgrades and 'nearly' solutions.

Our dealer did confirm data in your earlier post ... that the flagship models were indeed getting priority. Although interestingly not the variant I was probably leaning towards ... the 53 Tourer, but indeed the Night edition that you have gone with.

I've seen the blue you mention and it looks the business with the beige but I imagine the beige to be a bugger to keep clean.

Definitely worth to get a bold line written under the 22kw option. I had the devils own game with Audi and Mercedes getting them to understand the difference in electrical options .... and still am if truth be told. They just don't get it. And are admitting that. But if I read correctly, you should be safe that that it a standard component on the night & tourer but not any other EQS models. Bizarrely it is on the EQE. All the same, I'd get them to write it in blood. The 22kw AC option with your Rolec will be the business .... 5 hours to full charge. It won't get a great deal better than that.

 

[sven]

Now to decide which wall charger to go with. Can I ask you all posting on this thread what you are going with? I know Borscherlh has sourced one from a Chinese supplier that he's very happy with. I'm thinking to look at something link Zappi (or maybe the MB new 22kw box) ....

I have 3 ALFEN "Eve Single Pro-Line "chargers in total:

• 2x a 22KWh version (3 phase, 32A)
• 1x a 11KWh version (1 phase, 32A)

Very high quality chargers, nice looking hardware and firmware that is kept up-to-date about every month/2 months.
It's a Dutch brand, not too cheap, but real quality. Different chargers can be connected to a charger network to do loadbalancing etc ....

EV charging stations

Alfen EV charging points | Smart, solid and high-tech charging stations for electric cars

alfen.com

Using the backoffice of Laadpaal beheersoftware en laadpassen voor EV’s | E-Flux to charge the electricity to my (own) company.

 

[Mkultra40]

I have 3 ALFEN "Eve Single Pro-Line "chargers in total:

• 2x a 22KWh version (3 phase, 32A)
• 1x a 11KWh version (1 phase, 32A)

Very high quality chargers, nice looking hardware and firmware that is kept up-to-date about every month/2 months.
It's a Dutch brand, not too cheap, but real quality. Different chargers can be connected to a charger network to do loadbalancing etc ....

EV charging stations

Alfen EV charging points | Smart, solid and high-tech charging stations for electric cars

alfen.com

Using the backoffice of Laadpaal beheersoftware en laadpassen voor EV’s | E-Flux to charge the electricity to my (own) company.

Many thanks for the data sven. Had a quick read and definitely interesting. And as you mention, it's the quality rather than price point for this one.

Going to have a proper read this afternoon when the F1 is on but do you know if it's a unit that can link to house based solar panels / invertor etc? I could not see anything on first look.

I looked at a Swedish one by a company called Andersen. Mainly as it had an Oak enclosure and could handle 22kw. Unfortunately I had to return it (their were very accommodating) as it did not provide option to link to panels etc.

The Zappi one does major on integration but not so much to look at. And another one I looked at called Hypervolt which has way too many coloured LEDS and star wars on the panel ..... said the guy buying a car with interior lighting like the Dreamworld festival!

Many thanks for the steer.

 

[sven]

Don't know for the UK, but in BE and NL we can connect the Alfen chargers to our "smart electricity meter". I assume that you use other electricity meters in the UK, so no guarantees there.

Here's an overview of our meters with P1 data port:

 

[borschelrh]

I can add a bit more now we have had the car 2 weeks. So far it is fine and no major issues. We are still waiting for an electrician to come and install the 3 phase dedicated outlet and that has been pushed back to 1 June. So, I am stuck charging at 8 amps as 16 amps blows the circuit breaker thus am limited to 1.7 kW/h.

There are a few options I thought I was getting so something to watch out for. The Configurator is already difficult enough to understand and when it is in Hungarian even worse as each "item" is actually in a pop-up window so doesn't translate using Chrome. So, now I have found three options I didn't get which I would have liked to have had. The automatic doors which here you must order the Keyless-Go Plus option and not Keyless-Go Premium. The HUD display is the smaller one and you need the larger one for the augmented reality display in the HUD. So, I did order both the HUD and the Augmented reality but there must be another option to get them in the same place with the larger screen. I never saw that as a choice anywhere. My augmented reality is on the Hyperscreen. Not horrible but also not what I wanted. I do like the Hyperscreen option to show traffic lights on the screen. That was one I didn't know about and am happy to have.

I experienced a weird problem with the sliding sunroof which wouldn't close all the way indicating it was blocked. There was no block and it ended up in the ventilation setting. I was going to take it back to the dealer in the morning to get it sorted out but late in the evening, I got a message from the Mercedes Me app my sunroof was open and did I wish to close it. I slid the tile over to close and it did in fact close. I had tried everything before to no avail so the car itself solved the problem. No idea what that was all about so must be a software issue.

We are getting roughly 22 kw/100km and I am light on the pedal having had a Prius before which teaches you to be sensitive to the throttle to conserve energy. That is pretty dismal consumption and at the higher end of EV's. This means in reality the car has a range in the neighborhood of 500 km.

As I mentioned before we didn't get (nor were we asked if we wanted it) the 22kw charger. In fact, that is my main complaint with the dealer is that they never tried to upsell or even ask what features I wanted. As an American this is very strange as in the US they push hard for more upgrades. So, not too happy they didn't go down a list and ask about options. I had to ask them instead and of course, I don't know all the choices. I can also add the Configurator yields a car choice which you can download or send to the dealer. In fact it is more or less meaningless as the salesman has to go through the options list one by one and ad them singly even if they are in a "package". There are no actual packages in the build order just a list of options added singly. I think the package idea is more about bundling for pricing as a sales gimmick.

Some more advice is that the Mercedes Me app is not a straightforward installation. My wife downloaded it from the Apple app store the app but it was the wrong one. This made it impossible to add her to the car but there was no indication as to why. It seems the apps are country-specific. I uninstalled it and used the QR code on the hyperscreen to add a driver which then downloads onto the phone the correct version of Mercedes Me. I could then add her once I also enrolled her using a PC on the Hungarian Mercedes website. Now she is enrolled and can have all the settings customized into memory for her (except side view mirrors which don't seem to have a memory function). She is now able to drive the car herself without fear. It took a few trips for her to get comfortable about it.

The driving experience is wonderful and no complaints. When in navigation mode it autosteers and maintains lane and distance even on winding 2-lane roads.It is better than the system we had in the Passat. The Passat tended to follow the outside lines and not the center. The EQS follows the center lane indicator albeit a bit too close for me but safe enough. The car is very wide and kind of like driving a Hummer on small roads but you get used to it quickly. I also have a problem paring in parking lots with concrete curbs in front. I have run over a few now but there is no damage. I believe the car lifts a bit when it senses this. Anyway, I have no damage yet. I also have to be very careful to not open the rear inside the garage as it whacks the garage door. Yes, you can manually stop it but you have to remember to do it and I don't. I have taped a bit of rubber to the garage door handle as that is what it hits when it opens. Generally, I try to remember to open it outside the garage then park afterward. Seems simple enough if you remember. Getting old sucks!!

 

[simonroyjones]

Serious question.

I ordered mine end of January but as of today (April 9th) not even a build date let alone a delivery date.

I do seemed cursed with such things but is anyone getting indications of build and delivery? Formal or informal?

Miserable process buying a new car. Least it is for me in the UK

I ordered mine on 3rd Jan and I've got a delivery date of 13th July.

I'm in the UK.

 

[Mkultra40]

I ordered mine on 3rd Jan and I've got a delivery date of 13th July.

I'm in the UK.

You have done exceptionally well there Simon. Can I ask what model and options you ordered please? AMG's have been shown to be getting priority. And my dealer confirmed that recent days.

I do at last have a delivery date of mid December. Strangely I'm ok with that. I wasn't so much looking for quick supply just a date to plan around.

I even tried these guys from dealerships who advertise on Auto Trader with 'build slots' or 'factory build' indicating they have already ordered pre-configured models. Can't say as I had any success there either.

But you have done very well with that one for sure.

 

[Mkultra40]

I can add a bit more now we have had the car 2 weeks. So far it is fine and no major issues. We are still waiting for an electrician to come and install the 3 phase dedicated outlet and that has been pushed back to 1 June. So, I am stuck charging at 8 amps as 16 amps blows the circuit breaker thus am limited to 1.7 kW/h.

There are a few options I thought I was getting so something to watch out for. The Configurator is already difficult enough to understand and when it is in Hungarian even worse as each "item" is actually in a pop-up window so doesn't translate using Chrome. So, now I have found three options I didn't get which I would have liked to have had. The automatic doors which here you must order the Keyless-Go Plus option and not Keyless-Go Premium. The HUD display is the smaller one and you need the larger one for the augmented reality display in the HUD. So, I did order both the HUD and the Augmented reality but there must be another option to get them in the same place with the larger screen. I never saw that as a choice anywhere. My augmented reality is on the Hyperscreen. Not horrible but also not what I wanted. I do like the Hyperscreen option to show traffic lights on the screen. That was one I didn't know about and am happy to have.

I experienced a weird problem with the sliding sunroof which wouldn't close all the way indicating it was blocked. There was no block and it ended up in the ventilation setting. I was going to take it back to the dealer in the morning to get it sorted out but late in the evening, I got a message from the Mercedes Me app my sunroof was open and did I wish to close it. I slid the tile over to close and it did in fact close. I had tried everything before to no avail so the car itself solved the problem. No idea what that was all about so must be a software issue.

We are getting roughly 22 kw/100km and I am light on the pedal having had a Prius before which teaches you to be sensitive to the throttle to conserve energy. That is pretty dismal consumption and at the higher end of EV's. This means in reality the car has a range in the neighborhood of 500 km.

As I mentioned before we didn't get (nor were we asked if we wanted it) the 22kw charger. In fact, that is my main complaint with the dealer is that they never tried to upsell or even ask what features I wanted. As an American this is very strange as in the US they push hard for more upgrades. So, not too happy they didn't go down a list and ask about options. I had to ask them instead and of course, I don't know all the choices. I can also add the Configurator yields a car choice which you can download or send to the dealer. In fact it is more or less meaningless as the salesman has to go through the options list one by one and ad them singly even if they are in a "package". There are no actual packages in the build order just a list of options added singly. I think the package idea is more about bundling for pricing as a sales gimmick.

Some more advice is that the Mercedes Me app is not a straightforward installation. My wife downloaded it from the Apple app store the app but it was the wrong one. This made it impossible to add her to the car but there was no indication as to why. It seems the apps are country-specific. I uninstalled it and used the QR code on the hyperscreen to add a driver which then downloads onto the phone the correct version of Mercedes Me. I could then add her once I also enrolled her using a PC on the Hungarian Mercedes website. Now she is enrolled and can have all the settings customized into memory for her (except side view mirrors which don't seem to have a memory function). She is now able to drive the car herself without fear. It took a few trips for her to get comfortable about it.

The driving experience is wonderful and no complaints. When in navigation mode it autosteers and maintains lane and distance even on winding 2-lane roads.It is better than the system we had in the Passat. The Passat tended to follow the outside lines and not the center. The EQS follows the center lane indicator albeit a bit too close for me but safe enough. The car is very wide and kind of like driving a Hummer on small roads but you get used to it quickly. I also have a problem paring in parking lots with concrete curbs in front. I have run over a few now but there is no damage. I believe the car lifts a bit when it senses this. Anyway, I have no damage yet. I also have to be very careful to not open the rear inside the garage as it whacks the garage door. Yes, you can manually stop it but you have to remember to do it and I don't. I have taped a bit of rubber to the garage door handle as that is what it hits when it opens. Generally, I try to remember to open it outside the garage then park afterward. Seems simple enough if you remember. Getting old sucks!!

Good update Borsherhl. Keep them coming. Is certainly helping me send Q's in to check my configuration. One of the benefits I guess of a delivered delivery.... can learn from your experiences.

Yes the question on 22kw still bounces about. 6 months in and still no clarity. Dealer says it's standard part, MB CAC says it's an option and an option still not possible to add yet to a build. And the e-brochure says it's standard on an EMG version and indeed the EQE but not the EQS!!!

Have again rephrased the question to MB CAC. They have in fairness said they will create a case now and investigate in more detail. But how hard can it be.

Am also going to check on the Keyless-Go Plus option. I am reasonably sure it is in the Exe Lux pack but that said can see no specific reference to it in the 4 page build detail document. So worth to annoy them with another question.

 

[Mkultra40]

I see it on the app but don't know how it works. We apparently get 1 year of free charging at Ionity stations but nowhere else (if I understood him correctly). I did ask about that specifically. Apparently the day it all begins is yesterday despite us not having the car yet. I believe you link a charge card to the account and it should work. I also notice the app heavily favors the Mercedez wall charger unit which I didn't buy. I will ask about the things that are listed as not included on the app but I paid for so I suppose this is the fine tuning he has to do at the dealership. They seem to have a great deal of control on this kind of stuff. Perhaps I can talk him into adding the 10-degree radius turning as that is just a software purchase and probably something he can add. Our salesman is also the manager so perhaps it gets easier still for him. He did tell me it takes roughly 4 days for the Mercedes Me app to download all the features. Not sure why that would be but he seemed to expect it as normal. He also knew about the Apple issues and said there is nothing they can do about it. It is something the programmers screwed up at Mercedes. BUt, I find this kind of thing constantly so programmers are not particularly good anymore.

The options are very different packages in each country. Here we have Premium, Advantage, and Advantage Plus. I ended up with the latter but it doesn't include a lot of features standard in packages in the US. I added the AMG exterior but was unaware there is also an AMG interior option. I added the remote parking, the tiny stars grill but rejected the night vision package which I think just adds tinting and some minor trim. I added the Nappa leather which also forced an upgrade to the MBUX large screen which I wanted anyway. The rear passenger stuff is all extra and not in a package. Really, here almost everything is listed separately. Sadly, there is no English language for the configurator so I had to rely on Google Translate in Chrome to do that and it is hit and miss for the Hungarian language. The dealer salesman speaks conversational English (moderately) but can't read it and has a lot of difficulty explaining features so I likely missed a few I wanted. My conversational Hungarian isn't up to the task for a lot of things and Hungarian is probably the hardest language in the world to learn. I learned Chinese easier than Hungarian as an example. That is how different it is from English or anything European. It isn't a complaint about Hungary on my part just part of living here which can make things difficult. We chose to live here and this is part of the process. It extends to a lot of things like social values etc. which are also very different from western Europe or the US.

Also I was just looking at charge points on the west side of Turkey and used the link to Charge Map you kindly posted.

Just to ask, are you using the Charge Pass facility they mention on there?

I think the EQS comes with a good database of charge points and charge calculation but for less well populated areas like the one mentioned, a manual look up and maybe payment facility (or even two) is probably a good idea. Just to ask your experiences using that .... or any other similar facility.

 

[borschelrh]

No, I haven't used a commercial charge facility yet. I've got a big whopping 400 km on the odometer now but mostly local driving. I do need to check to ensure that the DC charger actually works and that the card they gave me for Ionity actually works. Sadly, the nearest Ionity charger is roughly 100 km away either towards Budapest or up in Gyor enroute to Vienna. I plan to check one of those next week. The electrician will install the 3-phase wall plug in the garage tomorrow. This should be interesting. In Hungary high speed chargers are few and far between and I suspect this is a problem in all of Eastern Europe. I will also get to see what the car can do on 3-phase charging. The Munro video shows it is only a 9.6 kw/h charger NOT 11 kw/h. My cheap Chinese charging adapter shows the true rate. At 8 amps (single phase limited) it charges at 1.8 kw/h. I will be more than happy with 10 kw/h. It is interesting, just sitting in the car with it on (and not plugged in) and playing with the settings uses roughly 1 kw/h (1%) not moving at all. You also cannot change most settings on the MBUX if the car is charging on or off doesn't matter. Generally, I leave it plugged in and have to unplug it if I want to check some setting. It won't let you drive if the charge door is open as well. This is a good thing to me.

One thing I don't like much is the rear view mirror. It is very dim and the back window is already so small you can't see much anyway but the mirror makes this even harder. I am not sure why this is and there is nothing mentioned in the manual plus there is no flip switch for dimming the mirror. Apparently, it has an automatic dimmer at night which I haven't checked as I haven't driven it yet at night. I need to check that out as well. Visibility in the rear view mirror is awful not that I care all that much about traffic behind me. Generally, they are always pissed at me for going the speed limit so if I can't see them no big deal.

We finally got insurance. That was an enormous pain and it is rough. The cost is roughly $2,000 per year with either a roughly $500 or 10% deductible whichever is higher and they won't cover the entire cost. We paid 61 million HUF ($175,000 at the exchange rate at the time) and they will only cover 54 million HUF ($150,000 today's exchange rate) . But, it is better than nothing.

 

[Mkultra40]

No, I haven't used a commercial charge facility yet. I've got a big whopping 400 km on the odometer now but mostly local driving. I do need to check to ensure that the DC charger actually works and that the card they gave me for Ionity actually works. Sadly, the nearest Ionity charger is roughly 100 km away either towards Budapest or up in Gyor enroute to Vienna. I plan to check one of those next week. The electrician will install the 3-phase wall plug in the garage tomorrow. This should be interesting. In Hungary high speed chargers are few and far between and I suspect this is a problem in all of Eastern Europe. I will also get to see what the car can do on 3-phase charging. The Munro video shows it is only a 9.6 kw/h charger NOT 11 kw/h. My cheap Chinese charging adapter shows the true rate. At 8 amps (single phase limited) it charges at 1.8 kw/h. I will be more than happy with 10 kw/h. It is interesting, just sitting in the car with it on (and not plugged in) and playing with the settings uses roughly 1 kw/h (1%) not moving at all. You also cannot change most settings on the MBUX if the car is charging on or off doesn't matter. Generally, I leave it plugged in and have to unplug it if I want to check some setting. It won't let you drive if the charge door is open as well. This is a good thing to me.

One thing I don't like much is the rear view mirror. It is very dim and the back window is already so small you can't see much anyway but the mirror makes this even harder. I am not sure why this is and there is nothing mentioned in the manual plus there is no flip switch for dimming the mirror. Apparently, it has an automatic dimmer at night which I haven't checked as I haven't driven it yet at night. I need to check that out as well. Visibility in the rear view mirror is awful not that I care all that much about traffic behind me. Generally, they are always pissed at me for going the speed limit so if I can't see them no big deal.

We finally got insurance. That was an enormous pain and it is rough. The cost is roughly $2,000 per year with either a roughly $500 or 10% deductible whichever is higher and they won't cover the entire cost. We paid 61 million HUF ($175,000 at the exchange rate at the time) and they will only cover 54 million HUF ($150,000 today's exchange rate) . But, it is better than nothing.

Morning Borscherlh, did you have chance to try the large charger yet? You need start whacking some longer miles on that thing

Our dealer contacted us yesterday and had a tester that they offered to use today. I originally said thanks but no. But then discussing with the wife, we decided that it was a good idea as not only had it been a while but a few hours in the seat to look through the screens and tech and actually get to the driving itself might be a good idea.

Did about three hours in the Welsh hills and some open road and it was time well spent.

I absolutely see what you mean by the rear view and the small window. I had to reverse down this insane narrow country track when a huge tractor and trailer came head on. Not so bad once you adjusted to the on screen reverse cam. Not first instinct.

Also the roads in Wales have a good few hump back bridges. I managed lift the back end a couple of times which was a bit odd. Adjustments in style needed.

Also I struggled get the wheel height comfortable and out of line of the speed indication line. Needs more time on the drive adjusting seats, wheels etc. I also noticed that the sat nav whilst very good several times refreshed behind action. And on one routing, gave incorrect instructions repeatedly. That said, this was in some crazy sheep infested minor + road in the middle of nowhere.

I also noticed the screens do get littered with fingerprints really quick. Annoying rather than a major issue and easily mitigated.

The screens were less of a handful that I imagined. And was surprised to find that the wife agreed as well. Not sure we dived in as deep as is possible.

 

[borschelrh]

Well, the saga of the rapid charge goes on. Before I drove the 100 km to the nearest rapid charger I decided to call the number on the Mercedes Me Charge card and I am very glad I did. It connected me to a nice fellow in London who is actually an American from Florida. Anyway, Mercedes Me Charge is a separate company affiliated with Mercedes and provides the charging payment system for the car. He walked me through setting up my account only to be stymied at the first step as my car's VIN was not automatically in their system. Thus this has to be rectified here in Hungary by the Mercedes Me people here. Of course, the intricate layered phone system has no English whatsoever nor does its web page. Worse Google Chrome which has excellent translation doesn't play well with Mercedes web pages and I couldn't log in. I decided to try it on my PC and accidentally erased the car from my account which erased all services in the car as well including erasing my wife's co-driver account. I re-registered the car but it failed to re-establish all our services and 43 of them were in limbo after 3 days. Finally, on Friday our Hungarian employee came (he took off the 4 days previously) and I had him call them to get me to someone who can handle the problem and also speaks English. I had already sent them an email explaining the issues. So, I have ended up with 2 official problems with numbers etc. I also was able to get them to link our Mercedes Me account to the Mercedes Me Charge account and my VIN number now shows. So, I called the number again, got the same guy, and once again was stymied by an error in their system, this time something to do with no tariffs for Hungary are registered. So now I have a third help account which I forwarded to the Mercedes Me people (a nice girl named Eszter). Yesterday the car had almost all its services restored and I was able to re-enroll my wife again. But, I still have no access to the Mercedes Me Charge as something is wrong with their system for Hungarians or at least for me.

I did learn a few more things. When I called hitting random numbers on the phone menu as I have no clue what they were saying, I ended up talking to a nice guy who did speak English and was a Mercedes salesman in Budapest. I mentioned the dim rear view mirror and that is a thing. He agrees that the visibility is awful and can't explain the dimness of the mirror other than it might be some kind of system that blocks harsh light from blinding the driver. There is a warning in the manual that if the mirror breaks some very nasty caustic liquid is inside and to avoid touching it if the mirror breaks. That seems like a Murphy's Law kind of disaster in the making to me. I cannot find any way to undim it so this must be the way it is supposed to be. Not good engineering in this case.

I also found that the Yandex Browser works great and in fact has better translation than Chrome. It also translates photos meaning all these pop-up windows containing images that Mercedes uses are now translated as well. I wish I had known about this when buying the car as everything is in popups. Leave it to the Russians to do something this much better. The searches are better as well so this is my go-to browser now.

My wife did a second supervised drive (by me) yesterday to build confidence as she is going to drive the car by herself today to a doctor's appointment. She now has much more confidence in the car. She is having trouble estimating the lane width and tends to be too close to the right lane. Parking should be also interesting. I have yet to try the automatic parking feature. So, that is next on our list to check. She was also able to successfully park it in our garage which is so tight a fit the remote parking refuses to try. I mounted previously a nice laser light guide for parking our Passat and reset the lights for the Mercedes to point to the visible edge of the dash. We have 1 cm clearance to the wall so it is that tight. The sides must have the mirrors retracted as well although we have 10 cm leeway on both sides. The very nice short turning radius makes getting into our gate easily and better than the Passat. The same for parking in parking lots although here in Hungary the spaces are generally too small for this car so I park further out and take 2 spots the same as people with large vans do. Our town is a popular destination tourist spot )for Hungarians) so were now packed with tourists. Our town swells from its ordinary 20,000 to over 75,000 people which makes driving somewhat difficult. Generally, I don't drive if I don't have to during the tourist season as it is simply faster and easier to ride my bicycle. Tourists drive the worst of all.

So, until they resolve the issues with the Mercedes Me Charge I cannot use any commercial chargers through the Mercedes Me application. That test will have to wait until the programmers fix the issue. Our first trip is next month when my wife's family is coming from Moscow and we plan a driving trip in Croatia or France. Beats me. They are minor oligarchs and are interested in this car as well. They all drive maxxed-out Range Rovers now or BMW's. Now that the currency controls are over (the Rublke is actually too strong now) they can buy western stuff and ship it through Turkey (or Qatar) to Russia. Eventually, when all this Ukrainian debacle is over we plan to drive to Crimea and back down the east coast of the Black Sea to Istanbul and back home again. My wife has American citizenship (from her second husband who actually was a Brit living in the US) and all her family have Cypress citizenship as well (several also have American citizenship one was an Olympic Gold medalist figure skater who worked 15 years in Chicago as a coach and his children have dual US citizenship) so they can travel pretty easily. I am the only one who doesn't have dual citizenship somewhere else. I feel left out

 

[Mkultra40]

Well, the saga of the rapid charge goes on. Before I drove the 100 km to the nearest rapid charger I decided to call the number on the Mercedes Me Charge card and I am very glad I did. It connected me to a nice fellow in London who is actually an American from Florida. Anyway, Mercedes Me Charge is a separate company affiliated with Mercedes and provides the charging payment system for the car. He walked me through setting up my account only to be stymied at the first step as my car's VIN was not automatically in their system. Thus this has to be rectified here in Hungary by the Mercedes Me people here. Of course, the intricate layered phone system has no English whatsoever nor does its web page. Worse Google Chrome which has excellent translation doesn't play well with Mercedes web pages and I couldn't log in. I decided to try it on my PC and accidentally erased the car from my account which erased all services in the car as well including erasing my wife's co-driver account. I re-registered the car but it failed to re-establish all our services and 43 of them were in limbo after 3 days. Finally, on Friday our Hungarian employee came (he took off the 4 days previously) and I had him call them to get me to someone who can handle the problem and also speaks English. I had already sent them an email explaining the issues. So, I have ended up with 2 official problems with numbers etc. I also was able to get them to link our Mercedes Me account to the Mercedes Me Charge account and my VIN number now shows. So, I called the number again, got the same guy, and once again was stymied by an error in their system, this time something to do with no tariffs for Hungary are registered. So now I have a third help account which I forwarded to the Mercedes Me people (a nice girl named Eszter). Yesterday the car had almost all its services restored and I was able to re-enroll my wife again. But, I still have no access to the Mercedes Me Charge as something is wrong with their system for Hungarians or at least for me.

I did learn a few more things. When I called hitting random numbers on the phone menu as I have no clue what they were saying, I ended up talking to a nice guy who did speak English and was a Mercedes salesman in Budapest. I mentioned the dim rear view mirror and that is a thing. He agrees that the visibility is awful and can't explain the dimness of the mirror other than it might be some kind of system that blocks harsh light from blinding the driver. There is a warning in the manual that if the mirror breaks some very nasty caustic liquid is inside and to avoid touching it if the mirror breaks. That seems like a Murphy's Law kind of disaster in the making to me. I cannot find any way to undim it so this must be the way it is supposed to be. Not good engineering in this case.

I also found that the Yandex Browser works great and in fact has better translation than Chrome. It also translates photos meaning all these pop-up windows containing images that Mercedes uses are now translated as well. I wish I had known about this when buying the car as everything is in popups. Leave it to the Russians to do something this much better. The searches are better as well so this is my go-to browser now.

My wife did a second supervised drive (by me) yesterday to build confidence as she is going to drive the car by herself today to a doctor's appointment. She now has much more confidence in the car. She is having trouble estimating the lane width and tends to be too close to the right lane. Parking should be also interesting. I have yet to try the automatic parking feature. So, that is next on our list to check. She was also able to successfully park it in our garage which is so tight a fit the remote parking refuses to try. I mounted previously a nice laser light guide for parking our Passat and reset the lights for the Mercedes to point to the visible edge of the dash. We have 1 cm clearance to the wall so it is that tight. The sides must have the mirrors retracted as well although we have 10 cm leeway on both sides. The very nice short turning radius makes getting into our gate easily and better than the Passat. The same for parking in parking lots although here in Hungary the spaces are generally too small for this car so I park further out and take 2 spots the same as people with large vans do. Our town is a popular destination tourist spot )for Hungarians) so were now packed with tourists. Our town swells from its ordinary 20,000 to over 75,000 people which makes driving somewhat difficult. Generally, I don't drive if I don't have to during the tourist season as it is simply faster and easier to ride my bicycle. Tourists drive the worst of all.

So, until they resolve the issues with the Mercedes Me Charge I cannot use any commercial chargers through the Mercedes Me application. That test will have to wait until the programmers fix the issue. Our first trip is next month when my wife's family is coming from Moscow and we plan a driving trip in Croatia or France. Beats me. They are minor oligarchs and are interested in this car as well. They all drive maxxed-out Range Rovers now or BMW's. Now that the currency controls are over (the Rublke is actually too strong now) they can buy western stuff and ship it through Turkey (or Qatar) to Russia. Eventually, when all this Ukrainian debacle is over we plan to drive to Crimea and back down the east coast of the Black Sea to Istanbul and back home again. My wife has American citizenship (from her second husband who actually was a Brit living in the US) and all her family have Cypress citizenship as well (several also have American citizenship one was an Olympic Gold medalist figure skater who worked 15 years in Chicago as a coach and his children have dual US citizenship) so they can travel pretty easily. I am the only one who doesn't have dual citizenship somewhere else. I feel left out

The perils of life in Hungry! .... well it sounds like you met some good folk even if a few troubles.

100% agree about the rear view mirror ... it's very hard going. Cannot be right. I can see some repair bills inbound.

Not heard about the Yandex browser ... just reading about now. Is that built into the EQS? Good news the wife getting more confident. Would be a shame not to use at that price tag.

Still have a raft of open questions on our unit which still have not really got compelling answers. And I'm getting confident of getting the sort of answers I want. Think I'm going to print them all out, collate them and formalise them in again. MB are poor at answers. Very poor. And what I'm finding is that it is not just the dealership, it's the whole command structure.

 

[borschelrh]

So, I finally was able to get an account created at Mercedes Me Charge aka Digital Charging Solutions (DCS). But, the card I was given at the dealership doesn't work for DCS, no reason given. DCS is pretty lame regarding service and support. They are nice enough but have no control on the tech support side which is always "pending and a few business days" and so on ad nauseum. I requested a new card which should come in a week or so (if it is from the US it will be 3 months or so based on my history of getting mail from the US). So, a month on I still have no clue if the rapid charger works. I also learned I do not get free charging at all just free monthly DCS fees for one year and "reduced" Ionity charges INSIDE Hungary only and not anywhere else. Regarding that it is a month from delivery (earlier) and reflects the build date, not the delivery date so they are ripping me off for a month of services. Typical German attitude. DCS is BTW in the US so it is US programmers that have botched this completely. They are probably contractors from India or Belarus who didn't do in-line documentation hence why it takes so long to get a resolution.

I don't think this is unique to Mercedes though. This is a sign of the times.

 

[Andy001]

I ordered mine in early January and was given a build date to start of last Thursday (23rd June) so hopefully it will arrive in the next 2/3 weeks.

I have ordered an Exclusive Luxury with rear luxury lounge package and Hyperscreen.

I was told that as I ordered in January and was assigned the build slot before April, I would be locked in to the agreed price and not subject to the post April price increases.

I have had a Zappi charger installed at home.

 

[Andy001]

Update - it’s now arrived at the dealer and I’ll be collecting it next week.

 

[Mkultra40]

Update - it’s now arrived at the dealer and I’ll be collecting it next week.

Excellent stuff .... lucky man. Let us know how it goes. Yours will be one of a handful in the UK and like Borscherhl, it will be interesting check the spec and details .... auto door open / close .... rear view mirror etc.

If you have time, can you let us know the experience service and product wise? Is a big help to those of us yet to receive product .... especially with a car so new and fundamental to change for MB and us.

 

[borschelrh]

Congrats Andy. It is an absolutely wonderful car to drive barring the rear view mirror issue which is not as bad as I have had on some other cars like my old 911 Porsche. I have the 450+ because of the longer-range but I can say it has plenty of oomph for me. I will add another discovery that none of the assistance features work unless the car is put into cruise control. The effect is immediate and it takes firm control over lane placement. Like my wife my distance estimate, especially on the opposite side, is off by more than 20 cm (usually over the line) and when you apply the cruise control it grabs the car and moves it into the lane correctly. By doing this you get "trained" about the physical location of this very wide car inside a given lane of traffic.

I had another discovery in an underground parking lot. If the car senses danger or potential impact it slams on the brakes so hard you actually believe you have hit something hard. It is very strange just how shocking that is especially when you can't see behind you because of the awful rear view mirror which is already bad in sunlight but terrible in a dim parking lot. When I figure out how to use the camera on demand to look behind me (I am pretty sure you can do this) I will feel a lot better about backing up in tight areas with poor lighting. I now find myself parking a lot further away from my ordinary spots in the areas where vans and pickup trucks park. Also, you have to be very careful about parking front-wise and potential curbs. This is very long car and these curbs can damage the underside if you aren't careful. Also, never ever try opening the rear hatch inside a garage. It will slam into the garage door and damage the spoiler. I have done it 3 times now and have 3 small chips in the spoiler as evidence of my stupidity. I will mount rubber or foam on the garage door but in the meantime, you have to exercise extreme care about opening the rear hatch. Just a warning. I haven't had a hatchback in50 years so this is not something I am wary of so keep screwing up. I am now very cognizant of it. I have foam mounted on the walls on the driver's side and front of the car as well. Our garage is very tight and I must also retract the mirrors to park as well as the doorway is tight as well.

I now am fully registered on the DCS page and despite what they say about a separate app for charging it is all in the Mercedes Me App and after the contract gets set up new menus appear. I still haven't checked if the DC charger actually works but we must drive to Budapest on Monday so I will check it briefly en route. As I mentioned here it isn't free whatsoever although other countries give free charging for some period (Us as an example). But, the rates aren't bad either. It is still cheapest to charge at home at roughly 10 cents a kWh. The Ionity is roughly 12 cents a kWh inside Hungary and 85 euro cents outside Hungary. It is still less than buying diesel which may become scarce soon. I am not regretting the purchase at all.