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Just ordered EQA 250+ AMG Line

2169 Views 26 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  Anduain
Just placed an order through the NHS leasing / salary sacrifice scheme for an EQA 250+ AMG Line in Denim Blue - seems a good deal!

In reality the car will be my wife's main transport to/from work (she is after all the one who works in the NHS!), as well as some business miles between hospitals. That said, it will probably become my main transport for weekends as my wife often travels to see her elderly mum in Cornwall and looking at things, the charging network that far down the country is still a little patchy, so she's planning on taking my car, which will at least make the return journey on one tank of fuel, which the EQA won't manage on a single charge (176 miles each way, plus some miles whilst down there).

We've been quoted 9 months for delivery - does that tie in with others' experience for how long you have to wait for delivery?

Also, whilst I'm sure there will be lots of options, what's the best home charging wall box for fitting outside in a drive (no garage), that ideally will allow scheduled charging etc. Do I need a tethered one or un-tethered? Which is easier to use or live with?

We did look at going for the Premium pack, but just it pushed the budget a little too much - my wife really has a thing for Mercedes and was amazed that a fully electric Merc was within reach through the NHS leasing scheme as she had initially been looking at more budget options, so she's delighted. She'll be coming from a 2015 C220d Bluetec Estate Sport that she's had from new.

There is one question I haven't found an answer to as yet - are the Adaptive LED headlights the type that can adjust the beam to avoid dazzling oncoming cars whilst still maintaining a degree of high beam, or are they the more simple on/off high beam when it detects oncoming cars? The only option we paid for on my wife's 2015 C Class were the Intelligent LED headlights and they're fantastic, whereas I had auto high-beam on my previous LR Disco Sport that were simple on/off high beam, and they were rubbish (but then many things on that car were!). Any pointers as to whether they are the type that will move the high beam around would be appreciated.

Anyway, looking forward to learning more about the car!
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Lots of wall chargers about , I went with the Hypervolt 2.0 with solar output at 1.4kw at 6 amps for my solar array and battery system 11.6kw works on schedule via the hypervolt app..( Come on Mercedes add bloody Schedule Charging in the car) still not implemented. EQA Prem Plus ordered in May for July2021, first cars, but turned up late August, missing Augmented Reality system (AR) plus declined the free mercedes wall box on offer at the time, so many issues glad I did that in hindsight. All works fine.

Adaptive headlights work fine, if in the package... change so much after i ordered....
Thanks for the reply Mike, useful info! Looking forward to getting the car, even though it will be used by my wife more. Hopefully I'll get to enjoy it at the weekends though!
are the Adaptive LED headlights the type that can adjust the beam to avoid dazzling oncoming cars whilst still maintaining a degree of high beam, or are they the more simple on/off high beam when it detects oncoming cars?
Yes, they'll automatically enable/disable high beam when oncoming traffic is detected or when you're appoaching a car from behind.
Yes, they'll automatically enable/disable high beam when oncoming traffic is detected or when you're appoaching a car from behind.
Sorry, not sure I'm asking the right question - what I'm really wanting to know is whether they can 'shape' the high beam at all? VW/Audi call them "Matrix LED Headlights" and my wife's 2015 C Class calls them "Intelligent LED Headlights", but they're essentially the same thing (although the older Mercedes system was a little more simplistic, but achieved the same result).

If you're following another car on a dark road and there's no oncoming traffic, then they maintain high beam apart from the area where the car in front of you is, and the system will 'track' the tail lights of that car. It essentially creates a dark, square 'box' of light that the other car is within such that the other car isn't dazzled, but it maintains high beam for you - and it's brilliant! If another car then comes the other way it can dip just the area of the high beam where that car is and will again 'track' that car, returning that area to high beam as soon as it can whilst still maintaining the square dark box around the car you're following. Unsure what "Adaptive High Beam" actually means and I just can't find any info about it.

I"m thinking it may be the more simple on/off high beam system rather than having the ability to shape the high beam. There doesn't seem to be an option to upgrade the headlights on the EQA, even on the top Premium Plus model, which seems something of an oversight on what is potentially a £60k+ car (but it's standard on my £40k Skoda Kodiaq). There's a good video of the newer Mercedes system working on a 2019 E Class here (from 2.40 into the video):

This is exactly how my Kodiaq's headlights work. My question is whether the EQA has this system, but suspect not.
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Sorry, not sure I'm asking the right question - what I'm really wanting to know is whether they can 'shape' the high beam at all? VW/Audi call them "Matrix LED Headlights" and my wife's 2015 C Class calls them "Intelligent LED Headlights", but they're essentially the same thing (although the older Mercedes system was a little more simplistic, but achieved the same result).

If you're following another car on a dark road and there's no oncoming traffic, then they maintain high beam apart from the area where the car in front of you is, and the system will 'track' the tail lights of that car. It essentially creates a dark, square 'box' of light that the other car is within such that the other car isn't dazzled, but it maintains high beam for you - and it's brilliant! If another car then comes the other way it can dip just the area of the high beam where that car is and will again 'track' that car, returning that area to high beam as soon as it can whilst still maintaining the square dark box around the car you're following. Unsure what "Adaptive High Beam" actually means and I just can't find any info about it.

I"m thinking it may be the more simple on/off high beam system rather than having the ability to shape the high beam. There doesn't seem to be an option to upgrade the headlights on the EQA, even on the top Premium Plus model, which seems something of an oversight on what is potentially a £60k+ car (but it's standard on my £40k Skoda Kodiaq). There's a good video of the newer Mercedes system working on a 2019 E Class here (from 2.40 into the video):

This is exactly how my Kodiaq's headlights work. My question is whether the EQA has this system, but suspect not.
I think I know what you are asking as my A200 Sedan Mercedes from 2019 has Multi Beam LED's and does exactly that High Beam is on always and the LED's adjust for Cars , Bikes and People even signs that reflect back to much.

Now I dont have my EQA300 yet as it wont be delivered until June but its my understanding as you can see from the picture the EQA the high beam has the traditional reflect mirrors inside its housing so it uses reflection technology rather than the projection technology like the Low Beam Lights if the car comes with the Adaptive Highbeam Assist (SA-608) its just an on/off high beam rather than a Multi Beam Like my A200 or even the GLA

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Both the EQA and EQB dont give the options to upgrade the lights like in the EQC or even the GLA its the only option I wanted that I couldn't order on the EQA and the EQC is too big and outside what I am willing to spend on a car. But since I dont really do a lot of night driving it was only a nice to have option rather than a must have. I will miss the A200 lights it did look impressive at night especially if you driving in a really dark area and you can see the multi beams change to suit the environment
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Yes, that's as I suspected as I would think that Mercedes would still describe them as "Intelligent LED" if they were the type that could shape the beam. Interestingly, the system Mercedes used in 2015 looked much like the picture you posted above of the front of the EQA though - it has two reflector housings inside each headlight, but they're both used for the high beam. Each has the ability to physically move both horizontally and vertically and they both have fairly sharp edges to the light pattern that they throw such that it can have the two outer ones on high beam and the two inner ones not, thereby creating a U-shaped dark area in the middle which it can move around to track other cars.

What's different to my Kodiaq is that on the VAG system (newer), you can see the individual LED elements and they will turn on to high beam with a sweep from the centre outwards, whereas my wife's 2015 C Class, the entire light appears to sweep up from below (provided there isn't an oncoming car). With the 2015 Merc, you can see the 4 individual elements of the headlights physically moving around as it tracks either oncoming cars or the tail lights of cars you're following, however with only 4 elements, it can only create a single U-shaped black box to put other cars within, whereas with the Matrix LED ones it can create multiple boxes, so will in effect maintain more high beam areas lit ahead of you, which certainly makes driving at night on a dark road much more pleasurable.

There's a short video about the system my wife has on her car here (and you can see that there are 2 reflector-type elements, which look much like the EQA's):

And before people start moaning about these system causing dazzle, in my wife's Mercedes, I never get flashed by oncoming cars, whereas in my Kodiaq I occasionally do because it's just a little slower to react sometimes.

That said, neither were as bad as the headlights I had on my LR Disco Sport - they were Xenon lights rather than LEDs, but they did have an auto high beam system, but just a simple on/off (which is what I think the EQA has). The problem with the LR system was that it would 'see' oncoming cars, but then lose them, even when they were driving straight towards you from a distance away. There were numerous times when I'd be driving at night and the car would be going on-off-on-off-on-off with the high beam as cars came towards me and other drivers would (quite rightly) then start flashing me back! It would also often not 'see' cars that you were coming up behind and just leave the high beam on. The only way to turn the system off was to select the headlight switch by the driver's knee from Auto to On, but that then disabled the auto headlights entirely and also meant you had to remember to turn the lights off when you turned the car off, which kind of defeats the purpose of having an auto setting at all. Absolute rubbish! (Although it wasn't the only thing on that car that was rubbish - don't get me started!!!)
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An interesting thread.

I own a May 2021 build EQA250 and as far as I know it has the standard fitment headlamps. Most of my motoring is in built-up urban areas and I tend to leave the lights set on Auto. However, a few months ago we took our first night-time trip to the near country. I received one or two angry flashes from approaching motorists and wondered what the problem was. Before the penny dropped, I also noticed the lamps switching between high and low beam for seemingly inexplicable reasons. In most cases, I decided, the system was detecting reflective roadside warning signs and responding as if it were an approaching car.

Next day, I contacted my dealer and learnt that the solution to irregular high/low beam switching is to switch to the Headlamp position on the lights switch, rather than Auto. I still leave the switch set to Auto for urban driving, but when out of urban areas, I switch to the Headlamp position and select high or low beam manually, according to my judgement of appropriate high/low beam thresholds.

Hopefully, the more sophisticated system you're discussing is more reliable!
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Well I think I've found the answer to my own question - they're not the "Intelligent LED" lights (or Matrix LED in VAG-speak), they're just a simple on/off for the high beams:

Well having been initially told that following our order placed in January that delivery wouldn't be before October, that date then moved forward to late July, then late June and we've now been told that delivery will be on 23 May - amazing how quickly it has changed. Guess the lease company has more cars in stock than they were expecting? Even have the registration and thankfully managed to arrange the delivery to be the same day as Pod Point are coming to install a Solo 3 home charger, so should all tie in nicely!

Getting excited now!
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Well having been initially told that following our order placed in January that delivery wouldn't be before October, that date then moved forward to late July, then late June and we've now been told that delivery will be on 23 May - amazing how quickly it has changed. Guess the lease company has more cars in stock than they were expecting? Even have the registration and thankfully managed to arrange the delivery to be the same day as Pod Point are coming to install a Solo 3 home charger, so should all tie in nicely!

Getting excited now!
So exciting! Looking forward to the "unboxing" video !
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So exciting! Looking forward to the "unboxing" video !
No video (as yet!), but here's the first two pictures of my wife's new EQA 250+ arriving outside our house on the trailer. Delivered with just 9 miles on the clock and at 100% charge. Dash says 309 miles range (max), but guess we'll see what we actually get!

Also had the Pod Point installed today, so all go. And I've even managed to get a coat of GTechniq Crystal Serum Light ceramic coating applied to all of the paint. Only took me an hour as it's lovely and clean, so a quick once over with GTechniq Panel Wipe and then panel-by-panel with the Crystal Serum Light. Need to put some C5 on the alloys and G4 on the glass as well, but that can be for another day!

Anyway, here's the first couple of photos - loving the Denim Blue metallic!

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Lovely, that looks just like the one we've ordered - same colour !!
There is a great chance, that your order is changed, as the colour Demin Blue is not available anymore. Here in Germany the first users who ordered their cars several months ago, get the notice from Mercedes, that they have to change the colour. :(
Ugh, I shall check in that case, many thanks for letting me know!
There is a great chance, that your order is changed, as the colour Demin Blue is not available anymore. Here in Germany the first users who ordered their cars several months ago, get the notice from Mercedes, that they have to change the colour. :(
@Jeggo, yes, seen you're right, it's no longer available on the UK configurator either. Might have led us to not order - hate the Rose Gold and the only other options are 'shades of grey' - solid black, solid white, metallic black, metallic white, metallic silver or metallic grey or one of the two special paints, red or... yet another grey! Rubbish!
Harumph, same on the Spanish config tool. I’ve emailed the dealer to see what the score is.

I agree, the other colours are pretty grim and could be a deal breaker for us.
I owned a patagonia red EQA 250 with night package. It was also really nice as it had a good contrast between red and black. When I ordered the EQA in early 2021, the red colour was not available. So I first ordered denim blue and changed it later to red.
Now it is more or less the same as with Polestar. Only different shades between white and black...
My EQS is in hyacinth red, which is really nice and has a nice sparkling effect in the sun. Also with the night package. As the EQS has no bare plastic parts (all with black paint) is really nice.
I owned a patagonia red EQA 250 with night package. It was also really nice as it had a good contrast between red and black. When I ordered the EQA in early 2021, the red colour was not available. So I first ordered denim blue and changed it later to red.
Now it is more or less the same as with Polestar. Only different shades between white and black...
My EQS is in hyacinth red, which is really nice and has a nice sparkling effect in the sun. Also with the night package. As the EQS has no bare plastic parts (all with black paint) is really nice.
My wife's previous car is a hyacinth red 2015 C220 Bluetec estate, so know the colour well and really rate it. We bought that car new and got an amazing deal from Grimsby Mercedes via CarWow. Ended up costing around £4k less than the list price even after we'd paid the interest for 4 years on the PCP deal, but ended up paying the balloon payment and keeping it for another 4 years. Now at 8 years old and 130k miles, it's time for a change. Love the colour, but my wife wanted a change and didn't want white, black, grey or sliver. Hyacinth red is also £200 more on an EQA in the UK than other metallic colours for some inexplicable reason best known to Mercedes...
The EQA red is different from the EQS, E- C-class red. The A-class is the same as the EQA red. The EQA red is a little bit darker than the hyacinth red.
But what colour you like, is a different thing. I need to see the whole car to say, if I like the colour or not. The online configurator is also not a great help, as the displayed colour differs a lot from the real thing.
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