Option & Function differences between Marketing Materials & delivered Product

Mkultra40 said:

Morning all, some very useful data starting to emerge in these threads .... good and bad. And for those of us still to take delivery it's especially useful.

One thing I'm picking up on is a lot of delta or gaps between the marketing materials and the delivered product and I thought it might be useful to have a rolling debate on experiences of those who have took delivery .... what they ordered against what they actually received.

For example:

Automatic door opening and close by brake pedal push - saw the MB marketing materials but don't know anyone who has it yet.
Gesture Controls - same again. Lots of nice videos but I know of no-one (yet) who can close their door by waving their hand
Grille Stars Missing - UK Market
Fragrance Model Missing - UK Market
22KW AC Charging Port - shown, in marketing literature but not possible to order

Those are off the top of head. Some might seem a little trivial. But at this price point?

I'm wondering what other delta you have found in your experience between the marketing and the hand over product?

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OK at last I've seen my car. it looks very good in the metal. Better than good.

The list above proves to be accurate. Except for the stars .... I got stars. ALL over items have as predicted and rumoured, failed to materialise.

Am I happy? Actually yes in the main. The dealership and manufacturer support that I previously criticised (quite a few times), has in fairness been totally turned around. An opportunity to have a honest and balanced discussion with a decision maker proved fruitful. Since then it's been a really solid experience. and generous experience. Actually I really cannot say enough about that. Night and day.

What does start to become evident is that the support to dealer info wise is not well evolved and slow. This puts them out in the flat field with little cover. Also in our particular circumstance, whilst we have been critical about comfort factors, it is fair to say we have always been in something of a rush and not exactly providing the best platform to be made feel just a little special.

But the focus of this thread is what did you expect (hard product) and what did you get. To help other buyers get the reality that took me a lot of leg work and tapping to get. So the list still stands. But definitely I'm feeling a lot more connected with the dealership and experience.

Bruce61 said:

They made it clear more than a year ago that the automatic doors were not going to be on the delivered product. They either could not make it work for a reasonable cost, or the parts were not available. Thus, anything to do with automatic doors, like closing them with a wave, won't be there.

In US, 9KW AC (32A on a 50A 220V circuit) was stated to be the max for home charging. Don't know how a residential infrastructure could support 22 KW but maybe Europe has better electrical than we do!

Cannot speak to fragrance or stars.

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Thanks for advising Bruce. Looks like the comms system is better over there than here.

It took weeks to get clear answers on comfort doors etc. Eventually MB-CAC confirmed that it is not on the first models as (according to them) they could not source the necessary motor systems. They didn't mention anything about price. But dealership struggled get answers until the very end. Not a deal breaker but the amount of media and PR produced by Mercedes in respect of the EQS makes this disingenuous at best. Internet and car press was littered with it.

22kw is a reality for many in Europe as it goes but no not feasible in the main for the US audience and most likely why it's not an option there. Here is is, there's a part number, there's a cost and indeed on the AMG EQS it's standard at no extra cost. But the (now getting a little long in the tooth answer) was that the factory making the option was in the Ukraine. Have no doubt that was true at the start but all these months in? They can't find a second source for a duplicated cable, connector block and tiny invertor? When they can do it for the AMG? Sounds thin to me. We do get 11kw as standard on a 3-phase supply as it goes. Better than nothing I guess. I believe on the 2023 model it will become a payable option. But same again, why the hell promote it, advertise it and then deny folks the opportunity to buy it. Same with their 22kw wall charger.

But I have got stars .... a lot of early buyers didn't have this even. Indeed the tester vehicles I used didn't have them. Very odd.

I had precisely the same on the Audi GT .... lots of images but a shortfall of actual hard options even though there fill catalog pages.

All that said, early impressions of the car itself are more than favorable.