[aravindrn]

Hi,

First of all would like to thank fellow t-bhpian @abhilashgp for his wonderful GLE300d review. His review finally made me write my first ownership review in the forum.

Background:

Coming from the motor crazy town of Coimbatore, automobiles were always a fascination. Used to drive a Suzuki Fiero in college days and remember spending countless weekend afternoons with a local mechanic to tune it for performance. After MBA, moved to Mumbai and was happily exploring Maximum city in an Apache RTR 160. There was never a need for a car in Mumbai and frankly speaking couldn't afford one too. I had driven a family friend's Palio S10 edition in my engineering days and had fallen in love with the performance and the handling. It was a completely different experience from driving my Dad's Hyundai Accent. So had decided my first car would be a European make and if possible a Fiat. Once I moved to Gurgaon in 2010 and realised that no point driving a bike in the heat and dust, bought myself a nice red petrol Punto. Myself and my wife had a blast taking the car on loads of highway trips to Jaipur, Agra etc around NCR. Couple of years later life bought us to the city of Bengaluru and we got the Punto along. It was 2013 and we were expecting our first child and wanted a bigger car for all of us. Ended up a buying a beautiful pre-owned petrol Laura with hardly 12000 kms on the odo at the peak of the fuel price disparity between petrol and diesel. Loved the 160 bhp engine and amazing practicality the Laura offered. Again numerous highway rides and weekend trips followed. I was taking the Laura to office and wife was using the Punto. But two things were going from bad to worse, Bangalore roads and traffic. So in 2015, we sold off the Punto and bought a grand i10 as she didn't like the heavy steering and the big turning radius of the Punto. And in 2016, decided to upgrade to our first SUV. I didn't want to sell the Laura at any cost but the practicality of a manual petrol sedan in Bangalore was going downhill day by day. And due to the lack of parking space, had to let go of the beauty. But a Czech powerhouse was replaced by my first German, the BMW X3 2.0d. I was waiting for the launch of the GLC at that time but they launched it as a CBU initially and the pricing was in X3 3.0d territory which was beyond our budget. So we got home a blue X3 and have loved the car ever since. Great handling and ride for an SUV , and it has been pretty reliable so far. I have the 6 year warranty and 5 year BSI plus and so far a smooth ride. But after nearly 5 years and 48000 kms, the itch for better performance started. After reading all the reviews of the 530ds and the E350ds in the forum, this time I was sure that I would be buying a German 6 cylinder beast. We moved houses and I had started my own firm, and so convinced my wife that a 6 cylinder vehicle now makes sense to drive to my office

Criteria:

1) Should be a 6 cylinder diesel engine
2) Budget around 1 cr
3) Should comfortably seat 3 adults and 2 kids (including the driver)
4) Should have good handling, performance and ride quality.
5) Should offer good extended warranty and maintenance package options.


Options considered:

1) Mercedes E 350d

First time experienced the three pointed star's luxurious interiors and was blown away. Akshaya motors had a cavansite blue E350d in stock and there were some real crazy discounts. Bangalore dealers had only the E220d for test drives and the car didn't scrape or bottom out in any of the pot hole/speed breaker riddled roads in Bellandur area.I had more or less decided to go for it as it would be great both for weekday chauffeur driven rides and for the weekend trips. So we went on the E220d on a nearly 50km drive to Akshaya Motor's Mysore Road stock yard to check out the E350d. Two things were a bummer. One, we couldn't manage to keep even 2 medium size suitcases in the boot and two, there was hardly any space for even 2 adults and a 7 year old kid in the back seat. Since now we are a family of 4 and with in laws/parents travelling with us frequently, the impracticality of a sedan again reared its head.

2) BMW 530d

Loved everything about the car- the looks, the cockpit styled lowering of the steering on ignition, the performance and even the ride quality was great. But the car scraped every speed breaker and couldn't even exit the ramp in the apartment parking lot without scraping the under-body. The boot space was slightly better but still no where close to an SUV and with this low ground clearance , daily drive would be a chore.

3) Mercedes GLE 300d/ GLS 400d

Again there was no GLE 400d for test drive and hence test drove both the GLE 300d and the GLS 400d. Liked the interiors of the GLE 300d but the performance didn't feel like an upgrade from the X3. The GLS 400d had sprightly performance for a car of its size and could get a good idea about the engine's potential.

Didn't consider the X5 as we already had a BMW and wasn't too keen on getting another one.

Dealer experience:

Initially got in touch with both Sundaram and Akshaya Motors. Somehow the sales adviser at Sundaram didn't follow up keenly but the adviser, Avinash from Akshaya was very prompt. He arranged for multiple test drives and was always available to answer any queries. Also Sundaram didn't have a 400d available with them in stock.

Discounts weren't much as it was a 2021 car and they had only one allocation. But loved the colour and ended up booking a Mojave Silver one. The delivery experience was smooth and very neatly done. Didn't expect to close the deal this soon but as they say you live only once.

Likes:

1) The car just pulls. The power is addictive. For something that weighs nearly 3 tonnes, the 700Nm of torque between 1200-3200 rpm means you are comfortably cruising at 100 kmph at 1500 rpm.
3) The ride quality on the 20 inch tyres are amazing. Gobbles up most of the pot holes. Also the air suspension along with adaptive dampening keeps the ride very comfy.
4) Has most of the features like electric under thigh support extension for driver and front passenger, electric head rest adjustments for all passengers, electric sun-blinds for rear passengers, 360 camera etc
5) Comfortable turning radius within the city. Haven't really struggled so far within the city due to its size.

Dislikes:

1) No burmester audio on a car that costs 1cr+ on road! The audio system is good but nothing premium
2) Would have liked wireless carplay and HUD at this price point.
3) Expensive warranty + service packages. If you are looking for a 6 year warranty + compact plus service plan, have to pay upfront nearly 11 lakhs.
4) The speed warnings are extremely irritating especially the 80 kmph one. it constantly interferes during the highway drives with the audio.
5) Beige interiors are a pain to maintain especially with young kids.

Based on reviews from the forum, got Hexis PPF installed from Krithi Car Care in HBR layout. They did a great job.

Took the vehicle on a road trip to Yercaud this weekend. Got a combined mileage of 10 kmpl with city, highway and the hill driving.

I am planning to go for the 6 year extended warranty for now.

[abhilashgp]

Update @ 3000kms

The car has been true to its "take the effort out of driving" promise!

Door squeaking sound
The door squeaking noise on bad roads was bothering me. Since I was in Trivandrum, got the same checked at Rajasree Motors. They checked with Mercedes Benz team, who suggested to apply a sealant along the beading to fix the sound. The stock was procured and applied. The fix has been extremely effective and have not faced any squeaking since then. Rajasree Motors took good care and kept me informed at all times.

First Inspection
Once we were back in Bangalore, decided to take the car to Sundaram Motors, for first free inspection. I had a list of observations to run through. The team took the car for a test drive to go through my list of observations.

I liked how the service team was double checking every point multiple times to ensure no issue got missed out. The only issue identified to fix was the noise from front wipers.

The car was delivered the next day after the visual inspection and a chemical cleaning done for the front windshield to remove the hard deposits that had accumulated (need to validate if this is an effective fix for the wiper sound). They ruled out any issues with wiper blades.

Since this was free inspection, no amount was charged. The car was delivered the next day.

[Aaroah]

Originally Posted by aravindrn

Likes:

1) The car just pulls. The power is addictive. For something that weighs nearly 3 tonnes, the 700Nm of torque between 1200-3200 rpm means you are comfortably cruising at 100 kmph at 1500 rpm.
3) The ride quality on the 20 inch tyres are amazing. Gobbles up most of the pot holes. Also the air suspension along with adaptive dampening keeps the ride very comfy.
4) Has most of the features like electric under thigh support extension for driver and front passenger, electric head rest adjustments for all passengers, electric sun-blinds for rear passengers, 360 camera etc
5) Comfortable turning radius within the city. Haven't really struggled so far within the city due to its size.

Hey Aravind,
Are the seats in the 400d variant upholstered in Nappa Leather? Artico seats in this price range is pretty sad, AFAIK they only used to come in the lower end A/B/C class back in 2014. The quality of cabin in my Audi Q3 feels better and the ambience of the XC90 is not helping the case of the GLE personally for me. Add to that my there is no test drive/ display vehicle of the 400d and my dealer in Lucknow is keen on selling the 300d instead

[aravindrn]

Originally Posted by Aaroah

Hey Aravind,
Are the seats in the 400d variant upholstered in Nappa Leather? Artico seats in this price range is pretty sad, AFAIK they only used to come in the lower end A/B/C class back in 2014. The quality of cabin in my Audi Q3 feels better and the ambience of the XC90 is not helping the case of the GLE personally for me. Add to that my there is no test drive/ display vehicle of the 400d and my dealer in Lucknow is keen on selling the 300d instead

The seats are Artico leather only. The feel and the quality of the leather is pretty good and very similar compared to the Nappa leather in X5. You could test drive the GLS400d to get an idea about the engine.

[abhilashgp]

Updates

Posting some of the observations/findings that I've had with the car recently.

1. Subtle "click" sound [from under driver side floor carpet] when stepping into the car

Observation
The click sound was observed since Feb, however during the inspection visit, I couldn't reproduce it. During the lockdown, found that this sound comes when I step into the car in the morning but doesn't repeat for another 3 hours. Took a video and shared with the service team. They tested it out on their demo cars, apparently their technical manager was able to reproduce this on a fresh car that had just arrived, but not on some of the other cars in the service center. While it didn't have a functionality loss, I was unsettled by the sound every morning.

Solve
Took the car to Sundaram. They offered to immediately open the carpet and check it. Found that the plastic tray under the carpet (that is placed above the wires) wasn't hinged (by design) on one of the corners, hence creating a possible movement when weight is placed.


A - Where there is no hinge to the floor
B - Possible spot where a movement can create a click sound

They went ahead to add padding to remove the play and packed it tightly. This seems to have resolved the problem. Service center confirmed they are updating this to Mercedes, so if this is by design, they can take note.

Thanks to Sundaram for indulging me in removing this irritant

2. Brake release/hold behaviour in the car when idling in P (when no handbrakes are applied)

Observation
When the car is placed on P and the engine is running (and no hand brakes applied), on surfaces where there are slight undulations (not heavy slopes), the car does this series of steps every few mins, where we feel the brake is released and it is immediately held back.

Response
The service team informed that this is as per design. The reason I was told is that when in Park mode, there could still be some space for movement on certain surfaces until it goes to parking pawl; hence when the car moves slightly, the brake (with the other sensors) activates to hold it back; it then tries to release to let it go to parking pawl again, detects movement and again holds back. In a nutshell, nothing to be done and can be ignored.

Interestingly, I found an article online (a Technical Service Bulletin specifically referring to the 7G-DCT) where this was called out as a feature designed to keep the car on service brakes giving an opportunity to the customer to put on the parking brakes before letting it go to parking pawl.

3. Assist function during reverse

Originally Posted by abhilashgp

[*] For me, it got activated once when I was reversing (I wasn’t aware it works in reverse), need to clarify this with Mercedes Benz

Originally Posted by audioholic

It can happen out of two things, one is when you are reversing into cross traffic and there is a vehicle or a cyclist approaching, or it can be triggered by the reverse sensors in case there is an obstacle. If you got the collision warning beeps then its the former. Try this again if it happens with nothing around. If so then thats a problem.

Originally Posted by abhilashgp

That makes sense. I heard the warning beep during that episode, hence assumed it had something to do with the active safety features. There was no obstacle but there were vehicle movements around as I was reversing on the roadside. Will keep observing.

Confirmed that the Assist function that worked during reverse was indeed the cross traffic assist as mentioned by BHPian audioholic. So when the car detects an object moving in the zone where we are reversing into, it brakes hard with beeps.

[pk1972]

Great ownership thread abhilashgp.

I took a small test drive of GLE 300d today in Bangalore and because of all the road-work in Koramangala could not really drive past 40 kms - will take another one next week to try out on nice road too.

How is the performance in open highways? GLE does not have an sport mode - Do you feel the lack of an sport mode in twisties and for those urgent overtaking moments?

[abhilashgp]

Originally Posted by pk1972

How is the performance in open highways? GLE does not have an sport mode - Do you feel the lack of an sport mode in twisties and for those urgent overtaking moments?

In the state of tune the 2L engine has in 300d, I believe it works very well. The con is that beyond a certain level, which I don't generally reach in most overtake manoeuvres either, I feel the engine does get a little noisy.

My sense is, your perception will be very relative
1. I had a Jetta before. It had strong turbo lag, but a good performance in certain bands with no issues with overtaking. With GLE, there is no turbo lag and I feel the performance has further improved. In fact, I don't feel the downshift also takes a lot of time.
2. If you are coming from the powerful 2.0L cars (like X3), maybe you won't feel much of an increase in power but if you are coming from the 2L in lower state of tunes or smaller engines, you will be surprised with what these engines can do.

[abhilashgp]

Update @ 10,000kms mark

Highlights
1. Love the refinement & comfort levels, you can jus sit for long hours (traffic or otherwise)
2. Engine, it is super responsive for a 2L
3. Service experience has been superb
4. Love the steering, balanced characteristics & makes the car super agile
5. Mileage of 10-12kmpl in Bangalore city, 13-15kmpl on highways

Lowlights
1. Two features I really miss, memory seats & wireless Apple CarPlay
2. Squeaking sounds do come up once in a while (a super silent cabin makes it noticeable)
3. At certain speeds (I suspect between 40-60kmph), the very sharp undulations does send sound into the cabin (unsure of the tyre's contribution to this, it is a 19inch Pirelli P0)

1 year Service Experience

• Completed 1 week before due date @ ~9400kms
• The cost was around ~Rs 46,000/-, adjusted against Star Ease Compact Plus 4y/40K (service package)
• Wheel Alignment & Balancing was done, Brake Pads & Wipers didn't need any replacement
• Service experience was amazing at Sundaram Motors, Kasturba Road. The team took care of everything.

Recall
Mercedes had issued a recall (announced worldwide in Jan) on the car to fix a possible risk of leak between the coolant and vaccum circuits. The recall involved a software update and replacing the electric switchover valve.

As soon as I got an official letter from Mercedes announcing availability of the update and the part, I made the 2nd trip to the service center to complete this work. It was done in an hour.

Sounds
As mentioned in lowlights, the car does have some squeaking sounds that come up from time to time. A recap.

1. 1 month into the ownership, there was squeaking sounds from the doors. Mercedes recommended Rajasree motors to apply a gel across all the 4 doors and it was fixed perfectly
2. After service, the car again had squeaking sounds from the doors. Service Head sent a team home to inspect the doors and applied Wurth cladding spray. While it didn't go away, the service head suggested to wait for 2-3 days to see if moisture absorption by the door cladding could be a reason. We wait for 2 days and it just went away!
3. There is a small squeak that comes when car faces torsion (like front half of the car is on a steep incline). The technical manager took a test drive with me. He suspects it to come from roof rails or doors but not from the suspension or anything critical. His recommendation was to not act on it (since it is very infrequent and isn't an issue). I have decided to wait and watch and if it bothers then give it to Sundaram for a detailed check (I fear that may involve removing roof lining).

Insurance
Renewed the insurance (Star Protect Platinum) through Sundaram itself. It had all the options that one needed and had good discounts. Didn't bother outside.

Summary
I have no hesitation recommending GLE to anyone looking to buy in the 1crore mark (and does not want to stretch further). The car has gotten significantly expensive in the last 1 year. However so has all the cars across segments. However, I do hope Mercedes addresses the feature misses in the newer versions.

[abhilashgp]

Incident: Helmet got stuck in wheel arch

I had the weirdest of the incident when a helmet came rolling down on the road and found it's way into the wheel arch of the GLE. I first thought it was some stones on the road, later on realised it was actually a helmet. The rider saw the helmet getting into the arch, failed to pull it out and zoomed off!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcv_WI4XCoc

I drove with the helmet in the arch for 50m, since it was a busy stretch and I had to unblock the traffic. My wife and I got down and figured a way to pull out the helmet (by turning the tyre the other way). I was freaked out since the alloys was full of black marks (presumably from the plastic coating on the helmet). No fault codes came on the console (there was hope that nothing went wrong)!

Took the car next day to Sundaram for inspection. The team removed the tyres and did a thorough visual inspection. They found no damage to any component in the car. They inspected the alloys and did a wheel balancing. A solution was used to remove the plastic stuck on the alloys and cleaned the mess up. It was spotless! As usual, the Sundaram service was a huge support!

I was a wreck until the service team assured that things were fine!

In all, speaks about the quality of components in the SUV by Mercedes!

[lambodara]

Originally Posted by abhilashgp

Incident: Helmet got stuck in wheel arch

In all, speaks about the quality of components in the SUV by Mercedes!

Glad it turned out all well ! Can you please tell me which brand/model of dash cam is that ? I am on the lookout for one and the choices are so many without any real world footage.
Thanks !

[abhilashgp]

Originally Posted by lambodara

Can you please tell me which brand/model of dash cam is that ?

This is a dashcam from Mercedes that I had installed while delivery. They have only one model.

[Shai100]

Hi,

I am in the process of buying this beast. Had checked out the X5 and the Defender and then finally felt this is the best fit. However One of my Family members has the GLE300D and his complaint is that the speed chime above 120 is very loud and unbearable. is there a way to adjust speed alert volume in the car?

[abhilashgp]

Originally Posted by Shai100

his complaint is that the speed chime above 120 is very loud and unbearable. is there a way to adjust speed alert volume in the car?

Hi, None that I’m aware of. The only option is to go to a tuner who will code it. I haven’t yet tried this though.

[abhilashgp]

Update @ 20,000kms mark

2nd year service completed @ 20,000kms
This time I decided to give the car to Sundaram Whitefield service centre (which is closer to home than Kasturba Road). As expected, had a stellar service experience.

The cost was around ~Rs 65,000/-, adjusted against Star Ease Compact Plus 4y/40K (service package).

• All filters and fluids (excluding transmission) were changed
• Wheel alignment and balancing done
• Wiper blades were replaced
• Windshield was polished to ensure no noise (there was squeaking noise)

The Brake Pads still have life and were not changed.

Sounds
One highlight of the service this time is all the squeaking sounds that keep coming from time to time have been fixed (it was one of my lowlights with the car and keeps popping up in my previous posts). Sundaram Whitefield sent an expert who identified every noise (I sensed he has a very strong intuition of the structure of the car, packing materials etc.) and isolated the source which was then fixed. At the moment I have a squeaking-free super silent cabin touchwood

Mileage
The mileage in the city has increased slightly post 2nd service. Right now I get about 11-12.5km/l in LIGHT Bangalore traffic, with it dropping to 7-9 km/l in HEAVY traffic (HEAVY excludes the "stuck in one place in bumper-to-bumper traffic for 15 mins" type of situation, I avoid them)

Insurance
Renewed the insurance (Star Protect Platinum) through Sundaram this time as well.

[buzzy_boy]

Originally Posted by abhilashgp

The cost was around ~Rs 65,000/-

For 65K, my Creta 1.4 D would last ~6-7 services! But, then again, we aren't comparing apples.

Just out of curiosity, is this the expected base cost per service for a luxury SUV? Did you have to pay for anything out of the ordinary, as in, were the wiper blade replaced under warranty? 20K KMs seems too soon for them to go kaput.