- Joined
- Feb 26, 2023
- Messages
- 37
- Reaction score
- 87
- Cars
- Zenith Red AT
While my Touring was in the hands of Lucid service for the past couple of weeks, Lucid provided me with a new-ish (got it with like 500 miles on the odometer) Mercedes EQS450 4matic sedan as a loaner. For what it's worth, I thought I would record my observations. I drove the car about 800 miles, including a mix of highway, around-town, and hilly two-laners (on a day trip out to the Oregon coast). I think I got a feel for the car.
Pros
The fob was good -- coming from a Lucid, this meant something to me.
Apple Airplay was solid.
Range was good. The guess-o-meter routinely showed 380+ miles when the battery was fully charged.
Good trunk space, back seat looked spacious enough (though I didn't ride back there).
Mercedes added some cute animations for Easter on the infotainment part of the UI. They just popped up yesterday (Good Friday).
Cons
It handled like a tuna boat. For an EV, it was sluggish and "floaty", if that makes sense. Where the Air grips the road and really leans into curves, I generally felt a little skittish in the 450.
The cabin was astonishingly noisy. I took a decibel meter out in the 450 because the cabin seemed subjectively noisy, but I wanted numbers. I have a particular piece of highway that I use for these sound tests: Turn off all climate controls and the sound system, set the speed to 60 mph, and get some data. My wife's Subaru Legacy clocks in at about 73 dB. The Air is about 64 dB. The Mercedes was a jaw-dropping 83 dB. The noise in the Air and the Mercedes is all road noise, of course, but holy cow!
Seat comfort is a very personal thing. My wife found the 450 seats extremely comfortable. I did not. Try as I might, I couldn't get a seat configuration that worked for my body shape. Lumbar support was meh, thigh support cut off my circulation on longer trips. The drive back from the coast (about an hour and a half) was pretty painful. Your mileage will certainly vary for comfort, but it was bad for me.
Small gripes: The UI is cluttered and not particularly intuitive. The regenerative braking always resets itself to "normal" when the car if off, meaning I had to set it to "high" every time I got in the car. The regen itself, even on high, isn't as stiff as the Air's, so I wound up using the brake pedal a lot more than I like.
There's plenty I'm forgetting, I'm sure, but that captures the essence.
Overall, the 450 4matic was a distinct step down from the Air. I was so happy to see my Air returned yesterday!
Pros
The fob was good -- coming from a Lucid, this meant something to me.
Apple Airplay was solid.
Range was good. The guess-o-meter routinely showed 380+ miles when the battery was fully charged.
Good trunk space, back seat looked spacious enough (though I didn't ride back there).
Mercedes added some cute animations for Easter on the infotainment part of the UI. They just popped up yesterday (Good Friday).
Cons
It handled like a tuna boat. For an EV, it was sluggish and "floaty", if that makes sense. Where the Air grips the road and really leans into curves, I generally felt a little skittish in the 450.
The cabin was astonishingly noisy. I took a decibel meter out in the 450 because the cabin seemed subjectively noisy, but I wanted numbers. I have a particular piece of highway that I use for these sound tests: Turn off all climate controls and the sound system, set the speed to 60 mph, and get some data. My wife's Subaru Legacy clocks in at about 73 dB. The Air is about 64 dB. The Mercedes was a jaw-dropping 83 dB. The noise in the Air and the Mercedes is all road noise, of course, but holy cow!
Seat comfort is a very personal thing. My wife found the 450 seats extremely comfortable. I did not. Try as I might, I couldn't get a seat configuration that worked for my body shape. Lumbar support was meh, thigh support cut off my circulation on longer trips. The drive back from the coast (about an hour and a half) was pretty painful. Your mileage will certainly vary for comfort, but it was bad for me.
Small gripes: The UI is cluttered and not particularly intuitive. The regenerative braking always resets itself to "normal" when the car if off, meaning I had to set it to "high" every time I got in the car. The regen itself, even on high, isn't as stiff as the Air's, so I wound up using the brake pedal a lot more than I like.
There's plenty I'm forgetting, I'm sure, but that captures the essence.
Overall, the 450 4matic was a distinct step down from the Air. I was so happy to see my Air returned yesterday!
