Hello all,

I had the chance to drive a new W222 equipped with the OM642 for a couple of weeks while in the UK. I really like this car, though there are a few things that I was surprised to see in the new S.

I really like the dash, the LED lighting, and the feel of the interior:




This was the AMG appearance package, with what appeared to be a lower trim level as there were no air conditioned seats, MBC, or advanced cruise control. I was surprised to see that the wipers didn't return to park when the key was shutoff:


And the visors, at least in this trim level, do not slide any longer!


The visors I pulled from a '91 W126 have this feature. While there aren't that many sunny days in the UK I still missed the feature.

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1983 Mercedes 300SD
1987 Mercedes 300SDL
2001 VW Passat 2.8 AWD
2007 OM642 Jeep WK 4x4

The exterior is greatly improved, in my opinion, over the W221 with the prominent wheel arches:




No spare tire on these, run-flat tires are the current solution:



Picture of the engine bay:

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1983 Mercedes 300SD
1987 Mercedes 300SDL
2001 VW Passat 2.8 AWD
2007 OM642 Jeep WK 4x4

This later revision of the OM642 is fitted with a GTB2060V, which appears to be the same specs as the GTB2260VKLR but with a slightly larger exhaust turbine:



The CP3 pump is a different model than the earlier engines too, perhaps a greater output per stroke on this model?



It also appears that there is a large air to water heat exchanger on the pressure side of the turbo before the intake, anybody know why they did this?



Overall this is a great car, though the insulated feel of drive by wire makes me wish they would just put the joystick in here like they did in the F200 concept car of the 90s and forget the wheel altogether:




In addition, all the latest cars with the auto engine shutoff are annoying, and you must turn this off every time you restart the car if you don't want it shutting down at every light.

This one was the RWD model, it was not hard to break the tires loose at sea level. I hope they bring this car back to the US, AWD or RWD, but not keeping my hopes up after the recent scandals. I think the latest ones I see for sale in the US are from 2013? I like the W222 much more than the W221. Any word on if they are bringing the S diesels back to the US for 2017?

Suppose I'll just stick to the W126 for now...

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1983 Mercedes 300SD
1987 Mercedes 300SDL
2001 VW Passat 2.8 AWD
2007 OM642 Jeep WK 4x4

Wow that's a nice looking car.

I'm still not sold on the video display dashboard. Although in fairness if the computer goes down on my 98 W210 I would have no valid data showing on my dashboard either.

Wipers not returning with the key off is not a bug, it's supposed to be that way. That gives the operator a positive way of stopping the wiper motor if something is in the way (like they are iced to the window). If the wipers continued to try parking even with the key off that would be bad if there was something in the way.

Sliding visors - yes the bean counters did away with that from the mid 2000s, our ML does not do this.

Run flat appears to be MB's go to solution across the board, they are getting pressured to remove as much weight from the car as possible due to fuel economy dictates. Run Flats Suck.

I recognize the layout from our 08 ML, but why did they put the stinking ECU right on top of where the fuel filter goes! And the connectors facing forward, right in the path of water spray driven under the hood? What were they thinking? You have to remove the ECU to get to the fuel filter.

I'm sure they upsized the turbo and the fuel pump to give this car some more oomph since it's the AMG trim.

When I did the oil cooler seals on my OM642 the WIS kept mentioning "vehicles with air to coolant heat exchanger" and "liquid cooled turbo" in the steps for disassembling the turbo. I guess that is what they were referring to. My ML has an air to air intercooler in front of the condenser.

Auto start stop is here to stay, more government mandates. I have been getting more and more rental cars (I travel almost every week for work and get just about every kind of rental car under the sun) and that stupid feature is coming up on more and more of them. And every one has the disable button on the dash but you have to turn it back on every time you restart. My dad has an Audi with this, and it drives him insane.

Unfortunately diesel is not coming back soon to the US, they scrubbed the entire 2017 diesel MY lineup from the US market. The earliest we will see anything new will be the 2018 MY, maybe, and it will likely be the 4 cylinder twin turbo OM654, this has been discussed in some other threads lately.

If you want to drive a US market car that has this engine you will need to look for a late 2000s E-, S-, or M-Class. Do a search on mypreownedmercedes.com, set the filters to power train = diesel, and years = 2007 and newer.

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The OM 642/722.9 powered family
Still going strong
2014 ML350 Bluetec (wife's DD)
2013 E350 Bluetec (my DD)

both my kids cars went to junkyard in 2023
2008 ML320 CDI (Older son’s DD) fatal transmission failure, water soaked/fried rear SAM, numerous other issues, just too far gone to save (165k miles)
2008 E320 Bluetec (Younger son's DD) injector failed open and diluted oil with diesel, spun main bearings (240k miles)

1998 E300DT sold to TimFreeh
1987 300TD sold to vstech

The current ML/GLE does have a spare on some models, and also has the sliding visors on the W-166 version.

Nice looking car, although I rented 184 days of cars last year, ... no S-Class.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff