mmarshall

I'm not sure what you mean by "soft close doors". Many car buyers equate a solid, firm, precise "thunk" when closing doors/hood/trunk with quality and an upscale feeling. I mention, in my reviews, if I think doors sound or feel tinny when closing.

Toys4RJill

The highest end of cars have soft door closing features. LS460 has this and the back door of my 4Runner does.

Stroock639

on some cars all you have to do is just get the door to make that initial click and it'll finish closing for you, even if you don't shut the door forcefully enough to get it to fully close

mmarshall

Yes, I'm familiar with that feature, but I don't usually hear it referred to as "soft-close." As many buyers equate a solid "thunk" door closing with quality and upscaleness, I was under the impression that the soft power-close feature was more of a convenience item for people with arthritis, sore arms/shoulders, etc....

Toys4RJill

I don't believe most buyers think this. Lexus has a more natural sounding close that is pleasing and different than a MB which is a solid thunk. All the manufactures try to have their own style

situman

Luxury cars (excluding the super and ultra luxury market) is starting to lose its prestige so to speak due to exceptionally cheap leasing. I'm leasing a GS for $450 a month for 3years. Or you can lease an RX for $420 or an NX for $310 a month. Even the germans are highly accessible with highly attractive leasing terms. Also, leasing a mainstream car is not cheap by any means, unless you are ok with cranking your own windows, so to speak. A top end Camry will probably run in the low $300's per month lease already, so...why wouldn't you just spend a bit more and get an ES or even NX? Mainstream cars in order to compete has to throw content that's normally reserved for luxury cars, thus closing the content feature gap. Years before affordable leasing, luxury cars were not attainable by common folks like me so mainstream cars didnt see the need to boost content, now is a completely different ball game.

situman

Lexus has more of an ooommmph sound, MB has more of a metalic splat sound

coolsaber

A decade ago, that solid thunk was a huge motivator for luxury car buyers to go german. Nowdays even the Germans have lost the Bank vault like thud in favor of efficency

Toys4RJill

I think I could agree to that, Lexus feels like it seals nicely where as MB feels like the door is being slammed. Both are good, but each is different and unique.

Toys4RJill

Mercedes still has the bank vault feel, but BMW and Audi are different. These days, I do not think buyers care if the door feels like a vault.

Stroock639

i think the best door close / door lock sound on a car currently being produced has to be DAS GELANDEWAGEN

RXSF

I was going to list that too, as it is also my favorite, but then I found out that toyota models have the same feature, so not really a luxury thing anymore

Toys4RJill

Which other Toyotas have this, I think it is just the Land Cruiser. The 2013-15 Avalon does not, my father and I test drove it and we noticed that it did not have it.

mmarshall

Yep. Absolutely. No arguments there. That's because of two reasons. First, the G-wagon represents the tank-like way M-B used to design and build vehicles 30-40 years ago (the only M-B product still in production that does), and, Second, it was designed to military standards of durability for the German and Austrian armies.

JDR76

My Highlander does it.