Yeah the one I posted was a Platinum edition. I too liked the two tone paint.

 

Correct. That’s a huge, important trait in a luxury sedan.

Like last week when I thought my transmission was busted and wouldn’t shift into 6th gear. I was testing the new tires so I wasn’t paying attention to the speedo, or anything else except ride smoothness.. Yes, it was in 6th gear but I was going like 105. Didn’t notice it. Owned the car 12+ years.

 

I will say I do like my 430, it's very soft and smooth to the point it earned a permanent place in my lineup. I just don't really have much motivation to drive it over the other cars...

 

the combination of smooth always on demand torque, highly streamlined aerodynamics, and top notch sound insulation truly makes it super easy to lose track of how fast you're going haha

todays cars with 9 or 10 gears and turbo engines definitely don't deliver the same seamless experience, even though on paper they're 'better'... this recent weekend i spent several hours driving the 2023 GLE450 to and from VT and it just doesn't compare at highway speeds, despite actually having a similar drag coefficient to my LS

 

Well, it’s an SUV and not of the same caliber as an LS, 6 cylinder.. even with its excellent for an SUV drag coefficient the experience is totally different than a sedan.

Compare to my S580 and it definitely compares despite having a 9 speed transmission and turbos.

 

well if we're bringing handling into question then yea the GLE really doesn't compare lol... but even though it's a 6 cyl it's got a turbo + the 48V system, on paper that GLE delivers the full torque at less than half of the rpms that the 1UZ does (1700 rpm vs 4000 rpm) but it's still not able to breeze past other cars as easily without first having to drop 2 or 3 gears

the S580 without question does autobahn blasting better but i'm convinced it would be even better with fewer gears, with that engine there's no need for the last 4 gears to be so close together... just removing 6th and 8th from that 9G-tronic would be a welcomed improvement (same goes for the GLE450)

 

You should have seen my face for a second. "Great, I just spent $1300 on tires 5 minutes ago and now my transmission is going...." Lol. Big sigh of relief. I guess what I'm saying is I've lived with the car for 12 years so I know it well, and it still surprised me how I was going triple digit speeds when I figured I was going like 70.

 

Anyone here like the LS460 more than the LS430?

 

Most who have had both prefer to drive the 460......myself included.

 

Regardless of what anybody says no 6 cyl feels as good as a V8, people talk about how smooth I6s are but I will always take the V8. Its not about power, its all about feel. The 1UZ is smoother than the I6 in that GLE450 for sure and that impacts how "effortless" passing etc feels. The difference there isn't the turbo its the 6 vs the 8. If you haven't driven a GLE580 you should if only for that comparison.

I have no issue at all with the transmission on the S580, when you're in sport mode it doesn't go into 9th gear until you're doing 75+ anyways, and dropdown for passing power is not a problem at all. Like I said before, the issue there is the 6 cyl not the additional gears.

Having had both, yes. But with that said 07-09 LS460s had some quality issues and felt a step down from the 430 in quality, but that was all solved by the time I had mine (2015 and 2017).

 

i'd love to drive the GLE580 but finding that 450 was difficult enough as it was! mercedes literally sent the dealer the wrong car at first and my parents had to start over

the tuning on the transmission in your car is also probably more optimized than on the 'alabama trash can' lol... there's a solid second or so delay from when you put your foot down to when the car decides what gear it wants to be in... the ISG does help a bit but there's still a noticeable additional surge of power when the turbo spools

with some experience you can start to figure out how to get the GLE to work the best, preemptively downshifting to get the engine to about 2500 rpm will give the best results for when you want instant power, whereas in the LS you just need to think it and the car's already perfectly executed its mission lol

 

Yeah I don't have any issues like that. Passing power is great and immediate. I noticed that in the GLS450 loaner I had for that week.

 

That gap/delay is the 6.....the V8 doesn't have that problem.

 

LS430 wafts around with the best of them, but has a very energetic V8 that springs into action when you call on it. The sounds are mechanical perfection.

 

When I test drove the GLE63 last year the transmission was terrible trying to figure out what gear to be in. After that it was a definite no from me even though I liked the exterior/interior a lot.