GLA Owner's Manual. Page 169. If you leave the vehicle parked up longer ....

[Axcontrols]

If you leave the vehicle parked up longer than 4 weeks the battery may be damaged through exhaustive discharging.

That's written, right there, in the owner's manual. Bottom left corner of page 169.

All those forum threads where people think they have a faulty car, duff battery, parasitic drain etc. when, in fact, it's the standard behaviour of a perfectly functional car. Leave it for 4 weeks and you likely to end up with a flat "damaged" battery.

I don't believe it. Are MB serious?

I'm no newbie to cars. I'm 65 years old and have been driving, mostly mercs, for 45 years.

Have cars evolved so much that there's a ton of computers in there designed to protect the environment and save tiny amounts of fuel but I have to make regular, totally unnecessary journeys with resulting fuel consumption and emissions just to avoid parking the car longer than 4 weeks.

On the other hand. I can't stop looking at my GLA. Seen from the back with the wide hips and narrow shoulders. Beautiful. and If those 3 adults in the back don't like it they can jolly well get out and walk.

Park up for 4 weeks? Who am I kidding. Totally unnecessary journeys here I come and to heck with the environment.

 

[Blobcat]

All those electronics and "apps" that owners can't live without all require power... Mercedes Me is always on along with alarm sensors and a myriad of other systems. Get a battery conditioner if you're going to be parking up for any length of time

 

[Craiglxviii]

Yep. As above. Spend £20 on Amazon and get a battery conditioner, well worth it.

 

[Axcontrols]

GLA is a new addition to the family. I love it. But all those electronics worry me.

I'm not a technophobe. I'm a 65 year old, semi retired, software engineer. Started programming back when men were men and some of the wimmin were men as well. Back then we worked with noughts and ones. and if we ran out of noughts we used letter O's instead.

My 18 year old ML has hardly moved during lockdown. Parked up for most of 2020. And it started first time. It's an old car but has more 'electronic' options than you can shake a stick at. It just switches them off when the car isn't being used.

If MB are reading this maybe they'd like to contact me. I'll design a system for them that notices when the car hasn't been used for a while, say 48 hours, and assumes that there's a fair to middling chance that it won't be used for the next 24 and the 24 after that so starts saving stuff to flash and shuts down all unnecessary 'stuff'. OK, downside of this is that it might take a few seconds to boot back up again but surely when you come back to the airport carpark after your two weeks in the algarve you'd rather have a slower boot up than a dead battery.

 

[Blobcat]

GLA is a new addition to the family. I love it. But all those electronics worry me.

I'm not a technophobe. I'm a 65 year old, semi retired, software engineer. Started programming back when men were men and some of the wimmin were men as well. Back then we worked with noughts and ones. and if we ran out of noughts we used letter O's instead.

My 18 year old ML has hardly moved during lockdown. Parked up for most of 2020. And it started first time. It's an old car but has more 'electronic' options than you can shake a stick at. It just switches them off when the car isn't being used.

If MB are reading this maybe they'd like to contact me. I'll design a system for them that notices when the car hasn't been used for a while, say 48 hours, and assumes that there's a fair to middling chance that it won't be used for the next 24 and the 24 after that so starts saving stuff to flash and shuts down all unnecessary 'stuff'. OK, downside of this is that it might take a few seconds to boot back up again but surely when you come back to the airport carpark after your two weeks in the algarve you'd rather have a slower boot up than a dead battery.

But where’s the money in that?
You can’t sell an owner a new battery for £500 (that you have to code to the car…) with your system