Comand APS DVD Upgrade E Class W211

[Goldfish11]

Can anyone advise me. I have wasted a good part of today trying to get some sense out of Mercedes.

My E Class has the new Comand APS DVD system with the Harman Becker Nav DVD. I am currently running on Version 2003 / 2.0.
I understand that Version 2004 /3.0 is available, which I hope has the Birmingham Northern relief road on. (The poor lady goes bonkers everytime I use it!)

What I want to know is what additional functionality version 3.0 has over 2.0??
I have been quoted £250 for the upgrade DVD and can't justify this on the map alone. (Anyone know where you can get it cheaper??) I heard it rumoured you can play mp3 files on the CD or something.

The dealer was unable to tell me and they told me to contact Mercedes Customer Service in Germany, they could not help, (Just told me a new release is available in August each year). Told me to contact a Nav mapping company in UK, contacted them turned out they only do the CD (DX version) contacted Harman Becker UK they said they dont deal with it you need to contact Germany. Contacted Mercedes again in Germany and they had no telephone numbers for Harmen Becker Germany and said they couldnt help!!!
As you can imagine I am a bit frustrated!!!.

 

[dalbisla]

Fairly new to this myself but I would certainly look at ebay
www.ebay.com
I am sure that if you will be able to find something there the other place to look would be
www.navshop.com

 

[guydewdney]

annoyingly i JUST bought the release for the streetpilot III - 150 dollars (100 quid)

still doesnt have the soddin' main A41 bypass thay have been building for 2+ years and has been open for 6 months :grr: makes a biog difference - 30mph or 70 mph....

have a look on certain eastern european *ahem* websites *choughcrackspiderchough*
?

 

[RichardM]

From reading the pocketgps forum I understand no current Sat Nav systems have the new toll road on it.

 

[lil.smartie]

Hi,
We picked up our Smart Forfour on Sat, it has the same Comand system as the E-class. It came with version 2.1 and won't play DVD's, MP3's etc. It seems that if you install V3 or above it will play the MP3's, bought a V4 disc from Ebay last night so waiting for it to arrive to try on load everything on to the system and then try again.

The upgrade discs contain firmware upgrades and the new mapping so fingers crossed that it will work!

Glad to see Merc dealers know as much about Mercs as Smarts, we always thought it was just us that got poor service from them!

kate

 

[Shude]

Glad to see Merc dealers know as much about Mercs as Smarts, we always thought it was just us that got poor service from them!

What are the smart dealers like though?

 

[lil.smartie]

They are the same place now! All they do is put a couple of Smarts in the showroom, a few brochures and train 1 tech to basic competancy level and say they are a main dealer!

Waiting to see what kind of response I get as I have now worked out that they have given us V2.1 and V4 is the current one, sounds like off loading onto unsuspecting Smartie owners!

Kate

 

[Shude]

Waiting to see what kind of response I get as I have now worked out that they have given us V2.1 and V4 is the current one, sounds like off loading onto unsuspecting Smartie owners!

Ahh, but there are also Smart Centres in a few towns, there is one in Manchester and one in Blackburn I think for starters. They are dedicated Smart stealerships. My local stealership always has a smart or two kicking about but they belong to the service dept I think.

 

[saorbust]

I have version 4.0 of the DVD. I have no idea how it tallys with the v2.0 release, but I know I cant' find a difference from the V3.0 release.

I was quoted £378 for the DVD.

Personally I wouldn't bother. I'm waiting now for TMC.

 

[saorbust]

From reading the pocketgps forum I understand no current Sat Nav systems have the new toll road on it.

Not quite true. The old CD based COMAND system has it.

 

[lil.smartie]

Smart are closing the stand alone places as the leases run out! I think the TMC is supposed to work on ours but you need to be listening to Classical FM so haven't bothered trying that one!

Kate

 

[VBD]

The latest version is version 4.1 for the E, CLS, S, CL, SLK and version 4.0 for the Smart, C, CLK and A class. I am not sure if these two versions are interchangable but seem to have read somewhere that they are not.

These new versions of the DVD discs all have the toll road on them, and possibly also TMC?!?!? If the Smart nav is DVD based then no you do not need to be listening to Classic FM. That was the older Cd based Nav's

 

[glojo]

The latest version is version 4.1 for the E, CLS, S, CL, SLK and version 4.0 for the Smart, C, CLK and A class. I am not sure if these two versions are interchangable but seem to have read somewhere that they are not.

These new versions of the DVD discs all have the toll road on them, and possibly also TMC?!?!? If the Smart nav is DVD based then no you do not need to be listening to Classic FM. That was the older Cd based Nav's

Version 4 is indeed the latest version of the DVD based COMAND. There have been some very informative threads on the subject of TMC.

If you actually have the DVD COMAND and can receive TMC, then I take my hat off to you (if I was wearing one)

Many of us have wrote to Mercedes-Benz complaining about the lack of TMC for this COMAND and we have all been told it is 'coming soon'.

Regards,
John

 

[saorbust]

VBD - do you have the part no. for this new version ? I have version 4.0 not 4.1 - would be curious to check it out.
Thanks.

 

[Oslo]

It seems that if you install V3 or above it will play the MP3's, bought a V4 disc from Ebay last night so waiting for it to arrive to try on load everything on to the system and then try again.

Upgrading the Navi DVD to either v3 or v4 will not give the DVD MP3 capabilities. You will need an another software update for that.

 

[glojo]

Can anyone advise me. I have wasted a good part of today trying to get some sense out of Mercedes.

As you can imagine I am a bit frustrated!!!.

Hi Goldfish,
Nothing I can do about the frustration , but if your E-class 211 has the DVD COMAND system then just pop down to your local dealer and he should do the Mp3 upgrade for free. It is brilliant and well worth the 10 - 20 minute wait that it should take.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Good luck,
John

 

[hash]

hi all if any of you use p2p (filesharing) then you can download version 4 dvd from there, i use edonkey and found it on there (after i had bought a copy!!!)

it might take a few days, but could save a few pounds

do a search on google for edonkey

cheers

kenny

 

[VBD]

VBD - do you have the part no. for this new version ? I have version 4.0 not 4.1 - would be curious to check it out.
Thanks.

The version 4.0 disc part number for the Smart, new A class(W169) (Next year in the UK), C (w203) and CLK (W209) only is B67823363.

The Version 4.1 disc part number for the E(W211), CLS (C219) , CL (C215), SL (R230), S (W220) and SLK(R171) is B67823369.

Glojo these are the latest versions, and the reason I say it might now finally have TMC is that the disc is now version 4.1 (for Comands with seperate gateways and NAV drives(see models above)) and ver 4.0 (for comands with intergrated gateways and DVD nav slot and no DVD movie capability) which appears to be a new version of the discs. So possibly TMC codes for the UK are on these versions but as I have not as yet seen the lastest internal MB bullitens for December I am not sure if it is included.

TMC could always be received on the comands it was just the lack of codes on the Discs that prevented the Comand from actually using the thing. That as has been discussed is down to MB not signing up and paying ITIS.

Olso and Glojo you are absolutely correct in that it is a different Software update required to upgrade the comand to play MP3 and that your delear should do this for you. The part number is W211 589 06 22 00, but I cannot remember if this has changed or not. If you are very lucky and you are on friendly terms with your dealer they may even do this for free.

 

[glojo]

The Version 4.1 disc part number for the E(W211), CLS (C219) , CL (C215), SL (R230), S (W220) and SLK(R171) is B67823369.

Glojo these are the latest versions, and the reason I say it might now finally have TMC is that the disc is now version 4.1 (for Comands with seperate gateways and NAV drives(see models above)) and ver 4.0 (for comands with intergrated gateways and DVD nav slot and no DVD movie capability) which appears to be a new version of the discs. So possibly TMC codes for the UK are on these versions but as I have not as yet seen the lastest internal MB bullitens for December I am not sure if it is included.

Morning VBD, (nearly left out the 'B')
Thank you very much for a most informative post. That is now THREE software upgrades to the DVD Navigational COMAND system on the 211 since February of this year.

THREE upgrades that cost well in excess of £300 EACH! When I complained to Mercedes-Benz UK, they admitted that each software upgrade not only upgrades the map information, it also upgrades the COMAND itself. However they then stated that it was not necessary to purchase these upgrades!

So unless we are prepared to pay for our new car to have its COMAND system updated, then it remains with whatever 'prtoblems' Mercedes-Benz' have decided to improve or upgrade.

Quite obviously Mercedes-Benz cannot continually give out 'free' upgrades, but surely it would not be asking to much for upgrades to be issued for the first 12 months of the vehicles life?

In my opinion the only way for this to happen would perhaps be for owners to continually complain?

Regards to everyone and thanks again VBD,
John

 

[saorbust]

My contacts tell me that disc does not have TMC codes for the UK on it. Sorry.

Clarky.