Installation of reversing camera and CarPlay/Android Auto on S212 (2015)

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

DoctorMesmer

New Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2021
Messages
18
Location
UK
Car
S212
I've spoken to comandonline.co.uk who tell me that my late 2015 S212 *can* be upgraded to CarPlay/Android as it appears to have Comand 5*1 (or is it 5.1?), albeit controlled via the wheel rather than touch screen. That would certainly explain why the usual key combination won't bring up engineering mode. However, it's £199 for the upgrade kit alone and needs to be dealer installed (or by someone with access to Xentry). I would also like to install a reversing camera, so it would probably make sense to do both at the same time. Pulls from other W212/SD212 seem to go for up to £100 on eBay.

My question is: is this worth doing and is the official Merc kit route above the way to go? Or would I be better getting a third party solution with a larger [touch] screen?

Oh, and is there any way of getting my screen to display the perimiter of the car when parking like I've seen on newer models, rather than the front/rear parking sensor displays?

Many thanks for any advice!
 
If its NTG 5.1, yes you can have the official Merc Android Auto / Carplay enabled as per W212 E-Class & Apple CarPlay / Android Auto - The Jam Journal

For me it transforms the car! The built in nav is garbage. I did consider one of the Android tablet options but this was a lot cheaper. Yeah the tablet is probably more functional overall but I like the stock look.

I'd say the chances of getting 360 camera as an aftermarket addon is probably 0 as it needs 4 cameras plus associated processing etc.
 
The aftermarket Android units are not to anyone's taste... it's your choice.

Personally, I would go the official MB route.
 
Thanks for the replies so far – very helpful.

To clarify re the reversing camera: I’m just looking for a standard reversing camera that comes up on the screen when I select reverse gear, hence the idea of getting a pulled one from eBay.I realise it may need recoding/engineering mode on my COMAND unit.

In terms of parking sensors: rather then a 360 camera, I was wondering if it was possible to have a sensor display appear on the screen (showing a car outline with colour coded areas to show how close the sensor areas are to obstacles), rather like VW have. I seem to recall seeing it on a newer Merc.
 
I've spoken to comandonline.co.uk....

Alfie and Richard from Comand UK will have all the answers you need as to what's possible and what's not.

The only thing they won't do from the items you mentioned is an aftermarket Android unit (to the best of my knowledge, anyway). So if that's what you're after, you will need to look elsewhere. See for example www.erisin.co.uk.

But other than that, they'll have a solution for you for everything else.
 
Ah that makes more sense. No idea if it's possible, but the actual leds light up with an indication of what side the obstruction is.

Have you had a car with a reversing camera before? Before going to the trouble of getting one fitted, are you sure you will get much benefit from it? I might be the odd one out, but I rarely look at mine. I find the mirrors and sensors much more useful, if I look at the camera and try to reverse I've no idea where the car is going but the guide lines don't seem to match up with exactly what I see in the mirrors and that's with the factory fitted camera.
 
Ah that makes more sense. No idea if it's possible, but the actual leds light up with an indication of what side the obstruction is.

Have you had a car with a reversing camera before? Before going to the trouble of getting one fitted, are you sure you will get much benefit from it? I might be the odd one out, but I rarely look at mine. I find the mirrors and sensors much more useful, if I look at the camera and try to reverse I've no idea where the car is going but the guide lines don't seem to match up with exactly what I see in the mirrors and that's with the factory fitted camera.
An interesting perspective – and one I think I could relate to. I wonder if I might be guilty of trying to up-spec my new (to me) car for the sake of it…

As for CarPlay/AndroidAuto – I know I’d get a lot of use from that.
 
As an update to this old thread, I got CarPlay/AA enabled at my local MB dealership a couple of weeks ago (after an unsuccessful attempt a few months back). I just needed to speak to the right person who knew it was possible and what it required.

I think it adds a lot of value to the car and it was good to have it done officially.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom