• The Forums are now open to new registrations, adverts are also being de-tuned.

Latest COMAND sat nav DVD

Alfie,
Thank you for taking the trouble to respond to this thread and for your e-mail.
Yes, I was disappointed when I learned that a later version had been released so soon (a matter of a few weeks at most) after my purchase of V7, particularly as I had contacted Command on Line specifically to establish whether or not a later version was due. Indeed during my discussion with your representative – which was early on the evening of the 16th of April, I was told that if he knew of one then he would certainly tell me. On that assurance I made my purchase. You have again confirmed that you had no advance knowledge of this upgrade and for the benefit of you and others now following this thread, I accept what you say. That is that Command on Line did not know at the time of my enquiry of the impending withdrawal of V7 and the issue of V8.
From what you say, your suppliers of CD’s offer a superior service to that offered by your DVD suppliers by giving their distributors advance notice of their intentions and here lies the potential for a lesson. It might benefit your DVD suppliers to know what potential harm they are doing by failing to provide their distributors with advanced notice that newer versions are imminent. Other hardware and software suppliers manage to achieve this. Indeed some withdraw software/ hardware in advance and make customers wait for the new version and some even offer to replace software for a small handling/postage charge if it is upgraded within a certain time frame after purchase of and earlier version. I hope you will find an opportunity to convey to your DVD suppliers just how much improvement in their customer facing service they need to make. It cannot be to the benefit of the customer or firms’ reputation to keep such immanent changes a secret. That, is in my view very bad practice.
Thank you too for your kind offer of a discount on further purchases. I doubt I will have cause to take advantage of this offer of recompense but it is important for others to know the level of integrity you are endeavouring to achieve when conducting your business.
The rest of my earlier post was aimed at suggesting to potential travellers that it would not be wise to continue using V7 for a protracted Western European journey as many road changes had taken place. What I did not mention in my first post was that throughout my travels my passenger was using a Via Michelin 980XT New Edition portable Sat Nav. device with the latest maps and camera information in it. I purchased that device a month or before my Command disc up grade. The intention was to use the Michelin Guide aspects of the device for Hotels, Restaurants, Points of Interest (I had preloaded WiFi Hotspots, speed camera positions etc) but in reality it was on and used throughout the journey for navigation and traffic up date duties as well. The Michelin performed well and the traffic up dates were more specific than the Command – this, presumably because it has a text to speech facility which enables it to warn verbally about high winds on certain roads, blockages to certain parts of carriage ways and the length of potential traffic jams etc. Some of this information was available from Command but only in text form. Incidentally Michelin are no longer in the business of producing any more Sat Navs. They ended that business just after Christmas. Nevertheless I purchased the 980XT as I wanted the Michelin Guide facility which will continue to be up dated.
Thank you again Alfie for taking the trouble to put the record straight. I hope my additional suggestions will be of use. My apologies to those who feel I have hijacked this thread.
Kind Regards
Mike Harding
 
Last edited:
I notice that a new version of the MB sat nav disc is out, labelled "DVD COMAND APS 2008". This is version 8.0 for some models (such as my E-Class) and version 9.1 for others.

I'm not sure how much these DVDs normally retail for, but I found that either one is available from a Mercedes-Benz Dealer for £138.00, which sounds pretty good. This price doesn't include delivery and might not include VAT. (I didn't ask and they didn't say.)

My car still has the original version (4.1) so I think I will get the new DVD. Do I need to have the COMAND firmware upgrade too?

I bought an 8.0 DVD for my 2005 E Class to-day from Mercedes dealer at Temple Fortune for £137.55 inc VAT. My previous version was 4.1, and the new one worked straight away without any upgrades, but overall it took around an hour for the dealer to work out which was the appropriate disc.
 
Just on the phone to MB Birmingham, they are saying that the sale of this v8.0 has been "Blocked" as there is a fault with it that causes some street names to disappear! They will not sell me the disk. Apparently there is a workaround but they are only doing it for cars within warranty (not mine).
 
Quick update, had a call back from the parts department, they phoned around and think the block may be lifted as they can source me a disk from one of their other sites. I'm due to go in on Friday so will have a chat with them and see it if works in my car. Will post when I have more news.......
 
I took my car in to my local MB Dealer (Watford) today to fix the non-opening luggage cover on my E220 Estate. At first, they didn't seem to know about the version 8.0 map DVD. Later, I got a call saying that they could supply me with the DVD for £152 and it didn't need an upgrade to the COMAND head unit or NAV software. (I am on version 4.1 of the map DVD at the moment.)

Surely, the price should be the same at all MBUK dealers! Are they just ripping me off? So, I said "no thanks". Anyway, they basically refused to update the COMAND software, despite my car being under warranty. The luggage cover is now working, and they cleaned the car, which I guess is not bad for a free visit.

Please let us know what experiences you have with the new DVD.
 
The prices are confused at the moment. I think MB UK has it V8.0 (for E/CLS/SL/SLK) priced wrongly in the database, as it went from V7.0 @ £237.50 to V8.0 at approx £137.50

£137.50 is a significant discount to MB German retail, and i've found no other MB products apart from the current range of map disks that is ever at a discount to MB Germany retail.

I suspect theres a bunch of dealers who had stock at the 237.50 price, and then MB changed it, so are selling it at a different price to the MB computer, and of course it may have got corrected and gone back up.

V9.1 for A/B/C/CLK/ML/GL/R is allegedly also same price, but it is not actually available in the UK. And as the rest of Europes pricing is much higher. (i.e like the previous versions) it will still cost around £200

I suspect that the next versions of the map disk may go back up again, or maybee it will suddenly go back up - but who knows for sure.

I recommend A/B/C/CLK/ML/GL/R use 9.0/9.1 - yes, its missing some UK street names, BUT, its so much more complete then the 8.0 release that MB UK say use instead. I havent found another 9.1 source in UK apart from www.comandonline.co.uk

On E/CLS/SL/SLK going from 4.1 to 7.0 or later needs a nav processor s/w disk inserted first - unless it has already been done at some point previously as part of a service.

Cheers

Richard
 
On E/CLS/SL/SLK going from 4.1 to 7.0 or later needs a nav processor s/w disk inserted first - unless it has already been done at some point previously as part of a service.

What MB Watford actually said was that version 7.0 of the map DVD needs the COMAND software updates but version 8.0 doesn't. This can't be right, surely, but they seemed to be quoting from some internal MB literature.
 
That is technically possible and I suspect it is true. The update disk goes in the DVD nav drive, and it loads it like any new map disk, you then remove the disk & power and put V7 into it. So, the update could well be part of the V8 disk. Given the update came out after V7, I suspect it was a 'didnt test that one as our test NAV unit had all gone from V4.1 to V5 and onward'

I havent tried it though, so I guess time will tell.

If you buy V8.0 from comandonline.co.uk and it doesnt work, then i'll ensure you get lent an update disk to do the update .. If it does work then you can post here and we'll all know.

Richard
 
Ive looked for the official documents, and they seem to have been last updated in June 2007 and say

"If the navigation processor was operated with navigation DVD 3.0 (SW 07/04), the DVD is not detected when the maps are updated to navigation DVD 6.0. The problem is related to a software error"
 
What MB Watford actually said was that version 7.0 of the map DVD needs the COMAND software updates but version 8.0 doesn't. This can't be right, surely, but they seemed to be quoting from some internal MB literature.

I would guess that *might* be because the MB information assumes that people update the disks sequentially - so you get V7 and apply the update, therefore V8 doesn't need it.

On the price difference (£152 vs £138) - that seems like a normal spread for different retail outlets. There's huge margin on parts and I assume every dealer is free to charge their own price - price fixing being illegal of course. Give or take a few pence, 10% off £152 brings you more or less to £138.
 
What MB Watford actually said was that version 7.0 of the map DVD needs the COMAND software updates but version 8.0 doesn't. This can't be right, surely, but they seemed to be quoting from some internal MB literature.

This is because the NAVTEQ version 8.0 also includes all the intermediate sw updates for the navigation processor in the trunk to recognize newer version navigation DVDs.
NAVTEQ version 7.0 did not include those sw updates (there was a separate update disk for that - W211 589 15 22 00).

Can someone please post the part number for NAVTEQ version 8.0?
 
It would be handy if you buy a UK only disk for a much reduced price. I dont know how many UK drivers ACTUALLY drive abroad with their own cars, but I doubt its that many. Less then 10%?
A UK only nav disk with a price of £25ish would be a good buy and many more UK owners would update on much more regular basis than they do now.
I know I would.

Are you listening Mercedes ? ? ? ? ?
 
It would be handy if you buy a UK only disk for a much reduced price. I dont know how many UK drivers ACTUALLY drive abroad with their own cars, but I doubt its that many. Less then 10%?
A UK only nav disk with a price of £25ish would be a good buy and many more UK owners would update on much more regular basis than they do now.
I know I would.

Only if it includes full UK postcodes! The last time I checked, licensing the full UK postcode database from Royal Mail costs just under £500 (for a single copy). Of course, sat nav companies negotiate a reduced unit price because they sell many copies, but even so, licensing is the main production cost. I doubt MB could do it for less than £50 after paying for the map data, postcodes and TMC licences. So that's at least £90 with retail mark up.

European maps aren't much more expensive to produce because the licence holders recognise that most users won't need their data, and so reduce the unit price accordingly. For example, let's say the map data for Greece is normally priced at 40€ per user. MB explains that less than 2% of its customers need these data, and so a licence price of 1€ per unit sold is negotiated. The licence holder gets a bit more revenue and the overall cost of the sat nav disc is only a little more than it would be for a single-country version.

The latest TomTom maps retail at £60 for Western Europe and £40 for Great Britain and Ireland. These prices are lower than MB's mainly because TomTom sells many, many times more units and almost all copies are downloaded.

The only commercial justification for MB to produce a UK-only sat nav disc would be if they could charge more for it by including full UK postcodes and TMC (and by not including these data on the European discs).

Be careful what you wish for!
 
How can the Royal Mail justify charging those sort of fees for putting postcodes onto a disk? Thats nothing short of robbery.
Typical of this countries mindset though and I shouldnt really be surprised.

However, dont other satnav makers put full postcodes onto their systems?
Surely if they can, then why not Mercedes?

I hardly ever use postcodes to program my COMAND anyway, I nearly always just use the map display pointer to mark my destination.
 
Last edited:

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom