Mercedes me

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LXA

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Dec 2, 2019
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271
Location
Cornwall
Car
ML500
Just had a call from the nice lady at the local Merc dealership inviting me to come in and get a Mercedes me adapter fitted to my ML next week. Spotted they were available and *free* up until the end of the year last week so registered ( I'll take anything that's free and useful) . Question - what is it and will it actually be useful for someone intending to use a local independent Merc garage rather than the dealership?
I'm guessing it's a dedicated Merc OBD monitor and obviously soooo much better than anything one could buy from eBay ( well it's free for a start )
 
I have them in some of my cars (well all of our cars which can have them) and I paid for mine, buying them at launch for around £40 each. I got very close to buying them before UK launch from a Mercedes dealer in Amsterdam, but they rumbled me, they realised that the cars were registered in the UK!

To be honest they’re rubbish, and later releases of the app have actually removed functionality, not added it, but even with that said I wouldn’t be without it.
 
Agree with BD^^

Got one in my wife's car (~18months) - she never looks at it.

Mine is built in and I use it quite often but, it is much more functional.
 
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Don’t get it , What exactly do they do are they for finding faults or just giving general information, where are they fitted if fitted permanent.
please explain.



never look back ...........unless you are reversing.
 
Got to admit as someone who's sold his soul to Google I don't give a toss about folks monitoring me ( if only my life were so exciting ) and I don't object to them gathering vehicle stats to improve their future products. So thanks for the replies, much appreciated. Will get it and at the very least I can add it to the list of stuff the car's got when I come to sell it
 
The main purpose is to charge you an annual fee for the 'services' it enables I think. My car is relatively new, so came with one built in, but the principle is the same - it gives you remote access to a range of information from the car - that range is determined by your specific model. My car came with the first 3 years of services included, but when it turned 3 on the 16th, everything useful to me stopped working. I have paid to re-activate the remote control of pre-entry climate control (a hybrid-specific thing) and I'm contemplating whether to pay to enable the rest at the moment - probably won't TBH. Mostly, it's not all that useful I don't think, just 'nice to have'. Things like fuel level, tyre pressures, fluid levels, status of doors and windows, remote locking & unlocking etc., trip meter readings. All things you can do in the car.

I don't know which, if any, services are included with the retrofit version, nor how long you get any 'free' services for. My guess is that they give you some for free for a year to get you used to them so you will stump up for the subscription down the line.

As for locating the car, I'm not that bothered about "them" knowing where I am or have been, but I get some folk are. Lets face it though, if you have a smartphone, "they" know more about you already than you'd probably like to think about.
 
Cheers Chris, much appreciated.
Must admit I smiled when the nice lady said I can find my fuel level out using the app. A fuel guage in the car has been more than sufficient for the last 40+ years for me - progress, eh ?. It's like the good old days of cash - "how much?" .... "£20"..... "Here y'go" ( hands over £20) " have a nice day" ... "You too, cheers" *job done every time* ... Now, using tech we can make it sooooo complicated. ;)
 
From around mid-2013 MB started fitting cars with the 'Mercedes me' feature, which uses a built-in KOM Module to allow the car to connect to the Internet (via a built-in Vodafone data-only simcard).

'Mercedes me' comes with a range of services that require paid renewal.

For older cars, however, MB reased the confusingly-named 'Mercedes me Adapter', which is a simple OBDII dongle that can connect to your phone via Bluetooth.

The 'Mercedes me Adapter' is currently handed-out for free, and has no services related to it so there are no running costs associated with it.

The 'Mercedes me Adapter' will connect to your car only when the driver's mobile phone is in the car and the engine is running, so no communication with the phone is available when the driver is away from the car.

(The 'find my car' feature will show the location where the car was last parked, but this is not necessarily the car's current location - e.g., if another driver moved it since - it's not a realtime tracker).

When in the car, communication will work, though keep in mind that it is one way, i.e. the 'Mercedes me Adapter' will display information on your phone, but you cannot send any commands to the car.

It keeps a log of your journeys and refueling stops, which is handy. It also has a 'cockpit' view which I find useful.

It will store the data on your phone, so you can (for example) check the fuel level, or the mileage, or when the next service is due, at any time and from the comfort of your home, i.e. there's no need to be physically in the car when viewing stored data.

With regards fault codes... the 'Mercedes me Adapter' is not a fault code reader. It will not alert the driver if faults existed and will obviously not read the actual codes. What it will do, is let you know when the EML is on, but that's about it (and you'll see the EML on the dash anyway).

With regards the negatives.... it obviously sends information to MB, and yes you will get a call from MB when your next service is due asking if you would like to arrange a booking.

Obviously no one actually reads the pages upon pages of MB's privacy policy that we agree to, so heaven knows what data they are collecting. Personally, I think that if you use a mobile phone, have a PC at home, and use bank cards (not to mention Gmail, Alexa, Netflix, Sky, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, etc etc) you have long given-up on anonymity and the 'Mercedes me Adapter' will make little difference... but others may disagree.

Other features include calling Mobilo, and SOS calls, though I never had the need to try these.

I do like it and I do use it. I call it 'a useless gimmick that no Mercedes enthusiast can do without'.
 
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These are the features available in 'cockpit' view:

Screenshot-20191227-224110-Adapter.jpg


(Not dissimilar to the Torque app)
 
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From around mid-2013 MB started fitting cars with the 'Mercedes me' feature, which uses a built-in KOM Module .......................................

I do like it and I do use it. I call it 'a useless gimmick that no Mercedes enthusiast can do without'.

That has to be one of the most comprehensive responses I've ever received from a query on the 'net markjay - many thanks, very much appreciated
 
That has to be one of the most comprehensive responses I've ever received from a query on the 'net markjay - many thanks, very much appreciated
Thank you for your kind words :)
 
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Oh dear - getting marked on my driving.... I don't take criticism well, especially about my {ahem} perfect driving lol
 
As it's turned out......
Had it fitted for free and yes, folks is right - I feel the statement " I do like it and I do use it. I call it 'a useless gimmick that no Mercedes enthusiast can do without'." probably best matches. Again, I've only had it a day or two. It would appear the really potentially useful stuff is not available 'from my vehicle'. An interesting feature is the ability to generate fuel from fresh air. 2 days ago it was indicating 22l of fuel remaining. I then went out for a short trip and the ave. mpg moved between 13.6 and 15.1 and today I have 23l of fuel remaining so worth it for that feature alone!!.
The only figures it gives me in cockpit mode are ones that I can get from my dials etc (time/driving time/ave.speed/distance/smartphone battery/batt.volt.) Ok, the batt volt is good to know.
BUT - it now has a Mercedes Me Adapter fitted so another thing on the ticklist if and when I come to sell ;)

The visit to the main dealer was useful as I found out that even though the car hasn't had a recognised Merc service for around 5+ years just having it serviced once at a Merc authorised service centre will include access back onto the mobilo service again, which left me gobsmacked. I honestly thought there's no way that would happen due to MB not being able to guarantee what's been done to the car in the intervening years. As I was planning on having maintenance/servicing done at my local independent authorised MB service centre it was a belated Christmas present!!
 
.....aaaaaaand just discovered the app is generating random alarm settings on my phone - current one for 14:20 on Sunday - had been 17:30 this evening (afternoon?) but changed earlier today. Force stopping the app causes the alarm to disappear. Reopening doesn't cause it to return, a reload does. Doncha just love tech??
 
The visit to the main dealer was useful as I found out that even though the car hasn't had a recognised Merc service for around 5+ years just having it serviced once at a Merc authorised service centre will include access back onto the mobilo service again, which left me gobsmacked. I honestly thought there's no way that would happen due to MB not being able to guarantee what's been done to the car in the intervening years. As I was planning on having maintenance/servicing done at my local independent authorised MB service centre it was a belated Christmas present!!


Just keep them on a tight reign over anything they find on service. The general philosophy is 'if its less then 100% fit new'...

Also I believe the Mobilo service has now been sub contracted out to the RAC and the quality of service has suffered now its no longer MB themselves. You may be better with AA/RAC/Green Flag and a good local Indie.
 
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