Upgraded Nav DVD FOC from MB.

[raymont]

My car (GL) came with version 6.something DVD. There were a couple of issues with this.

(1) It didn't recognise my postcode, which has existed for some 8 years, leading me to suspect other postcode data could be incorrect.

(2) I found on some occasions the system wouldn't find a street when trying to enter a destination although I could see that it existed on the DVD if I went to roughly the right area and placed the 'cross hairs' on the various streets until I found the right one, at which point I could enter the destination from the map. This is only OK if you know quite closely where your destination is.

Took the car to the dealer and demonstrated the problem. Dealer took it up with MB and version 9.0 was supplied FOC as a goodwill gesture.

 

[Diesel Benz]

My car (GL) came with version 6.something DVD. There were a couple of issues with this.

(1) It didn't recognise my postcode, which has existed for some 8 years, leading me to suspect other postcode data could be incorrect.

(2) I found on some occasions the system wouldn't find a street when trying to enter a destination although I could see that it existed on the DVD if I went to roughly the right area and placed the 'cross hairs' on the various streets until I found the right one, at which point I could enter the destination from the map. This is only OK if you know quite closely where your destination is.

Took the car to the dealer and demonstrated the problem. Dealer took it up with MB and version 9.0 was supplied FOC as a goodwill gesture.

Good for you that you got the new disk but you don't tell what happened to the points you complained about? Are you saying the Navi now knows your full postcode?

If a street is named on the map, you should be able to find it with an appropriate address entry. Sometimes you should enter a different city to find the street, not sure if this is an issue in the UK.

 

[raymont]

Good for you that you got the new disk but you don't tell what happened to the points you complained about? Are you saying the Navi now knows your full postcode?

If a street is named on the map, you should be able to find it with an appropriate address entry. Sometimes you should enter a different city to find the street, not sure if this is an issue in the UK.

Still only a 5 digit postcode, as V6 DVD, but it now recognises the first 5 digits of my postcode which previously it didn't. Not bothered about my postcode but it does lead to the suspicion that other codes may be in error / absent.

WRT to your second point, yes you should be able to find it, but it wouldn't.

I'd try putting in adjacent towns, no good. Street name on the map but not available to the 'enter destination' function. Clearly a fault. Now works fine.

 

[Diesel Benz]

Still only a 5 digit postcode, as V6 DVD, but it now recognises the first 5 digits of my postcode which previously it didn't. Not bothered about my postcode but it does lead to the suspicion that other codes may be in error / absent.

WRT to your second point, yes you should be able to find it, but it wouldn't.

I'd try putting in adjacent towns, no good. Street name on the map but not available to the 'enter destination' function. Clearly a fault. Now works fine.

Can you give the address you tried that did not work with the old DVD but did work with the new one? I'd like to try with my navi.

 

[raymont]

Can you give the address you tried that did not work with the old DVD but did work with the new one? I'd like to try with my navi.

Reed Place
Old Avenue
West Byfleet
Surrey

KT14 6AX

Both Reed Place and Old Avenue are street names ( one leads off the other)which I couldn't enter via ' enter destination'.

A nearby street is Hollies Avenue (found courtesy of multimap and the postcode) which I could enter.

According to the dealer there a service bulletin (or some other title, can't remember exactly what he called it) which identifies this problem, but my vehicle wasn't within the chassis number range specified, so he had to have the car to work through the problem with MB on the other end of a phone rather than just hand me the new disc.

There have been other addresses where this has happened but I can't remember what they were.

 

[Alfie]

My car (GL) came with version 6.something DVD. There were a couple of issues with this.

(1) It didn't recognise my postcode, which has existed for some 8 years, leading me to suspect other postcode data could be incorrect.

(2) I found on some occasions the system wouldn't find a street when trying to enter a destination although I could see that it existed on the DVD if I went to roughly the right area and placed the 'cross hairs' on the various streets until I found the right one, at which point I could enter the destination from the map. This is only OK if you know quite closely where your destination is.

Took the car to the dealer and demonstrated the problem. Dealer took it up with MB and version 9.0 was supplied FOC as a goodwill gesture.

Version 9.1 is the current latest disk for your car.

 

[raymont]

Version 9.1 is the current latest disk for your car.

What's the difference between 9.0 and 9.1?

 

[Rory]

I complained about various issues with my W203 and the dealer said they'd upgraded the DVD - Great! I thought, as I had V2.0 and at the time V6 was out.

They "upgraded" me to V2.2!!

 

[joembuck]

Search V. Map

If a street is named on the map, you should be able to find it with an appropriate address entry. Sometimes you should enter a different city to find the street, not sure if this is an issue in the UK.

This is better, but still not universal - I couldn't find President way in Sheffield the other day, but its on the map. I have V 9.0. I think they are independent lists. Its pretty close to the middle of sheffield, and nerby roads are findable. I don't believe its categorised as another town.

 

[Diesel Benz]

This is better, but still not universal - I couldn't find President way in Sheffield the other day, but its on the map. I have V 9.0. I think they are independent lists. Its pretty close to the middle of sheffield, and nerby roads are findable. I don't believe its categorised as another town.

I don't know if we are still using a different map data provider and/or a different database version, I could try this address too in my car but in any case if a street is named on the map, I find it unlikely that it would not be available from address input. The problem to me at least is that it is not easy to say from the map which city the street is assigned to. I have not heard about the fault you mentioned before but I accept it may exist, it would just be unlikely that it would appear on your current disk for a different street if it was fixed for some other streets. Perhaps after all the city was assigned differently for the later map disk?

Edited: I realised this comment was not from raymont who started the thread. Anyway I tried on my "not so up-to-date" W221 navi and the address "Great Britain, Sheffield, President Way" was readily available for me.

 

[raymont]

This is better, but still not universal - I couldn't find President way in Sheffield the other day, but its on the map. I have V 9.0. I think they are independent lists. Its pretty close to the middle of sheffield, and nerby roads are findable. I don't believe its categorised as another town.

Just tried President Way Sheffield, couldn’t find it on ‘enter destination’.

If you use the postcode you shouldn’t need to know the town, it should be selected for you. Presumably the postcode is to select a limited number of street options.

If you know a street is in town A but it turns out that it’s been associated with town B then this is of no use whatsoever when trying to enter a destination.

The lack of full postcode entry, clumsy destination entry and incorrect data structures makes it a pretty rubbish system.

 

[Diesel Benz]

Just tried President Way Sheffield, couldn’t find it on ‘enter destination’.

If you use the postcode you shouldn’t need to know the town, it should be selected for you. Presumably the postcode is to select a limited number of street options.

If you know a street is in town A but it turns out that it’s been associated with town B then this is of no use whatsoever when trying to enter a destination.

The lack of full postcode entry, clumsy destination entry and incorrect data structures makes it a pretty rubbish system.

I've never selected a destination with the postcode option and I believe the full post code is supported for my destinations. I guess it is different for UK owners as this is heavily complained.

My intention was not to brag about the MB navigation capabilities, the city/town issue was explained by US owners. I don't think it is like a street in New York can be found under Boston but the fact that the official city isn't New York for some of the near by addresses while people are used to searching it under New York. There may be some German logic that isn't obvious for US drivers.

We must have different map database providers if I can find the example address from my Europe map DVD data while it isn't included to a more recent DVD on another car? My DVD is using Navteq data. But I would assume Tele-Atlas being equally good for Europe.

 

[glojo]

I have found the mapping on ALL DVD based systems (never had a CD one) to be terribly out of date and I doubt it is the fault of Mercedes-Benz. How long did it take for the blooming M6 Toll road to be added? That is a main UK arterial routing, yet if we read the propaganda put out by the mapping companies then we are assured they have cars out 24/7 plotting new roads??

John

 

[raymont]

I've never selected a destination with the postcode option and I believe the full post code is supported for my destinations. I guess it is different for UK owners as this is heavily complained.

My intention was not to brag about the MB navigation capabilities, the city/town issue was explained by US owners. I don't think it is like a street in New York can be found under Boston but the fact that the official city isn't New York for some of the near by addresses while people are used to searching it under New York. There may be some German logic that isn't obvious for US drivers.

We must have different map database providers if I can find the example address from my Europe map DVD data while it isn't included to a more recent DVD on another car? My DVD is using Navteq data. But I would assume Tele-Atlas being equally good for Europe.

I guess it’s 5 digits for the postcode because that’s how long a postcode is in Germany. It feels as though the system has been ‘hacked’ rather than properly adapted to accommodate UK postcodes.

A full postcode in the UK will usually take you directly to the street you require and often to a small number of buildings. Full postcode entry if offered by most after market systems, e.g. Tomtom, Garmin etc and it’s generally sufficient to enter the code without having to worry about street names.

Hadn’t taken from your post that you we championing the system.

Just looked at the DVD, as you suggest it’s Teleatlas.

The street info ‘missing’ when using destination entry is actually present on the map so the base map data would appear to be accurate.

As Teleatlas presumably supply map data to many companies I wonder who does the structuring / indexing of the base data so that it’s accessible by the MB ‘enter destination’ system as this is where the problem seems to reside.

 

[corned]

I have experienced similar issues on the odd occasion. I have a W211 on V5.1. I have seen the missing street phenomenon, but I can't remember which street is was now. I had to do the same thing - look for it on the map (which was labelled correctly) and select on the cross-hairs. Yet the 'find street' selector couldn't find it. Frustrating!

Also, I have noticed the odd postcode failure. Try finding anywhere in S26! I am presented with 'S2¬6?' as the only option, not 'S26¬?'. It doesn't know about the S26 level of postcode at all.

 

[Diesel Benz]

It would be great if the navigator would use Google for destination search. All I did was I entered the previous UK example postcode to the google maps search box and this attached map is what I got. I assume it was not from some previous cookie as I changed from firefox to IE while I had previously entered the street info.

And when searching for the street, I did bad spelling mistakes first but google was still able to suggest the exact correct destination.

My Nokia Maps on the cell phone is also using network server based POI and address info but it isn't as capable as google.

It would be essential to me that the navigation device would recognise a correct street address for a destination because I often use on-line tools to figure out destinations and then only enter the address I've found. Luckily so far my W221 navi has not shown those errors that at least two persons reported above.

Edited: I'm starting to like the UK postcodes, the accuracy is pretty good. And I learned my phone does it too, for UK at least, even if it is a bit picky with spelling errors it did find equally the same place as google from the postcode only.

 

[raymont]

DB,

I use multimap, but the result is the same. Bit of a nonsense to have to use such a system just so you can enter a destination in your car!

 

[crockers]

I have found sometimes that Comand will not find a TOWN.....it just isnt there -- until that is I reselect the country and voila ......there it is..

 

[Alfie]

What's the difference between 9.0 and 9.1?

Mainly european updates I think.

 

[Rory]

DB,

I use multimap, but the result is the same. Bit of a nonsense to have to use such a system just so you can enter a destination in your car!

That's exactly what I do - I'd say 2/3 of the streets I look up are not in the database, but they're there large as life on the map.

The restricted postcode is pain anyway as it often asks you to select a local district name, which you generally don't know, so it's very easy to end up in the wrong place.