Vehicle location

[SuperSpurs106]

Hi

I’ve just bought a 2019 A Class. The Mercedes Me app shows that ‘The vehicle location is currently unavailable.’

I think I know the answer to this but is this feature available free of charge and do I just need to enable a setting somewhere?

TIA

 

[Farmer boy]

Hi

I’ve just bought a 2019 A Class. The Mercedes Me app shows that ‘The vehicle location is currently unavailable.’

I think I know the answer to this but is this feature available free of charge and do I just need to enable a setting somewhere?

TIA

This feature is “free” for the first three years but is then chargeable as part of a Mercedes me package. You can opt to pay for either one or three year’s subscription to enable this.

 

[SuperSpurs106]

This feature is “free” for the first three years but is then chargeable as part of a Mercedes me package. You can opt to pay for either one or three year’s subscription to enable this.

Thanks for the reply.

It’s a wonder Mercedes don’t take away the steering wheel after 3 years and then make you pay an annual subscription to keep it!

 

[Germgh0st]

This feature is “free” for the first three years but is then chargeable as part of a Mercedes me package. You can opt to pay for either one or three year’s subscription to enable this.

Not convinced of that - I lost a number of services after three years but vehicle location was not one of them. Might be worth a chat with the dealer.

 

[SuperSpurs106]

Not convinced of that - I lost a number of services after three years but vehicle location was not one of them. Might be worth a chat with the dealer.

There is a GPS/location type icon on my dash (next to where the mobile phone signal icon etc) are. Does this mean I might have this feature but just need to enable it…or is that icon on all cars?

 

[Germgh0st]

There is a GPS/location type icon on my dash (next to where the mobile phone signal icon etc) are. Does this mean I might have this feature but just need to enable it…or is that icon on all cars?

I think that's just indicating that location services are enabled on the car, which will be used by the emergency SOS system. I would go through the settings on your Mercedes Me app to see if there are any services you can enable without paying for.

At the bottom of my Mercedes Me app I have the location icon:



Arrow on the far right. When I click on that I get shown the location of the car.

Check which services you have enabled by bringing up the menu and clicking on your car:



This will take you to a new menu and from there you can select Manage Services:



That will show you this screen:



Clicking each one will show you the individual services and which are enabled.

NOTE: These are Android screenshots, iPhone is probably different.

Under Navigation mine does actually say 'Parked Vehicle Locator' is deactivated, yet clicking on that location icon on the main screen shows me the location of the car. So who knows what it should actually be doing!

 

[Farmer boy]

Thanks for the reply.

It’s a wonder Mercedes don’t take away the steering wheel after 3 years and then make you pay an annual subscription to keep it!

BMW have already started to do this. If you don’t pay a fee options such as heated seats, heated steering wheel and intelligent lights stop working after three years. Even their sat nav needs a subscription to slow post code search. A whole new revenue stream for the manufacturers.

 

[SuperSpurs106]

BMW have already started to do this. If you don’t pay a fee options such as heated seats, heated steering wheel and intelligent lights stop working after three years. Even their sat nav needs a subscription to slow post code search. A whole new revenue stream for the manufacturers.

It’s a complete rip off. However, everyone will start doing it as the Netflix business model of a strong recurring income stream is really attractive.

This is my first Mercedes. I really hope the car itself lives up to my expectations.

 

[Germgh0st]

Mercedes Me works this way because the services that get disabled require a phone subscription, which they give to you free for the first three years. After that they expect you to pay for the line rental which I don't think is unfair. The BMW subscription model is somewhat different, although I don't believe they start turning things off that you've paid for. The way the BMW system works is that you can save money when you buy the car by not paying for heated seats, for example, but the car actually has them fitted and you can decide to have them activated via a subscription.

 

[SuperSpurs106]

Mercedes Me works this way because the services that get disabled require a phone subscription, which they give to you free for the first three years. After that they expect you to pay for the line rental which I don't think is unfair. The BMW subscription model is somewhat different.

Understood…but I presume there is only one line and yet you get charged separately for all of the different services.

 

[Germgh0st]

Understood…but I presume there is only one line and yet you get charged separately for all of the different services.

It costs around £200 a year to have every service enabled, last time I looked. Which is about £17 a month - not that much different to a normal SIM only type deal.

 

[SuperSpurs106]

It costs around £200 a year to have every service enabled, last time I looked. Which is about £17 a month - not that much different to a normal SIM only type deal.

That’s a good way of looking at it.

Thank you.

 

[Benz17]

Looking at mine, parked vehicle locator may come under the navigation package.

 

[Germgh0st]

That's what I said....