W213 Touchpad Advice

[jshailes]

Hi. I've started hunting for a 220d W213 this weekend and after deciding the android auto would be a useful, I've been browsing autotrader trying to figure out which ones have it.

I've found it a bit confusing with regards to the touchpad - originally I thought it was included on all 12" screens, but then noticed the touchpad was missing on lots of them. I think I've come to the conclusion it works without the touchpad (if anyone could clarify that would be good), but assuming that's correct it begs the question of how useful the touchpad is. I was wondering if anyone with some experience of using it could offer any advice please?

TIA

 

[Benz17]

Android auto/car play option only comes with cars that have comand system, but you can retrofit if you don’t have comand.

As for touchpad I do have it, mine is a premium trim, so possible only premium and premium plus have it standard, but I could be wrong, it works like a mousepad really, yes it’s useful, but not a biggy if you don’t have it.

 

[jshailes]

Thanks @Benz17. Am I right in thinking the 12" screen is the giveaway that the command system is there?

Do you ever still use the dial or always go for the touch pad? I can only imagine needing to scroll left and right through menus and clicking ok. Maybe the dial would be ok - it'd certainly make the car hunt easier! Are there any particular times it comes in to it's own and makes the task much easier - I'm not sure what like, maybe setting up the sat nav? Or panning around on the sat nav?

 

[jimbg]

Only premium and premuim plus, I never use the touchpad for Apple Carplay. As you say I navigate through menus and press the dial.

 

[barian]

As has been pointed out, if you want Android auto as standard you will need COMAND which will have the touchpad, so it is academic whether it is useful or not. For what it is worth, I find it completely useless. I can imagine it might be of some value if you are left handed and want to use the character entry function.

 

[barian]

Slight correction. Looking at the brochure extract it seems that both audio systems have the touchpad (or at least they do recently). But my comment on its usefulness stands. Just a thought - is it possible that some of the ads you are looking at are for the previous W212?

 

[jimbg]

I beleive the current facelift model only has the touchpad, the extract is from the 2019 brochure.

 

[jshailes]

So it sounds like the distinguishing visual factor on whether or not it has Android Auto/Apple Carplay is the touchpad rather than the screen - i.e. it can have the 12" screen without having COMAND, but if it has COMAND then it will definitely have the touch pad?

From that brochure it looks like it's not available on the SE at all. I wonder if they changed that at some point as there are definitely listings of 2017 SE that have the touchpad:

 

[barian]

I am in danger of becoming confused (an increasingly common problem!) but I think the distinguishing feature is not the touchpad, but COMAND. If there is no COMAND there will be no Carplay/Android Auto, irrespective of whether there is a touchpad or not. I think this means that you will need to be looking above the base SE or AMG Line spec, that is a SE Premium or Premium Plus, or some other higher trim depending on the model year.

 

[jshailes]

@barian haha thank your lucky stars you're not as confused as me.

My only issue then is identifying whether it has COMAND or not Initially I was trying to get the VIN from the reg plates so I could do a lookup for the spec but I'm not sure that's possible any more.. a call to dealership works but that's far from ideal, it'd be much better if I could identify it from the photos but I'm not sure that's going to be possible.

go for an This car hunting malarky is proving harder than I thought! Picking the model was hard enough, it seems the challenge continues

 

[Benz17]

So it sounds like the distinguishing visual factor on whether or not it has Android Auto/Apple Carplay is the touchpad rather than the screen - i.e. it can have the 12" screen without having COMAND, but if it has COMAND then it will definitely have the touch pad?

From that brochure it looks like it's not available on the SE at all. I wonder if they changed that at some point as there are definitely listings of 2017 SE that have the touchpad:
View attachment 111862

The picture above was the initial set up when I purchased my car, and I had comand, so I am assuming that all widescreen comes with comand.( afterwards i retrofitted the full widescreen digital cluster). Best to ask the seller, and it should also say in the advert if it has comand.

As for the usefulness, I use the rotary to scroll, but use the touchpad to select or enter.

 

[Tramper]

Just use the two touch pads on the steering wheel much easier

 

[jshailes]

Thanks for the advice everyone, much appreciated. We've managed to get sorted with one this evening, looking forward to having a play around with it

 

[Robbranch]

bit late to this one but my W213 is a 19 plate SE and has the 12" screen and touchpad but is only Audio 20. I think you can tell if it's audio 20 or not by checking for an SD card for the sat nav in the centre console. If it's got an SD card, it's audio 20.

I rarely use the touchpad on mine. I find the wheel much easier to use whilst on the move.

On a side note, I had a new CLA as a loaner whilst mine was in for servicing. It had a touchscreen with an awful layout and was horrible to use.