Alex1

I'm considering getting a euro comand for 06 s430, and was wondering 2 things:

1) will i have problems with AM radio.
2) $$ ?

wmhjr

I have a Euro COMAND I installed in my W208. While everything works perfectly well except for AM, I've also found the receiving on AM is very hit and miss for me. Unfortunately, mainly miss. I can rarely use AM.

I'm also in a relatively hilly environment which I suppose "could" have some bearing, but I'm guessing no.

Skylaw

The Euro COMAND tunes at diffferent AM frequency increments than the U.S.; and the top & bottom of the AM bands are different. For example (and I don't know if the Euro set will even tune the starting frequency - it's just an example), if you had AM 690 tuned in on both and tried to tune the next frequency, the US radio would tune 700 and the Euro would tune 699. For the next step up, the US would tune 710 and the Euro 708. That type of differential would continue across the band. On occasion you'd get the same frequency, and hopefully hit a station broadcasting on it.

Basically, for the US, you kiss off AM reception if you use a Euro COMAND.

The Kingfish

I live in the Los Angeles area and AM has not been a problem for me with the stations I listen to, for instance when I try tuning to 980, it'll settle on 981 instead. It still sounds fine. I found something real interesting, though. My '00 CLK is equipped with the optional voice control module and if I say "980," the radio will go and settle on "980" and then I program that into one of the AM memory settings. I'm not sure if the radio is actually tuned in to that exact frequency but I've been able to do that to all of the stations I listen to without a problem.

Alex1

Interesting, what if you press the # key or the * key I always forget which one it is and type in 1060, or what ever station you awnt to tune to?

The Kingfish

It will not work using the method you describe, it will go to either an odd number up or down when you try to save it.

Richard

With some of the later Comand 2.0 (D2B type, not DVD/Most ones), the dealers can set the tuner to be US or Europe, or Japan etc), which controls the frequency range and the spacing for AM etc

This is certainly true on the widescreen 16x9 comand from the S class, I would imagine its true for others as-well, but is not true for the very old ones.

Worth asking the dealer to have a look with their Star diagnosis system

Cheers
Richard

wmhjr

Well, I can tell you that I'm pretty confident that with the DX COMAND 2.0 D2B versions in the W208 and W210 series, that is not true. The frequency spacing is apparently built into the tuner, and cannot be changed. Certainly not by a dealer using StarDiagostics.