NewMoses

I don't mind paying $90K for a magnificent car. My E55 has been extraordinary, exceeding my expectations on fit and finish and the performance is a thing of beauty.

It is an absolute absurdity that a fine vehicle like the E55 has such a thoroughly useless NAV system. Believe it or not, you cannot search for a retail store by it's name. Inexplicably, you need to enter the actual address. Yes, that's right; with the 2006 NAV, you must first know exactly where it is before NAV will tell you how to get there.

Need to find a nearby Home Depot? Sorry. If it's not a restaurant, cemetary, library, bus station or some other establishment that falls into the NAVs innane category list, you are out of luck and likely lost. Nothing makes you feel like a bigger loser than taking a friend for a ride in your $90 K Mercedes whose NAV system can't find a local car dealership.

Yesterday I drove to Redding California because my mother was having surgery. Redding is no small town, it has 200,000 people. I know my NAV unit, while pathetic, does have a "hospital" category, so I figured I would be OK. WRONG! NAV doesn't list any Redding hospitals, instead referring me to a Lake Tahoe hospital 153 miles away! Undaunted, I call the hospital and get the street address. D'Oh! My NAV doesn't even show the street that has been there for 30 years!

This electronic brain fart is inexcusable in a high-end car. Toyota wouldn't tolerate such navigational ineptitude. I called MBUSA customer service figuring there MUST be a software fix that will allow searching by "NAME" rather than being limited by category, but no such luck. I was told flatly, "We have no plans to provide upgrades to your NAV system". Yeah? Well bite my ***, Mercedes. You will not sell me another car.

rbc55

i feel you,although i didn't order nav;maybe a good idea it appears.nonetheless,i have had numerous electronic glitches in my car from day one ,they appear then disappear annoying and definately unacceptable for an $90k car.

diamondblak05

All I can say is that the MB nav system is still in the stone age compared to its japanese counterparts. My sister plays many high school sports and I have to pick her up after the game...which means she travels around the city alot to other high schools. Thought my nav would get me there with no problem...but NOPE. It doesn't even list a single high school anywhere. And yes, I hate the fact that you have to know the exact address or corner to each destination before the nav system can even attempt to take you there. Pathetic piece of that isn't even worth the money paid for. It's just the thought that I have an expensive nav system sometimes makes me feel better.

chinhster

Yeah, the Nav completely screwed me over the weekend. I entered the city and address, it told me where to go and when I was a block or two away (from looking at the map on the Nav), it told me to turn left... into the driveway of a water tower. There was no other street within 500 feet of where it was telling me to turn. I finally figured out that not only did it have me in the wrong freaking town, but the street didn't even exist in the town.

So I had it point me to a mall that was supposed to be 10 minutes of where I needed to be. It took almost 30 minutes to get there even though I remembered seeing a sign (before I realized I was in the wrong town) that said the town I was in and the one I was supposed to be in where 6 miles apart. It had me take some back country roads that just took forever.

It turned what was supposed to be a 30 minute drive to almost an hour and a half one.

carpersn

i can't believe your whole purchase decision would hinge on the Nav system. Especially the way you rave about the rest of the car. I have nav in one car and don't in the other and i don't miss it...buy a map and do it the old-fashioned way, while still driving the car you love?

diamondblak05

yep...that's what I do most of the times when i'm in unknown territory. i always stop by the gas stations and ask for directions or just buy a local map.

NewMoses

Navigate by map in a $90,000 car? Not me, thanks. When you are prepared to spend close to $100,000 you have some nice choices.

corgiman

Another refinement is that they should be able to locate an address with the zip code. I've tried to find locations where I knew the exact address but couldn't locate it because they were technically in another city that abuts a major metroploitan area. We have lots of small incorporated areas around Houston. And if you ask they store they say they're in Houston but they'r really in another small town per the nav...

Fast55

It isn't the worst, but the '06 DVD based nav is hardly an improvement over the CD based nav in my '02 E55. WTF is up with that in a 100K car??

jimbo1mcm

About the size of a pack of cards. Light years ahead. Thinks and re-calculates quickly. It even gives the names of restaurants, etc within a certain, user designated, distance. Around $700.

Barry45RPM

Zip Code look-up/entry is an absolute MUST in these cars. You are right. I've said it many times.

Wolfman

I agree that the nav system AND comand for that matter has always behind its japanese counterparts. No question. There are a couple of things to keep in mind though..

1. Typical complaints of car price related to electronics. Like with the iPod integration, it comes down to volume, not price, so it is typical that lower-end cars with higher production numbers and shorter development cycles have better electronics and often have them first. Even Mercedes had an iPod package available first for the A-class (pre-integration kit).

2. Europe vs. the U: Japanese cars are primarily designed for the US market and consumer taste, German cars are simply not. There are designed for the European market and laws.
Navigation has always been superior in Europe with highly detailed maps and dynamic (traffic-dependent) routing. Old stuff there. Same as traffic radio and RDS (had that 20 years ago). Seems like US maps and services are simply not a high priority.

Either way, if the nav is the reason that the Merc would be your last one, then you might as well kiss all German cars goodbye since none of them have a decent system for the US.

Wolfman

PS. Has anybody ever tried the Teleaid traffic routing? I assume they can route you even to locations not on the map...