US (digital) Teleaid in Europe - what to do with it?
 

Given the late weakness of the Dollar vs Euro, there should be more and more US vehicles running in Europe, just like mine, being equipped with a US Teleaid system.

Unfortunately my car was equipped with a Motorola V60 using the CDMA network, and this kind of network does not exist here so basically the phone is useless; I just realize that I do not even know whether the Teleaid unit has its own integrated telephone or whether it makes use of the cellular located in the arm rest?

Anyway, playing around with a SDS (developer mode) I saw somewhere a nice long list of telephone numbers the Teleaid unit is supposed to connect to in case of emergencies.

Would it be possible to reprogram these numbers in order to have the car call e.g. the owner in case the alarm gets activated? In Europe Teleaid is not offered anymore; and even in the US it would be nice for those who are not subscribed to the Teleaid service to make use of the electronics if possible. Also there seems to be the option to send navigation data to the car, see https://mbworld.org/forums/3167488-post1.html and I wonder whether this possibility could be used in Europe.

Any thoughts, experiences, ideas welcome!

If your car has the old analog Tele-Aid device, it would be using AMPS technology that has never existed in any European country. If it is the digital device, it would use CDMA, which is quite different from WCDMA/UMTS, never existed in Europe (also taking the frequency bands into account that are different in the US).

I don't see any other use with the US Tele-Aid except making use of the microphone in the car or so.

Tele-Aid has a radio of it's own, it would work without the phone present in the cradle.

But please tell us more about the bureaucracy involved when getting a German built car with US specs registered back in a EU country? Specifically if it was a relatively new car like from 2005?

Someone just claimed his boss in the US selling a V221 S600 at $20k when I have to pay 4 times more for a new W204 (I don't believe in the S600 price and car tax cannot be avoided in several EU countries but a US import would still sound attractive).

Thx for the info, Diesel Benz. So Teleaid has its own telephone integrated - makes sense somehow, I guess that's why there are so many posts of people who want to install the bluetooth puck but do not have telephone cradles.

Actually, lots of information can be found here http://www.mercedestechstore.com/pdf...2007-23-04.pdf - the service uses CDMA as well, thus completely useless in Europe.

Concerning your question of importing from US to EU and bureaucracy I can only tell you that different countries have different rules, and due to my special situation I didn't have to change anything - there are plenty of companies who offer for about 1000,- to 1500,- Euro to import your car, meaning they take care of paperwork and technical adaptations. You would have to pay about 2000,- Euro for shipping, 10% import tax, 19% VAT plus and maybe luxury tax depending on where you live.

How about passing along the name of the $20k S600 to me and I will drive to pick it up?? ;)

Cannot find it now, and the car is reserved for myself anyway. :D

Yes it was some Toyota owner who had to come here to make himself feel better with ridiculous statements about the car price depreciation.

Says enough right there...