He flew in at 11:15 AM this morning and left at 4:50pm. Very nice guy, super fast install. Everything including programming the car with Star Dianostic took him about 2 and a half hours. First climatronic didn't work and the second one did. It's the 0585 unit. But the display and the actual setting seems to be a few degrees off. After I dropped off Steve at the airport, I went straight to the dealer, showed'em the install which they were really impressed by. And I talked to the parts manager and made an appointment to come in. He'll calibrate it on Friday for free!
Before he left, I took him out to lunch and seems like the St. Louis guys starved him... Come on guys... Steve's doing all of a us a favor, please treat him nicely... You're spending thousands of dollars on these toys, you can buy Steve a meal. He doesn't have to fly in the U.S. to do the installs...
Thank you very much Steve for flying in to do the install and I'M LOVING IT! Hope to see you soon with some more parts


Pics included below
BEFORE:

 

After:

 

congrats dude! steve's amazing, no? did you end up getting the tv option?

 

yes Steve's amazing. and no TV Tuner, still debating on that. Plus Steve couldn't stay that long for the TV Tuner. It takes about 7 hours to install just the TV Tuner so... He didn't have time to stay overnight since he's going home on Friday. So next time

 

Absolutely Beautiful!

 

Thank you Noble C320!

I have cancelled my order for wood steering wheel, talked to Steve about it and it might be just too much, plus it's not OEM MB part... As for the shift knob that's on the way to my house already, I'll have to see how it goes. What do you guys think? yay or nay? It's Schatz Laurel wood shift knob with a little bit of chrome on the bottom.

 

np

I have the regular shatz knob. The Chrome one was more sportier but i prefer the classier look without it.

 

Just curious, are both command and climatronic just simply plug and play type of deal or it requires addition wiring/harness/parts, etc?

 

Climatronic control unit is plug and play. COMAND is not. Some wire cutting and clamping is involved.

 

OH WOW LOOKS GREAT LOVE IT

 

I would like to pretty much do the same thing except without the woodgrain. Does steve have directions to install Comand yourself?

 

HITMAN: Thanks!

Yes he does! Or I guess next time he's in the US, if he's in the East Coast, you could fly him down to NC and install it?

 

Yang,

How is the usability? Do you find the COMAND state of the art or archaic?

 

Oh so there are no extra parts need to be purchased right? If so I might be interested to get one too. Thanks for the info

Oh btw, how much was the climatronic?

 

Hmm... The COMAND is easy to use, pretty much just use the knob on the right bottom, u turn it and then click it. You can put in addresses and it'll guide you, or you can choose from some preloaded ones on the map. Like Mercedes Benz dealer, restaurants, tourists' attraction, theaters, all that. Euro COMAND's british accent is very pleasant. I like it a lot. The RDS function is very cool. Too bad the stations in my area only displays the title of the station. None of them has title of the songs or artist. AM doesn't really work so if u want to listen to AM for like sports or something... Be prepared. Voice guidance works well. It tells you what to do 300 yards before (if you golf u should be familiar with yards), then it tells you again when approaching, and of course when u reach it. It's got a cool checkered flag when u reach the destination that u entered. It also has a night/day mode of the display. When the light sensor senses it's dark, the screen automatically switches the mode. It gets time and date from the satellite, but it doesn't list any countries in the America, so u just pick whatever one then manually adjust the hour. I really like it. My dealership was very impressed because I got something done that they think that's "impossible". Also the RDS system and the British accent wowed'em

of course it looks AWESOME!

The thing is, you can install it yourself I'm sure. But to program it to have the navigation guidance show up on the instrument cluster display, you have to go back to the dealer. If Steve installs it, he has the Star Diagnostic tools so he could activate it for you. The unit will work alone without activation, just the display won't. If you buy it from Steve, it'll come with everything you need (not including tools that is...)

Climatronic was 235. There are 2 versions. 0985 and 0585. The 0985 doesn't work on my C230, but the 0585 did. It's a hit or miss thing, so if u purchase it then find out it doesn't work, it's a hassle to return and wait for the other unit. But it just takes longer. hope that helps!

 

who payed for Steves flight?

 

That depends. If Steve is going to an area where there are 15 or more confirmed orders, he pays for the flight(s) himself. If he has to fly in to a city with 4 or 5 installs, for instance, then the customers have to share airfare and possible hotelcosts. Otherwise it won't be worthwhile for Steve to come over for installs...

In Yang's case, he paid for Steve's flight to Omaha... All by himself. Thanks, Yang

Greetingz,

BigSis

 

No problem!

I personally think it's very worth it. If you look at it, all the stuff I got, they are the same price installed or not... So if I find someone local to install it, they'll charge me more than the flight for Steve to come in. So I figured it's definitely a good idea to fly him in

Hope Steve had a good time here!
and thanks, BigSis

 

You don't think he ate from 11PM when I dropped him off at his hotel until lunch the next day? What are you talking about? Steve did a great job on my car, I think he had pleanty of time for a meal between 11PM and his flight the next morning. Please, next time you start in on someone, just keep it shut.

 

For instance, we had 2 installs here in STL. I paid for Hotel, and the other guy (Peter) paid for the flight. Plus, we just made Steve starve and didn't have to pay for any meals.

 

nope he didn't eat from 11pm til next morning. After his install here in Omaha was his "breakfast"... He had time to eat, but there was nothing to eat...

He thought there might be something at the hotel to eat but there wasn't any... You think I'd just make something up and try to make you or Peter look bad? Please...

 

How does the finish on the COMAND match that in the C-coupe? From the picture it looks like it has a pretty high gloss.

 

Should be the same... High-gloss could be the result of flash I think.

 

..depending on wether it is a 203 coupe, 203 sedan without folding rear seat or 203 sedan with folding seat it might only take 4 hours for the TV tuner install...
...well actually no...I thought I would be able to get some food when I retruned in the hotel, but no...I didn't care too much about that though - I had highspeed internet in my room and that is just about as important as food is !

Andrew, it was nice meeting you and thanks for the service!

greetingz,

 

Steve:
Ah, mine's Sedan without folding seat... I guess that's the one that'll take 7 hours huh? ha! And no problem Steve, nice meeting you! and thank you for the service. Pleasure's all mine.

MBAMGPWR: See? I'm not saying Steve was mis-treated... Just the fact that he didn't eat the night before because the lack of food in the hotel...