dougpark714

Has anyone installed the Magellan Roadmate 700 GPS on their C? Any reviews? The reviews are pretty good for the product. Trying to figure out where I would install it. Stealth install would be inside the covered astray area -- but would require some mods.

Doug

psk145

I have one, but when I use it, I just suction it to the glass. I dont think it will fit in the ashtray. The only thing I dont like about it is that it takes a while before it figures out where its at when its first turned on. Other than that, it works great.

dougpark714

Thanks for the info on the 700. Does anyone own the Garmin Streetpilot 2620? This one seems to be getting good reviews.

Doug

Yang1815

how much are those? COMAND is 1500...

FrankW

a friend's got one. very easy to use, but sometimes it shorts out and freeze when you leave it unpluged for a while.

avlis

We have a Roadmate 500 (same as the 700 but with a memory card instead of a hard drive). We paid $620 for a demo unit. The 700 is going for around $1200 here. The memory card included holds the entire northeast so that is plenty for us. We need to easily move the unit between two cars so I built mounting brackets for both. The one for my C-class is just an angle bracket with a STRONG round magnet bolted on the bottom and slots to accept the Roadmate dock on the other. I painted the whole thing black. I stick the magnet/bracket/Roadmate assembly to the center grill on the dash and away we go. One nice thing is the passenger (or driver for that matter) can easily pull the unit off the dash while it is still powered to make programming easier, then stick it back on the grill when done.

This is the only nav I have used so I cannot give a fair comparison. All I know is it works great and has saved a lot of headaches. It only takes a while to find it's location if you power the unit off and drive some distance before turning it back on. In that case, you can manually enter your new location (or ballpark-it if you are not sure) and it will "find itself" much faster (seconds instead of minutes). Or you can avoid this problem altogether by never turning the power off while driving.

I would not put this thing in the ashtray for a few reasons. First, it wont fit. Second, you want it on the dash so you don't take your eyes off the road. Third, the volume and repeat controls are on the top/rear of the unit. Forth, I think the speaker is in the back or on the side. Fifth, the shifter will get in the way while pushing the buttons. Sixth, the screen will be hard to read unless to angle it towards the viewer.

psk145

6th reason is that it also gets warm while operating (at least the 700 does). It might need ventilation

CitronC230K_03

the thing i like about COMAND is it fits perfect and you still have sterring controls and direction info in the MFD. it is only CD based which is a downside but i love look and seemless integration.

Buellwinkle

It's hard to compare a portable unit from Comand. Comand integrates with the dash display so you see the directions where you need them, not on a tiny display somewhere else. But if you are like me and only need navigation a few times a year, then there's nothing wrong with getting the Magellan or Garmin, they are actually easier to use than Comand because of their touch screens. Personally, I use a small cheap laptop I got on ebay with navigation software and a GPS mouse, works great, has maps of the entire country and I use the laptop for other stuff like wireless web browsing and OBD2 scanning. All in all, it probably costs under $500 including the laptop and I have 10" screen vs. 4" screens on the other devices.

One thing to consider, built in Nav systems have gyros that know which direction you are traveling in, the portables like the Roadmate do not. So when you start up from a standstill it can't tell you which direction to go relative to where your car is pointing. This caused my buddy great confusion on his Roadmate (and he has Comand, this was for his Jeep) and actually caused him to get lost several times because the arrow points straight but in reality the car is pointed the other way so you start driving and it gets confused for a while until it realizes which direction you are moving in. Ironically, the Hertz Neverlost which the Roadmate is supposed to be a sibling off does have the gyros and at CES in January, the Magellen rep said they will have a model coming out that's more like the Neverlost. Also they promised they would do something about the really bright and annoying blue power switch light.

CitronC230K_03

my brother has a mobile navi unit in his car. it is easy to use and give much more detailed info than my COMAND, even has voice directions. its a cool unit, i just dont like the fact it sits on the dash board.

vadim

What?? COMAND does not even have voice directions??? Booo... Even a $60-worth PDA-based Pharos software has this functionality.

Saprissa

I think EURO COMAND has voice instructions. Is that correct, someone with EURO Comand ? I heard the voice has a British accent. kinda poo-poo, but better than no voice at all.

CitronC230K_03

no, my COMAND does have voice directions. It is a US based COMAND.

"Please proceed to the nearest road"
"When possible make a U-Turn"
"Prepare to turn left in 500ft"
"Your destination is located on a street with restricted access"
"Prepare to turn right onto SR-30"

Just to name a few.

dougpark714

Has anyone looked into prices for 2005 command? I already have the premium sound -- does this mean I would lose it when I replace the unit with command?

CitronC230K_03

i dont think so. i have the bose upgrade and COMAND was compatable with it. i heard the 2005 COMAND h/u's were like $2500 or so.

avlis

Buell, I'm not 100% sure how a gyro works in GPS, but I don't think it can tell you which direction it is pointing on startup relative to North/South on the map. A compass can do it, not sure about a gyro. Anyway, your right about the Roadmate not knowing initally which direction the car is pointing on startup. But, in my experience, as soon as the car moves few feet (maybe 10 or so?) the Roadmate gets a bearing. Typically, backing out of a driveway or finding your way out of a parking lot is enough for it to get your direction. Lack of gyros has not been an issue for us.

A few things I don't like about the Roadmate 500 (this may or may not apply to the 700):

Inability to enter your destination using coordinates. (I needed to do this once and had to manually keep my eye on the coodinate display until the numbers matched those of my destination)
No altitude display (at least not that I can find, but not a big deal).
Sometimes pauses a for a few seconds while typing in letters.

Built-in NAV is cool, but being able to pop a portable in anybody's car (like a rental or a friend's car) is worth not having the integrated look. And cost about 1/2.

Buellwinkle

The built in navs must save the last position/direction the car was going in before it stopped. I know this problem doesn't happen in Comand and the Magellen rep explained it to me and said something about the gyros, for example besides bearing, it knows that you are turning before the GPS can register it so it's a little more faster to react to changes.

CitronC230K_03

my COMAND remembers my last direction the car was heading. i dont know if this is from the gyro or what, i just know it remembers.

Mr.Ed

I believe most if not all of the current GPSs should keep a state of where you car was before power is lost. So as long as you power it back up with the car in the same position as it was before power was lost, the GPS shouldn't get confused.

A lot of modern integrated navigation systems also have gyros as well as speedometer hookups. The gyros keep track of how the vehicle turns, and the speedometer tracks how much distance you've covered. It is used mostly as for 'backup' purposes when the satellite signal is temporarily lost (like say in the downtown areas with lots of tall buildings). The navigation unit uses the last 'good' position measurement, then from then on interpolates where you are with the gyro and speedometer inputs.

I've also been told by a friend who has a new Sienna that their built-in navigation system only gets satellite positional inputs once every 15 seconds It then uses the gyro/speedometer inputs to interpolate where you are in between those times. I find that hard to believe though - why don't they just update their current positions from the gps receiver more frequently?!

Ed.

accbenz

The new Command for the 2005 C Class and CLK is $2210 cause it's a completely different head unit unlike the E class or ML's that are only about $1,000. It's actually really nice though...flip down, kinda like the ML one but MUCH nicer!

CitronC230K_03

the W211 E-class Navi unit is awesome and nothing like the W163 unit what so ever IMO. i dont think its $1000 either. id believe the W163 unit was jsut because i think all you need is the reciever. the head unit is pretty much the same.

dougpark714

So, $2210 for the 2005 unit -- I am assuming from Steve. How much for the install? Does anyone know when Steve is coming to the bay area for installs?

accbenz

The W211 Command is $1,220...not sure what it was in the previous generation, but I know it was more since it had to change the entire head unit...I think it was like $2200. And $2,210 is the price from the factory for W203 Command, not from Steve.

accbenz

Citron, I totally agree w/ you in that the ML nav is nothing like the C or E in functionality, I just meant the flip down function in the new C unit is similar to the ML.

avlis

That makes a lot of sense. The Magellan assumes the car didn't move and resumes with the map/arrow pointing in the same direction as when it was turned off.

Magellan is very accurate even without gyros. Just changing lanes on a 4-lane higway will move the map. It appears that it gets a signal about once per second. If you drive into a tunnel and lose the sat signal, it automaticly changes from displaying the map to displaying the driving directions. I guess this is one area where gyros/speedometer would have the portables beat.