Well its been awhile since I posted anything (had just been reading various posts) but I finally have post-worthy stuff to tell.


Well I finally went to Chicago and was fortunate to meet the great Steve from BenzNL. Let me tell you it was well worth the 6 hr drive each way. At first I was hesistant about anyone tinkering on my baby but Steve puts all the Benz technicians I have known to shame, he really knows his stuff.

I added the following to my car: COMAND (Eurospec), Bixenons, clear fogs, aux input, and wood/leather steering wheel. Steve did an amazing job with all of this and you really can't tell that these were not originally from the showroom.

I was somewhat hesistant about the bixenons b/c in all replies to this, Steve had said that these were factory 2nds with potential for minor scratches, etc. When I saw these lights, I really scrutinized them and honestly could not tell any defects at all (I'm a radiologist by the way which I hope says a lot for picking up small things). They honestly looked brand new.

As for the COMAND, this has to be my favorite addition. In addition to the navigation feature (which is well worth the price alone), I had the pleasant surprise in the vast improvement in my audio. I originally had the Bose premium system (Audiopilot, etc) and had issues 1st with the FM stations (would seem like songs were switching back and forth between stereo and mono) as well as a really lackluster performance in Bass. Although the Comand system still only let you adjust bass and treble only (why Mercedes doesn't put in an 8 band equalizer option is beyond belief) it does give you 3 settings for Ambience (small medium large). I prefer the large setting which makes the sound much richer, plus the bass is much more pronounced and crisp. My FM stations sound as good as my CDs now and both sound 10x better than my old headunit. With the Eurospec Comand I also get to see the title and artist of the song playing on RDS stations which is a nice feature. The navigation was really nice too (got back from Chicago to Cleveland just relying on that and it did a better job than the directions I got off Mapquest to get there).


So I hope those that are on the edge of having work done by Steve will be assured by my experience. Everything went according to plan, better than expected actually. I'm very happy with the products. Steve did a great install and honestly I would be surprised if anyone knew they were aftermarket additions by looking.

Thanks to Steve, Wanda, and Erwin (host garage in Chicago). Well worth the 6 hrs each way to drive there.

 

post pics pleace

 

Congrats man. You will love your Comand!

 

nice. congrats on your mods. COMAND is too one of my fav's.

 

Thanks guys.

Is there a simple way to post pics? I do have some digital pics I've taken but they are on my desktop and I think in the past when I tried to load them it said the file was too large. Do all of you have a site that you upload your pics from and then post them on this forum?

 

There's really no easy way to do it. Just resize your pics to 800x600 using a photo editing app, and they should be able to upload fine.

Congrats on the upgrades!

 

Wow, Cleveland to Chicago! I'm a Chicago resident and recently made the LONG LONG drive to Cleveland about a week ago to visit Case Western. Such a tiring drive. I'm really glad you're pleased with the results.

 

Hey man

glad it all worked out. I was able to meet up w/ steve and erwin on monday w/ the C55 for the Command install. I will say that the drive from detroit was still worth it!

What you said about Steve out pacing any mb tech you've seen is very true. I was amazed at how effortlessly he could swap the units.

 

Steve actually called out some MB techs that told me a bold face lie as well. I had a v60 MB phone and voice recognition system put in my car with parts I had gotten from an ebay auction (from an '02 C230). The dealership initially said they couldn't do it b/c the wiring from an 02 was different from my '04 and that if I wanted a phone in my car, I would probably have to buy their parts,etc (I believe it was in the $2500-3000 range (my ebay price was around $900). I insisted they try and finally they said they had a tech that was willing to try it and finally they did put it in and charged me for 5 hrs labor. It works fine, but when I talked to Steve about it, he said there was absolutely no difference in wiring between models from 98-04, they didn't have to make any modifications, and he could have probably done it in 1 hr.

 

sadish, it was my pleasure...nice to know you are satisfied!!!

greetingz,

 

Thanks Steve, had a great time meeting you. Hopefully you'll come out more often to the midwest to satisfy our mod cravings.


On another note, another nice feature I found out on my Comand just today. When you're on the FM radio screen (and if you've already pre-programmed your memory stations) you can go to the option for memory station list and all the stations will come up, but the great feature is for those with RDS stations, you can see the current songs playing on those stations and just continue to select from that screen when a nice song is on (in Cleveland there's about 4 of my stations with RDS on my memory buttons) but I can imagine an area like L.A. or NY where I assume a ton of stations do this. It beats just scanning for songs when you can see the song list simultaneously for all these stations.

 

Hi Steve,

I'm in France, and i'm jealous because i don't know nobody their who can do a so good job on my '05 C220 CDI.
If you decide to visit us in Europe, you colud do some mods on many european MB's.

 

Hey Tropico... it's just a matter of where you are located.

To the US people, Steve is a visitor; to us European people, he is a local. Check his profile, Steve is from the Netherlands. :p

Depending on what you want him to do on your car and your willingness to drive up to Holland, Steve may be able to help you out. Just email him: steve@mbenznl.com.

Greetingz,

BigSis

 

Hmmm, see my baby brother changed his profile a bit... it says 'global traveller' now. O well, the MBenzNL thing gives it away, too!

greetingz,

BigSis

 

Hey BigSis,
I knew that Steve is from Netherlands. But he made so much installs in USA, that i thought he is living their.
I finally emailed him. I hope we can manage installing some mods in my '05 C220 CDI.

 

We'll try...

greetingz,

BigSis