I recently bought a used C350 CDI. The spec on the car was generally excellent (full leather, COMAND, sport mode etc.) but one real disappointment and surprise was that, although I could connect my Google Pixel to the car's bluetooth, I couldn't stream audio.

When the dealer told me that, I thought it must be a mistake but no, he was right.

This was disappointing for two reasons. Firstly, I wanted to listen to the music on my phone and secondly, I wanted to use Google Maps for navigation because the in-built satnav is very poor.

I found out that I might be able to buy a Multimedia Interface Plus and that might let me do what I wanted but I'd seen some very negative reviews and it was stupidly expensive.

I found this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162425710008 on eBay which plugs into the 30 pin socket in the glove compartment. It cost me £12 (although it's gone up slightly since then), which was a lot cheaper than the MMI+ and also quite a bit cheaper than the Viseoo WMA3000A.

The adapter arrived in the post this morning and it seems to work really well. I can stream audio from Play Music and Google Maps. I can use the voice commands fine and still make phone calls just like before. I have been in the car 5 times so far today and it has connected automatically every time without requiring any user intervention.

All in all I am really pleased with it for a very small sum of money. I'm glad I shan't have to rely on the MB satnav any longer, which would have cost me more than ten times as much as I spent simply to update it and still probably would have been rubbish.

The volume controls on the steering wheel work but the next/previous track buttons do not, nor is there a track listing on the display. I don't care about either of these features at all but if you do, bear that in mind.

I haven't tried Spotify because I don't use it (the selection of classical music is pretty poor) but I have no reason to believe it wouldn't work just as well.

 

Interesting. I live off of Spotify so I'm surprised that the selection of the music in question is poor. I've never had an issue with classical music but to each his/her own! Thanks for the suggestion!

 

good find

 

I have a 2013 C350 4matic coupe, and I can bluetooth connect phone calls and audio (ie Pandora). With the MB infotainment system, I have to pair my phone twice. Phone and audio are 2 separate systems in the MB system

 

The same thing is true for my cheap solution. The phone is paired with the COMAND unit for phone calls and the bluetooth dongle, which shows up as BT Speakers.

It sounds like the official solution isn't much better than my £12 bodge.

 

I have figured out the problem I had... you can use this bluetooth adapter ( ) for the regular AUX input in your car (will need to get an RCA to 3.5mm adapter)...




BUT ALSO.... you will need a ground loop isolator... because the speakers and the audio source are on the same power source, you will get a high pitch interference, but with this you have cheap bluetooth audio WITHOUT any type of mercedes Media Interface... this is straight through the aux

 

This is the one I am looking at buying.




I just have the 1/8" aux so I'll probably need this also.

 

In the past, I've noticed that ground loop isolators do decrease volume noise by quite a fair bit. However, last I used these were back in 2013 so I'm not sure if the design is better now. Just food for thought.