I have similar experience.

Though, it is actually a lot better since the app update.

 

It is a crapshoot on it working or not. I would guess it works ~50-60% of the time. And I find it completely unacceptable. Of course, there is little recourse other than to complain and/or not buy another MB. But for a company of such stature to have a solution that is so unreliable is mind boggling. It should be removed from their marketing as a feature.

 

For odd reasons I was told, you have to Remote Start once a month at least for it to remain active. If you dont, you have to press the 'i' and get assistance online and reactivate the feature.

I find it takes less time to run to your car in PJ's and start it yourself, then wait for the miserable MBrace app and witness it struggling for like 3 minutes ... ultimately it does succeed, but then you also have to bear with some irritating text messages you get congratulating that your car was started "successfully".

 

I wonder if they are able to program remote start from the key. It would be nice to have both options.

 

Yes exactly, like all the other North American cars have!!! I totally don't understand why it's such an issue with German cars

 

I really don't need remote start...never had it in any car. It helps that I work from home and don't often have to go out into the frigid early morning weather.

BUT...the C300 is my wife's primary car and she loves remote start. And it really bothers me that it just doesn't work properly, whether I use it often or not.

 

I highly doubt that the first truly connected car from Daimler will have the 3G radio in it.

on the topic, on our new 2016 C450 the remote start works fine, albeit a bit slower to respond than I would want but I understand all the system and authentication checks that are taking place for it to allow the remote start.. not to mention the 3G radio still wants to only connect to an ISP in Kansas, nothing local and the routing from essentially anywhere, to KS, to the CAR, to KS, to the CAR, to KS to the CAR takes a lot of time..

There is a lot of safety and security that takes place prior to the actual activation and prepping of the car's electronics to the remote start mode before anything can occur.

And did I mention the six round trips to KS already ;-)

 

To me this is unacceptable--mostly because MB opted to keep using 3G wireless technology. In some areas wireless signals are spotty--true throughout the world. In my town the highest point is the fire station. The fireman were successful in lobbying the town to forget about putting transmission equipment on top of the fire station because they didn't want exposure to the microwaves in fear of cancer. Tony neighborhoods don't want unsightly cell towers in their midst so that's a problem. Weak signals are a problem for 4G LTE as well, so what must it be like for 3G? Well, we're seeing it. "The best of nothing?" I guess we're getting the "nothing" part right about now.

 

Your doubts are particularly unfounded. Try building a new car on MBUSA and then navigate towards the mbrace product, "Entertain." The last bullet point is "WiFi Hotspot (3G)." That is what MB uses, confirmed by mbrace. The crust of these people (MBUSA) to charge, post trial period, $18/mo for 9 year old technology is astounding.

Your remote start capability is slow because of the wireless technology used in the MB telematics system. Couple this with all of the new 2016 vehicles coming online day-by-day and we have the failure some of us experienced earlier this week when remote start didn't work at all no matter how many times it was attempted.

"The best or nothing?" With 3G we got "nothing." http://www.chevrolet.com/culture/article/4g-lte.html

 

[QUOTE=Duspin07;6678058]Your doubts are particularly unfounded. Try building a new car on MBUSA and then navigate towards the mbrace product, "Entertain." The last bullet point is "WiFi Hotspot (3G)." That is what MB uses, confirmed by mbrace. The crust of these people (MBUSA) to charge, post trial period, $18/mo for 9 year old technology is astounding.

/QUOTE]

I was referring to the 2017 new e class the previous poster was referencing.

 

Another near-single-digit morning in New England and another morning when remote start doesn't work. At all. 45 minutes in and no remote start, only a dozen error messages. mbrace CS and tech support is useless because all they do is disseminate lies and concocted information about system upgrades that seem to subside when the weather warms. MBUSA is avoiding any responsibility for this bull**** by saying they don't support the technology. Imagine this? "The best or nothing." We got nothing.

 

Things could be worse...imagine all the sucker 2015 owners who actually paid to renew their mbrace service...with NO remote start!


:O

 

I waited and spent the $$ for a 2016 for just this feature. I could've picked up a 2015 at a great price but opted to wait 2.5 months. 1 hour, exactly, this morning, 38 attempts with 38 "error messages" in response. No remote start.

 

I'd be pissed off too if the remote start for my vehicle didn't work...especially this morning when I walked out to manually start my 2015 C300 in 16 degree weather. And that's what I told the people at mbrace when I submitted a pre-cancellation of my free trial to mbrace 3 days before the subscription was due to expire...no remote start, no renewal.


I didn't wait for a 2016 because at the time there were rumors that remote start would be coming to mbrace...even from my dealership...only to find out later it was slated only for the 2016 model year. This has stuck in my craw ever since...strike one Mercedes.

 

That's horrible. I bet this is nothing more than a firmware upgrade for the 2015s. Not entirely sure. Could be a small hardware upgrade, but with this company, who knows. Running this on 3G wireless is utter crap. My 2001 C320 Sport obviously didn't have bluetooth but a retro-fix was made available in 2006 to take advantage of smartphones. Hopefully they will do something like this for 2015s and easier models with mbrace. BUT, they need to fix the obvious capacity issue as well as the 3G network upgrade to 4GLTE. Honestly, I can't believe we're having this problem, but then again, from MY1996 through MY2002 C & S class cars weren't rust protected, so this is small potatoes.

 

How would you all like to be in Canada where I was told by my dealership last year when I bought the car that we would be getting something like mbrace and it never came. We don't even have the map update that is available everywhere else.

 

My remote start on my GLE 450 worked "fairly well" until yesterday afternoon. I tried multiple times to start it yesterday afternoon without any success - the message I got on the app said it couldn't communicate with the car ( but the locator worked fine). Called mbrace and was told there was a system update done yesterday which might have been an issue. The tech told me he would ping my car to reset it and to call back if the problem was still there.

I called back 2 hours later because it still was not working and was told they would put out a ticket to give it a priority for attention and would get a call back which never happened. Called back before bedtime after it still failed and told the ticket was filed and they were working on it. It is now 24 hours and NOTHING. I almost wished I paid for the service so I could ask for a refund. I am looking into the "implied value of the contract" because I really don't think they have their act together with this remote start thing. I wish they would be more upfront about estimation of time or even if a solution is possible. Very disappointed. I have a deposit on another car that is about to ship and if it is not fixed I will cancel.

 

Voting with your wallet or purse I fear is the ONLY way Mercedes will ultimately move quicker with this and other issues people are having with mbrace, mbrace plus, and the Mercedes apps. People need to stop renewing mbrace, and for the people who paid for mbrace service, demand your money back citing poor service.

If Mercedes Benz actually cared about their clientele, they would fix this issue with mbrace quickly AND retroactively add remote start to the 2015 W205s as well...it's the ONLY way I'd ever consider renewing my mbrace account...hell I'd even pay their full asking price for it...as long as it works.

 

Agree. I just advised my salesperson of exactly that. I don't want to deal with problems in a new model car. I have the GLC ready to ship but having remote start was a nice perk in my choice and the last new model car I bought made me have so many problems.

 

At least their fairytales are consistent. They told me the same BS about system upgrades and all that. These failures are happening, seemingly, when temps drop and everyone is trying to use the feature. I suspect this spotty availability is due in large part because it's free and we're the guinea pigs. Who knows for sure, but it's definitely a capacity problem--something that a 1st year engineer could've figured out.

 

Addendum..... so my car finally started, I kept testing it until it worked. Now when I try to start it so that I don't have to go to a cold car (like what I was promised) it won't start because there is a limit of 2 starts after which a key has to be used. And there is no way for mbrace to override it. Another engineering masterpiece!

I am wondering why, if they need to update things, they don't just update the app like every other app that I have. Apparently, they have to wait for Apple to do something to make the app talk to the car.

I am still hesitant to take delivery of my next benz. Time will tell.

 

That's a safety function, obviously, to make sure that that it is the actual owner of the car who keeps starting it up and not someone who picked up your phone and is trying to steal your car.

 

These are the typical things that will prevent your remote start from working:

Doors are unlocked
Key is in the ignition
Vehicle is not in “Park”
Doors, windows, sunroof, trunk, or hood are not closed
Panic alarm or hazard blinkers are engaged
Fuel tank contains less than 5 gallons
Engine is already running
Vehicle previously started remotely twice

The fuel tank thing is something I imagine many people will not realize or be aware of.

 

Is that what mbrace TS told you, that they're waiting for Apple to update the app? Hahahahahahahahaha. No. The same would be happening with Android phones if that were true. Apps either work or they don't. Couldn't start my car for 1 hour this morning before I eventually went out to work. Started right up on the first try this evening. It's not the app, it's their equipment that can't handle the load everyone puts on the server hardware.

 

Thanks. However this time it was definitely a technology issue. There was a server issue/upgrade that mbrace admitted to. All of the aforementioned were not applicable to my (and others, I imagine) issues with the remote start.

Houston, we have a problem!!!!!!