*Knowledge*

99.9&, wow that's impressive.

I've managed to get it to work after I've kicked at least 3 times, same area, waiting a couple seconds in between kicks. I have yet to experience a 1 kick & open or maybe there is a delay and it opens after I have kicked a 2nd or 3rd time...
Either way, I feel silly doing the kicks and waiting so I manually open it. Love the option for the two buttons to close it tho.

MASSC450

Well...maybe 99.8% (just kidding)...in all truth it's only failed me once so far. Maybe I just have bigger feet...



After I "kick", there is a delay of a second or two before it opens...that and I always have my FOB in my pocket at the time.

gfmohn

Mercedes had that reputation back in the 1960s (if not before-that's as far back as I go)! Now that the entire Safety Establishment is resolved to start taking away the steering wheels (starting within 10 years, if not five), Mercedes has every reason to think that the rest of the auto world is catching up with them. Not buying Mercedes will not help you avoid this attitude much longer. Get used to it.

Satyarad0801

What do i hate about my W205?.. An extremely difficult question to answer...

I love everything about my black beauty C 250 AMG except for 1 minor thing, I was kind of hoping that the Burmester audio will blow my mind but apparently it didnt... Was wondering is it because of i listened to music from apple music and CD will sound better?

rbrylaw

OK......I finally have something I like just a teeny tiny bit less about my C300. I don't particularly care for the Piano Black buttons on the dash and around the touch pad. I have the Open Pore Black Ash in my 300 Sport and the shiny buttons show finger prints too easily. I wish MB had chosen a flat, non shiny finish for the buttons.

There I said it! I feel so much better........

Mike5215

It depends on where you find the sound to be deficient. I haven't spent a lot of time with the Burmester but I think the bones are there to get good audio. It's likely a tuning issue, and there are some inexpensive, non invasive solutions on Apple devices. What is it about the sound that's not quite cutting it for you?

benzw205

The problem with the eco start/stop is that it is just stupid. Why does it stop the car when you are about to uturn for example ? They couldn't get that you need to start quickly in this situation ?

rbrylaw

Which is why I don't nor will I every use it. But it's easy to not use it. I have a custom Individual Agility setting I use that ensures Eco is off as soon as I choose my Individual setting on start up.

StanNH

Streaming audio is compressed, while a CD is not. The only realistic way to test an audio system is with a high quality sound source ... like a good quality CD.

tron786

Why do you need to do that. In the GLC the auto start/stop button is in the center console and it's the first thing I switch off.
Is it not the same in the W205?

rbrylaw

Yes, I know. It's the same in both the C and GLC. But there are other settings I prefer as opposed to just Eco off. I prefer the sport steering and sport mode of the engine. So I have programmed an Individual setting which puts the car in Eco Off, Sport Steering and Sport On.

Mike5215

A CD is compressed relative to the studio master, and the compression algorithm, developed 30 years ago, is less than ideal (tends to sound thin). A CD is sampled at 44khtz/sec with a bit depth of 16. It works out to be an average bit rate of around 1100 Mbps. The master, to be encoded lossless, needs a sampling rate of 256khtz/sec and a bit depth of 24. (Each increase in bit depth by one doubles the depth. 16 bit depth is in the thousands. 24 is in the millions). The max bit rate of a lossless hi res recording is over 9000kbs. I have a hi res system in the house and the difference over CD is enormous.

If a listener's main source is Apple Music (mine is as well) then the object is to get the system optimized for 256kbs AAC. As lossy algorithms go, it's the most open, nuanced and natural. You get no phase artifacts in the highs, and no homogenization of the kick drum and lows, unlike MP3, even at higher bit rates. Apple streams at 256kbs, the same bit rate as ITunes purchased tracks, so no relative loss in quality streaming Apple Music vs local files.

On a practical note, in the car, nobody wants to carry a CD library on physical disk when they can have 10000 tracks on their phone. The other issue with CD, or any internal source, is that you can't add equalization, which can make a world of difference in a mobile environment.

Most shortcomings in a stock audio system can be overcome with some compensating EQ, but it requires an app on the phone (or the nuclear option...a DSP like the Bit One, or a DSP amp like the Prima 8.9, which I did in the W221.)

The first step would be to utilize the Apple on board EQ. If a custom curve is required, then the EQu app by Elephant Candy ($3) works beautifully on local files. Next step would be a physical 12v EQ between the mobile device and the aux in, and ultimately the Prima.

Here's a write up on the Prima in my S;

https://w221audio.wordpress.com

gfmohn

I'm glad I waited until after Mike5215 made his comment. His information is much superior to what I would have written.

Now I will limit my self to two simple tips. I am sure that your Surround feature is activated, but is it set to be effective for both front and rear seats? When I listen to system I am always alone in the car. (My wife was a professional musician, but she prefers to talk when she is with me in the car.) But even when I am alone, I found the Surround feature gave me better feeling of a reverberant concert space when set to be effective for both front and rear seats.

Second, have you disabled the automatic, speed-sensitive volume control? I found doing so made a slight improvement. However, some commenters have said that turning it off made a big difference for them. My C300 is so quiet that I don't notice the absence of the automatic volume control. (And my preference in music is for quiet chamber music.)

Everything Mike5215 says about the importance of the audio medium is true. But the quality of the original recording is also important. A good audio system can expose deficiencies in your favorite recordings that you could not hear previously. (Previously, you were hearing more the sound of your system and less the sound of the recording.)

You do not say what genre of music you prefer. In classical recordings, the goal of the recording engineers is to recreate the experience of the listener in the concert hall. I do not know what experience the recording engineers of a rock or pop recording are trying to reproduce for the home or vehicle listener. However, I am certain that if the concert is in a hall, the amplified music is loud enough to make any reverberation from the hall completely inaudible. Likewise, if one is near a speaker in a hall, stadium, or open field, the experience will be completely monaural. (Please don't reply to me. I am merely trying to raise questions for Satyarad0801 to think about.)

Mike5215

^True. My wife likes to talk in the car too, so I always make sure she has her phone with her

The first step is to determine how the system is deficient, and what it's deficient relative to. For example, if your home system is really good, that becomes your standard or "reference" system.

Now if you don't know why the system is deficient but you see the name "Burmester" and some decorative speaker grilles and expected a completely elevated audio experience in ways you never dreamed of...well, the C's Burmester isn't likely to do that for you.

I will say that it's nicely balanced, with clean mids that aren't brassy or harsh, nice, transparent highs, tight midbass and a reasonably punchy low end. The surround mode does a nice job of both elevating and expanding the soundstage. As OEM audio systems go, it's quite good.

mvw

Mine seems to generally work to the point where I expect it to, which is a good thing. It actually works more reliably than the finger press to lock my doors (which is probably in the 90% range).

Contrasted to my previous BMW, which did not open once, ever, even though it had this "feature" (even the dealer said when I was shopping for the car that the feature would probably not work reliably).

mvw

Not sure about the 300, but on the 450 the auto start/stop is much less disruptive and intrusive than on my old F30 328. Not only would the entire car rattle a bit when it turned off and a whole lot when it started up, but the steering wheel would lock when the car turned off and would unlock a fraction of a second after it turned back on. Made turning left across traffic a dangerous exercise. On the 450 I honestly don't even notice it most of the time.

chem1441

To be honest, the speedo is a bit cluttered for my taste. I don't need 10mph increments. and then above 80mph, it changes to 20mph increments. I'm OCD and that drives me NUTS.... so is the mark after 80MPH, 85mph? or 90mph? my guess is 90...

topsider

its funny out in the 300 80 is at the top of the speedo and in the 450 it is not

mvw

Equally little thing - I sort of feel like it would have been more useful to have the speedometer on the right side and the engine RPM on the left. When checking speed it is much more natural for me to to look at the top of the right side dial (not sure if that's because my other cars have been set up that way or because that is naturally an easier place to spot when looking ahead and driving).

Have found that because of this I usually keep the trip computer on the digital speedometer. On a related note, there is a very odd feature where you can turn on a permanent speedometer in the top right corner of the trip computer but you can only make it show up in the OPPOSITE measurement system to the car's default - so here in Canada the top right corner speedometer only shows MPH while in the US it only shows KPH. Apparently that was done on purpose, though for the life of me I can't figure out why.

topsider

My guess is it was done because the speedometer dial does not show both measures of speed, where in older cars you would have MPH in big numbers then on the inside of the dial it would show the number in KPH (in the US atleast). now that they have left just one measurement on the actual speedometer itself, they use the screen for the other

chris2026

No remote start and not enough after market part.

*Knowledge*

The back 1/2 of the trunk/boot inclines which makes loading a pain. Can't just put cases of water in and slide all the way to the back.
I wonder is the cargo tray would solve this issue.

CO2010

I hate the fact that these buttons are two different shades of color. They should all be the same silver as the window switches.

topsider

i think about this all the time. when i got the car i figured that the buttons must have been rubberized and maybe they couldn't replicate the silver but nope its just two different colors

topsider

brought my car in last night for brake squeak, transmission issue, and highway vibration I have had since day one (claimed to have been fixed three times by re-heatforming the front wheels at another dealer in NY)

They are going to install the shims so my brakes stop squeaking, and I also asked if they could update the comand software to the newest version with the power displays, my adviser said he thinks it can be done, I'll find out later today

Also, there were two recalls open, a power steering software update and another software update that I can't remember