I've had the car for a while but never understood the point of the WiFi hotspot feature? I can connect my phone to it but then what? Am I supposed to buy a data plan for the car but how? I know there was ONE time I was able to connect my phone to tether via Bluetooth and was able to share the Internet but it was ridiculously slow. Since then I haven't been able to connect my phone to be the data source but is that the purpose of this WiFi hotspot?! Can't be...can it?

Your phone must be the wifi hotspot so the car can connect and go online. I dont really use it though

Yeah, MB wifi is slow and ancient.

Use an old android phone (add mint mobile sim) or buy one of those cheap Chinese 4G WiFi hotspots off Ebay, then get a T-Mobile or ATT sim if you need one.

Or just use your daily phone if it includes a hotspot data in your plan.

I have a Blackvue cloud dash camera, Tidal music player and android screen that all need WiFi sometimes.

Yes, you have to buy a data plan for the car. How, is in the manual. Probably faster than the hot spot capabilities your phone may have. Larger antenna should mean stronger signal. For your phone, make sure you have hot spot on your data plan. I have it on mine , my wife doesn’t.