light_speed

I recently revisted the CL offical site on mbusa.com and was surprised to see that it said that a cassette deck was present. Can anyone verify this for me, as that was the only thing holding me back from buying a grante 500- no oem aux/cassette deck for my ipod. If there is one, where exactly is it?

Thanks

rgbyhkr

There is a cassette deck, but you won't be able to use it with a cassette adapter. On the 2004 CL and S Class nav systems, a front-loading CD slot and cassette slot are hidden behind the nav screen. When you hit eject, you are given the option for either or. When you choose CD, the screen slides down (I think it's down for the CD) to reveal the CD slot and when you choose cassette the screen slides in the opposite direction to reveal the tape slot. If I remember right, you had to push any button when you were done loading the CD/cassette to allow the nav screen in place and, until you did, the CD/cassette would not play. So, you couldn't have the cassette adapter's cord dangling out as it would most likely prevent the screen from properly moving back into place.

There are alternative options, however. There is a company that develops a product specifically for iPods to provide an aux input for stock radios. The company has already done this for quite a few makes. Currently, one is being considered for development for use with MB vehicles. Here is a link to the post in teh Audio section of this board:

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...threadid=58236

As a currently available alternative, you could always use an FM transmitter like Belkin's TuneCast II, Griffin's iTrip, or Monster's iCarPlay.