igolfchip

Hi folks;
Just purchased a great 06 E350 today. Really pumped about my purchase, but only drawback is the lack of 2009 bells and whistles (of the electronic variety).

A few questions:

1) Car has Navigation, but no Sirius / Sat Radio. Should it come with Sat already? If not, can I purchase a unit to work with the factory "command' head end?

2) Is it worth the bother to try for bluetooth? Car didn't have the telephone installed.

3) Any options to play back MP3 via the command unit? Worth any kind of iPOD or other connectivity option?

Thanks in advance for your advice and patience with the newbie!

baxterdown

Hi igolf, welcome!

And, congratulations on the new car!!!!

From what I've read in the forum, if you go to the dealer you're gonna pay around $1,000 for Sirius, $800 for iPod and $420 for the Bluetooth adaptor. For that kind of money, you might be better off just buying the new Comand that is going to come in the 2009 MY. Its got a far better navigation (Birdseye view, HD Driven, exact address) and from what I understand comes standard with Sirius, Bluetooth, and iPod connectivity that displays on the Comand unit.

I'm not sure if you know yet, but the current iPod connector for our cars does not display on the Comand, it only displays on the multi-function display in the steering column. And, it's very cumbersome to use, to say the least.

I would venture to say a new Comand unit might run you $2,000 to $2,500. Of course, this is all speculation as none of us have any clue how much it will really cost and/or if it will be a simple plug-and-play retrofit.

If I were you, I'd wait a few months to see how it all pans out :-)

Jose

igolfchip

Thanks Jose - $2K+ is a lot of dough, but after reading about all the technical BS that comes up implementing all of these solutions, that may be money and time well spent.
Looking forward to the discussions on the new Comand units!

BTW - do you have a line on any dealers / stores who have great or best pricing on OEM parts? Need to purchase cup holder, mats and a few other things and don't want to get ripped off at dealer.

Barry45RPM

What color is your interior? I have a brand new set of mats in Stone that I want to sell.

Also... the Sirius receiver is not part of the headunit, it is a separate receiver which is located in the right rear fender behind the trunk liner. You'd have to check whether the car was pre wired for Sirius at the factory. Sometimes MBUSA prewired the cars for an optional dealer instalation of Sirius, sometimes they wanted only a factory installation. No matter what, there are people here who can install anything for a price.

igolfchip

Thanks Barry - haven't taken delivery yet but I have the gray (2008 style name is "ash") interior.

When I pick it up on Wednesday, will check the trunk liner.

LaicepsYdobon

First off, congrats on your purchase and welcome to "the club"

I'm not sure if the car should come standard with Sirius radio but I know that you can always install a Sirius receiver in your car. I saw the reveivers in my SA's office. They are about the size of an iPod Nano and they can make them hook up directly into your COMMAND center.

I always wanted the BlueTooth module in my car but my sales guy kept talking me out of it. It's $1,200 + labor to install into the car (if it doesn't come with it) and only MB approved phones can be used. To see a list of approved phone you can go to http://www.wirless4mb.com/. After I saw this I was a little turned off by maybe my next car will have it.

In my old C-Class I had an AUX jack though which you could hook up anything to play MP3, WMA, iPod etc... so you can check to see if you have that on your car for MP3 playback. My current E-Class does have integrated iPod so I can connect my iPod though a cable in my glove box and control it through my steering wheel. That can be installed in your car also if you don't have it already.

revstriker

It should have an AUX jack in the glove box. It's also pretty simple to run a wire from glove box to the center armrest. You can run a power wire as well. For mine, I bought a charger which came with an aux jack. I wired this up behind the dash, tapped into the cigarette lighter, and ran the aux wire into the glove compartment. I mounted my ipod using the KUDA mount with the wire running out from there. It's a nice clean install that cost about $100 total, and took maybe 45 minutes to complete.

Prior to the KUDA mount, I ran the wires up into the center arm rest which was nice because it kept everything out of sight.

MB211

1. The new command will not retrofit in, will cost more than $2000 (much more), and is vin coded to the car (i.e. no used parts).

2. You can install i-pod kit or use the AUX jack you already have.

3. You can add SAT radio.

musicmax

What's your source for this info?

javaghela

I have a 2006 Merc E350. I can play mp3 cd in my cd player (i am not talking about 6 CD changer).

i can play mp3 disc in my single cd player but when i turn off ignition of car & later after 30 mins or few hours when i start my car & play the mp3 cd in my single disc player, cd starts from the first song. so earlier if i was listening to song# 50 now it would start from song#1 as i turned off the ignition for few mins / hours.

Is this standard with all Merc E350 or my single disc player has some problem.

Also from where can I buy cable for my 2006 E-Class so I can connect my iPod in my glove box and control it through my steering wheel. Also how much does that cost? Any brand name you can recommend?

Any help/reply would be highly appreciated.

Barry45RPM

You Can't. All you can get (From Radio Shack or similar) is a "5 Foot 1/8 male to male STEREO headphone type cord", which will route the sound from the headphone out plug in your iPod to the Aux in Plug located in the glove compartment. When you press the soft key "AUX" on the COMAND, it will accept the audio feed from the iPod output, amplify it & play it thru the cars audio system. All you can control from the wheel is the volume.

The cords are cheap & can be any generic brand of "gray patch cord".

jditom

Do a search for incartronics and mobridge.
They are the same unit sold by different folks.
They will give you BT phone and iPod integration at a cost of $800-900.

paul1959

Here's what I did, installed six 12V sockets way under the glovebox up near the firewall to power everything I need. Then I made a little black box with three toggle switches and jack inputs, which the main output plugs into my aux jack. Switch 1. is Scoche bluetooth (phone, ipod everything bluetooth). Switch 2. is serius radio. Switch 3. any other input I desire. All from the auxiliary button on command system. Also, routed my small serius antenna up just in front of my sharkfin....looks great. All wires buried.

irondad

Curious about the black box... pics... info?

paul1959

Of course, sorry about that. I will post them as soon as I get home.

paul1959

The black box has three switchable inputs and one output. The output plugs into the aux input in the glove box. now you can switch between any of the three inputs while in the aux mode....................................how do I put these images in a url?

Barry45RPM

When YOU post a reply to a post, after you type in your reply, scroll down a bit to a second grey bordered window and you will see a thin rectangular button to press (mid Left) that says "manage attachments". The upload is done there. Then you save/post the whole thing as the last step.

paul1959

Thanks, as you can tell I'm new to the forum. You see the three toggle switches on one side of the box and three jacks on the other side. You can toggle in whatever you have plugged into the jacks individually. The output plugs into the ipod input in the glove box. The scoshe bluetooth is plugged into position 1 and serius in position 2 and ipod in 3. Works awesome, all are sellectable in the aux mode. .............Paul