I don't know whether you are just refering to U.S cars in your statements but not all E Class cars around the world are fitted with Tele aid as standard.

In our country it is not available at all,as we do not have a support system for it.

 

I think most high end buyers today want/expect a Nav system on their cars. IMO the reason for not seeing many Comand systems on w210' s is because MB should have changed to a DVD system a couple of years ago. CD-ROM Navs are obsolete and have been for quite some time now.

 

Well I ordered one on my 2000 E. It is not the greatest, but it is better than nothing. I would never buy another car without it. The reason more people don't buy one is not the cost (an extra $1500 on a $60,000 car - give me a break), but because the average person is too dumb or too lazy to read a manual. I guess I am a "rare breed", because I love it.

 

Well, my car is being built.....without Navi and not for me...dealer had to build the car since it is one of his allocation. When Navi is available, he will place my order again in Netstar.

BTW, I think the "Navi is not popular" reason for stopping pre-wiring is a load of cr*p. Basically everyone on this forum has said that the $1625 deal for Navi has been written into their orders, not on the official Netstar printout. So how does MB know how many people wanted the Navi out of all the cars produced before 1/1/03? Were dealers sending all Navi order counts to MB in some other fashion other than Netstar?

I tend to believe the previous posts indicating that there is some issue with the pre-wiring that has already been done and so MB just decided to cut it out instead of incurring more liability. Otherwise, why not just allow Navi to be ordered in Netstar and pre-wire the cars for people who have put Navi in their order. Of course, if there is some issue with the pre-wiring already done, MB will never officially admit it without first having an action plan in place...my guess is that they will have to do a lot of modifications to cars already pre-wired and that it will probably cost them a lot of money.

BTW, jhb, I see your point on other countries and Navi, but with all the speculation going on, I am tending to believe that if you want Navi, it is now best to wait until it is factory installable regardless of where you are. Bottom line, whether it is Austrailia or US, the pre-wiring will be the same, and if there is some problem with that, either the car will have to be extensively modified to retrofit, or it may not be do-able.

 

abhansali: I don't think that the members of this forum are representative of the market demographics of E Class buyers "on average". We are car enthusiasts. We are probably younger (probably except for "old me"), on average, than the bread and butter MB buyer. So, I think it is very possible that there is not as much interest, overall, in Navigation as appears to be the case here.

My inlaws have Navigation in their BMW 2001 740 and their 2002 Lexus GS300. Neither uses it and if they had a choice would have bought without it. In fact, other than me, no one I know who has Navigation, my wife included, uses it. I like cars and gadgets. When they are together, I am in heaven!!!!

But, I am not the average buyer of a MB E Class.

Jeff

 

Both dealers I spoke with told me this navigation issue has been a major headache for them. They said most of their buyers had issue with the lack of navigation.

My wife and inlaws use the navigation system on their cars (ML430 and LS430) all the time. Neither would get a car without one.

I firmly believe that a $60,000 car ought to have a navigation system standard ( as it is on S class).

This is a major gaffe on MB's part.