Barry45RPM

Does anybody know what the REAL story was as to why the 2003's were shipped without Comand or NAV even though ordering guides listed them as available? And why were they promised as retrofitable when the units became available, and then were NOT retrofitable causing vehicle buybacks?

There's got to be an interesting back story here. Were the Comand/Navs suddenly redesigned after finding some sort of problem? It couldn't have simply been a supplier problem... Just Curious...

gaazmon

Barry, that is very interesting. I have always wondered the same thing. I've never seen a reason why they didn't come with the comand. However, I've heard that in some countries, the E doesn't come with the full comand, but instead the one from the 03s. Maybe MBUSA thought they could sell the bigger comand as an option and the nav as an add-on option to the bigger comand. It could've have been misinformation from headquarters in Germany. And when the dealers realized they couldn't upgrade the systems later on, they told MBUSA who in turn decided to equip them with the larger comand and sell the navigation as an option.

I don't know honestly. I got really f*cked up last night sooooo my mind is wandering I guess . God, I love San Diego.

MB211

1. Not enough supply---
2. Some vehicles did not have the correct prewire, cable sets not avail to retrofit
3. Too many parts had to be changed to add navigation
4. Not enough knowledge

Though it is now thought to be a fairly simple swap, remember this entire system (MOST) was all NEW when the vehicle was released. Imagine the problems when you have no idea how the system really operates, try to read a work instruction to retrofit, and the cable it shows to connect to is not there? 6 years later now the is a lot of experience with the 211 and similiar audio systems.....makes a big difference.

It was simply easier to swap out the car with a car that has factory installed COMAND/nav and say "it cannot be done". Personally I would rather be given a brand new E w/ zero miles with factory installed units, than have a tech attempt a retrofit.

Benz-O-Rama

A side note to this is that the 2003 replacement cars came with a COMAND that could play DVD video. So, if you ever find a 2003 model year that does have COMAND, it was one of these replacement cars and will render dvd video.

MJ50

US-spec COMAND with VIM? very interesting...

jmorgis

Although, I have a Aug.03 build, and it took me about 1 hour to install command with NAV?

I never liked that small screen tape deck one anyway..

JM