tarheel76

I recently purchased a pre-owned 2004 E320. I was considering laying out about $650+ for the processor and the navigation dvd. My wife has convinced me into considering a Garmin which would make it portable for both of my vehicles. If I go that direction, does anyone have a suggestion as to which model to buy. I know that Garmin sells remfgd units on their web site with a good warranty and price.

tarheel76

Barry45RPM

There's more than adding the processor & disc to have "factory NAV". For the amount of times you will use NAV on that car, VS the cost, time & aggravation get a Garmin. Your Wife will think your smart & a good guy too. Next time you'll have in dash...

wampa

Technology wise I say get the garmin. The OEM MB navigation is very outdated, and not as user friendly as the standalone units. A major flaw in the MB navigation, is the inability to set "house numbers". What it does is gives you a range of numbers. Which will basically navigate you to the general vicinty. This can be troublesome especially at night, when house numbers cannot be seen, or hard to locate. Not sure if they fixed it in the 2009 map update, but it was still an issue for me in the 2008 maps.
I have a tomtom, but still decided to install the factory Nav. Due to the fact that I don't have to worry about thieves, breaking into my car just to steal the Tomtom. Plus I acquired a Euro Comand that plays dual layer DVD MP3 (8.5gb) as well as DVD video in motion. What basically sold me on installing the OEM navigation, was having everything integrated and easily accessible with a touch of a button (bluetooth phone, MP3 audio, and video). Don't get me wrong, I still have the Tomtom but I keep it in the center console. Just in case I travel at night to a new location.

Quackledork

I agree - get the Garmin. I have a 2009 with the most recent NAV and I still use my Garmin. There are a lot of different models. The 755T/765T/775T/785T models are excellent and include traffic data (with a subscription). I got a loaded model with traffic for like $299.00. It has worked flawlessly since.

I have found most factory NAV units are pretty bad. A friend of mine has an Audi and their NAV is terrible as well. And the NAV in my brother's Lexus isn't very good either. The only car with a truly good NAV system is Acura. The NAV in my wife's RDX is fantastic. Better than any factory or add-on NAV. The traffic data is awesome, the routing accurate, its easy to set a destination.

AMGfan

Garmin nav FTW...I have two portables and two integrated into my Kenwood HU's...simple stupid operation...touch screen...fair price.

The MB nav is counterintuitive and just not very easy to use...

220S

fwiw, the 2009 W211 (and 2010 W212) is a completely different system. HDD based, precise house number input and it's completely hands free with updated VC. Real time traffic and Zagat restaurant reviews with phone connection via POIs, all hands-free. I prefer it also because I don't want to fumble with a handheld unit in the car, or suction cup it to the windshiled, dash, etc.. too sloppy for me.

If I had a pre-2009, I'd opt for a Garmin, however.

Eich

Go with the Garmin or other portable device. Better, easier and cheaper. The ONLY drawback is that it's not integrated into the dashboard.

I have Nav in my '05 E500 and refuse to use it anymore. Too difficult to use and the maps are outdated.

I have a Blackberry Storm with Garmin Mobile software installed and use this for all my navigation needs - it works quite well. A Smartphone (Blackberry, iPhone, etc..) with navigation software makes for a great solution because you always have it with you and it's always charged up.

nopcbs

The navigation that is in W211's up to 2009 is obscenely bad. (No touch screen, no house number guidance, pathetic maps, too low location of screen.) It is an embarrassment to MB. If they had any sense of shame at all, they would recall it and put in a real gps...or at least give you a coupon for a Garmin 780 or some such and apologize profusely. Others do it right, my wife's 2004 RX330 is excellent, MB did it very wrong in the W211.

By the way, you can save yourself about $100 by getting a refub. Garmin unit. Same warranty as new, same new maps. Look on Techbargains for for leads to who is selling the refurbs. The lifetime free traffic wide-screen Garmin is under $200 this way. Refrub TomTom's do not cme with current maps.

wampa

If you haven't purchased your Garmin yet, and are looking to get it at a bargain price. I say wait till after Thanksgiving sales. I recall last year, they had some great deals on portable naviation devices.

nopcbs

However, those offers often require you to get up at a dreary hour and stand in line maybe in the cold) in a long line to actually have a chance to get the thing at the ad price. Not always, sometimes the offers are on-line.

- nopcbs

Clinton Horn

I do not have any factory nav in my vehicles so I cannot comment on the utility that they provide. Retrofitting M-B appears to be very possible but some here have good results, others do not. Apparently there are lots of parts and pieces required. Their cost exceeds my expectations by a factor of 4-5 so they are not really something I would consider

As for Garmin, I have purchased 4 and actually used two (others were gifts).
Most were older (CE330) models that used a hard drive. The last one is smaller and has the same features for about 1/3 of the price for the first one I bought.
If you want something easy to operate, the Nuvi 200 is about $119 anywhere
Target, Wal- MArt etc. It provides nav, detours, voice turns etc. For a little more, the next model up announces turns by street NAME rather than "take the next right". From there, others have real time traffic updates, mp-3 etc.
The things are getting so cheap that I have ceased to worry about crack heads breaking in to get them. They cannot bring very much at a pawn shop.
I cannot deny that the suction cup mount is Mickey Mouse. I usually stick them on a non slip pad and run them from the battery. They will run four or five hours with new batteries.
I have to say that satellite navagation has to be one of the best inventions for automobiles since A-C. If you have never used one, the stress they eliminate is worth the purchase price. I never leave home without it.

AMGfan

Clinton...the last portable Garmin Nuvi I bought from CompUSA (about 2 months ago) was a 255 series ($149.99) and its suction cup system seems to be much better. I've had it in my daily driver for weeks now and it is still stuck on my windshield. I can't say the same thing for the Garmin Nuvi I bought about 3 years ago.

I agree...GPS navigation is a feature I use more than I think I would...not so much for direction from point a to point b, but for POI...like when I am just driving around and I want to find the closest Mobil station. It is so much easier to do on the Garmin than on MB nav.

vettdvr

I would use Garmin over MB's nav. But....

I have a top end Garmin in my boat and it is superb so I bought a Garmin for the car 3 years ago. 530 I think and updated it last year. It still doesn't have my brothers house or my interstate exit. The Nuvi does. I have been disappointed with the functions on my auto Garmin. Perhaps the marine is so much better,, but my daughters $125 GPS works better than my garmin and gives street names verbal. So I would recommend portable but look at more than the Garmin as I think Garmin has dropped the ball on Auto GPS and others surpass. My son living in Germany has one that when you tell it detour it really works. My garmin when I exit and enter detour it tells me to get on the same exit as I just missed the bridge over the service road. So no more Garmins for me.! unless Marine,, then they stopped supporting my Marine unit with Charts and it is for offshore use at a cost over $4000/unit. So I am watching their support closely.

sunnySD

I'd get a portable over spending $650 on the integrated which is VERY outdated. I personally have never thought about getting an integrated with any car and now the portable ones for $200 are extremely useful.

I think in another year or two, that portable GPS units won't be for sale anymore. We'll all just use our cell phones instead. I was wondering what's going to happen with Garmin as more and more people are using cell phones for navigation and see that Garmin now has a cell phone which also runs their navigation software.

What's interesting is that most 2009 Es I was looking at had Nav and I was looking for a car without the P1 package. None of the 2009 CLKs I looked at had Nav.

Eich

This is one of the reasons I really like having Garmin Mobile on my Blackberry Storm. It's always using the latest map data.

The drawback is that it requires constant cell phone coverage to feed it the map data. Most of the time (on Verizon) that isn't a problem.

I've come to rely on Garmin Mobile pretty heavily.

220S

SAN FRANCISCCO (Dow Jones)--Shares of navigation device makers sunk Wednesday after Google Inc. (GOOG) upgraded its smartphone software to include a free navigation feature.

Google's move highlights how top navigation device makers Garmin Ltd. (GRMN) and TomTom N.V. (TOM2-AMS) now face stiff challenges from Nokia Corp. (NOK), Apple ...

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-...28-714636.html Subscription needed to view.....