thug_law

My sales guy is not returning my messages for the nav. system. He does not know that I still have not send the survey and I won't send it till I get my nav installed.

benzgirl79

Well....unfortunately you are going to be waiting a LONG time.
The Comand system/Voice Recognition system for the new 211's won't be available for some time. There are numerous complications with the new system and the MANUFACTURER, NOT YOUR DEALER is what is holding the distribution up. Your dealership is just as frustrated as you are. The fact is, it's a new vehicle- it has it's glitches and MB would never intentionally put a product out there that they knew was not top knotch.

From what I've heard, the ETA of March has obviously passed and from what I know, there is no release date.

-BenzGirl79

drb

thug_law

you might consider placing your survey in an acid free folder to prevent yellowing of the paper. OR send the survey and add a frowning face captioned with 'I want my navi'.

My dealership is going to make some currently unspecified concession with its customers independent of the factory. I said how about replacing my car with one that has navi, and the response was that approach may be an option. The dealership is not going to wait for the factory to generate a solution. The dealership's sales manager said prewired cars (prior to 1Jan03) cannot be retrofitted with navi. The navi testing underway is for cars yet to be built.

KevinR

In luxembourg, some of the new 211's delivered in march had the nav system (without the voice recognition).

etenn

Do you believe that your dealer is acting independently without any word from MBUSA? Or, do you think they have heard and are taking an early action to preserve customers?

Is this the same dealership that rayscar bought from in Va?

Ed

rayscar

Hi Ed. If it is the same dealer they have not contacted me and I think they know that I am VERY interested in this issue!

monakh

I believe drb is in southern VA, while rayscar is in NoVA. I may be wrong though.

MB of Alexandria has made no such overtures to me. Of course, I am out of the country but I am sure nothing has changed in a week.

abhansali

is this thread our weekly Navi fix?

rtriley45

It must be! I was told by my dealer, once again, that MBNA would be communicating with us directly and they had no information. It's a case of no news is bad news!!!

drb

The dealership is acting independently of MBUSA and the factory. The Sales Manager said the dealership will come up with a solution for my case, and sort it out with the factory later. A specific timeline was not provided, except I am too call him back next week. When I mentioned my neighbors' Lexus and the wonderful navi, the manager said they have no intention of losing their loyal, long-term customers. He also noted that the pre-wired MBs cannot be retrofitted.

I am working with ASC Arlington.

cte430

I hope so, I was starting to miss it!! I need my weekly NAV thread fix. It's become part of my life; Read the paper, check e-mail, look for NAV thread! LOL I shudder tho think what we'll do when we get our NAV

Silver_Lana

Solution for Navi!!!

1) Buy Car in Luxembourg
2) do something.... ???
3) Navi in New E in USA!

Callaway

Can someone please explain to me how all of these salesguys have absolutely no idea when COMAND will become available and complain that they are being kept in the dark with no official information from either MB USA, MB Germany or the MB Engineering Department but somehow are 100% convinced that COMAND is not retrofitable?

Where are they getting that information from when MB itself is still working on it to make it happen.

Please explain!!!

carcrazy

Personally, I think that we all should write letters to the owners of our dealerships and MBNA. Much like political action groups in Washington, this is the only way we will get some reponse. If there are any attorneys among us, I would suggest that we start a class action suit against MB. I bought this car being told that the NAV would be available in Jan Feb. Otherwise I would have kept my S500. The promise of the NAV plus the $500 savings convinced me to purchase this car when I did. I am sick of hearing that it is not the dealers fault, not MBNA. Why hasn't anybody sent 1 letter to anyone of us? I don't run my business like this and if I had I would have none. I don't like being taken advantage of.

Baby Jocko

carcrazy, I absolutely agree! Although I am not in the position of owning an 2003 E-class without the promised navi, I would certainly be upset and would suggest a class action lawsuit at this point if I were. In fact, the navi issue is precisely why I don't have a 2003 E500 today. I decided to wait for the navi (lucky).

I cannot tolerate the dealer constantly saying that it is MB's fault. They represent the manufacturer, they should not shift blame. And, even if it is solely the fault of MB, the dealers should have put their foot down by now and have demanded communication on the issue. That is why I believe that there is a consorted effort between the dealers and MB to maintain ambiguous word on the navi issue so that they could continue to sell cars. I almost fell into that trap myself when my salesman went ahead and ordered my car in February, knowing that I had ordered the COMAND option, then later told me that he figured it would be pre-wired.

There is no way I can believe that the dealers and MB don't know what is going on. I feel that they have been dangling carrots on a stick.

As I said, I'm not in that position because I haven't taken delivery on an E-class yet. But, I would not have the patience as many of you on this navi issue if I had.

mco

It seems a little early to be talking about class action suits. MB has never said anything more than availability in the first quarter. At this point they are 9 days late.

Sure the lack of information is frustrating and shows poor judgement on their part, but give them a chance.

Enjoy your car as well! I absolutely love my car, the nav is icing on the cake! Sure I want it and they promised it to me, but nobody has said YET that you won't get it as promised ( just a little late).

monakh

mco, while I agree that it is a bit early to be talking about Class-Action lawsuits, and I will say that yes, I do love my car and enjoy it to the max, but no, to me, nav is NOT the icing on the cake, it is a key ingredient in the cake itself. So perhaps the threat of litigation, and not the thousands of customer complaints via post, phone or e-mail will get MB’s attention.

I realize many people here wonder, what is the big deal? It is only navigation, and can't you just get from point A to point B using a freaking map? Well, I would retort that those who are used to the nav, would never be without it, and above all, it isn't even about the damn COMAND II. It is about MB, a premium marque, not being honest with its customers and dealing with the whole issue in such an insidious manner that it breeds suspicion and callous disregard for the customer.

One cannot let the dealers off the hook for this, as another poster mentioned as well. They may not be in cahoots with the manufacturer, but without the dealer network, MB does not have much of a presence here (at least in the US--I believe most of the Canadian dealerships are owned by MBNA). They are fully dependent on their dealer network. The dealers should be as ticked off about this as we are. However, my dealer, for example, does not even THINK there is an issue with the nav not being available. It is like talking to a brick wall. Nav, what Nav? Oh we gave you an IOU? Well you will get it soon. No mention of retrofits, no mention of other options in the works. Just freaking glossies for twenty bucks off of your next alignment in a workshop that is not even constructed and furnished fully yet. Idiots. I regret the day I walked into that dealership and bought my very first Mercedes (I don't regret the purchase of the E--just where I got it from). All of us should get together and open a dealership. It will likely be the best dealership on the planet!

At times like this, we need Jeff to tell us to chill.

Callaway

I hope that when these retrofits arrive they have installed a bonus feature i.e a TV tuner (or linguatronic in the U.S) at no extra cost.

It would not be hard for them to add this to the unit and it would go some way towards fixing the terrible PR problems they have with COMAND customers at the moment.

Otto

please read the new 2004 e wagon

http://www.autoweek.com/cat_content...._code=05875869

this is why mb does not want to retrofit the nav system because it not only replacing your center console but it may have to replace your speedometer and related circuit board and wires.

for the new buyers, please wait for this fall to get the new design nav system. (do NOT place orders now.)

abhansali

I does not look like we will have a choice on this....

pat a.

I disagree - the speedometer is a just a display terminal - it already displays data from the audio system, etc. Once the Nav is installed in the car there is no reason why the Nav data should not be able to be displayed in the speedometer display - it is just a software change, not a hardware change.

Otto

either in Europe or Australia

CANNOT display nav information in the speedometer which means your assumption may not be correct.

Callaway

Yes, but what Pat is saying is the digital screen is already there it's just that the system will not read the information at the moment.

Hence the need for new software not hardware.

Otto

Callaway,

http://www.imakenews.com/autospies/e...e000142009.cfm

does this mean your car have 2 GPS sensors and the future w211 with nav only has 1 GPS sensor? then mb has to provide software to handle both 1 and 2 sensors. (or mb gives up 2003 w211 -- maybe even cancelled for 2003 cars)

because all w211 have had teleaid already. does this mean mb tries to instll nav to the current w211 without adding another GPS sensor?

I know the speedometer display is there but it cannot map the resolution of nav display -- that is why I think hardware may need to be upgraded. the previous mail for 2004 e wagon mentions redesigned nav system which means it is different from the current one.

the better design is used HUD which allows you see the map without looking down either speedometer display or console while you are driving. (the new bmw e60 has this feature.)

Otto

jabo

My impression is that what will show up on the center guage is directional arrows and instructions which, with the current resolution of the digital display, should be easy to implement.