ScottMcG

Howdy,

I've got a 2004 E320 Wagon, and it's still rocking the original COMAND nav disc and software. While there are a few parts of my town that don't appear correctly, it's about what I expected overall for an OEM nav unit of '04 vintage.

Now I'm thinking of updating to the latest version of the Nav disc, which will also require updating the software. While I can find (somewhat) legit copies of the Nav disc on eBay, there's still the matter of updating the software to be able to use it.

I don't have any experience with the updated software or Nav info - can somebody tell me what's better after the update? Is it worth the ~$350 or so to upgrade to the latest version if the '04 maps are OK for my purposes?

Thanks!

Barry45RPM

In your case, yes upgrade. You will get slightly more usefull info at the bottom of your screen like ETA instead of altitude, and your map will reflect many changes from around the country. If there haven't been many road changes in your home area and that's where you mostly drive, you won't notice much difference, as the update gives you many road additions, but they're from all over the US. In your case, I recommend you have the dealer supply the NAV update disk and upgrade the operating software to run the new map disk as your system will almost surely freeze up from this massive leap forward and resulting software incompatabilities, and you'd be at the dealer a few days after you tried to do this yourself anyway after much sweating and sleeplessness. Your system will almost surely crash after inserting the NAV map disk.

After this update, I wouldn't update for at least 4 more years if you still have the car. (I believe the most recent NAV map is Version 10. Check with navteq.com to be sure.)

After you update, you will probably have to drive around for about half an hour for the system to relocate & reorient itself. Then it will snap back to location.

WEBSRFR

But Barry how can Scott tell the altitude after the update? It's a very useful thing to know given how it was included... And what about the longitude and the latitude? He's really going to miss that too

Seriously though I think the money is better spent on a portable GPS unit IMHO given how awful our navigation systems are. For a couple of hundred $ you can buy a MUCH better navigation unit to use in the car.

ScottMcG

Thanks for the advice - I must admit that the altitude is kind of cool. I was mostly interested in learning if the updates would do better than go from "totally sucks" to "mostly sucks" and it sounds like that's not really the case. The ETA stuff would be nice (I know it's there behind a few button presses) but there doesn't appear to be anything dramatic.

So I guess the best thing is to wait and see if I can get a really good deal on a Nav disc. I already have a TomTom that I use for rental cars and my Android phone has really good Google nav built in, but I'd rather just have the clean, built-in nav that already lives in the car.

In all honesty, the existing nav is good for 95% of what I need it for. It would be great if it had voice input, satellite view, real-time traffic, and police radar jammer, but it does the core job it's supposed to do. If something's not showing up on the MB nav, I'll just get out my phone and use it.

I thought about the CarTronics COMAND replacement, but just don't want to come up with the cash for it. It would get me a lot of other stuff I want though, like Bluetooth integration, but I've got other things I want to do to my car first.

novae500

I picked up a used 2010 map from another member on here. It worked fine with my 06 E500

Cartronics

We would not recommend the COMAND PRO for the items you list. It is far easier to upgrade (and you will generally be a more satisfied client) to upgrade your current head unit with any features you want. Navigation changes alone are not sufficient to warrant changing the head unit in our opinion.
The COMAND PRO is really for cars that do not have navigation already. Although some have replaced the current NAV and are very happy. We just like to consult with each client to make them aware of what pluses and minuses are to each system. In this case, I think getting a new NAV disk is the best.

ScottMcG

Hi Cartronics,

Thanks for the input - that's about the understanding I have as well. I'm going to live with the current nav until a good deal on a new disc comes around and buy the puck and tail instead. That gets me most of what I want for a reasonable cost.

deltadude388

What's the latest DVD gps software now?