MBStar

As I posted previously, my long awaited E550C (CLK 550) is plagued with
glitches and its Navigation/Linguatronic "enhamcements" are mostly
downgrades. After weeks of frustration, the Parktronic Red LED alarm has not
recurred since the dealer replaced the the (now) rear (moved from the front)
sensors, with a set of 4 new ones.

The "hot" new software fix from Germany did not sovle the
problem: sudden, unexplained Parktronic audio and visual alarm only in the
front, but after swapping the sensors front to back, and uploading this new
software, I was getting the alarm also in the rear.

So now I am left with the embarrassing Navigation system (a $200 Garmin
Nuvi shows the approaching cross street names, unlike the MB OE Navi), and
a completely useless Linguatronic that cannot recognize the names I stored,
even if I play them back from my Dictaphone. Not to mention the lack of any
traffic info overlay on the Navigation Maps.

And like I thought, the GM of my dealership DOES think all this is my own
fault...."bad karma" - he says!.

Well here you are, while I like the way it dives, handles, and the sweet V8, I
am not a happy owner....

bosendorfer

That's just pure baloney that your dealership thinks "it's all your own fault". Rubbish. The reason your dealer General Manager doesn't want to admit their is a problem is that that would mean they would have to correct it! However, that is the system with which the car is marketed and sold, so the dealer is put in a position of trying to defend the OEM equipment, when it really is very, very bad. The other problem is that when a culture like Mercedes Benz exists, which tends to sometimes be quite insular, in thinking the cars are "the best in the world", i.e. their marketing programs have been on the order of "it's what you have come to expect from a Mercedes Benz" to "This is a Mercedes Benz." So, there is a certain mentality that develops in which the MBUSA dealers and the MBUSA organization as a whole just can't fathom to think anything is wrong. If someone does somehow acknowledge that there might be a problem, the fall back is something to the effect: It can't be perfect right? My answer: Well, no it can't be perfect, but no one was ever asking that it be perfect, but that it just perform adequately at least, but in actuality it should perform better than other navigation systems, built in or not. After all, "This is a Mercedes Benz." The root of the problem I believe has to do with MBUSA cutting corners and skimping on the data set they buy or the programs they have adapted to utilize in their cars which come from the data provider, NAVTEQ. TeleAtlas is a better data set and is generally the benchmark for the industry.

And you will probably turn blue in the face and become quite frustrated in attempting to convince most anyone at the MBUSA organization or the dealers that anything is wrong. However, we do have benchmarks against which we can compare the MBUSA Original Equipment, i.e namely those that people often list, i.e. Acura, etc. This is the reasoning I used when I finally obtained a smidgen of acknowledgment from a service technician at a dealer that the navigation was quite inadequate, but at that time I came to realize that it was something over which a dealer had little to no control, since this was a policy matter and issue, which had to be dealt with from either MBUSA or from Mercedes Benz, Daimler Benz, etc. in Germany.

So, as long as the public continues to buy the cars, knowingly, but mostly unknowingly, that have such a poor navigation system, there is little incentive for MBUSA to do much about it.