ttoE550

It was a perfect 75-degree day today. So the wife, the kid, and I decide to go to a park we've never been to today. I enter the address into the NAV system, bring up some vintage ZZ-Top, and take off. We head out on I-270 in the Washington, DC, suburbs of Maryland.

About every 30 seconds -- corresponding to each exit from 270 -- the NAV system would lower the awesome sounds of Reverend Willie G's guitar picking and announce "In 500 feet keep left on I-270" or "Now, keep left." Basically, the NAV system was interrupting ZZ to tell me not to take every exit we passed. No sh*t, Sherlock. THEN when we got close to the exit, the 30-second interruptions were "Keep left. Take the next exit on the right." WTF? Keep left on a busy 10-lane highway and take the next exit on the right? Moreover, the real exit was actually 3 exits away and not the next! This is not (I hope) an update issue, as the exits being referenced have been in place longer than the 10 years we have lived here.

This was a real bummer. Especially since my daughter called dibs on Kelly Clarkson on the way home when, naturally, I did not need the NAV system and its annoyances.

Are there options to keep NAV system announcements to important ones? Is there a way to have route guidance without the annoying interruptions? I looked in the manual, and saw nothing beyond controlling the volume. But that is ineffective as it still turns down the audio even with the NAV volume set low.

Thanks in advance for any help!

RW C55

I would mute the voice guidance and use the nav. screen on speedo. But thats just me.

z0h

I just did this drive today - happens only when 270 splits to "express" and "local" lanes around rockville/gaithersburg right? It happened in my "neverlost" GPS from hertz so it's clearly not a MB-specific problem, but quite annoying still.

you can set the updates in the nav menu, and you can mute the announcements (or you can turn down the nav voice by adjusting only when the nav is speaking- it'll leave regular audio alone)

ttoE550

Yes, it was exactly around that area. But my exit was just a few beyond the end of the local lanes, so it immediately switched to "Keep left and take the next exit on the right."

My wife always mocks the system. "In 500 feet, do not run into the guardrail" and "Now, do not run into the guardrail." Grrrr.

Actually, just turning down the NAV voice is a little more complicated. It doesn't affect the audio when the NAV voice is not speaking. It also does not affect the audio when the NAV voice is louder than the audio (not sure how to describe it exactly). But when the NAV voice is not as loud as the audio, it does indeed turn down the audio to a level where you can hear the NAV voice over the audio. That was my problem today.

I didn't know that I could mute just the NAV system, so I will try that in the future. And the speedo thing is an interesting idea, but having the map up was helpful today as it made it clear that the "next exit" the NAV kept mentioning was not really the next exit.

jinx420hat

Something similar was driving me nuts, when the sat based traffic would come up every 2-5 mins telling me the same damn accident was still 45 miles ahead of me, then I found out I can just push the mute button on the console. It was pretty amazing because you cant really enjoy your music with all the constant interruptions from that damn lady...

Diesel Benz

Do you have the option for "dynamic route" versus "fast/shortest" or something similar that does not make use of traffic info (and I would assume would not report audible traffic announcements then)?

AJRDU

From the main COMAND screen, choose the NAVI up top. Then Scroll down the menu beyond what is visible. You can turn your knob, or pull it towards the rear of the car. There is a check box for AUDIO FADEOUT. That should keep your radio volume where it is despite the thing making annoucements. She'll still talk but you can turn her down or just ignore her since your radio volume will not be muted.