I've been carefully considering a new car to replace my 2005 S4. The W212 E550 is high on my list, but there are a few quirks that bug me. I'm curious what people think of them after owning the car for a while..

(1) the command on/off button - I'm used to turning off the radio by pushing on the volume button. Pretty much ever car I've been in for the last ten years has kept this faithful design. However, when I was testing the MB nav in the showroom, I did this and the whole command system shutdown showing the MB logo. I don't see why I'd ever want to shut off the command system, so I don't push this button anymore. In looking at MB cars I find myself repeatedly hunting to find that subtle "mute" button over to the left. What gives? Does the on/off always shut off the whole command system? Does anyone else find this strange? ...or annoying that the mute (i.e. radio off) button is in a totally different place from the volume?

(2) turn signal location - Is this just historial precedent? or is there an actual functional reason that MB put their turn signal stalk lower than every other car out there?

(3) nav control lockout - both BMW and Audi Nav controls can now be used while driving. Even just the benefit of being able to have the passenger enter an address while moving is huge for me. We constantly wrestle with this problem in my wife's Lexus RX 450h, so I know how annoying it is. Is there any way to remove the lock-out while moving in COMMAND?

(4) slow command response - While testing the command system in a stationary car, multiple times I had the system show me an hourglass and take several seconds to move to a different screen (from nav to radio, for example). Once the system just stopped responding altogether and I had to turn it off and on to get it to respond again. (is that why it has the off/on button?) Does this happen in everyday use or was there just something temporarily going wrong with the unit I tested? I've never seen problems like this with another car computer.

 

1) There is a "mute" button on the steering wheel. The "ON" button (center of the controls) will turn the entire system off. If you want to turn the screen off (but keep the radio on), you can scroll through to do so.

2) All MB turn signal stalks are positioned this way to allow adequate room between the signal stalk and the cruise control. After a couple days of driving, it is natural.

3) You cannot remove the lock-out without going aftermarket, however, you can use LINGUATRONIC to input directions while driving. It actually works quite well.

4) I have never experienced the hourglass in any recent Benz I've owned (2008 C350, 2010 E550), sounds like a fluke - perhaps the vehicle was parked indoors and it was confused trying to grab SIRIUS and/or GPS signals? Definitely not something normal, regardless.

Hope this helps.

 

None of your Concerns have ever bothered me. There is also a mute button on the wheel. I have never seen an hourglass, I usually enter destinations before I leave on a trip and I believe you can do it while driving if you use the voice control. I also have nav in my 2010 ML550 and its similar. Have had nav in other e class and earlier ML's also. The 2010 seems to be the best so far. I consider it an excellent system. As far as the turn signal location is concerned, I never gave it a second thought and it is not an issue for me at all. Seems pretty logical to me and is exactly in the correct place to easilly get to without having to fumble or reach for it.

 

Thanks! It's refreshing to know that the hourglass is not a regular occurance. That unit also had some quirky problems with bluetooth, wheras the E550 I drove did not. Perhaps it was just in a bad state or flakey from a nearly dead battery in the showroom.

Does anyone have a pointer to an aftermarket method to remove the lockout?

 

Yeah, Mute Button is on the steering wheel. Having owned a Previous E-Class, I always wished I had a Mute on the wheel like the C-Class Loaners I'd gotten. I think it is the best place for it, BUT, I think they could have put one around the general command area as well, to make things easier.

Nav lockout absolutely sucks. But hey, I guess one less distraction from fellow E-Class Owners on the road to be worried about. However, if I'm gonna be punished with this Safety function, then I hope every car other car gets the same treatment!

You'll get accustomed to the turn signal stalk, however, M-B's Cruise Control placement is still questionable to me, I've accidentally hit it ever now and again, and I can imagine, it could be a potential safety "hazard" for some, who accidentally engage it, etc.

Sounds like the car you tested, had some issues with the Command system.

 

Also, the only way to actually use the Nav while driving, is via the Voice Command, so there is a way, technically.

 

I believe the company is MidCity Engineering. I believe they advertise on this site.

Good luck with your purchase!

 

There is a mute button in the command area of the W212. It's on the left side of the big button grid. It's just so innocuous that it's hard to find. The big button in the middle of the volume *** would be a much more obvious (and typical) way to turn off the stereo. I don't understand why anyone would ever want to actually turn the whole command-system completely off. On my wife's lexus there is a button to turn off the display if you really want to, but it's still "on", which means it'll still provide voice directions, and tapping any button instantly turns the display back on. If you turn off mercedes command you have to wait a few seconds for it to boot again.

I might be atypical, but I don't use the steering wheel controls. I have to take my eyes off the road more to look at the steering wheel than to use the dash controls, and for some reason I tend not to get used to the steering wheel button locations. I might use a single button like mute.

BMW and Audi (and I think Acura) do not have Navigation entry lockout on today's vehicles. On those you can enter an address while in motion on-screen and more importantly, your passenger can. Lexus and Mercedes have navigation lockout and voice-entry only during motion.

In my wife's lexus, she likes to use the nav anytime we go to a new restaurant, party, etc. We play a funny game trying to enter a few letters of the address at each stop as we are on our way through the city. We don't always have the address handy when we start the trip (one of us usually has to look it up on a cellphone), and sitting to get it all right before leaving would add significant time to our mostly short trips. Only rarely do we use the voice entry, because it's pretty annoying to have to answer 3 prompts out of 5 always the same way on the Lexus' rigid voice menus... (button) Destination -> address -> san francisco -> (street number) -> (street) -> Enter. I'd prefer to just push a button and say an address which it can assume is in san francisco because that's 99% of our trips!

Lexus has pretty much declared they will never remove the lockout, and in fact their software update removed the ability to turn off the lockout from older vehicles! I wonder what MB long-term stance is on this.

 

Yeah. The W212 has more "baby-sitting" than I'm a fan of. I like all the Active Safety stuff, and don't performance drive, so the ESP and all that stuff isn't an issue to me, but I'm mainly talking about the Nav situation, and the fact that you CANNOT TURN THE DAMN LIGHTS OFF. That is the most ridiculous thing I've seen in a car.... I can't even control my own lights.

I have the Xenons, and every time I pull into or out of my garage, my Xenon's fire up for just the couple of minutes before or after being in daylight. Not only is it annoying, but it wastes the life of the lights.

 

You can use a VIM-device to kill the speed signal and make address entry at speed possible but it isn't a good combination because Navigation function suffers from a missing speed signal badly.

Address entry isn't blocked on all markets. It was not blocked in the US either, I remember W211 owners having their Comand SW updated and that disabling address entry at speed. Fortunately on those units the version coding can be fixed locally with SDS. On the 212 this is controlled by SCN-coding and I doubt it would be easy to have a US car coded differently from what MBUSA (not MB) wants. If I had a US car, I would still try to find a better resolution than VIM.