NickTH

Bought our E400 last wk.
Hit the embrace button for the first time yesterday to ask for simple question.
Rep asked all kinds of questions to confirm ID & asked for our credit card info to set up our "free" 6 month trial of embrace.
We said "no thanks", then called our salesman to ask question. Done in 10 sec.

Figured we have MB road assistance service included for 4 yrs, why would we want to pay $280/ yr for embrace (+ another $240/yr for embrace plus) just to have their "concierge" services. We can input nav info ourselves.

So for those who paid to extend their embrace subscriptions, pls give us your thoughts on why you think it's worth it.

Thanks,

sdvictor

Basic mbrace comes with crash assistance and other onstar-level telematics. Only 1 real use for me on a daily basis, which is send-to-benz.

nycebo

I do love the send to car feature. Plus, the valet feature is nice.

paking

+1

Also, I love the lock/unlock through my iphone.

DJ Hellfire

The internet features are extremely slow. Send 2 Benz and all the lock and location features are nice though.

pcsgrp

I liked the send to benz but I found that using my smartphone gave me more results when I did a search. Sometimes the MB app didn't find the place I was looking for and using google on the phone did it. Just put in the address and off I went. I didn't continue it on wife's car last year and will not continue it on mine this year. Really not worth the extra money but if concerige service was part of the basic embrace package I might think twice

pamiboy

You have the first 3-6 months subscription for free. Use it so that you can decide for yourself if you want it or not. You will need to give your credit card information to set up M'brace but they will not charge you anything until the "free" months expire. That way you'll know what you are missing / wasting money on.
In my case, the only feature I used consistently was "send to benz". If your buddy has Mbrace both of you can chase each other on Mbrace.... Other features I tested several times were valet, lock/ unlock, etc. You will use MB apps only once in your life (when you test it), afterwards I guarantee that you won't even bother thinking about it. It's that slow....Imagine trying to use internet 25 years ago using a very slow computer with a dial up connection....
If you don't want to continue the subscription, you simply need to make sure you call them just before 3 months (to discontinue the MB apps) and then call again just before 6 months (to discontinue Mbrace).
All I can say is that it was fun while it lasted .

nycebo

pamiboy, I'm pretty much in agreement with you.

The MB apps are horrific. I tried using them and canceled half way through waiting for a page to load. That's a feature that definitely won't get renewed when my trial is over.

Mbrace for send2benz is great. I downloaded an app on Google Play (Send To Car) that lets me 'share' my location directly to the Mercedes so I can search on my smartphone and shoot it right to the car. With Google Now's voice recognition, it's terrific.

I also like the valet features. Park the car and create a geofence around it to ensure that the car stays nice and secure.

Last, the safety feature of automatic police notification in the event of an accident is a good risk-reducing feature.

For $200+ a year, it's overpriced, but then again, so are our cars. It's a good peace of mind feature to have.

pcsgrp

I only like send to benz and didn't realize send to car on google is the same thing. Thanks for the info.

pcsgrp

I tried to send to the car without embrace active and after waiting a few minutes, nothing arrived. The smart phone app asked for an email address but the computer one asked for the account number. Neither one worked but did fine for the car that still had time remaining on the embrace package. Anyway around this problem?

listerone

I was in a fairly serious accident (the airbags deployed) in the middle of nowhere...hundreds of miles north of Montreal.I was alone and wasn't seriously hurt but within about 15 seconds of impact mbrace was on the phone asking if I needed help.Given that it was -25F outside I said yes and they sent an ambulance.Mbrace and services like it (OnStar,BMW Assist,etc) are *well* worth the $$$ for automatic accident notification alone.

pcsgrp

I agree, in cases where your driving in out of the way places it would be well worth it.

nycebo

I don't think so. My understanding is that mbrace is required in order to use the send to car/benz feature. It'd be nice to know if someone had 'figured' out a workaround.

pcsgrp

I notice there is a way of sending the directions via bluetooth but I don't know how to get the navagation system to read that infor and use it. I guess I am just going to search on my smart phone and read the address into the navagation system.

Rob CL

It was largely useless for me. Granted, the features available for the W211 are somewhat limited, but none of the remote features like starting, locating, Navigation push, worked on my model.

As for GPS, as you've said, it's on my phone... So why bother?

After cancelling my service, I waited a month or so, then tested the SOS feature, and guess what, it still works. -That's really the only "feature" I can see having any real purpose.

NickTH

Can you pls tell me how to send to benz via google...?

Thanks,

nycebo

I have a 2015. I'm pretty sure it also works on the MY2014. Prior to that, someone else will need to chime in.

That said, there's a few ways to send2benz.

MBRACE (slowest approach and I don't often use it)

1. Go to the mbrace website
2. Log in (or register if you have not already done so)
3. Click on the Online Tools section
4. Go to the Send2Benz section (if you have logged in, you can go straight here)
5. Search for the address in the search field

GOOGLE MAPS (web site, fast and easy)

1. You will need to register on mbrace and provide an email address (this is the username used by Google to send the address to mbrace)
2. Follow the instructions here to set up Google Maps' Send to Car functionality
3. Now, when you do a search on Google Maps, you will see a blue link titled "Send to car" in the results. Clicking it will default to the vehicle you configured in the step above.

GOOGLE MAPS (Android app, fast and used the most)

1. Once you have configured your Google send to car functionality as describe above, you have a third option that is a workaround since Google prohibits send to car from their OEM Google Maps app (presumably for safety reasons)
2. Download this app (Send To Car) from the Google Play Store. It has no permissions and is just a link to share addresses from the official Google Maps app to the official SendtoBenz web site.
3. You will need to configure the Send To Car app that you just downloaded with the email address that you used to set up your mbrace account.
4. Now, when you do a search in the Google Maps app, you can click the 'Share' button for the resulting location and select the Send To Car app from the list of shared destinations.
5. It will push the address to your car.

And there are the 3 ways that I've used to load destinations into Navi. Candidly, I used the Android app process the most frequently. And I have to say, it's "almost" worth the price of mbrace alone. That and the safety features are why I'll continue to pay the annual subscription after my free trial is over.

pamiboy

That was a nice explanation.
@ OP Nick, I think you should try it on now since it's free anyway. (You can do it free only now ... When the car is newly purchased). Later on you'll have to pay even if it's for trial.
You can always cancel it if you don't want it before the free trial ends.

samaritrey

Got an email today saying an update to mbrace app is coming soon... should be interesting to see if it is any better.

pcsgrp

I am thinking just get another smartphone for $30/month added to my account and I kill two birds with one stone

nycebo

? How do you mean? Haven't had my second cup of coffee yet so feel I missed something here.

pcsgrp

I just had my second cup still not enough. My embrace ends in a few weeks on my ML. I already got rid of it on my E350. They don't offer any discount for a second vehicle (similar to sirius) so the way I figure it, my wife currently doesn't have a smart phone. For $30/month, I can add a smart phone to my account and if she needs to look anything up or get an address, she can use the phone to get the information and then put it into the gps. Granted, should there be a major accident, we wouldn't have the automatic response feature or the ability to open doors if the keys were locked in but we never raally had that issue before so I can go without it. I think if embrce was more like $280 for three years I would consider getting it again. I have used their information line to find places and have them send it to the car but sometimes they come up short and I wound up using my cell phone anyway.

petee1997

Now that the new cars have WIFI why would you need MBRACE? You can plan a trip on google maps and send to the car.

nycebo

Therein lies the rub. In order to send2benz, one needs the mbrace subscription, though not the mbrace apps add-on. So, it's really a question of whether or not send2benz and smartphone car tracking and door locking/unlocking, along with emergency services, are worth it to you. Even though I plan to keep it, I won't deny that the price is overly steep...even for Mercedes owners.