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I think Mercedes is providing new subscriptions for Live Traffic, at least on the starting level system (not COMAND). I bought it last week in form of a SD card with updated maps and including 3 years subscription of Live Traffic. See pictures.
As an extremely welcomed surprise, someone has decided to leave the horrible "wheel of pain" that was used before to enter addresses as destinations. Absolutely useless and without voice command it will kill you if you try to use it when driving. Now bang on with rows with letters/numbers as it was like in W212 but still why do you have to start with city? Like starting with Planet Earth...
Coincidence? The GPS lost contact with satellites heading home from re-seller after a while. Came back next trip for like 10 minutes and then gone again. It keeps on like this so I have not really checked if the Live Traffic works but it is registered at least. Penultimate trip for today, then the screen went gray with a line in the middle and completely dead and rebooting after a while with a flickering screen and after shutdown of car back to normal.
Service ordered which includes a costly system upgrade ??
Sudden
Hard to believe it is an improvement but it is! (Swedish where "Stad" is "City") License registered SD card box Hmmm
Last week my Live Traffic expired on my '17 E300, so I contacted MB and they told me that TOMTOM was no longer supporting it and there would be no way to renew it.
Now I use Google Maps on my phone, mounted next to the screen, so not the end of the world but still MB, no backup plan. And please don't say, Android Auto, which is like watching a 720p movie on a 4K screen.
I also called Sirius XM and they told me the E series does not support NAV traffic which really surprised me.
So I reached out to MB on Twitter. they replied back saying reach out to the Mercedes Me team. I replied back saying that I did but pretty much to no Avail since I said that they never acknowledged my tweet probably hoping that the tweet gets buried. Not sure if you guys have a Twitter account. This I think was my first tweed in ages. Maybe we should try flooding this tweet to see if we can get a reaction or anything because they are totally ignoring this issue when we all have paid for the feature(even if its a subscription service) that was promised.
Link is below. Please go and add on. I don't think the legal route is the short term answer. Companies do not like getting hammered on their official social media feeds. Let do this!
I honestly don’t even miss it. Google maps traffic is better. And it’s free.
I get what you are saying. I just went from Android to Apple Car Play last week and that beats both the Factory system and leaves Android in the dust.
That said my point is that this is a disgrace where MB stop supporting on a 3 year old vehicle that even the warranty has not even run out yet. They do it because they can get away with it. One thing they can't get away from is getting blasted on Social media.
I agree with you there. For them to abandon it within just 3 or 4 years is shameful.
i have owned 7 Mercedes including my current 2017 E 300. I use navigation extensively. Had I been told up front that live traffic would not be available after three years, I would not have bought a Mercedes. The implication was that after three years of free live traffic, you would have to pay to subscribe. I think Mercedes misled us. To make things worse, I have seen no official communication from Mercedes on this issue....nothing saying that Live Traffic is not renewable, explaining the reason or responding to unhappy customers in a meaningful way. In fact, the service advisor at my dealer didn’t know and learned about it from me. Many of Mercedes technical advisors—the ones you reach at 800-for mercedes—also are often totally clueless about the issue. As I’ve said before, Mercedes is demonstrating the ironic truth of its slogan “The best or nothing” by providing nothing. This will be my last Mercedes, not that Mercedes seems to care.
Unbelievable............another "online" feature of our high tech car discontinued............after TuneIN (does not work with radio stations that use the newer, secure https protocol) and disabling the built-in webbrowser........now also no real time traffic info after three years. Let's see if this latter is also true for the facelifted cars (with COMAND 5*5), but I am afraid for the answer already..........
Of course we can all use our smartphones, but most governments don't want you to do (with big fines if you do while driving), then CarPlay/Android Auto can be the alternatieve, but is only for facelifted cars (and they did still not solve the HD/full screen issue with AA.........easy sw update also, but MB has no clue). If MB keeps on going this path, this will be the last MB for me I am afraid........ :
People buy cars not only for the brand, engine and looks, als for the online features, etc, if a manufacturer stays behind in this field........they will loose lots of (younger) customers!
They kinda did this with the mbrace too on pre 2018 vehicles. My internet is only able to connect about half the time. Originally not at all, but sorta got it figured out. It's using the old Verizon setup and there is no apple car play in my car either as it's a S class and a 2017 and they did not start apple CarPlay until 2018 in the S class cars. At least I am lucky with the S class though that the Nav traffic still seems to work as it's done through Sirrus XM. Seems like Benz was really jumping around a lot with a lot of different things, Between using Verizon for Data and then going to ATT on the 2018 plus models and same with the Nav Traffic between Tom Tom and XM and I think there was other one too, I dunno, hard to keep up. It does suck that they kinda don't support some things they did years before though, it's just not right. I know in my car they got rid of the web browser too.
I honestly don’t even miss it. Google maps traffic is better. And it’s free.
I have no navigation in my E class W212 but I have tom-tom live traffic in my Renault.
And the tom-tom live traffic is the best best navigation I have seen, I love the graphic, the functions and the perfect information about traffic situations and traffic jams.
In my Renault I have it for free for a period of hree years, then I have pay for it.
Out of curiosity has anyone noticed if they have a 4G LTE connection on their Mercedes service. I used to almost always have 4G LTE but over the last few months it has just been a 4G (no LTE) Service.
Ours went expired this week, the wife is the primary driver of the E300, she finds the feature it of little value, she travels local roads avoiding freeway traffic back ups and delays are not an issue on the majority of her trips.
It would be nice to permanently disable the popup warning regarding the expiration, assuming that MB will never port over to another service provider, then at least give us a switch to turn the annoyance OFF!
I sent this to Star Magazine but they have yet to publish it.
Live Traffic Service is not available for our 2018 A238 E400 Cabriolet. No subscription is available. This is disappointing. We bought the car CPO from Manhattan MB last June, and no one mentioned that the three-year Live Traffic subscription would end in September, rendering that important routing function moot. The car has Apple CarPlay, but I like the MB navigation screen. I appreciate Waze, but I don’t like its routing and interface and MB CarPlay doubles the speed on the Waze display. Waze says that’s something MB knows about but has yet to address.
Our 2012 CLS had SiriusXM subscription Live Traffic service, as does our 2018 GLC. I'd hate to think we bought a 25k mile E400 Cabriolet that will never get live traffic data. That’s a huge problem on the Eastern Seaboard.
The CPO program should have noted this impending problem in June. Lack of Live Traffic service decreases the value of the vehicle. As repeat MB buyers, we would have appreciated forthright disclosure of this problem. It would have been part of our due diligence. We’ve owned five Mercedes vehicles and would like to believe hoodwinking is not in the company’s playbook. What does MB intend to do to correct the Live Traffic problem? And, do you have plans to correct CarPlay interface?
My main complaint is with the CPO program. We did appropriate due diligence but never would have thought to look up a business spat between MB and TomTom GO. My wife drives a GLC300 and her live traffic is through SiriusXM. The 2012 CLS550 we traded for the cab used SiriusXM. I think MB CPO dodged its responsibility by failing to report faulty service. If it isn't a legal issue, it is certainly a customer confidence issue. Twitter and social media might be the most leverage. They cherish their brand above all. MB has been otherwise unresponsive on this matter. It shouldn't be this way. They sell a premium product and should offer premium support, in my humble opinion.
I currently have issues with live traffic in my 2019 C63S, however, I don't think they are using TomTom anymore with the 2019+ vehicles or they are in the process of converting it. They have discontinued the old mBrace platform and 2019+ models use the new Mercedes me connect platform. New app (it just got a major update not too long ago), new services such as OTA updates etc. At the moment live traffic is only working intermittently for me. I have an open issue with Mercedes me connect support, but no resolution yet. When I called, the customer service rep had to check the system for the traffic provider that my car uses, so that tells me they now have different providers, but somewhere something isn't working at the moment. I'm planning on calling them on Monday and get a status on my issue. It's not bothering me too much at the moment, because I'm not really going anywhere and I can always use CarPlay. I don't use Waze, though. I've never been a fan of Waze. The much touted alerts are largely useless at least in my area. They are generally woefully out of date. I use Google Maps. Much more appealing on the eye, even supports satellite view for more eye candy and works rather well. I usually keep it on the new CarPlay Dashboard now that Google Maps supports it. Waze has lately become super buggy actually in conjunction with CarPlay. They have numerous issues and while the UI has become a bit more mature, I ended up uninstalling it last year.
This won't help people with older cars but might be helpful to know going forward.
Mercedes used to use TomTom and Sirius traffic. In 2016 Audi, BMW and Mercedes together bought HERE Technologies from Nokia. HERE has its own traffic data service. Three years later Mercedes announced they would begin using HERE traffic in select models/markets starting in 2019. My guess is problems between changes to traffic data formats and backward compatibility. I'd hate to think Mercedes simply dropped its contracts with other traffic suppliers now that it was co-owner of its own traffic service. Or maybe Mercedes is renegotiating contracts with those suppliers? IDK
Now that MB has control of both the traffic data and format as well as the cars receiving it, i don't think (hope) it'll continue to be a problem. I just bought a 2021 MB C300 in the States. I checked before buying. It uses HERE traffic.
p.s. It's a factory build. The dealer offered 10% off MSRP! I did tell them I'm submitting the build to multiple dealers which probably helped.
Last edited by LookingAround; 03-19-2021 at 07:32 PM.
This won't help people with older cars but might be helpful to know going forward.
Mercedes used to use TomTom and Sirius traffic. In 2016 Audi, BMW and Mercedes together bought HERE Technologies from Nokia. HERE has its own traffic data service. Three years later Mercedes announced they would begin using HERE traffic in select models/markets starting in 2019. My guess is problems between changes to traffic data formats and backward compatibility. I'd hate to think Mercedes simply dropped its contracts with other traffic suppliers now that it was co-owner of its own traffic service. Or maybe Mercedes is renegotiating contracts with those suppliers? IDK
Now that MB has control of both the traffic data and format as well as the cars receiving it, i don't think (hope) it'll continue to be a problem. I just bought a 2021 MB C300 in the States. I checked before buying. It uses HERE traffic.
p.s. It's a factory build. The dealer offered 10% off MSRP! I did tell them I'm submitting the build to multiple dealers which probably helped.
How do you submit to multiple dealers? I had to put $5,000 down. Did you give each dealer $5,000?
This won't help people with older cars but might be helpful to know going forward.
Mercedes used to use TomTom and Sirius traffic. In 2016 Audi, BMW and Mercedes together bought HERE Technologies from Nokia. HERE has its own traffic data service. Three years later Mercedes announced they would begin using HERE traffic in select models/markets starting in 2019. My guess is problems between changes to traffic data formats and backward compatibility. I'd hate to think Mercedes simply dropped its contracts with other traffic suppliers now that it was co-owner of its own traffic service. Or maybe Mercedes is renegotiating contracts with those suppliers? IDK
Now that MB has control of both the traffic data and format as well as the cars receiving it, i don't think (hope) it'll continue to be a problem. I just bought a 2021 MB C300 in the States. I checked before buying. It uses HERE traffic.
p.s. It's a factory build. The dealer offered 10% off MSRP! I did tell them I'm submitting the build to multiple dealers which probably helped.
Yep that was my suspicion. Thanks for finding the official announcement. I suspect they are in the process of converting all Mercedes me connect accounts over to HERE Traffic if they didn't have it from the beginning already, which would explain the hiccups. How did you confirm the traffic provider for your car? I've been trying to find this, but all I can see is the expiration date. I'm guessing that all model years that use Mercedes me connect will eventually get HERE Traffic or already have it. The older models with mBrace may be out of luck.
How do you submit to multiple dealers? I had to put $5,000 down. Did you give each dealer $5,000?
Maybe it's the region? I'm in chicago.
I just visited each dealer. Walked in as a regular customer looking for a car and did look at what they had in stock and sometimes test drove. After I didn't see anything I liked I told them I'd be submitting a build to order spec to area dealers. None of the sales people said anything about money down before accepting my spec. When ready, I sent a single email out bcc'ed the two sales people. (i went to a 3rd dealer but they didn't have an open allocation to order a car). I was elated when one replied with a 10% discount. The other said they could only do $1,000 off. I replied thanks for the offer but another dealer was significantly lower. I didn't mean it to negotiate but let them know they were way off! They came back with a 3% discount. I told them the deal was done and they were still way off.
I don't know if it would do any good but if a dealer asked for money down first, i'd tell them then they're sure not going to get my business then but another area dealer would. Or, if I had to, agree with a fully refundable 1K deposit on a credit card.
Last edited by LookingAround; 03-19-2021 at 10:32 PM.
Yep that was my suspicion. Thanks for finding the official announcement. I suspect they are in the process of converting all Mercedes me connect accounts over to HERE Traffic if they didn't have it from the beginning already, which would explain the hiccups. How did you confirm the traffic provider for your car? I've been trying to find this, but all I can see is the expiration date. I'm guessing that all model years that use Mercedes me connect will eventually get HERE Traffic or already have it. The older models with mBrace may be out of luck.
I stumbled across what I was looking for on the Mercedes "Build your own" website. Under Mutimedia package option, clicked Command navigation then scrolled right till they happened to show 3 years live traffic where they say they use HERE. (Happens I used to work for the sat nav company Nokia bought in 2007 so I've been following the industry. Nokia renamed the company to HERE. Nokia took a beating when the stock market and their phone market share both crashed in 2008. They sold HERE to the Audi / BMW / Mercedes consortium in 2016. HERE also provides the navigable map data, POI information and in-car location based services)
I didn't even realize there was a traffic subscription problem with Mercedes till I stumbled across this thread when I started researching cars to buy. So sorry for your pain but thanks guys. That's when i realized what to look into.
I suspect you're right about mBrace customers out of luck. It would be nice if Mercedes would at least guarantee traffic for X years. After a certain point in time, even Windows versions get retired! But X years still has to be a reasonable number. Of course, no such statement from Mercedes yet. Maybe if we could all start complaining and give neg feedback on a prominent web site? IDK
Last edited by LookingAround; 03-20-2021 at 05:41 AM.
I just visited each dealer. Walked in as a regular customer looking for a car and did look at what they had in stock and sometimes test drove. After I didn't see anything I liked I told them I'd be submitting a build to order spec to area dealers. None of the sales people said anything about money down before accepting my spec. When ready, I sent a single email out bcc'ed the two sales people. (i went to a 3rd dealer but they didn't have an open allocation to order a car). I was elated when one replied with a 10% discount. The other said they could only do $1,000 off. I replied thanks for the offer but another dealer was significantly lower. I didn't mean it to negotiate but let them know they were way off! They came back with a 3% discount. I told them the deal was done and they were still way off.
I don't know if it would do any good but if a dealer asked for money down first, i'd tell them then they're sure not going to get my business then but another area dealer would. Or, if I had to, agree with a fully refundable 1K deposit on a credit card.
I talked to a dealer in the Chicago area and a dealer in a different area. They won’t place an order without a deposit. I think I know which dealer didn’t have an allocation. I ordered a c300 cabriolet.
I talked to a dealer in the Chicago area and a dealer in a different area. They won’t place an order without a deposit. I think I know which dealer didn’t have an allocation. I ordered a c300 cabriolet.
When did you place your order? When do they estimate arrival? I just ordered mine Mar 16 and was told June or July delivery. Just heard in last night's news, the auto companies are still having supply line delays. So I hope my delivery doesn't get delayed. The news also said since spring car buying season approaching and there's a shortage of cars now, don't expect big discounts. Sounds like I got very lucky!
If it might help anyone, I went to the following dealers. None asked for a deposit for a bid. MSRP on the build was $59.9K
Loeber Motors (Lincolnwood). Loeber didn't have any open car allocations so couldn't do a factory build at that time
Fletcher Jones (in Chicago). Fletcher Jones first said they could only do $1,000 off MSRP. Then came back with a 3% discount
Autohaus on Edens (Glenview). Autohaus offered a 10% discount off MSRP right out of the gate. It certainly felt lucky when I saw a 10% offer. From what I read in the forums, it seemed offers were typically lower. And the posts I found, were all pre-Covid.
Does anyone one know if, and by how much, dealer options might be negotiable.? I thought i read in a car forum (unfortunately don't recall which one or even if it was a Mercedes forum), someone recommended the dealer to call to add discounted Mercedes options for
Service/maintenance
Extended warrant
Wheel damage
Paintless dent repair
Last edited by LookingAround; 03-20-2021 at 06:11 AM.
At first I was looking at an E450 cabriolet. Talked to a dealer in Ky. He would give me a quote but no order without $5k on CC. Offered $500 off an $82k car. Decided against it. Talked to MB of St Charles. Decided on a C300 cabriolet. $67k. Offered $800 off after I pushed him. The cabriolet is different. Don’t know if there will be a 2022. The redesigned 2022 sedan has already been announced. To place the order, needed to put $5k on CC. March 5th for maybe June. As you have stated, there could be delays.
Don’t know about the other stuff. I will negotiate with selling dealer. I’ll hold off on extended warranty until I see if I keep the car.
I think most MB dealers want $5k to factory order a vehicle. That being said, my salesman who also is the sales manager takes a CC deposit, but never puts it through. For the W211 purchase I made several floor limit CC transactions while waiting for the car. The bottom line is that I got an additional 2% cash back on the purchase price. They may not let me do that today.
02-02-2020, 12:09 PM
