MBUX 2.0 vehicles such as my S-Class or the new C and SL feature wireless CarPlay, I clarified the original post to clear any confusion.

 

Hey, sorry to revive an old thread but is your E-Class a facelift with the 2 screens and the digital things on the wheel? Im trying to figure out what w213 year to get

 

You have to search the hardware and not software.

Harman/Becker published all that via FCC filings....


but the Bluetooth itself, allowing Bluetooth LE is usually a minimum of Bluetooth 4.0 and above.

 

That is not a facelift, the facelift only have the trackpad no wheel.

 

Actually, there are exceptions to that rule, the cabriolet for some reason still have the rotary wheel on the facelift.

 

Mercedes Auto engineers focus on driving experience and maintainability of the car long term, not developing the next iPhone or iPad. Anything apart from driving while steering is frills. Ask Porsche who still sell barebone cars with no frills and charge for add-ons. The iPads are a Japanese abomination.

 

I can agree with that. Big reason why I own an AMG is because a car to me is 99% about the driving experience, not to live in it or to have a smartphone on wheels. The thing is most normal cars these days are just super boring to drive, especially EVs, and that includes regular Mercedes-Benz vehicles, so I can understand how car manufacturers are trying to distract with all these gimmicks. But I loathe the path we are on with modern cars. They are becoming smartphones on wheels with no sense of driving experience anymore and software that is buggy. My COMAND system developed a strange bug out of the blue after 5 years of ownership. After reflashing the head unit and instrument cluster it's still there and I'm at a loss. Maybe it was a firmware update that was part of a map update that caused it and maybe it'll get fixed with a future update, but for now I just have to live with it. The good thing is that it doesn't distract from the driving experience. I just have to change a couple of settings almost every time after the car is parked for a while as they somehow keep resetting.

For the most part, I don't really use the Infotainment system much for anything. As said, I'm driving, not playing games or what not. When I did the AMG factory tour in Affalterbach back in 2019 the tour guide had similar words. He said AMG doesn't really emphasis the Infotainment system etc. in their cars, because that's not what their cars are about. That stuff comes over from the regular MB models and just happens to be there. AMGs are about the driving experience, but as said the driving experience in many cars gets water down further and further in this move to so-called software defined cars. Things are bad, because that's not the core competency of car manufacturers. If you want a smartphone then go to Apple etc., but if you want a proper car not even Tesla offers that.

 

There are exceptions in Japanese market, for example mazda, not following that trend. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...4f3389cb5.jpeg

Every time I drive a new MB I really miss the rotary wheel/knob. I wish they never got rid of it. The slightly older ones also had a trackpad at least that replaced the scroll wheel, I really don't like the idea of touchscreens in cars but I understand that is what people want. Otherwise, manufacturers wouldn't be putting these things in.
One thing for sure, no one wanted capacitive touch, manufacturers still put those in, frustrating. I don't think anyone signed up for piano gloss either?
Had a mini discussion on the touchscreens in cars earlier today, didn't went in length of discussing it.

 

Seems so, I mean MB force them to put a digital IWC clock in because they (AMG) are not allowed to put a physical one in the vehicle? Sorry to hear that you are still dealing with that reset issue, I was hoping you solved it by now.

 

Buy 2020 or older. 2021 has the first release of MBUX which is terrible. Here is my early review. I'm a little less annoyed now, but still would not buy another MB which had the same problems: Maybe some of these problems are fixed in newer versions of MBUX - test everything very completely.

I owned a W212 (2014 E350) which got totaled and (stupidly) replaced it with a newer W213 (2021 E350), The W212 was better. The W213 tech often requires me to look away from the road, the voice command system is less usable (gets it wrong often and doesn't support the same words that the touch screen menus use), the miniscule steering wheel swipe pads misfire quite often and the touch buttons usually require multiple button pushes, the console based touch pad often either misses or doubles the swipes and often misses the push-downs and requires 2-3 pushes, the screen based menu trees are far too complex and the important stuff is buried in deep menu choices which I will never use, the NAV system doesn't understand zip codes but requires cities, all of the buttons require a perfectly centered push and don't respond if you press them even a little off center (even though they give haptice feedback.

 

The workaround would probably be voice commands.

 

The bright pastel color palette of MBUX looks a little too garish to me. COMAND visually acts like a more Germanic, business-focused, important piece of kit. I tend to like COMAND more. If only we (us measly 2017/18 owners) could ditch MBRACE () and have a bit more connectivity support.

 

2019 model year starting has Mercedes Me Connect if I recalled correctly and still have comand.

 

I want to briefly bring this topic back (re: physical controls) as mazda seems to no longer be the last one standing and also went the screen trend with the freshly revealed CX-5 https://www.edmunds.com/assets/m/cs/...CX-5+5_717.jpg , more like a carbon copy of the Lexus design even, especially the spelling of the brand on the rear instead of a traditional logo, it is strange that mazda got rid of the buttons and put screens out again when subaru and volkswagen had been slowly moving back to physical controls, I guess there is always a first for each brand.

 

hey, that is two "M" brands that no longer have the rotary knob and physical controls.

 

I loved the dial in my Mazda 3. And in my E43. And in my old BMW E60.
The one gripe I had with my 211 (other than the fact that it exploded ... ) was the radio controls that were on the dash. I disliked reaching for them. It was the 2009 interface (that had a dial in the later versions...) but had 5 buttons on the face of the radio instead. I don't get how so few people are complaining about the touchscreens mounted six to ten inches above that in modern cars... that's an absolute dealbreaker for me.

It's funny how car brands seem to be doing the exact opposite of what their fan bases want. Anybody who spends more than twenty minutes in a Mazda (except Doug Demuro...) loves the dial interface.

Indeed I think the new CX-5 looks like a carbon copy of the new Lexus ES. All in all I kind of like it though. If only they integrated the screen better.

 

Exactly, a huge head scratcher.

That said,, in the defense of MB and other manufacturers I guess, is that, a vehicle design and planning is like a 10 year job, for example, forgot what brand but they actually responded to an inquiry and said during the day of their new model (new generation) reveal, they already have the design of the facelift ready and is already blueprinting the next generation after this one (of which isn't even sold at all yet).

So that is something to think about, it was probably too late for certain brands that jumped to the screen only, no climate control trend (fad?) because the vehicle was designed a decade ago.

 

I just realized toyota owns a bit of share of mazda, that might explain why the interior like you mentioned looks just like the ES.