Hi Everyone, after a recent situation where I ended up without phone access while driving, I’m considering adding a more reliable in-car navigation backup for my Mercedes. Would you recommend getting the official Mercedes navigation package, or going with a Garmin-based solution instead? If Garmin, are there any modules/setups that integrate well with the Mercedes display/system?
Would appreciate any suggestions or experiences. Thanks!

 

The MB one is relatively reliable, they use "here" maps and has built-in gps and mainly offline unless you want traffic status. Just remember to update the maps manually via a usb.

 

What do you mean exactly by "without phone access"? You didn't have possession of your phone, or the phone didn't have reception? For the latter, my backup is the HERE Maps phone app, where you can download the maps for an entire country or part of it in case of large countries like the USA and then fully navigate offline in cellular dead zones. It's effectively the system that MB uses, but as an app for your phone. I've let the MB subscription run out last year. Without it there's no live traffic data, so now I'm exclusively using CarPlay and Google Maps and as said as a backup for when I'm driving w/o cellular coverage I have HERE Maps. It supports CarPlay as well. Of course I can still use the built-in MB system w/o live traffic should I for some reason not be able to use my phone, but that situation hasn't occurred yet. Short of losing my phone or the hardware failing, which is very unlikely, I don't know why I wouldn't have my phone to navigate. I travel a lot domestically and internationally and I rely 100% on my phone for navigation in rental cars, as well as walking directions in unfamiliar places and public transit directions.

 

I accidentally left my phone inside the apartment and locked myself out. My GLC 300 doesn’t have built-in navigation enabled, so last night I tried calling the Mercedes me support line to see if they could remotely add navigation, but apparently it requires the in-store app setup first.
Ended up staying at a hotel overnight and came back this morning when the leasing office opened to finally regain access to the apartment. After that experience, I’m now thinking of adding navigation to the car as a backup just in case something similar happens again.

 

I thought updates are over the air?

 

That's unfortunate. My wife once left her keys at work and went out with friends, then took one of the last trains home and didn't realize she didn't have her keys until she was standing in front of the house. Worse, I was in Germany on a business trip at the time. Luckily she had her phone and could call a friend to come get her and sleep at her place. Now we have smart locks and our phones are our keys, but the locks also have a keypad. Getting locked out is no longer a thing. That's a bit harder to do with an apartment you don't own, but I don't carry physical keys anymore, except for the car key and I only carry that one if I'm actually driving, which is mostly on the weekend. Worth asking the leasing office if you are allowed to replace the lock with a smart lock. Having a backup to get into your place seems higher priority to me than backup navigation in the car.

 

When I purchased my GLC in December I immediately got the Mercedes Me services app to be able to remote start, remote lock/unlock doors, monitor other things, but held off on the Navigation (not activated) to see how we could do with our iphones. We didn't really care for it, so recently purchased the Navigation for $550. It was a pain in the *** to get activated.... wasn't doing it over-the-air, so had to bring it into the dealership (initially said is wasn't available on my vehicle), they performed updates and resets, and now working as it should. No more fumbling with our phones, losing cell signals, etc. And love that we can use voice to control destinations.

 

You can also send destinations to the car through the app.

 

I don’t quite get your reasoning. There’s not much fumbling with the phone in case of wireless CarPlay. It connects up automatically and just like with the MB system you can use voice control. Instead of Hey Mercedes, you say Hey Siri, or long press the voice control button on the steering wheel.

As for losing signal, the MB system doesn’t get live traffic and you can’t do online searches, either if there’s no signal, so that’s kind of a wash.

The benefit of using the phone is that you can get the destination ready before you even get in the car and pick destinations from your calendar events or other apps. You can send them to the car as well, but it’s more fumbling and you have to wait for MBUX to boot up and receive the destination. One of the reasons I've increasingly shifted to using my phone for navigation is because most of my trips already start on the phone. Somebody texts me an address or pin, or I'm looking up a place, or I have the location in my calendar or in an email. So it's already up on my phone screen and taping it to start navigation is much less fumbling then first having to get the destination entered into the car's system. Even if I used the Send to Car feature, it's kinda clunky.

Also, I drive different cars regularly as I travel frequently, so between my car, my wife's car, rentals and service loaners, using the phone provides a single consistent experience regardless of the car I'm driving. Especially with rental cars, I have no interest in figuring out the infotainment system and configure it to my preferences, so connecting my phone instantly transplants my personal experience and in case of service loaners, because I have a smart garage door opener, I can open and close my garage from the CarPlay dashboard instead of carrying a clicker that I might forget to take out at the end. Obviously wouldn't want to program my garage door into the loaner's HomeLink, either. The phone basically allows my personalized experience and ecosystem to roam from car to car.

 

It's a preference, that's all; if that works best for you, great. With the merc nav can also display it on the digital cluster, fwiw.

 

I have one of these at each of my houses, and I have maps.me on my phone, which is GPS-enabled and can be used without cellular coverage, like in Airplane Mode.

 

It's a matter of personal preference.
I really don't like my phone being engaged in every part of my life. And I prefer the Mercedes navigation based on HERE tech.

Regarding taking addresses from emails or texts for your calendar and sending them to the car, I just click and "open with" MB app instead of Maps or whatever.
It also does a better job of pre-filling the addresses than Google Maps so it saves time.
I can also start dictating a business name and the app fills in the address.
I don't do Apple.

Edit: I'm waiting for Neuralink to take charge of my life.