I have two issues dealing with the radio in our 06 ML500:

1. When we bought it in November of 05 we were told that adding satellite radio was cheap and easy. This is evidently not the case. Does anyone know if the the adapter kit has ever been made available and at what cost?

2. The radio has an intermittent problem where the reception becomes poor and there is a great deal of static. The same problem occurs when listening to CDs. It generally goes away after 15-20 minutes. Naturally it will never duplicate the problem for the dealer. Anyone familiar with this?

Thanks in advance for any help.

I drive a 2003 ML 320 and the radio reception is horrible.
Static is practically all you hear after 20 miles or so.
I have taken this to the dealer to no avail.
All I got was the run around they told me the radio reception is poor due to having to share some wiring with the DVD player?
Sounds like a load of ----- to me.
Can anyone assisit with this issue as it is irritating on long drives.

Thanks

There is a software update available for the COMAND in the new ML. I'm not sure if this was one of the issues it addressed but I'll check next week.

As for the satellite radio, all 06 models and up either come with satellite radio installed or not. There are no dealer retrofit kits anymore.

The W163 system is quite different than in the W164 so the problems noted are of no consequence to this thread. But, the dealer's comment are incorrect. Sounds to me like a bad antenna amp or connection

Thanks for the info, Petmerctech. I am taking it in for service next week so any additional info on the radio would be helpful.

I bought my 2006 R230 last year and noticed that the satellite radio reception seems to be very sensitive to tree leaf cover. The sat stations drop out often when riding under trees. I was thinking that the cache in the system doesn't hold much information therefore the "Acquiring signal" notification comes on often. Is this why? My other cars which are newer do not suffer the same reception problem with their sat radios.