No CD player in a 2018 S63? Really? Woe is me.
 

I must be getting old. At 57, I got my first new car ever a few weeks ago, and it doesn't have a CD player in it. Really? Wow! I have 1400 Grateful Dead shows on cassette tape that I haven't been able to play in my cars for many years since 15+ years ago they stopped putting in tape decks, and I have hundreds of CD, some just recently purchased last month.

I had to laugh when I looked in the space where a CD player would be and found an ashtray with a cigarette lighter instead. The dealership pretty much laughed at me when I said I had recently purchased CD's. "CD's?" they said? "Too funny".

Kind of surprised. Guess I'm falling behind on technology. I have no interest in converting my CD's or tapes to another technology so I probably won't get much use out of them anymore but... no CD player in a new car? The car I traded was 6 years old and had a 5 changer CD player that I used quite a bit. Called the dealer today to see if they could put a small CD player in the glove box. "Nope" they said.

Oh well... I'll be dead in 50 years or less so none of this will matter but it's just perplexing to me. I don't want to use my phone to stream music in my car, I just wanted a CD player there. 😯🤔 . I know, the quality of our problems in modern society today. Not so bad, all in all.

I just found out my dealer was wrong. I called another dealer and for $235 they can install one in the glovebox (plus an install fee), the tiny little glovebox. Ok, guess I'll look into that. Thx folks. Stu - what you're describing is nothing I understand but thx anyway sir! I don't use iTunes, nor my phone, for anything musically. Am I really that behind the times?

http://www.benzblogger.com/2018/01/c...8-s-class.html

So, you drive one of the most technologically advanced vehicles in the world but you really like listening to CDs? I have heard this a surprising number of times since the 2017 E300 arrived without a CD player and the 2018 S-Class was not far behind. I had this same issue when the 2003 E-Class was the first car to arrive without a tape deck. I wonder what comes after Bluetooth streaming? Usually once all of my clients become comfortable with a technology is about the time the next new things arrives to shake it up!

Mercedes heard you still listen to CDs and has come up with a solution so you can be a little old-school. I have not seen this in person but it looks pretty simple and would not interfere with the scent diffuser. I bet if your got really crafty you could fit an 8-track in there too. http://www.benzblogger.com/wp-includ...mple-smile.png

The accessories team is pleased to announce the availability of the NEW CD player retrofit suitable for select E-Class and S-Class vehicles. The retrofit accessory CD player supports all current music formats and is fully integrated into the operating logic of the vehicle. Artist, album, title and cover art image are shown on the vehicles central display and the CD drive is discreetly installed in the glove compartment to protect it from prying eyes.

• CD ripping on to the head unit music register is not possible (this feature is not available in NTG5.5)
• Single CD drive only
• Functions: play, pause, stop, search forward/backward, track increment/decrement, direct track selection (Track “n”), disk check, CD-Text
• Supported formats: CD-DA, WAVE, CD-R, CR-RW, mp3, m4a, FLAC
• Part Numbers: A222 820 6306, A222 826 1300, A213 820 7802, A000 983 3800

The cost should be around $300 for the parts, plus installation. Please contact your dealership parts department to make sure they are in stock or orderable.

You aren't getting old! I know a ton of people that still burn mp3's to disks. My buddies wife makes a new CD full of songs every other week for his wife. In my opinion it was way too soon to do this removal. It's still digital quality :)

Mercedes really needs to make a list of what was removed on the 2018. At least say what was removed and what was added to replace it.

Vehicle is equipped with pre-wiring for CD player (data card code 320 PREINSTALLATION OF SINGLE CD DRIVE).

Wait no ripping from the CD to command? I do that all the time!

Heard back from my service advisor today on this. Certainly not worth spending this much just to get to play my occasional CD! Yeesh. They parts dept told me about $275 for parts but the service guy is saying A LOT more. $340 for the parts and device PLUS $465 to install in a freakin glove box? $465?!?!? Why? Damn, I'll have to just listen my CD's then in the Porsche. Screw this!
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We can get the kit form Mercedes to install a cd changer parts $ 340.00 labor $ 465.00 total = $805.00 plus taxes .


Thank you

Service Advisor

From: Stephen
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2018 11:54 AM
To: Service Advisor
Subject: Re:

http://www.benzblogger.com/2018/01/c...8-s-class.html


Cost for installing this? Thanks!
sr

Too funny for sure. $805 is too much for a CD in any car these days, especially one in the glove compartment that's retailing at $240 plus a bracket and 1 part that was quoted to me as being about $35 extra, max. Yes, that's excessive whether I'm driving a Honda Civic or S Class MB. I'll just forgo the damn thing, stubbornly and use Sirius radio after all, listening to the CD's in my other car. And yes, I'm a stubborn ******* on certain things - I'll pay a crazy amount of money for 1 thing and be totally thrifty with something else. It's just how I do things. If that's amazing to you, so be it. It's amazing to me too. Totally... amazing.

No irony for me, it's like someone ripped the CD player out of my vehicle and I have to pay $805 to get it back. AND NOW it doesn't look like it plays my video DVD's any more.
This is on the list now of the many convenient/thoughtful features that have been taken away since my 2007 221.
This has no impact on the people you see on TV getting out of a MB on the news. But a lot of us use the MB as a family/personal vehicle.
I don't have a 2018 yet I'm just complaining in advance so I won't later on......maybe.

It all depends on the details. CarPlay, if connected via wire (which is the only option on MB; BMW also has BT option which would have been nice to have as well) and ripped in lossless format will match the CD player without problems.

Completely agree but also understand the rationale of having issues with an option that disappears with knowing about it. If feels like you are getting less.

I haven't listened to CD's in the car for 10 years. Playing DVD's is not great on the screen either as their media player never utilized the full screen size (as our old BMW did). But even then, it had marginal value.
The problem isn't in MB changing their options as much as the dealers not telling you what is actually changing when new models are introduced.
When we got our 2013 SL I ended up with a car on springs; never imagined that ABC wasn't standard as it was for the 11 years in our prior SL's. I guess I could have checked in the DOG but we just grabbed the car in short notice. Also, no more electric center rearview mirror that moved with seat memory. That still bothers me as my wife and can actually use the same seat settings (minus the mirrors), so we still have to adjust it manually each time.

It's all a question of getting use to things as they change. I went to Apple Music and really like it a lot. I can hit in just about any album I had on CD before and put it in my phone and have it there. I have over 1000 songs on my apple music. It's only $9.95 per month. But I do hear what people are saying about missing the CD/DVD drive, it's something we all got so use to over the years. I'm over it at this point though after having my 2018 half a year now. You just re-adjust to doing things using your phone for music connected to the lightening connector, seems to sound a little better that way vs bluetooth. I think Benz mainly made the change to cut down warranty costs and production costs. If you really had to have a CD player, I'd say a good car audio place could install one in the glove box a lot less than dealer, maybe $400.00 or something like that.

CD should have been standard ,people still buy CDs at the supermarket stores or order thru internet . I have got DVD player in my car but it doesn't have SD Card Slot .It's kinda weird to me . I see some people whine about having single USB slot in the center storage area too . I don't think nobody would miss cassette players here but CD / DVD player is different

Pardon me but, :slap:

IMO, MB pulled a fast one in dumping the CD player from the W222 this early on. They should have waited until the W223 to make the move and they should have at least given us something wonderful in place of the CD changer. My 2018 just has this lame, empty slot there that isn’t big enough for much of anything to fit in. If they had put a wireless connection pad there, where I could simply lay my iPhone and have everything connected automatically, without having to tether it inside the center storage, that might have been acceptable. CD’s are still main stream with most S Class buyers and MB should have waited.

+1 on the Rolex (or other expensive watch) comment.

My wife has suggested it many times as a present for me. Every time I say not only wouldn't it be something I'd value (other than it was a gift from her) but I'd feel bad about how much money she burned for something unimportant to me (and most people would assume is fake anyway if they even recognized it at all).

Nice cars on the other hand...

The wipers are part of the deal IMHO. If you can't stomach the ante, don't sit down at the table.

Wonder how many other 2018 cars don't have them? All Merc models? What about other car makers?

After 40 yrs of MB's I drive an Audi which has a single slot CD. I can load the CD into the slot---play it & IMPORT the CD into my hard drive & play it anytime. Does MB have a hard drive IMPORT feature? I have loaded my favorite CD's on to a SD CARD & IMPORTED to the hard drive,but I can add any CD in addition..