Hey, I had some quick questions about he Comand system and some other stuff in the S550...hoping someone can help me out with this as the user manual isn't the most user friendly nor is it the most informative...i personally think its pretty confusing and uninformative...but thats my thoughts...anyways, these are my questions.

1) is there a way to switch from AM to FM on the steering wheel? Example: Im listening to 101Fm and i switch to another preset station on FM like 98FM...now i want to switch to a preset AM station like 1270AM...is there a way to do this from the steering wheel...or is there any quick way besides going to the spinner and manually doing it that way?

2) is there anything the speedometer can become besides a speedometer? I don't have night vision or anything, but i was wondering if the speedometer could go away and you could view a full screen of the navigation screen (while the speedometer changes to the straight line format along the bottom of the screen such as in nightview...basically, the question is, can the LCD Speedometer screen change to anything besides the Speedometer (i know you can toggle trip, audio, tele, navi on the bottom of the screen, but those options don't eliminate the speedometer, they just get inserted in the middle of it.

3) When you click on seat fan or seat warmer, when you click it once all three lights come on on that designated button (does that mean it is now on the highest setting or lowest?)...i would imagine it is the highest setting, so that would require that you press it an additional 2 times to get it to the lowest setting (is this right?)

4) And this final comment is more of an observation than a true question, but don't you guys think that the gear changer is a bit counterintuitive...meaning, don't you think when you click it up that should mean Drive and when you click it down that should mean Reverse. I feel that it would make more sense to push it upward for drive and downward for reverse. Obviously on the shifter its the other way around...does this bother anyone else...or is it just a matter of getting used to...thanks.

 

Funny - I was thinking about the same thing - starting a thread about questions but figured it would either stay at 3 posts or quickly turn into a 20-page thread!

Nonetheless, I too have a TON of questions (yeah, AM/FM stuff and P3 stuff - like the active comfort/massaging seats!!) and......... can't really get myself to type them all up. For one, I'm pretty busy - the time I get to actually type messages is while I'm in front of the computer doing work

I'm thinking that one of these days I'm just going to grab a couple of cold ones, head to the garage (after telling my wife that I have to run to the grocery store ) and then....... turn the car on (no NOT the engine!) and go through the 1300 page manual page by page and figure it all out!

I'm the type of guy who NEEDS and WANTS to know how everything works, so, I might be in the minority here......

So, if you guys don't hear from me over the weekend ... you know where I'm at

BTW- re. your speedometer question - I know you don't have the P3, so I'm not sure if you can change it, but I know on mine - you can - it's actually pretty amazing how with the night vision pak., the whole speedometer area is really just a screen and when you turn the night view on, the screen changes from the speedometer to a live (infra red camera) view of the road.

 

About the shifting into gear.Here is my take.Years ago if you had a manual transmission on the collum reverse was back toward the driver then up.The automatics transmissions of today that the shifter is on the collum all reverse gear is in the up position from nuetral.Im not sure if any of this make any sense but thats how i see it.

 

1) is not possible as far as I am aware, except on new cars (like yours), you should be able to set the radio station scanning to pre-set stations, then if you store one FM station and another AM station, scanning through the pre-sets should change the band (honestly I only listen FM stations, I have not tried this).

2) I'm afraid there are laws that restrict what the display is allowed to show, and at least that it always needs to show the speed info. Of course there would be room to display a lot of info if the speedo was shown like with night view.

3) Yes, heat seating starts from the highest setting and goes lower automatically, unless you press another time to make it go lower immediately. The same with the ventilation.

4) In addition to what nitromilt says, the traditional (auto box) gear stick would be on drive when you pull it towards you, the W221 would be the same (doesn't prevent me getting confused every now and then though )

 

Why not download the pdf manual and read it at work, for me at least for once something useful to do at work.

 

Not sure how useful that would be.

I would think that you'd need to be IN the car fiddling around with the manual, rather than trying to memorize a few hundred pages at a time and THEN trying to experiment when in the car

 

1.) Don't think you can. I use the comand controller over the steering wheel controls for everything. I think you will too once you get use to it.

2.) It can but doesn't. Right now its only nightvision or if you have the distronic-plus package the screen will turn into an aerial view of your car and guide you into a parking space.

3.)You are correct - both start at their highest setting.

4.) Up for stop/reverse and down for go/forward is what my intuition would tell me. Maybe its only because I've been using it for a while. I like the fact that it skips neutral.

 

1) With voice control, if you are on the Radio screen in COMAND, you can say AM, and it will switch. You can then say 1-2-0-0, and it will change to station 1200. Say FM it goes back. Say 1-0-2-3 and it will switch to 102.3

Also if you aren't on the Radio screen, (you're on Nav for instance) just say RADIO. And it will switch.

 

Thanks a lot for the responses, guys...yeah, well with the radio settings, i don't honestly listen to AM either, except for one news station so its annoying to have to use the spinner to just get to that one AM station...

Thanks Diesel Benz about the ventilation/warmer thing...i was confused because i wasn't sure if i was pressing the wrong side of the button or something...i guess going to full power is good...im assuming it will automatically decrease (at least the seat warmer will) once it reaches a certain temp.?

And the whole thing with the shifter...im just glad im not the only one who has gotten a bit confused with a couple of times...i just have to sit there for a second to make sure im doing the right thing...i love pressing the button for park, but the reverse and drive are still a little fuzzy...at least im not reaching down to shift the car...i was worried i'd start doing that, as im pretty used to having the shifter in the middle between the driver and passanger seat...

OK, and one last question (for now, at least)...did they get rid of the automatic audio volume leveling thing...where it would increase the volume automatically as you increase speed or decrease the volume as you decrease speed having to do with the ambient sound? I haven't tried opening my windows while im driving to see if this will trigger the volume to increase, but i remember in my previous s class, it did automatically adjust audio volume based on outside/engine noise. In all honestly, i wasn't a big fan of this system because i found it to be a bit annoying since at times i felt the volume would increase too much or vice versa, but i was just wondering if this feature still was included in the s...thanks guys...

O and Austin...i tried flipping through that book too, but seriously i've found just sitting in the car and messing around with the stuff is a lot more beneficial and honestly, just a lot more fun than reading that repetitive and badly laid out book...plus, i know you guys are here for me if i have any questions...

Thanks again Diesel Benz, nitromilt and AustinGuy...

Hey, thanks NJS430 and Txhurdle...that information is greatly appreciated...i totally forgot about voice command...yeah, and i think you're right...i just have to get more used to the shifter...

 

(1) Yes, the seat heaters will decrease "one red dot" at a time until they level off at one. These are the toastiest seats in any car!

(2) The transmission shifter you soon get used to. The only problem is that whenever you get back into another car, each time you will keep activating the wipers when you want to go into reverse!

(3) Yes the ambient sound does decrease when you open the door but I have never observed it doing so while sitting in the car. I suspect that this is really a non concern.

Chris

 

Awesome!

Is there a way to turn the radio off but leave the screen on (i.e. have the back up camera operational but radio turned off)? I know you can mute the radio but..... that's not turning it off

Also - one cool thing (at least for me it is ) I'd like to share: The "favorite" button - yup - the one with the * - real cool - you can program 1 favorite operation into it. So I programmed the rear sun shade. Now, when I press/depress it the sunshade opens/retracts