I recently purchased a 2018 CPO S450 that is just over 3 years old.
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​​​I have read on the W213 forum that MB-USA has switched from Sirius to TomTom for its live traffic and offers it free for 3 years. However once the 3 year period ends, there is no way to renew it from TomTom. Is this true for W222 vehicles as well and is there another way to get live traffic?

My previous car was a 2014 E350 and I paid a low monthly fee for live traffic via Sirius XM.

 

On my 2015 S500 I purchased an additional 3 year subscription here in the UK, the previous owner had let the subscription lapse, over here it costs about £130 for the three years and it is Tom Tom based. I bought it from Mercedes directly, you can either buy it from the dealer or you can buy it from the MB website.
Hope that ay help although it could be a bit different in the USA.

 

Also consider that you could use Waze via Android Auto or Apple on your phone and get very current live traffic for free. I've still got time on my 2018 subscription, but I usually have Waze on the main screen and use the smaller MB map in the driver's instrument cluster. You can also easily switch btwn Waze and the Benz Nav on the main screen to check traffic if you simply prefer the Benz map.

 

I ca certainly use my phone to get traffic information and use google maps or waze or another app.

However if is discouraging to read threads where Mercedes has a nice navigation system on-board with free 3-year live traffic for S and E class owners, but leave owners without any option but to use your phone after 3 years. It seems Sirius XM Live traffic can be purchased on other models like the GLE and GLS, but not on the E and S class.

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...ntly-down.html

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...rmination.html

 

Thw following is from MB-USA:

From the initial MBRACE service activation, Live Traffic services were complimentary for three years. We apologize for the inconvenience, however at this time, there is no option to renew the Live Traffic subscription. Mercedes Benz is investigating options and we will inform you if an option does become available.

So it seem US-based S-class and E-class owners have no way to get live traffic via COMMAND Navigation once 3 years is up. I assume it will affect owners of other Mercedes vehicles that had a complementary 3-year live traffic from TomTom.

 

Again more limitations on the COMAND/NTG front......let's hope in EU they will be able to extend it, but I am afraid for the answer.......

 

Mercedes hit IMPOSSIBLE. Nothing is impossible, there has to be a way to get Live Traffic subscription. For those who live in a highly congested cities, this is a must. I continually ask Mercedes what needs to be replaced/updated in order for me to be able to get this services from an other provider, but I get not response. Sirius tells me that the unit in my vehicle is not compatible with Sirius, and therefore they can't provide this service. Unheard of!!!!!

 

I remember reading that HERE Technologies may be able to provide live traffic in the future.

https://www.here.com/company/press-r...n/2019-08-01-4

Apparently Mercedes, BMW and Audi has invested in HERE Technology. But I have no idea when HERE will come through with Live traffic data to the Mercedes flagship S-class and the perennially popular E-class.

 

So up to what year did this affect? I was thinking about getting a used 2019 or 2020, would this affect these cars once the service ran out? Or had they switched back to Sirius with the newer models? Hard to believe MB is not offering any options, I wonder why they just could not extend the TomTom service? Strange. I believe my 2017 S550 I'm currently driving uses Sirius? Never really had an issue with it although it seems like the traffic never seems to route me around big traffic jams and that sort of thing, so I guess maybe what good is it anyhow?

 

Wait, so after 3 years there is no way to use the traffic feature in the command? No subscriptions at all? I thought Sirius was able to provide live traffic?

If true, this is like PC's that can't run an older os.

 

Yes it is very concerning. Anyone know what year range is affected by this? The strange thing is though if they are able to provide it after the car is bought and it works why are they not able to offer it for a fee as the car gets older. Strange.

 

If your 2017 S550 has Sirius XM for live traffic and you can pay them a small monthly fee to get live traffic, you are lucky.

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...ination-5.html

As per the above thread, 2017 E-class owners seem to have TomTom and they are out of luck. 2018 and later S-class owners have TomTom live traffic and once the 3-year service is up, no more live traffic via COMMAND Navigation.

 

I got rid of the 2017 for a 2018 S560 and I believe it does use the Sirius XM service.

 

It has the Sirius XM Satellite Radio service. However if you go to Sirius XM website to check if they provide NavTraffic subscription service for the vehicle once the 3-year free service is up, it shows it is not available.

https://www.siriusxm.com/navtraffic/pricing

As per the above website, Sirius XM offered LiveTraffic subscription service to S-class owners until MY2016.

 

Wow, you're right. I tried model year 2017-2020. No go. Then just for the heck of it hit in model year 2014 S class and it says all services are available, 2017 and up must audio services, strange. Oh well there is always, Waze and Google maps. I guess mine expires in 2021.

 

I just got off the phone with them about my 2018 E43 and was told we currently have no options for you to extend or purchase the service! WTF? So now my GLC43 has no wifi because it hasn’t trasitioned to T-Mobile yet and my E43 has no live traffic available for purchase! Damn Mercedes is really mucking a lot of these services up!

 

Just called MBrace and was very upset to receive the same info. No way to renew Live Traffic for pre-2019 vehicles including my 2017 GLS 450. My wife is almost apoplectic as she does not want to use Google maps - likes traffic on the big screen. My next call will go to XM radio.

 

Hmmm, that is not nice.............just extended all (28) services for 3 years for my MY19 car, including the live traffic info. Just to be sure that Navi, traffic, etc will be there coming years....

All services seem correctly extended and active, only one strange thing: added the In Car Office feature (only 19 euro per year), which before I used only in the first period (quarter/year?) of the car, when it was for free. But.........when I now start the In Car Office app in the car (via COMAND), there appears a message "Please Wait........." Even after a few days, nothing happened. Of course I checked the manual (see https://dcp-media-connect-prod.merce...1.3-B2C-EN.pdf ), step 1 till 6 were of course already done, but a step 7 it comes with this please wait message (no request for pincode or whatever). Since it worked good in the "free period" this seems strange.

Any thoughts?

 

An update on this: after a few days, now the InCar Office App on COMAND is starting up.......no more "please wait" but now a message the the Password has been expired and has to be reset on Mercedes ME portal (including a QR code with the URL to go to).

Seems logical, since I did not use this feature for long time. So went to the ME porta (I use that a lot, for example for nav updates, etc), and did reset the pincode/password. It first comes up with a code, and then instructs to fill in this code in the car. Back to the car: no way to fill in this (new) code anywhere.....still the same "Password has been expired" message.

Any clue how to solve this?

 

Final(?) update on this: it seems not only the password, but also the PIN code has to be changed on the ME portal. Did that, and then a new icon appears on the ME portal: InCar Office. There I see that my connection with my Gmail account has been expired too, did a reconnect, and now everything works like in the car too. For COMAND users it is kind of limited functionality (only agenda of today and tomorrow and possibility to navigate to this appointment). Still no email (as was possible in my pre facelift car with COMAND 5*2), but ok, I use the SMS workaround for that already since 3 years.

Pity that MS Exchange is NOT supported (only for corporate MB employees), and it is either Gmail or Office365.