Doing a short road trip of 10 hours. The idea being we may take cross country drives next year much longer.

Car has Michelin MXM4 run flat. Last time I checked warm tire pressure it was around 36 psi. Maybe I should increase to 38?

It went in for service a few months ago.

Any suggestion for tips using CarPlay on long drives? I find it a bit hard to use. I use it for navigation and music.

My husband doesn’t like the Mercedes navigation as my database is from 2019! It was supposed to be latest available when I bought it a year ago.

 

For road trips, I would do 36 PSI..... The tires will get hot anyway and the readings may even jump to 39-40 PSI if you do 36 PSI, so you should be fine too. I normally calibrate them to read 34 PSI cold (room temperature to be specific), so they are still close to 36-37 PSI during road trips.

As for Navigation, I updates the Mbenz maps and it was a waste of money to some degree. Google Maps or Apple Maps using CarPlay are just much better. In fact for road trips, I found Waze to be great in detecting road hazard and police traps in advance. I'd always go with the Carplay route regardless. The only downside is the old tech in the W222 that requires you to use the dial knob to type in an address (which also won't allow you to type if the car is moving). You will find that you need to use your phone to type in an address.

When you get a chance, I would replace those run-flat tires with a NON-run flat option for added comfort. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the advice.

My 2020 just passed 10,000 miles so I’m keeping the run flats for another 20,000 miles maybe? Seems a waste to throw them away. On my last S500 I used Continental Extreme Contact I think.

I like how you can access the phone’s music over Bluetooth. Specific artist, album etc. Is CarPlay just as easy? I guess we’ll find out!

 

CarPlay could not be any easier to use...

You should be good, just fill up with gas and go. 10 hour road trip sounds long not short to me lol

 

I thought I would love CarPlay but I don’t. Because I can access all my music without it. Now I would like a newer MB Nav database. I find CarPlay hard to use with the rotary dial.

We are talking about a cross country trip. That’s long!

I may probably do all the driving because my husband is used to his BMW. He kept putting my car in neutral when shifting.

 

With Carplay, you can just say hey Siri navigate to such and such using "whatever" app instead of inputting via the knob. You have to state the app otherwise it defaults to apple maps if you don't.

If you use Google maps, do an offline download of map areas where you might not have cell service. Not sure if you can do this with Apple maps or waze. If you use Spotify, do the same and offline download some playlists.

 

Do you have an active Mercedes Me account? If so, maybe you can download a later version.

https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w...-download.html

If you're a Mac user, following on from the thread above:

• On a Mac, when formatting the usb stick, in Disk Utility, select Erase, and then Format = ExFAT and Scheme = Master Boot Record
• Doing that, and the Mercedes me Download Manager sees my USB drive/stick.
• https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w...m-updateo.html

 

I vastly prefer the CarPlay interface...

You just click "Music" and all the music is right there...

 

It has been waaaay too long that I prep’d the car before I took long trips. I think I used to do that before 2015, but not anymore or at least not on any 2015+ car I owned. Newer cars seem to be more predictable and not that many things to worry about it. I am not saying that you should not check anything, you should, but I personally don’t see the need. The only thing I do really is to re-calibrate the tire pressure.

Another thing I do is to to put a generous layer of wax, or spray-was application specially those that combines carnauba wax with SIO2. A thick layer will make the car loog ugly (cloudy) but it makes my life way easier to clean the car at least twice during the road trip and dirt and bugs will wash off quickly. When I get back home, I clean it really well and hand wash it, removing the thick wax and ceramic spray layer. A good product for this is the Griot’s 3-in-1 ceramic wax, which combines carnauba wax with SIO2. Works great. I actually even use that to detail my car now on monthly basis… the shine is great, and sometimes it’s just easier than the pro-installed ceramic coating. It depends on which of my cars am detailing, for some I use pro-grade ceramic, for others I use a spray application.

 

That’s good advice. I’ll give it to my chauffeur. 😂

P.S. He may have used Pam spray on my Buick. I don’t think the Distronic sensor would like that.

 

No pam spray lol

 

I don't really prep for road trips these days. 10 hours is nothing. I keep the car maintained throughout, checking tire pressures every two weeks and I generally have the TPMS display up in my instrument cluster so I'm pretty much on top of the tire pressures. I do have an AMG, though, and it has better displays for tire pressures along w/ other health information of the car. The thing to regularly check visually is wear and potential damage to the tires.

Since yours is a 2020 you have online map updates, although by now the initial complimentary 3 year Mercedes me connect subscription may have expired, but you can renew. I'm on my second year of renewal. Maps get updated twice a year, so if you are still on 2019 then you missed a bunch of updates. Latest one as I mentioned in another thread is 2023 (V25). Since you bought used, the services should have been transferred to your account assuming you bought it from a dealership, otherwise you'll have to stop by a dealership and have it transferred. Requires proof of ownership. The home region updates automatically over the air. If your road trip takes you outside of your home region such as a cross country trip then you have to manually update all the regions by downloading the update from the web portal.

I don't mind CarPlay, but I find all the navigation apps inferior to the Mercedes nav. Lane guidance and integration with the rest of the car is much better. I also don't have to worry about keeping my phone charged or have the battery pegged at 100% for the entire trip. As I mentioned elsewhere, I do use CarPlay when I do trips in rental cars. I did European Delivery with my car for 2 months and I used CarPlay the entire time, because the live traffic service wasn't active while the car was in Europe. Certainly works and I still occasionally use CarPlay when I have to drive during busy times and the route Google Maps offers is better. That's not always the case. I often get better routes with the MB navigation.

I also frequently drive in areas w/o cell coverage, so pretty much all the phone apps are useless at that point. The offline support in Google Maps is kind of a joke, because you have to know exactly which areas may not have cell coverage and download the right ones in advance, and if you don't have continues coverage you can't even start route guidance without a cell signal. Apple has added offline support to Apple Maps in iOS 17, but I haven't upgraded yet to see how they've done it. I used to use HERE Maps in the past, btw the same guys that do the maps for MB, and it has the ultimate offline support. You can download entire states/countries for offline use. I used it to travel overseas in the past before I had a dual SIM phone to avoid huge roaming charges. Nowadays I just get a local or travel data plan and use Google Maps while traveling, but it's still annoying when I'm somewhere w/o cell coverage. Hopefully the new Apple Maps offline support is based on countries/states like HERE Maps and not a patchwork of small areas you have to stitch together.

 

This will be an easy and fun 10 hours. I have the same tire and it's fine, both ride quality and noise. So much is dependent on the road surface. I set them at 34 and go. I like the benefit of run flats and to me I think the ride is fine.

On my cc drives I use CarPlay exclusively - Apple Maps is really good now and so is Music. With Apple Maps you can now download maps for areas with no cell coverage. It's also crowd sourced for speed checks, road hazards, etc. Very useful.

For Music I download what I want in a few playlists and I download as Hi-Res Lossless. Takes up more space but why not. I have access to all my music - some may have to be streamed so watch data use, but it's all available. Label playlists as A1 - xxxx, A2 - yyyy, etc. so they're at the top of your playlists. I also have Sirius if I want it. TuneIn (app) is good too for various stations - we like All Classical out of Portland. And it's also nice to turn off the radio and talk or just watch the scenery. We drove cc one trip and never turned on the radio.

Another key part - I travel with a tire repair kit as I'm traveling in some very rural open areas. Screw type tire fix kit with a couple tools to make it all work.

I put c-bond glass protection on my windshield. I did pick up one very small blemish on our Wyoming trip a few weeks ago so hope it helped prevent a bigger hit. The only place I've found it online is on Iowa80.com. I have it on another car and it got a chip also in Wyoming and it's been stable for years. Every time I see it I think of that epic road trip.
https://www.iowa80.com/pd/cbond-nano...ld-kit/348181/

I use the adaptive cruise features with lane keep assist. Useful when looking out the window eating up miles and miles, and also on mountain interstates. Additional eyes watching the road.

Have fun on your trip!

 

Tune In tells me I don’t have a data plan. I use Bluetooth, SiriusXM or CarPlay.

This is when I wish I had the back seat Executive feature or a leg/butt massager.

The Buick LaCrosse would give you a butt massage if you crossed lanes without signaling.

 

You could use your phone app version of TuneIn Radio via Carplay:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tunein...ts/id418987775

 

I would check the oil and tire pressures . Honestly, 10 hours is nothing for a car like S Class . I have an Android phone and use car's navigation . I prefer USB to listen to music so that I don't have to deal with radio stations to change pesky musics which I don't like
Happy Safe Driving

 

OP..... Check engine oil level.... Coolant, charge coolant, top up windshield washer fluid. Car have MBC? If so check that fluid level. Make sure the wiper blades wipe clean. Measure tire depth. Set tire pressure to the high limit in the gas door. Peek at brake pads. Practice operating the back massage function in the seats and use it.

Enjoy your trip.

 

Plenty of snacks on hand. Enjoy the ride, see the sights!

 

Regarding CarPlay, I use Apple Maps with Waze running in the background for audible warnings of objects on road/police, etc.
I have latest update on Nav for the Benz is it is far inferior and still outdated compared to Google Maps/Apple Map. Apple maps has more accurate lane guidance and a much more pleasant interface/color scheme.
Entering address is easy, you do it on the phone and it syncs up with CarPlay.
Regarding music, now CarPlay has Share Play, which allows passengers to control your music library, nice addition.