MaheshSadar

Hi guys, I'm new to this forum. My family just bought a 2004 SL 500 with 4,900 miles on it. We're extremely pleased, but have a few questions:

1) How does the hydrolic lift work on the car? Do you have to be in park? When I press this button it doesn't look as if the car is doing anything.

2) The navigation on the 2004 edition isn't that great. I bought the 2005 Navigation CD's from my MB dealership and it isn't much better (I'm in Zone 4 - Texas). Overall, I'm not that pleased with the navigation. I just rode in a Range Rover last night and it's navigation blew away the MB SL 500 (or at least I thought).

My major concern with the navigation, when I'm going north on the street, the Navigation appears like I'm going South. Yes, it is showing the right roads and maps, but it reverses how I'm driving.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks again - Mahesh

WIldcat465

The Nav on the 03 and 04 SLs sucks. I got rid of my 03 because of it. The '05 Nav with the birdseye view is much nicer.

doltmo

1) How does the hydrolic lift work on the car? Do you have to be in park? When I press this button it doesn't look as if the car is doing anything.

I'm assuming that you're asking about the ride height adjustment. If so, this should work any time the car in running - you don't need to be in park. It only raises the car about 2 inches (from both LEDs "off" to both LEDs "on"), so it may be hard to detect unless you're standing still with some point of reference (like you headlights lighting up a spot on your garage door). You should see the "ABC" message in the instrument cluster when the car is going up.

Regarding the navigation in the '03 and '04 - they really suck. The DVD based system in the '05 is better, but can't hold a candle to nav systems in any Japanese car. The database in the Mercedes-Benz DVD lacks many of the street details that BMW has in their nav system - even though they are supplied by the same vendor (Navtec). One thing the MB system does well is the speed at which it computes a new route if you fail to follow the initial routing. The BMW system will tell you to make a U-turn for several miles before it gives up and computes a new route. The MB system does it within a few seconds of realizing you missed a turn.

The were a couple of things I liked on the '04 nav that were lost in the '05 system. One was the dedicated Zoom in/out buttons on front panel. The '05 uses soft keys on the display screen that are harder to find while driving. The other was the single knob to select entries. The '05 uses a stupid 8-way switch cluster that should have been a joystick.

tiggerfink

You do not have to be in park to raise the car. I do it all the time when I enter a steep driveway or exit. I can feel the car raise or lower.

Actually the 04 Navigation systems is a lot better than the 03 Navigation systems. I was so confused when Mercedes customer care told me that. I guess the 03 Nav needs an upgrade and new Nav CDs. The cheap $50K Jap cars have a better Navigation system than Mercedes. It is quite embarrassing that my friend’s cheap cars have a better navigation system than Mercedes best.

Navtech makes updates every two to three years for a region. My dealer told me to upgrade the Nav CDs just every two years. Overall I am very please with the Mercedes navigation system. I just wish it had the bells and whistles like on the cheap Jap cars.

CASL55

I measured my SL55, and it raises the car 1/2 inch per click, for a total of an inch. Is the SL500 different in this regard?

Jim

joec1101

The NAV does seem to be lacking when compared to some others.

My '05 Jeep Grand Cherokee Ltd has a far superior NAV system - everything from the screen colors to options/settings.

A couple things I really like about the Jeep NAV is you can set the screen to rotate with the vehicle icon remaining in the center and always pointing up with a small compass in the lower left indicating due north, or you can toggle it to the opposite which is the top of the screen is always due north and the vehicle icon rotates/moves. Another handy tool is a joystick feature which allows you to scroll in any direction on the screen from your current location so you can see what roads/freeways are coming up - very handy feature. To my knowledge, the MB NAV doesn't have either of these features (at least not on the '04)

Go figure - same company (Daimler-Benz) using different NAV systems! They should have at least used the better NAV on the more expensive MB vehicles.

doltmo

On the '05 nav you can select "north up" or "heading up" for the display at any time - just like your Jeep nav. The "heading up" keeps the car's orientation fixed (up) and the map rotates accordingly. On the '04 nav I think you could only select the "heading up" when you were in an active navigation mode. In "map" mode, you were limited to the "north up" display. (You guys with '04's correct me if I'm wrong here - this is from memory).

The joystick is a real plus. The '05 nav could sure use it. It's much easier working a single control, even in three axis, than trying to find 5 separate buttons.

You would think that with nav becoming a more popular feature there would be some standardization in functions and controls.

ToonArmy

I haven't measured, but my recollection from the manual is that the SL500 is the same - 1/2" per click, for a total adjustment of 1 inch.

doltmo

To correct the error in my previous post - you are all correct, the height adjustment is 1/2 inch per "click", for a total of 1 inch. I confirmed this by measuring it. Sorry for the confustion.