Miki-SL500

My SL is soon to arrive, i could not find any reviews on linguatronic and distronic, so please post what you think of it and how often you use it.

Scotsman

Haven't got distronic but have linguatronic. Rarely use it. Bit of a waste for me but imagine if you use your phone a lot you'll find it invaluable.

tiggerfink

What is linguatronic?

Scotsman

Voice activated controls for phone, radio, sat nav and God knows what else.

You change the monitor to whataver you want to control and is activated by flicking a stalk just behind the cruise control stalk.

Miki-SL500

Is it possible to 'teach' it language other than english ? for example, can i dial a number with a command other than 'dial number' or whatever the command is? Is it possible to reprogram all comands it has in memory to what i specify ?

LovinMercedes

Boy am I glad you asked that question.

Scotsman

Yup. It just remembers a spoken name for a number and you have the option to dial the recorded name or number. So it'll recognise whatever name you've attached to the number, be it in English or Swahili or whatever.

Miki-SL500

What i meant is can commands already in memory (change track, store number, dial number) be changed/reprogramed so when lingua button is pressed, instead of issuing a 'dial number' command, you use 'call' or 'ring' ?

tiggerfink

If my GSM will ever come in someday, I may get to use inguatronic. I ordered my V600 GSM phone in April. In my area the local cell companies will only accept GSM phones on the new cell plans.

LovinMercedes

I was checking on the GSM phones today with my dealer and I believe the phones for the SL's will be coming in by the middle of December.

blueSL

Linguatronic is quite useful when making calls but only if you go to the lengths of storing names and numbers. Otherwise, if you know the number, it's quicker just to blind key on the key pad. As for the control of the CD player, it's as redundant as the volume up/down buttons on the steering wheel.

Most would agree that cruise control is useful, distronic takes it a stage further and maintains a safe distance from the car in front. Whether it engenders a dangerous state of mind on the part of the driver is another matter. Just one more thing to go wrong IMHO. I haven't yet seen a post here saying "It's a must have, I would not buy an SL without it"

Scotsman

Miki, have to delete and reprogram existing number with "dial name".
BlueSL, couldn't agree more about distronic. I sometimes feel cruise control is a bit dangerous - you know, when you get to the stage you delay braking or accellerating and can't be arsed with the "intrusion". Or is that just me?!!

v8plus4

distronic takes it a stage further and maintains a safe distance from the car in front"

Nice gadget, but not worth the $$ IMHO. Besides, there aren't too many cars fast enough to stay in front of an SL55 anyway.

blueSL

It's more designed for driving in traffic - most of my time in the SL55 is spent being held up by the traffic in front.

WIldcat465

I would not buy an SL without Distronic or voice control. It takes your car to the next level. Distronic is expensive, but is a nice feature. I love it. Once you program phone numbers and other stuff voice commands are cool. Worth the money.

LovinMercedes

I totally agree. I never used cruise control until Distronic came along. You almost never have to touch the brakes and that makes a huge difference.

It is much easier to sleep.

WIldcat465

Ya know, I have been getting more rest lately.

Seriously though, it is expensive; however, it makes driving more relaxing. You don't have to tap up or down to adjust your speed. I felt that if I was spending well over $100k for a 600 then, what's a couple more dollars.

When you combine parktronic, distronic, and "voicetronic," you have a vehicle that's a safer and more pleasant experience.

WIldcat465

I was wondering for those of you who are anti-distronic, how many of you have lived with it or driven vehicles that have it? It's one of those things that you dont know what your missing until you've used it.

Perhaps it's different for those of you who live in states that don't have the wide open freeways like we have in Southern California. Traffic flows NORMALLY here at 80 MPH everyday with little fear of police. The freeways are wide and smooth. I submit distronic is almost a necessity. I might think differently if I had to drive in the narrow pigtrails found in the northeast part of the US. Ugggh. If I did I would have kept my X5.

blueSL

... with more to test the famous Mercedes electronic reliability and cause you sleepness nights and trips to the dealer. Truth is, if you don't have the option, it cannot go wrong.

mcw

hi, trying to rescue this long time ago thread, does anyone now the difference between " Distronic " and " Distronic Plus ". was told the SL (R230) only came with Distronic and what does that means...

had drive Distronic Plus on a W221 S350 in Germany and it was very very good, not to mention safe. Anyone kind enough to explain how SL (R230) works?

blueSL

Conventional cruise control simply works the throttle to maintain a constant road speed and doesn't have the ability to brake the car. That's of only limited benefit in crowded road conditions where the driver may have to brake to avoid running into the back of the car ahead and then use resume.

Distronic adds the ability to lightly brake the car and a radar transceiver behind the star in the radiator grille to detect cars in front so that both road speed and traffic conditions are used to determine the throttle opening. It doesn't provide for heavy duty braking and it's still up to the driver to be able to do that if necessary. However, in congested urban motorway/freeway traffic, it makes cruise control more usable.

Distronic as fitted to the earliest R230s was their first attempt and I suppose Distronic Plus is a smarter version with more intelligence. I do not know whether the version in the R230 has been upgraded.

mcw

tks, understood the concept of Distronic but keen to find out the explicit difference between " Distronic " vs " Distronic Plus "

Leester

I have found that Distronic and Parktronic are really worth the money.

mcw

question to fellow SL (R230)

1) Distronic, does your Distronic equipped SL (R230) actually STOP the car? ( ie or it just slow down when car is detected in front )

2) Cruise control, does your cruise control equipped SL (R230) able to adjust by +/- 10Kmh ( or 5mph ) on top of +/- 1Kmh ( or 1mph )?

Leester

1-Mine slows down till may be 5 or 10 MPH. However I never dared to see if it stops completely.
2-My Distronic control can go up and down by 5 MPH increment using the lever upward or downward. And by 1 MPH increment increase using the lever inward (toward the driver).
Cheers.